If a survey was carried out for the most innocuous, under-rated, unassuming piece of equipment in anybody’s home, the incandescent light bulb would probably be top the list. After all, how many of us even register the presence of this ubiquitous bulb in our homes, until we get rid of it for the “cooler” and energy efficient CFL. Well, it might come as a surprise to all of you that this same old bulb is lining up to be at the center of a great battle in the near future. Find out below why exactly it should be so.
Light was not always meant to be this abundant and easy as it is today until electricity came along. Prior to electricity, light was expensive, a product of exhaustible, and expensive, resources like whale oil. Edison’s invention really made light a commodity and took it to the masses in limitless quantities. On Dec 31, 1879 he unveiled his incandescent device, which provided illumination by running a current through a filament encased in a vacuum-sealed glass bulb. The newspapers compared the orange glow of the bulb to the “mellow sunset of an Italian autumn”. Obviously, not everyone agreed. Remember that this bulb was competing against the gas flame and some found the light to be unnatural and lacking the comforting attributes of the latter.
The initial bulbs were fairly expensive as well, going for 44 cents apiece in 1891, which when adjusted for inflation becomes $10 in today’s world. However, as electricity became the backbone of lighting in the world, the price of bulbs keeps plummeting. Falling prices and the rapidly growing demand for the existing product stalled advancements in home lighting for more than a century. That the bulb was highly inefficient, giving off 90% of its energy as heat and not light, was largely ignored in the hundred years that ensued. It was not until the energy crises of 1970s that these shortcomings of the bulb came to light, pun intended, and compact fluorescents were invented.
This sets up a nice background about the current war being waged in the realm of lighting products in the US. The US Congress approved a bill in 2007, which mandated a 25-30% increase in lighting efficiency starting January of 2012. The incandescent bulb, as we know it, is not capable of being that efficient; this could very well be the end of the 150 year old invention. As the deadline for this law draws closer, the arguments get more polarized and one could see a badly waged battle on this front.
There are two issues at stake in this debate, price and quality of light. That the Edison’s bulb is dirt cheap is already acknowledged. What is often missed is the quality of light this bulb produces. Research says that the light from an incandescent bulb mimics the natural spectrum and produces light that is in best agreement with the human physiology. CFLs and other forms of lighting products are believed to produce light that is “unnatural”, to say the least and could potentially be harmful to our physiology. This is one argument that would be played several times in this debate.
The ride has not been smooth for these CFLs since their inception and any amount of subsidies or “green branding” has not made the light bulb obsolete. The price of a CFL could be the primary reason for its mild acceptance; the first CFLs sold for $25-$35 a bulb in the 1970s.
There is also active interest in using LEDs(Light Emitting Diodes) for lighting. Scientists at Phillips have put together a LED bulb that also produces light that nicely agrees with the natural spectrum. One such bulb is supposed to last anywhere between 17 and 22 years but the cost of one is an exorbitant $40. Getting this number to a price less than $10 apiece, the magic number reported for consumer acceptance, is only part of the problem. This product would also require intelligent marketing to sell a product that is supposed to last for a generation. Proponents of this technology claim that switching to LED bulbs from the traditional ones would eliminate carbon emissions by 200 million tons, about 3% of the total US carbon emissions.
The next time when you look at your bulb, if you still own one, make sure you remember the 150 year history it carries:)
No comments:
Post a Comment