Sunday, February 19, 2012

Flickering Hopes - Promoting CFLs


In a highly ambitious energy saving effort, the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE), a statutory body under the Union Power Ministry, launched a project in February 2009 to replace 400 million incandescent lamps (ICLs) - the conventional 'light bulbs' - with compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) across the country. It is estimated that, once achieved, this will save the country 6,000 megawatts (MW) of power, or around Rs 25,000 crore. Called the Bachat Lamp Yojana (BLY), the scheme envisages providing two CFLs - of 14 or 16 watts - which cost around Rs 70 each when bought in bulk, to every electrified household, at the highly subsidised price of Rs 15 per lamp, in exchange for two ICLs.

Read More @ Business Today.

1 comment:

Anders Hoveland said...

I know this article is about reducing energy, but people switching to compact fluorescent lamps are not necessarily a good thing. They give off ugly light, and also leak out UV radiation. I happen to be sensitive to it, and after 15 minutes it causes eye strain and skin soreness.

There are other ways to be environmentally friendly. We should not have to sacrifice good lighting. In many places, a halogen lamp on a motion activated switch would save more energy than a CFL. Just require all new commercial buildings to be designed with skylights to let in nice natural daylight, that would reduce energy consumption more than any of this other energy saving nonsense.