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CX2SA  > ENERGY   30.06.06 01:09l 124 Lines 5701 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
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Subj: Lighting the key to energy..
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                        Lighting the key to energy saving
                        =================================

A  global  switch  to  efficient  lighting  systems  would  trim  the  world's
electricity bill by nearly one-tenth.

That is the conclusion of a study from the International Energy Agency  (IEA),
which it says is the first global survey of lighting uses and costs.

The carbon dioxide emissions saved by such a switch would, it concludes, dwarf
cuts so far achieved by adopting wind and solar power.

Better building regulations would boost uptake of efficient lighting, it says.

"Lighting is a  major source of  electricity consumption," said  Paul Waide, a
senior policy analyst with the IEA and one of the report's authors.

"19% of global electricity generation is taken for lighting - that's more than
is produced by hydro or nuclear  stations, and about the same that's  produced
from natural gas," he told the BBC News website.

The carbon dioxide produced by  generating all of this electricity  amounts to
70% of global emissions from passenger vehicles, and is three times more  than
emissions from aviation, the IEA says.

Lounge departure
----------------
Not many inventions last for more than 100 years without major modifications.

The  incandescent  light  bulb,  developed a  century  and  a  quarter ago  by
luminaries including  Sir Joseph  Swan and  Thomas Edison,  is one,  and still
produces almost half of the light used in homes around the world.

But incandescent bulbs are very inefficient, converting only about 5% of  the
energy they receive into light.

The biggest  consumer is  the fluorescent  tube. Commercial  and public sector
buildings account  for 43%  of the  electricity used  for lighting;  and here,
fluorescents dominate.

The report notes that the efficiency  of tubes can vary widely, between  about
15% and 60%.

Regulations on their use vary  widely too. Health and safety  concerns dictate
what light levels should be achieved  in various buildings, but the IEA  found
the levels prescribed by  regulatory authorities vary by  a factor of 20  from
one country to another.

The IEA reserves particular ire for that favourite of the western middle-class
lounge, the halogen uplighter.

"This...  is  the  least  efficient of  all  commonly  used  electric lighting
systems," it says. "They add a large amount of heat into the living space as a
by-product... this heat might  require additional air-conditioning energy  for
its removal."

It is concerned  too that a  significant proportion of  the world's population
has no access to electric lighting at all. Instead they rely on burning  fuel,
which is expensive, inefficient,  produces poor light quality  and contributes
to respiratory disease.

Bright idea
------------
Energy-efficient lighting can seem such an obviously good idea that it is hard
to comprehend why it is not used everywhere.

"There is no single panacea," said Dr Waide. "What we suggest is setting up a
comprehensive set of policies.

"There is a strong case for introducing lighting measures into building codes.
Currently codes have a lot of energy measures in them, but with few exceptions
there aren't specific provisions for lighting."

Such codes could, for example, mandate the use of highly-efficient fluorescent
tubes and ballasts, the devices  which regulate input voltages for  the lamps;
at worst these can consume 40% of the energy going into the system.

China,  the  IEA reports,  has  recently developed  such  codes. If  they  are
implemented in all new build, this  would "...offset the need for a  new Three
Gorges Dam project every eight years".

For the individual, the most obvious switch to make is from incandescent bulbs
to compact fluorescent systems (CFLs),  marketed in many countries as  "energy
-saving bulbs".

The IEA calculated the total costs to the consumer associated with buying  and
then using the two types, and found a significant difference.

"The overall cost of 10,000 hours of light provision from incandescents is  85
euros," said Paul Waide, "but for CFLs it's 25 euros, because they use so much
less energy,  and because  you might  have to  buy only  one CFL  for every 10
incandescents."

He acknowledged  there were  concerns about  the quality  of light coming from
some CFLs, and that some consumers reported lower lifetimes than manufacturers
claimed; the key here, he said, is better regulation of the product sector  by
governments.

"There  is  also  a  lot  that  governments  could  do  to  reduce  the  price
differential between CFLs and  incandescents; it's extremely efficient  from a
societal perspective."

The  future  may see  even  more efficient  systems.  LEDs hold  out  the most
promise; currently four times as efficient as incandescents, manufacturers are
aiming for 80% efficiency  by the end of  the decade, which would  represent a
16-fold improvement on the traditional bulb.

But, the IEA concludes, there is no need to wait for LEDs. Policy measures and
individual  action  to  bring  the switch  would  slash  38%  from the  global
electricity bill for lighting by 2030.

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