Banning tungsten lamps will limit options says SLL

The Society’s concerns centre around the alternative fluorescent, LED and high efficiency filament technologies and their ability to achieve the lighting effects that current lamps can produce.

The government’s voluntary initiative, which is being led by major retailers and energy suppliers, will see tungsten filament lamps starting to disappear from shelves in March 2008, with a full phasing out by 2011. However, SLL believes that the new energy efficient lamps may not be able to match tungsten performance on the amount of light produced, warm-up time, ability to dim, flicker, colour, appearance and rendition, lamp life, degree of sparkle and cost. Worries have also been expressed about the availability of suitable luminaires and lampshades for the energy efficient lamps.

Information from manufacturers indicates that all of these issues could be addressed and that lamps are currently under development that will meet most of the characteristics of tungsten filament lamps. However, the SLL believes that these new lamps and suitable luminaires must be available before the existing lamps are withdrawn.