Bulbs banned

Halogens: will they be banned

The traditional light bulb is to be banned in a world first to lower energy and emission costs.

Federal Environment Minister Malcolm Turnbull this morning announced standard incandescent light bulbs would be phased out within three years in a bid to reduce energy consumption.

The new plan could cause troubles, with new fluoro lights not effective with dimmer switches, or in areas which use the popular halogen bulbs.

"We are introducing new energy efficiency standards and these old lights simply won't comply, they will be phased out and basically over a period of time they will no longer be for sale," Mr Turnbull said.

Compact fluorescent or low-wattage bulbs cost about $5 more, but are more energy-efficient and save an average of $30 per year.

"They'll be a bit dearer to start off with but over time they'll be less expensive and they'll last four to 10 times longer," said Mr Howard.

“Electric lighting is a vital part of our lives; globally it generates emissions equal to 70 per cent of
those from all the world’s passenger vehicles, ” Mr Turnbull said.

“But it is still very inefficient. We have been using incandescent light bulbs for 125 years and up to
90 per cent of the energy each light bulb uses is wasted, mainly as heat.”

“A normal light bulb is too hot to hold – that heat is wasted and globally represents millions of
tonnes of CO2 that needn’t have been emitted into the atmosphere if we had used more efficient
forms of lighting.”

“These more efficient lights, such as the compact fluorescent light bulb, use around 20 per cent of
the electricity to produce the same amount of light,” the Environment Minister said.

The announcement is part of a strategy to show the Government as seeking practical solutions on climate change.