EU light bulb ban starts tomorrow

With absolutely no fanfare our even prior warning, the EU ban on light bulbs comes into force today.

From tomorrow it will be illegal for anyone to import or sell normal light bulbs, forcing consumers to buy expensive and inferior energy saving bulbs or prohibitively expensive LED bulbs instead.

The British government quango responsible for producing propaganda about energy saving bulbs, the Energy Saving Trust, claims that an energy saving bulb can save £3 per year. The claim is based on dodgy maths but even if it wasn't, is it worth spending a year sitting in half light for the price of a bunch of grapes and paying ten times as much for the light bulbs for the privilege?

Luckily for us, retailers have found a loophole so that they can still sell us proper light bulbs - the ban doesn't extend to industrial light bulbs and there is no law against selling "rough service bulbs" to the domestic market. The National Measurement Office warns that household insurance policies might not cover you for the use of the bulbs in your home but as they're exactly the same as normal household bulbs except for having stronger fittings and bulbs, it's hard to see a reason why an insurance company could claim you put your home at risk by using them and refuse to pay out if they're actually safer. It's seems to be nothing more than scaremongering by the quango responsible for enforcing the ban on proper bulbs. The supermarkets won't sell the "rough service bulbs" though, they're happy to help enforce the ban because they make more money off a £15 light bulb than a £1.50 light bulb, especially when - despite the green lobby's claims to the contrary - energy saving bulbs last no longer than a normal light bulb.

My advice is to stock up on light bulbs while you still can because that particular loophole will be closed by the green fascists pretty sharpish.

EU admits energy saving bulbs are inferior one day before ban

The European Empire has admitted, just one day before the ban on proper light bulbs comes into force, that energy saving bulb manufacturers are "exaggerating" their claims about equivalence.

The British government, its Energy Saving Trust quango, the European Empire, bulb manufacturers and environmental extremists have been telling us that the energy saving bulbs will save us money. They usually quote the magic figure of £37 per year invented by the British government's Energy Saving Trust quango based on replacing a 60W incandescent bulb with an 15W energy saving bulb and a 100W incandescent bulb with a 20W energy saving bulb.

The Daily Telegraph has today published the results of its own tests on energy saving bulbs which found that an 11W energy saving bulb which claims to be equivalent to a 60W incandescent bulb, even after a 10 minute warm-up period, produced only 58% of the light given off by the incandescent bulb. It would take a 20W energy saving bulb - almost double the power consumption - to get the same amount of light from an energy saving bulb as you get from a 60W incandescent bulb which will pretty much wipe out any supposed cost saving from replacing your bulbs.

This won't exactly be news to anyone who has experienced the joys of blundering around in half light after changing their proper bulbs to energy saving bulbs but it shows how fundamentally dishonest the European Empire, British government and green lobby is. The European Empire has only today - one day before proper light bulbs are banned - admitted that the claims of equivalence are false, that the energy saving potential from replacing bulbs is false and that the cost savings are a big fat lie. One day before the ban, too late to do anything about it.