31st August 2012 is the deadline for the EU Government to comprehensively ban incandescent bulbs in any countries and regions within EU. Our researchers visited several large supermarkets and electrical stores in Brussels and found that low-wattage (less than 40W) incandescent lights have been completely replaced by energy-saving lamps with the similar power consumption.
The comprehensive ban of incandescent bulbs in EU presents the end of 100 years of “Edison Era”. As early as March 2007, the European Commission put forward proposals to replace incandescent lights with other more energy-saving lighting technologies. In March 2009, the European Commission formally adopted an order to phase out incandescent lights gradually.
Related tests showed that only 5% of the electrical energy can be converted to optical energy for incandescent lights, the remaining 95% energy will be converted into wasted heat. It is obvious that the elimination of incandescent lights is inevitable. Banning is mainly for the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions. It is showed that if replace incandescent lights with energy-saving lights in all EU member states, the saved electricity can supply Romania for one year.
The elimination of incandescent lights means the expansion of the market of new energy-saving lamps. Nowadays, among all kinds of energy-saving lamps, it is LED lighting applications and energy-saving lamps (compact fluorescent lamps) has become the two main lighting tools with higher cost-effective.
In assessments conducted by related institutes to all kinds of lamps available in the market, LED always obtained a high score. LED lighting applications have many advantages: high energy efficiency, environmental friendly, long service life, beautiful appearance and high luminous efficiency. They have broad market prospects. Compared with incandescent lights and city street light , the energy-saving ratio of LED lighting applications can reach up to 90%. Although, the current selling prices of LED lights are much higher, they can work 25 times longer than incandescent lights. Experts pointed out that the production costs of LED lamps will reduce with the improving of LED technology. Accordingly, the LED’s price dropping is just a problem of time. Studies published by McKinsey Analysis suggested that a current 20 euros LED lights will be sold on 3 euros in 2020. Some experts predicted that with the decline in the production cost of LED lights, these high-tech lighting products will go into mass production stage from next year.