Legal EU Incandescent Bulbs use more Energy than Illegal Incandescents!

image thanks moritz gieselmann

From previous posts regarding rough service availability to ordinary consumers, it was seen that this would be hard to stop anyway for the reasons given:

So effectively the EU are contributing to what they say they are against, since legal EU bulbs use more energy than their banned equivalents!

Regular readers will note that this is similar to the American situation.
The rough service bulbs last longer but are dimmer (the trade off).
Bell as mentioned in the last post seemingly don't give lumen (brightness) rating for their products, but as previously seen from the US discussion it is typically 100W rough service being equivalent to 60-75W regular bulbs in brightness.

So for a bulb of certain brightness, which is after all what you want, legal EU bulbs waste more energy than banned EU bulbs!
They also thereby cost a lot more in use of course, despite longer lifespans.

The predictable EU retort "Let them use energy saving bulbs!" (aka "Let them eat cake!") obviously does not apply for the light quality, appearance etc reasons one might choose such incandescents, also given that Halogen replacement types will also be "phased out" in the EU by 2016.
 

UK Distributors Clarify: Candle, Golf Ball and other Incandescents also to Stay Available

Update August 31
Updated with checks April 2016: The listed sites still have regular type incandescents, including frosted, opal, coloured etc types

As mentioned in recent posts here, "rough service" incandescents remain legal in both the USA and EU, although the authorities are trying to deal with their spread to the general public in various ways.

As it is particularly topical in the EU in view of the "final" ban on the simple regular types on Saturday, I sought clarification from some UK distributors on exactly what bulb types would still be available (being an EU issue, would apply cross-border within the EU as well).
My assumption was that just the "standard" pear shape type bulb would be sold, figuring that there wasn't much of a case for hanging up small candle shape etc bulbs in mines or wherever else industrially used...

However, the answer given is that such alternative incandescents will remain available as well, for example National Lamps and Components (NLC UK) have also put up this information on their blog

One large manufacturer, Bell, recently sent lamp distributors a list of incandescent “Tough lamps”, which said “don’t panic – All incandescent Tough lamps will be available from stock in September, candle shape, golf ball shape and standard household GLS shape.

From the NLC site:
GLS (regular type) bulbs sales page

Rough service GLS light bulb. 240V 60W BC Pearl, identical to the phased out traditional incandescent bulbs with extra filament supports.
Ideal for machinery lighting and applications that are subject to vibration.
Also perfect replacement for household standard light bulbs.

Meanwhile - looking at websites of other distributors, such as Ian Fursland's Light Company based in Herfordshire, they also have the rough service types while stocks of regular candle type and other incandescents are also still fairly plentiful in online sale, even sometimes of long "banned" 60W+ wattages ("Here at The Lamp Company we have large stocks of 100w, 60w and 40w lamps in golf ball, GLS and candle shapes remaining").


Looking at the Bell (British Electric Lamps Ltd) manufacturer lighting catalogue, it also still has banned regular types, including decorative types

Product Category Lamps
Product Group Incandescent
Product Sub Group Decorative Household
Product Type 35mm Candle Tough Lamp
Volts 240/250
Watts 60W
Cap Type SES/E14
Colour/Finish Opal
Burn Hours 3000

How Regulations are Wrongly Justified 14 points, referenced: Includes why the overall society savings aren't there, and even if they were, why alternative policies are better, including alternative policies that target light bulbs.
 

Campaigns Against Light Bulb Regulations

[Renamed this to allow a possibly broader listing of anti-regulation action apart from petitions, and as petitions themselves may be the basis for other campaigns]

I have my doubts about petitions achieving anything on their own, however many the signatures - in particular in jurisdictions like the EU. Politicians, and the media, react much more to street protests for example.
That said, there are other advantages to petitions. The organizers of them may organize other activities with those who sign or simply keep them informed on the issues, and it may allow for general communication between those interested, depending on the set-up.



List of Petition Links

Will - gradually! - be updated by myself and others who help with this, on the accompanying "page" with similar title (see listing in left column).

Also, see other lists, for example on Gluehbirne.ist.org and Greenwashing Lamps, currently with German and Swedish ones but which may expand. Most of their particular links should appear here also, but others may of course appear.
Note that for most petitions, anyone can sign, see however the "About" section below for more as regards to how the EU authorities interpret petitions.

Otherwise an online search under "light bulb" and "petition" together with country name or language may yield an appropriate petition to sign, and anti-ban campaign to be involved in.



About

With the EU ban finalizing, a federal USA ban starting, and bans or "phase-outs"
in several other countries, one way to protest is obviously to sign petitions.

Petitions as a political instrument are a bit of a double edged sword.
Where they get few signatures, it may suggest a lack of public resistance, or even suggest a general public support for regulations.

This may be self-fulfilling:
The EU authorities have already made it clear in their much vaunted "Citizens Initiative"

The European Citizens Initiative will allow 1 million citizens from at least one quarter of the EU Member States to invite the European Commission to bring forward proposals for legal acts in areas where the Commission has the power to do so.
The organisers of a citizens' initiative, a citizens' committee composed of at least 7 EU citizens who are resident in at least 7 different Member States, will have 1 year to collect the necessary statements of support. The number of statements of support has to be certified by the competent authorities in the Member States. The Commission will then have 3 months to examine the initiative and decide how to act on it.

As seen the rigorous conditions and all the data required (name, address, place and date of birth, passport number or identity card number etc for the signatures) it makes it next to impossible to carry out.
That said, local country petitions can of course also send a message to local leaders, who might in turn influence the European Commission.

That not being so realistic, it at least allows people some outlet to voice their objections, and, as mentioned, for the petition organizers to organize other activities with those who signed, and/or allow for general inter-communication.


The last point of course applies to petitions in federal USA, local American states, and other jurisdictions also.
They also have a more realistic chance of success:
The more locally made the legislation, the more easy the communication with legislators, and the fewer the signatures required, in a relative comparison.

 

Petitions Against Light Bulb Regulations

See the replacement post "Campaigns Against Light Bulb Regulations"

[Renamed to allow a possibly broader listing of anti-regulation action apart from petitions, and as petitions themselves may be the basis for other campaigns.
Not deleting this post for continuity purposes, from previous experience such posts get listed for some time as non-functioning links on search engines, etc]
 

Update: How Bans are Wrongly Justified

The introduction of point 6, "We save a lot of energy and CO2/mercury emissions with this ban!",
of the "How Bans are Wrongly Justified" rundown has had the following added.

6. "We save a lot of energy and CO2/mercury emissions with this ban!"

"The total reduction in EU energy use would be 0.54 x 0.8 x 0.76% = 0.33%
This figure is almost certainly an overestimate...
...Which begs the question: is it really worth it?

The problem is that legislators are unable to tackle the big issues of energy use effectively, so go for the soft target of a high profile domestic use of energy...
...This is gesture politics."

No, not the quote from some "energy company sponsor".
From Cambridge University Network under Sir Alec Broers, Chairman of the UK House of Lords Science and Technology Committee, and several other independent members, Scientific Alliance newsletter, reflecting the views before and since of physics professors and other scientists from several institutions (more).

Sure - regulation proponents will provide their own scientific data. However, the way that is typically drawn up is shown in further points. In any case, the neutral observer should at the least question the savings basis for the ban, not just from the figures bandied about, but from the logic of the arguments supporting them.

[continues]
 

Heatballs are Dead... Long Live Special Lamps!

Given the canned bulb "culture reserve" memorial as per recent posts, rather co-incidental to see the Heatballs getting the same fate, as quoted below, with my emphasis.

[In summary, the Heatball venture was a satirical gesture against the light bulb ban, turning the "95% heat waste" jibe around to therefore justify the sale of the incandescents as heat bulbs rather than light bulbs. The courts did not approve, believing that "misuse" was likely and that they were sold "with false product information" as to their likely use.]

Fazit ist, dass die Heatballs 2nd Edition in 75~W und 100~W, matt und klar wegen möglicher Fehlanwendung durch den Verbraucher und den damit verbundenen Gefahren für nachfolgende Generationen unter Verschluss bleiben. Wir halten eine weitere Klage vor dem OVG in Münster für aussichtslos und haben uns daher entschieden, die Heatballs der 2nd Edition als Kulturreserve einzulagern und Museen als Ausstellungsstücke zu überlassen.

The bottom line is that the Heat Balls 2nd Edition in 75W and 100W, frosted and clear, because of possible misuse by the consumer and the associated risks for future generations [ed- irony] remain blocked. We hold another appeal to the Higher Administrative Court in Münster to be futile and have therefore decided to store the [rest of] the 2nd edition Heatballs as a cultural reserve, to be passed on to Museums as exhibits.

Nevertheless, they did get recognition of Heat balls as potential "special lamps".
But selling them as a way to get round the ban did not please the authorities.
So in a change of tactic, a serious marketing venture will be launched using the website
ewg-eg.de   Elektrische Widerstandsgenossenschaft eG, "Electrical Resistance Cooperative".
Rather than a satirical sale of Heat Balls, a serious sale of Special Lamps...well, maybe not completely serious (the packaging here is not necessarily relevant!)

Comment

The Heatball story is not as straightforward as might appear...

As covered in recent news stories, such as by the British newspaper The Daily Telegraph, "rough service" bulbs are being sold legally in the EU.
It so happens that the last Heatballs from China were of this or similar type i.e. unlike the first Heatball bulb types, they were being legally sold by others as light bulbs!
In other words the supposed "misuse" of the bulbs would result in perfectly legal, ordinary use,
while their use for heating was never challenged legally (whatever practical reservations may have been felt about it, as in the EU response on the matter).

It's as if a drinking straw was sold to stir drinks with, but forbidden because it might be "misused" in that people might actually drink through it!


Unsurprisingly, Drs. Rudolf Hannot and Siegfried Rotthäuser behind the venture felt there could have been political pressure involved in the decisions.
The "special lamp" status for use as heating is legal enough, but the satirical campaigning of it as a way to get round the EU ban worked against them.

Turning the tables on the authorities, who after all seem very safety conscious, they enquired as to the measured mercury content values of previously suspected fluorescent lamp types...
receiving the unsurprising answer that this had not been checked. No worries there, then.

Meanwhile, their venture into selling light bulbs is therefore not over.
The new Electrical Resistance Cooperative will as said sell "special lamps" as well as generally campaign against light bulb regulations, membership is 100 Euro.

Zwöfter Heatball Newsletter
Kulturhauptstadt 2010 Essen
2012-08-26


Liebe Heatball Freunde,

am 19.06.2012 haben wir in Aachen vor dem Verwaltungsgericht in der
Hauptverhandlung um die Zukunft des Heatball gekämpft.

Mittlerweile liegt das Urteil auch schriftlich vor und kann auf unserer
Webseite im Aktionsverlauf studiert werden.

http://www.heatball.de/pdf/VG_Aachen_Urteil_2012_06_19.pdf

Facit ist, dass die Heatballs 2nd Edition in 75~W und 100~W, matt und klar
wegen möglicher Fehlanwendung durch den Verbraucher und den damit verbundenen
Gefahren für nachfolgende Generationen unter Verschluss bleiben. Wir halten
eine weitere Klage vor dem OVG in Münster für aussichtslos und haben uns daher
entschieden, die Heatballs der 2nd Edition als Kulturreserve einzulagern und
Museen als Ausstellungsstücke zu überlassen.

Zitat aus der Ordnungsverfügung:

... liegt die Anordnung der sofortigen Vollziehung auch deswegen im
besonderen öffentlichen Interesse, da nach Artikel 20a GG der Schutz der
natürlichen Lebesgrundlagen im Vordergrund stehen muss ...

Nachdem nun erneut Warnungen zum Thema Energiesparlampe ergangen sind, hatten
wir bei der Bezirksregierung als zuständige Marktüberwachung nach den
Quecksilberwerten beanstandeter Energiesparlampen gefragt.

Originaltext: Deutsche Umwelthilfe e.V.
Digitale Pressemappe: http://www.presseportal.de/pm/22521
Pressemappe via RSS : http://www.presseportal.de/rss/pm_22521.rss2

Antwort der Bezirksregierung:

>
>Von: Bensberg, Claudia [mailto:claudia.bensberg@bezreg-koeln.nrw.de]
>Gesendet: Mittwoch, 8. August 2012 12:49
>An: Hannot, Rudolf
>Cc: Ledwig, Thomas; Goeble, Sascha; Brosius, Karl
>Betreff: AW: Deutsche Umwelthilfe stoppt erneut Verkauf von ...
>
>Sehr geehrter Herr Dr. Hannot,
>
>leider liegen uns die von Ihnen gewünschten Werte nicht vor.
>
>
>Mit freundlichen Grüßen,
>im Auftrag
>
>Claudia Bensberg
>
>Dezernat 55
>Produktsicherheit/Sprengstoff
>
>
Soviel zum Thema Artikel 20a Grundgesetz. Doch es gibt auch Hoffnung. In
der Verhandlung haben wir das Thema Speziallampe noch einmal darstellen können
und hierzu den Heatball 2.0 demonstriert. Aus der Veredlung einer anerkannten
Speziallampe ist dieser hervorgegangen und liegt nun seit Monaten bei der
Marktüberwachung zur Begutachtung vor, ohne Reaktion.

Sehr wichtig für eine Speziallampe ist, dass diese mit der richtigen Gesinnung
vertrieben wird. Sobald der Verbraucher durch eine satirische Aussage dazu
verleitet wird, die Lampe nicht entsprechend des angegebenen
Verwendungszweckes zu nutzen, ist diese keine Speziallampe mehr.

Der juristische Dienst der EU-Kommission hat klargestellt, dass die Erklärung
des Herstellers und der Hinweis, dass das Produkt nicht zur allgemeinen
Raumbeleuchtung geeignet ist, ausreichen, um eine Speziallampe zu
erhalten. Beim Heatball 2nd Edition ist es aber eine Gesinnungsfrage, die über
den Titel Speziallampe entschieden hat, allen physikalischen Fakten und der
Verordnung selbst zum Trotz.

Vor Gericht wurde uns durch die Bezirksregierung versichert, dass es derzeit
keine akuten Bestrebungen gibt, den Heatball 2.0 zu verbieten und man auf eine
Stellungnahme der Ministerien warte.

Da nun der Herbst naht und viele Besitzer von Niedrigenergiehäusern den
Vorteil der Speziallampe Heatball nutzen möchten, haben wir beschlossen, dass
wir eine erste Charge entsprechend der nicht beanstandeten Warenproben, die
der Bezirksregierung vorliegen, in Auftrag zu geben.

Sobald diese Speziallampen verfügbar sind, werden wir sie über die Seite der
Elektrischen Widerstandsgenossenschaft eG www.ewg-eg.de humorlos und mit
technisch nüchterner Gesinnung anbieten. Die Satireseite www.heatball.de wird
als Erinnerung an das Widerstandsprojekt online bleiben aber keinen Shop mehr
haben.

Da wir uns nun am 1.9 von den letzten Glühbirnen verabschieden müssen, hat die
Presse das Thema auch wieder aufgeriffen. In der Sendung markt im WDR
Fernsehen läuft am Montag, 27.8 um 21:00 ein Beitrag, in dem Heatball
mitwirkt.

..........................

Mit vorherbstlichen Grüßen

der Vorstand der EWG eG

R.Hannot
S.Rotthäuser

Light Bulb Conspiracy Documentary Update

The post on the Light Bulb Conspiracy documentary online video by Cosima Dannoritzer has been revised, and there are also now long versions in several languages.

Whatever You Can, We Can Too

As they commented in the last post, feeling that their idea had been copied, it turns out that what "Kultur Reserve" cans...

"Licht Konserve" cans too...

They also sell canned Halogens and other products alongside, as seen here.

Also, promotion with online sales at plentino.de, with sales also via cardanlight.com, gebrauchlicht.de and maybe via other sites...

Sales brochure (pdf) here.


Walsroder newspaper article 19.12.2011 by E. Lindemann, as in the press section of Lichtkonserve.de, Google translation modified a bit to make some sense...

Light out of the Tin Can

A rebel from Schwarmstedt conserves light bulbs and sells his own lighting systems.

"I've always plotted my own lighting," says Bernhard Stich. As a trained electrician he was active for many years as a buyer of commercial electric lighting. Cable systems with halogen lights especially excited Herr Strich - but less so the prices.
"So I just built himself such a system," he says. Immediately there was demand from friends and acquaintances - the cornerstone of his company Halogenkauf Lightech was laid. The then 30 year old electrician designed his own home lighting systems, his wife mounted them while watching television, and the sale went through a newspaper ad.

"I have made my hobby into a career," he says. A milestone in the company's history was Expo 2000 in Hanover. "We fitted out about 120 gift shops on the Expo site with lighting systems," the lighting expert recalls. He is also a renowned expert in the lighting of retail stores. A specialty of the company are the furniture stores, for which the company has developed flexible systems.

Bernhard Stich started off with a designer store for lights in Hanover. "I grew into it the last 30 years out of that," says the 53-year-old. Step by step it grew into his current construction company.

The parts for his own lamps Stich initially had manufactured in Germany.

The contact with a Chinese man whom he had met at a trade show finally led to Halogenkauf Lightech being manufactured in China. Several times a year CEO Stich now flies to China and negotiates with producers. If space remains in the shipped containers, then it can happen that a popcorn machine or bamboo flooring also come to Germany and are sold in one of six online stores of the entrepreneur.

Still, Bernhard Stich remains a man of lighting. And that's why he could not just accept the ban on incandescents. His resistance he now does with a witty marketing concept: His firm has unceremoniously packed 60-watt bulbs into tin cans and now sells them as canned light. Already, the cans are to be had via his online business. Of course, Stitch has also secured its own website: www.lichtkonserve.de. Soon, the cans should also be available at gas / petrol stations, hardware stores and other shops.

Licht Konserve do seem to have started later, whether independently or not.
The point about mentioning them here is that they still seem to be selling the cans, with various offers, for anyone interested.
Maybe, as is often the case, the commercially based venture with more legal resources than the artistic based venture?
Or do authorities choose to bully those who can't fight back?!

Remember the Heatball sellers difficulty with the authorities too.
A serendipidity event is that by chance they just communicated that they have also given up the legal battle with Heatball and are now presenting remaining bulbs for posterity... yes, as "Kultur Reserve" :-)   Albeit probably not canned.
Maybe another follow up post, then...

Canned Heat "Das kleinste Birnendenkmal Europas"

No, this is not about these guys...






Rather about something with a less blue-sy content...

or if you will...

[Seemingly the same idea has occurred to different creators...
The ones covered here claim to be first and to have been copied, as per comment! Some more about the "Lichtkonserve" canning of light bulbs will follow.
Update: See "Whatever You Can, We Can Too"...]


The Heatball satirical objection to the bulb ban has been well covered in previous posts, and is still ongoing through all the legal challenges and appeals.
Meanwhile another satirical artistic venture has been going on for some years, although recently halted, again for legal reasons (the ones without humor are the German judges, but in that profession they are not alone!).
This is about the Frankfurt based Canned Heat venture, or rather Kultur-Reserve, culture reserve, by the Metermorphosen company: a word play on "metamorphosis",
as they focus on creating new artistic meaning out of everyday objects.


Their own description of their activities: Google translation, somewhat corrected...

MeterMorphosen stands, as already seen in the name, for transformed everyday objects.
We develop our own product ideas, check their feasibility, and then produce them with the most suitable materials. The transformations are more than just a gimmick, they give the items a palpable new dimension. Thus a yardstick measure of space became a measure of time and space. Or from the linoleum floor a memory card game was made, with original artwork from the 1920s. And from the world's most widely used eating utensils a small collection of poems, with which you can combine the sensuality of eating with the sensuality of poetry.
Important for MeterMorphosen is a playfully educative approach, the products must have a certain esprit, the abstract becoming sensually comprehensible. By such lateral thinking our products may succeed to make complex inter-relations more clear and able to be seen in a new way.

They also have an English language presentation of themselves...




While the canned bulb manufacture and sales have been organized by publisher Florian Koch and partners, the concept and also apparently the original manufacture was by artist Lutz Jahnke in Offenbach.

There seem to be slightly conflicting accounts about it, but the story seems to go something like this...
During the lighting festival Luminale in Offenbach April 2010, Lutz Jahnke and his partner Julia Diehl organized a big "Birnen Denkmal" light bulb memorial to incandescent light bulbs:
Public collections of spent bulbs took place and mounds of them were artistically arranged by Lutz, Julia and others.
Seemingly now in 2012 there are plans for some kind of repeat offering - the original idea and further development will be covered in a following blog post.

Having got access to sausage making /canning machines the idea then came to Jahnke
about extending the memorial idea... "after the biggest light bulb memorial in Germany, the smallest light bulb memorial in Europe!".
A "culture reserve", not really supposed to be opened, an artistically produced memory of today's bulbs for the future.

Lutz had several lines of thought behind it...
Birne = Pear = what former German leader Chancellor Kohl was called, also the classic bulb in cartoons being synonymous with a "bright idea", also historically the bulb reaching back a long time, given the action as a kind of memorial, while also symbolizing a resistance to government interference in personal freedom, the "last ration" aspect of putting it in a can, as in survival shelters...

So he started putting the bulbs into cans, somewhere along the line getting
help with the manufacture and distribution by the Metamorphoses company in Frankfurt.


Op-Online 10/4/2012 article about artist Lutz and the canned bulb development:
[or see Google translated English version]

The presentation of it as a product for sale:
[or see Google translated English version]

The site however also now warns
"The culture reserve product is until further notice not deliverable and can not be ordered from the online shop".....



The canned bulbs become banned

In recent months, the venture has again got media coverage in Germany.
14th July article from the Frankfurter Runsdschau paper, translated.

A fuller account from the 25th July, 2012, also from artist Lutz Jahnke's point of view
op-online website, translated.

As can be seen, the sale is now forbidden under threat of a 2000 Euro fine for a first offence (somewhat like drug dealing), the argument being that such 60W bulbs were banned from manufacture Sep 2011.
Lutz and company manager Koch - reasonably enough - feel they were really only packaging and distruibuting already made bulbs. The bulbs came first from German, then from French manufacturers, before the ban.
In the EU, like in the USA, the legislation is of not allowing further manufacture within the jurisdiction, or import from outside, of the light bulbs - neither of which apply here.
Florian Koch said that they may yet beat the new deadline of 1 Sep 2012 for 40W bulbs by filling cans with them instead... however, to date this seems not to have occured.

Videos:
Recent videos carry the same tale about the ban on the sale.
For example, July 24 2012, on the RTL Hessen site: mp4 file, featuring Florian Koch.

Another video from July, from the 25 minute point, featuring Lutz Jahnke, also describing how he got the idea after getting hold of a sausage machine.



Lutz's concluding thoughts from his Jahnke design site

01 september 2012:
glühbirnen — europaweit verboten
»nichts bewegt die welt mehr als licht — deshalb haben wir ihm ein denkmal für alle nostalgiger & ein mahnmal für alle die immer noch wahllos energie verschwenden, gewidmet.
die »kultur reserve« ist die antwort auf die faulen früchte der eurokratie. ein zeitgenössiches kunstwerk, das sie unbedingt in ihren besitz bringen müssen.«

01 september 2012:
incandescent bulbs - banned throughout europe
"nothing moves the world more than light - that's why we dedicated to it a monument for all with nostalgia and a memorial for all those who still (choose to) indiscriminately waste energy.
The "cultural reserve" is the answer to the bad fruits of the eurocracy, a contemporary artwork that they absolutely have to bring into their possession."

Germans Dim View of Light Bulb Inspections

Updated August 24


Interesting news article from The Local, Germany:





German language stories with the above and more, also via their links:
Germany: Der Tagesspiegel, Die Welt
Austria: ORF, Futurezone




Comment

As mentioned before, resistance to the ban is particularly strong in Germany and Austria,
both having sales figures demonstrating active hoarding, and both with various actions against the ban, (search function may be used for these posts): The Austrian film Bulb Fiction, the German Light Bulb Conspiracy documentary, several German TV documentaries (ZDF, 3Sat), the Heatball satirical campaign, as well as the Canned Bulb and Bulb Memorial campaigns to be covered in blog posts soon - apart from active involvement by mainstream politicians and by "heavyweight" printed media like Der Spiegel, of which more can also be seen on Ceolas.net,
for example in the story behind the EU ban.

Several petitions have also been launched, for example as via
Avaaz.org   Gopetition.com   Openpetition.de

The UK, by comparison, has no real involvement by mainstream politicians (a few calling for recognition for light-sensitive citizens while still "welcoming regulations") or by non-tabloid media. A few petitions have been launched though, and sales figures in previous years showed some hoarding going on.

One might note a North-South Europe divide in what protest there is.
Reasons for this may be covered in a subsequent blog post (also see http://ceolas.net/#li11x "Bans in Canada, and similar countries and states").

There is an irony about the EU Commission's supervisory fervor towards others:
As Halogenica has thoroughly documented, the EU promoted CFL/LED replacement products have to meet certain criteria laid down by the Commission itself... which they don't!



Turning to the above article,
it's obviously another angle of the pedantic nature of the ban that to have the "desired effect"
consumers must be stopped by any means possible from buying what they want.

The "rough service" bulb issue also arises in the USA and elsewhere.
The irony is that apparently they cant ban those bulbs entirely because you cant hang up a LED or CFL in dark big work areas, those bulbs just arent bright enough.
Also the “rough service” situation means that if the bulbs (unavoidably) get broken a couple of times, its no big deal with incandescents, unlike with expensive CFLs and LEDs, the former of course also with mercury vapor issues on breakage. Halogen bulbs meanwhile contain toxic Bromine or Iodine, not considered relevant ordinarily, but possibly so in confined spaces like small mine chambers.


Consider what would happen if the German authorities (and others) were successful
in keeping ordinary folk from buying any incandescents that remain legal for industrial use...

"Coalminer Joe" would just buy them for his friends and so on, passing or selling them on.
“Psssst mate wanna buy a light bulb?!”
Bulb pushers will have to go to jail and sit beside drug pushers!

The American Free Our Light campaign highlights this in an amusing video on their homepage.





Not forgetting the imagery evoked by seeking to control what people can use,
as seen earlier on this blog (exaggeration..what exaggeration? ;-) )

image  Otitis
"Incandescent Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Arc Lamp"
The sequel? Why, the Temple of Gloom, of course....

image  AdminGirl
"The Charge of the Light Brigade"

image  David Dees
"Getting a Light Sentence?"

"The Heat is On"


The last one coming from the mentioned Birnen Denkmal (Light Bulb Memorial) happening,
to be returned to shortly.
 

Bob Kyp, Carbon Filament Light Bulb Maker

Some editing and updates Oct 9 2013

Continuing on the theme of small enthusiastic businesses that may be affected negatively one way or another by the light bulb regulations:
To so-called "Progressive" political supporters this probably seem like a hankering after the Good Old Days, when it of course is simply a hankering after Choice!

Liking a lantern or old-fashioned bulb in some situations actually does not preclude liking LED panel lighting or whatever in other situations.
This seems amazingly hard to understand, by the detractors!

Turning from a lantern maker to a light bulb maker..
Bob Kyp, who died last year, was an inventor holding patents for radiometers as well as light bulbs. He had set up and run Kyp-Go, America's only carbon-filament bulb manufacture, since 1964.



As the Kyp-Go.com website expands, slightly edited:

Many, many years ago, a small boy had a dream -- a dream which became a life's work. With no high school diploma and no further formal education, Robert (Bob) Kyp was a dreamer, a tinkerer, who liked taking things apart, analyzing their workings, and fixing things. At 16 years old, Bob began working in a factory making carbon filament lamps. The experience he gained in that job and tinkering of his own, eventually led to his own company (Kyp-Go), and a US Patent for an oscillating carbon filament bulb.

Kyp-Go was founded in 1964. The business initially was operated in Glen Ellyn, Illinois, then moved to West Chicago, and then to St. Charles, Illinois where the business remained until 1992 (for 20 years). During the early years, Bob partnered with his two brothers, Jim and Tom to grow and further develop the business. In 1992, Bob moved to DeLand, FL and brought the business with him. We believe Kyp-Go to be the only manufacturer of carbon filament bulbs in the United States.
The experiments that got him started in the business continued - Bob was in his shop every day pursuing new ideas.

Apparently just released, at a preview party Chicago August 16 2012


For the Love of his Lamp
A documentary about famous American inventor Robert (Bob) Kyp and his carbon filament light bulbs, directed by his granddaughter Quinlan Kyp-Johnson (her website, more videos and artwork).




     
      Bob  and  Quinlan


Trailers, Film Sections

The documentary includes this Facebook archive 2 minute history of lighting, up to early light bulb making

A good 2 minute trailer about Bob and his light bulb making

A 3 minute trailer focusing on how others have used his invention

Finally 18 minute documentary demo, with most of the above included

Alternatively since the original post, via Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxT3X-IPsL4


Video clips and more information also available from the specific Vimeo video site or the Facebook pages for the documentary and MaLoRo production company.

Funding appeal and background description also on Indiegogo.com