en.lighten

Fuel-based lighting, used both in vehicles and areas beyond the range of electricity grids, amplifies these consumption figures and lighting’s secondary effects on public health and the environment. At present, 1.6 billion people live without access to electric light. The paraffin- and diesel-fuelled lighting they use is much less efficient than even the most inefficient incandescent lamp. Paraffin is a large emitter of CO2 and is very costly. These combined uses provide only 1% of global lighting but are responsible for 20% of lighting CO2 emissions.

Since the beginning of the industrial revolution, the burning of fossil fuels to provide electricity for lighting and other uses has substantially increased the levels of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. These greenhouse gases greatly affect the temperature of the earth; without them the earth's surface would be on average about 33 °C (59 °F) colder than at present.

Hence there is a direct relationship between the increasing use of artificial lighting and increases in greenhouse gas emissions resulting from increased use of electricity and paraffin/diesel for on and off grid lighting respectively.

Switching older lighting technologies to the efficient technologies will also bring huge savings in energy costs and CO2 emissions. Even though there has been a revolution in lighting technology during the past 10-15 years resulting in the availability today of energy efficient lighting solutions for each segment of the market, approximately two thirds of all lighting currently installed in the world is based on older, less energy efficient technology. The current change over rate to new lighting technologies is simply too slow particularly in street lighting 3% per year and office lighting 7% per year. On average, a potential saving in energy consumption across the board of 40% is possible, taking into account conservative estimates.

The en.lighten initiative pushes for a global transition to efficient lighting through the achievement of three inter-related objectives:

• Promote high performance, energy efficient lighting technologies
• Support the phase out of inefficient incandescent lights
• Substitute traditional fuel-based lighting with efficient alternatives

In addition the en.lighten initiative serves as the global platform to promote efficient lighting through:

• Building synergies among stakeholders
• Developing best practice guidelines and recommendations
• Addressing technical, quality and harmonization issues
• Supporting countries interested in promoting the transition to efficient lighting through technical assistance

The Global Environment Facility (GEF) tasked UNEP to lead this initiative with the aim to become an umbrella initiative for the promotion of efficient lighting in support of countries and to contribute to the reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. So en.lighten aims to formulate a global multi stakeholder consensus around efficient lighting which it is hoped will in turn lead to concrete actions to save energy through efficient lighting in developing countries.

This global approach and resulting stimulus towards efficient lighting is unprecedented and this is what makes the en.lighten initiative one to watch and be part of!

General barriers

• Insufficient knowledge, information and understanding of current energy efficient lighting technologies which lead to an attitude of indifference to change.
• Stockpiles of low efficiency lamps (encouraged by the retention of like for-like replacement policies).
• Un-metered public lighting which makes the cost of lighting related energy use abstract.
• Limited access to capital and other sources of funding.
• Organizational structures.
• Absence of a dedicated procurement/regulatory policy to incentivize market transformation to efficient lighting.
• Electricity tariff structures.
• Existing infrastructure.
• Focus on upfront capital cost of lighting technologies (not total cost of ownership).
• Manufacturer claims versus real world performance - mainly flux claims that do not meet actual performance of lamps.
• Split incentives between equipment suppliers and consumers.

Consumer related barriers

• Consumer confusion over wattages and equivalency with IL. (One of the en.lighten taskforces will review the case for use of "lumens" as the key determinant for lamp choice, rather than Watts).
• Consumer misinformation - there is a lot of consumer misunderstanding of CFLs particularly in the area of mercury, embodied energy, performance, safety, etc.
• Consumer inability to work out which lamps are suitable for which application.
• Lack of end of life ‘safe disposal’ facilities for CFLs.
• Electrical incompatibility resulting in issues with dimming CFL’s.
• Perceptions of color - many people accidentally buy cool white or daylight CFLs when they really want warm white.
• Retailer’s (or others in contact with consumers) unwillingness to help educate consumers as to new lamp choices.

en.lighten
Efficient Lighting for Developing and Emerging Countries, UNEP (DTIE)
15, Rue de Milan
75441 Paris cedex 9, France
E-mail: en.lighten@unep.org
Telephone: +33 1 44 37 19 97
Fax: +33 1 44 37 14 74

The price of a Compact Fluorescent Lamp (CFL) has decreased over the last several years. This is great value when you consider that CFL lamps last on average between 6 to 15 times longer than energy inefficient IL and that a consumer can save around €80 over the life just by replacing a 100-watt incandescent with a 20-watt CFL.

Therefore, an energy saving CFL has a much lower overall environmental impact than an energy inefficient incandescent lamp throughout its lifecycle. More than 97% of energy consumed during the lifecycle of a lamp is in the use phase and as CFLs are up to 80% more efficient than an average inefficient incandescent lamp, the savings are evident.

As electrons and charged atoms move through the tube, some of them will collide with the gaseous mercury atoms. These collisions excite the atoms, bumping electrons up to higher energy levels. When the electrons return to their original energy level, they release light photons. This is why it takes some time for a CFL to light up.

Indeed the presence of so many standards leads often to confusion about the safety, testing, and certification requirements for lamps in differing territories. This situation exposes the need for a coordinated global or territorial approach to the harmonization of safety, testing, and certification standards. One of the aims of the en.lighten initiative is to add value in this area by helping to coordinate alignment of safety, testing, and certification standards.

Clearly the global lighting market is complex and multifaceted. It is driven by a variety of lighting requirements which differ from country to country. It is for this reason that performance requirements of lighting such as lifetime, lumen maintenance, color rendering etc. should be tailored to meet the requirements of differing segments of the market while abiding to environmental and energy efficiency considerations.

The Colour Rendering Index (CRI) expresses the level to which colors are represented in its natural form i.e. as if lit by sunlight, where an incandescent lamp has a CRI of 100, good quality energy-savers typically have a CRI value between 80-85.

The CRI of 80-85 is appropriate for most domestic applications and is similar to the quality of light used in shop display lighting.

The technology is based on fluorescent tubes, which are bent into a small shape. Integrated electronics allow the lamp to operate as direct replacement for IL’s. In terms of shape, size and light quality, the better CFL’s have come very close to traditional IL’s.

For consumers that still do not wish to compromise in any way, a range of energy saving bulbs which make use of halogen technology have been introduced recently. Light characteristics are equal to IL’s, while energy saving is approximately of 25% (compared to 75-80% for CFL lamps).

An emerging alternative is LED-based energy saving bulbs. These bulbs are expected to exceed the energy saving percentages of CFL lamps, as well as having longer lifetime and light quality closer to IL’s. Costs of these lamps will come down as a result of advancing technology (aligned with the performance/price evolution of semiconductors).

• Residential lighting – efficient halogen, compact or linear fluorescent lamps & LED.
• Commercial lighting (offices) - efficient halogen, compact or linear fluorescent lamps, compact high intensity discharge lamps (HID) & LED.
• Industrial sector - compact or linear fluorescent lamps, high pressure sodium lamps (HPS), high intensity discharge lamps (HID) & LED.
• Outdoor lighting – high pressure sodium lamps (HPS), quartz or ceramic high intensity discharge lamps (HID) & LED.

LEDs produce less heat than incandescent lamps and are less fragile than fluorescents. They are built inside solid cases that protect them, they have no moving parts, no fragile glass, no exposure to toxic gasses and no filament making them hard to break and extremely difficult to cause damage. Given that they do not contain mercury, they are also safer for consumers and friendlier for the environment.

No other material has been found to replace mercury and reach comparable energy efficiency. Energy saving lamp technologies do not all need mercury. For instance, energy saving halogen lamps as well as most LED based lamps do not contain mercury.

In China Order No. 39: Final Measures for the Administration of the Control and Electronic Information Products (often referred to as China RoHS) has the intent to establish similar restrictions, but in fact takes a very different approach. Unlike EU RoHS, where products in specified categories are included unless specifically excluded, there will be a list of included products, known as the catalogue which are a subset of the total scope of Electronic Information Products, or EIPs, to which the regulations apply. Initially, products that fall under the covered scope must provide markings and disclosure as to the presence of certain substances, while the substances themselves are not (yet) prohibited.

In the US, effective as of January 1, 2010, the California Lighting Efficiency and Toxics Reduction Act applies RoHS to general purpose lights, i.e. "lamps, bulbs, tubes, or other electric devices that provide functional illumination for indoor residential, indoor commercial, and outdoor use.

The following steps are recommended:

• Have people and pets leave the room, and don't let anyone walk through the breakage area on their way out.
• Open a window and leave the room for 15 minutes or more.
• Shut off the central forced-air heating/air conditioning system, if you have one.
• Be careful not to cut yourself on glass parts.
• If the lamp was broken in a luminary, always make sure to disconnect the power to avoid the risk of electric shock before removing the remaining lamp components!
• Gather up the fragments of the lamp, sweeping them up if possible and place them in a glass jar with metal lid (such as a canning jar) or in a sealed plastic bag.
• Use a disposable towel or sticky tape to remove small pieces or dust. Place towels in the glass jar or a sealed plastic bag.
• Use a vacuum cleaner only if the surface leaves no alternative (like a carpet). After that, dispose of the vacuum bag containing the lamp fragments. Do not continue using the vacuum bag.
• Remove the fragments of the lamp from the inside of your home, carrying them outside and disposing them as appropriate (Check with your local government about disposal requirements in your specific area. Some areas do not allow normal trash disposal. Instead, they require that broken and unbroken mercury-containing bulbs be taken to a local recycling center)
• Wash your hands after disposing of the jars or plastic bags containing clean-up materials.
• Ventilate the room as long as possible.

Across Europe for instance and in some states in the U.S., industry and regulators have set up systems to collect and recycle all discharge lamps, including CFL. In the EU following the WEEE Directive , lamps are taken back free of charge for end users. All CFL lamps are marked with a crossed-out wheeled dust bin logo, indicating that they should not be disposed of with regular household waste but should be returned making use of existing local waste deposits according to national legislation.

In the recycling process mercury is removed from gas discharge lamps, materials like glass or metals are recovered. More than 80% of the material in lamps is recycled.

A small number of cases have been reported by people who suffer from reactions to certain types of linear fluorescent lamps. In the majority of these cases, the lamps in question were used in offices, restaurants and in limited places in domestic households (such as kitchens and garages) and were almost certainly triggered by old technology which operated on a conventional (Copper-Iron) ballasts with a low frequency (<50Hz mains frequency); this is not the case with new energy efficient linear fluorescent lamp technology which unlike earlier energy efficiency technologies, operates on high frequency drivers (for example, certain fluorescent lamps operate on 50kHz or 50,000Hz).

The above health related problems can be therefore avoided if consumers opt for new technologies such as integrated energy savers (CFL) in households and other sources using high frequency drivers (e.g. linear fluorescents and HID) in other applications (such as offices, restaurants etc). Scientific experts have identified no health impact from energy saving lamps flickering.

The eye naturally protects itself from excessive light and a natural aversion mechanism prevents it from being exposed to light that is too intense. Sometimes, eyes can be particularly sensitive to blue light, which is present in many energy saving lamps. It is then recommended that people with this sensitivity use yellow filters to soften the light color. Today, many energy saving lamps are available in soft colors, which are more comfortable for the eye. The light exposure resulting from a fluorescent light source for general lighting is less than the typical exposure experienced outdoors.

LED lamps can emit a range of colors (green, red and blue) and can emit white light by combining red, blue and green LEDs or a LED with a phosphor similar to the ones used in fluorescent lamps. The whiter the lamp is, the more blue (and possible UV) is radiated. Negative reactions to LEDs therefore are probably due to the use of LED lamps with a very white color tone, thus containing a lot of blue. It is important to note that LED technology is still in the very early stages of development, and as such there is a strong possibility that lamps will be made with a certain spectral composition in the future, hence alleviating some of these initial problems.

General tips for people who are sensitive to light:

• If you suffer from a special light sensitivity do not expose yourself directly to the light source. Use indirect light via a white surface, as, in many cases, during reflection UV-radiation will be absorbed (depending of course of the type of surface and material/paint used).
• Use double-envelope energy saving lamps (i.e. lamps with double outer bulb) which mitigate UV-radiation.
• Special covers can be used to fully filter the last bits of harmful radiation from the lamps. For example, Plexiglas or special glass
• UV filters will filter most of the UV light.
• Use yellow filters to filter the blue light.
• When filters are no option, mains voltage halogen lamps are an acceptable alternative. Due to the UV-filtering quartz of the burner, these lamps have UV output levels that are similar to incandescent lamps.
• Reduce the dose (time of exposure, quantity) of light by dimming the lights when possible. Use light sources with a warm color tone (low correlated color temperature); they contain the lowest quantity of blue light.

UV exposure compared to daylight:

There is no risk from ultraviolet light exposure emitted by energy saving fluorescent lamps as their UVA and UVB rays are well within the limits that guarantee consumer protection. The US National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) norm indicates that the maximum time allowed under fluorescent lighting is 24h a day. In addition, European scientific experts did not find any health impact from UV rays emitted by energy saving lamps in normal conditions. For workers exposed to high levels of light and for persons affected by extreme light sensitivity, experts recommended using double-envelope lamps.

Relevant for suppressing the melatonin is only the blue part of the light from IL’s, halogen lamps or energy saving fluorescent lamps. It is recommended that people who suspect that lamps are affecting their ability to sleep either dim the lights, or use warm color tone lamps.

The blue part of the light of warm color energy saving fluorescent lamps has the same intensity as from comparable incandescent lamps. So there is no difference between warm-white fluorescent lamps and incandescent lamps with respect to the suppression of melatonin. Today, many energy saving fluorescent lamps are available in warm-white colors.

Some people are therefore particularly sensitive to blue light, which is present in many energy saving lamps. It is recommended that people with this sensitivity use yellow filters to soften the light color. Today, many energy saving lamps are available in soft colors, which are more comfortable for people who suffer from migraines.