If energy needs to be saved, there are good ways to do it.
                                                               Government product regulation is not one of them

Monday, January 13, 2014

Canada Government Research on Light Bulb Heat Effect


Canada heat from bulbs official study
This fits in with other Canadian, Finnish etc research
See http://ceolas.net/#li6x

The reduction in the lighting energy use was almost offset by the increase in the space-heating energy use

The Canadian Centre for Housing Technology (CCHT) "Benchmarking Home Energy Savings from Energy-Efficient Lighting" research from 2008 and seemingly oddly ignored since by the Natural Resources Department behind the Canadian light bulb ban, as covered earlier, in their switchover savings assumptions.
[The National Research Council (NRC) and Natural Resources Government Ministry (NRCan) jointly operate the Canadian Centre for Housing Technology (CCHT]


Excerpt
With conventional lighting, between 89 to 96 per cent of lighting energy use is converted to heat and contributes to space heating as internal gains.
The few losses associated with lighting energy occurred mainly where lights were located close to windows....
The reduction in the lighting energy use was almost offset by the increase in the space-heating energy use

While cooling season (and any air conditioning cooling) as mentioned negate or work against savings at such times, the obvious point then is that incandescent use is voluntary and may be preferred for light quality reasons.
Of course in Canada and similar countries, when it's dark, it's often cold, even in spring and fall (autumn), whereby the heat benefit effect is greater overall anyway.

Finally,
notice that this study only takes the heat factor into account.
There are many more reasons that savings don't hold up - whether as energy savings for society, or money savings for consumers.
See the lighting section of http://ceolas.net for a full account, or the relevant summary points from here onwards, in "How Regulations are Wrongly Justified" on this blog, as also linked below from its start.



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.
 

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