Stupid or Clever ?

moonrakerz

I read today that the energy companies, after being "leant on" by the Government to help people save energy, sent out millions of free low energy light bulbs.

Apparently all these light bulbs all have a screw fitting so they are useless to about 99.9999% of the population.
What a stupid thing to do ! ....or was it ?

The last thing they actually want us to do is use less energy. According to the Times around 150 million of these bulbs were sent out. If everyone of these bulbs were to be used that is a reduction of a HUGE amount of electricity, if only 0.00001% get used the energy companys' profits stay where they are !

Or am I just getting cynical in my old age ?

kippen_noedel

you don't take into consideration the long term costs

If electricity consumption goes down 10% that means 10% fewer power stations need to be built, which will save companies hundreds of millions in capital projects.

KimYeovil

I have received several boxes of bulbs. Not one of them had an Edison screw.

ariba10

We have had quite a few of these energy efficient light bulbs given to us by various companies and personally think that they are about as useful as a Chocolate Tea Pot.

You need about twice as many to give you half the light of a normal bulb.

stewie_griffin

KimYeovil wrote: »

I have received several boxes of bulbs. Not one of them had an Edison screw.

Me too all of mine had bayonet fittings

hayley11

I haven't received any free ones but we've bought a mixture of bayonet and screw caps as our house has both. We find them as bright as normal bulbs after a couple of minutes and if they last half as long as they say, means we don't have to worry about changing bulbs for a long while!

st999

You use one 100watt bulb to light your room or you need to use 3 18watt low energy bulbs to get the same light.

So what is the problem? 54watt is still less than 100watt. I used to use 2 100 watt bulbs in my lounge now I use 3 18 watt low energy bulbs. I use less energy and my lounge is brighter.

Stan

Premier_2

Mine were all bayonet cap too

What is the source of your statistics please?

I think the issue arises because all bulbs sent out were bayonet cap fitting which is the most common fitting in the UK but obviously isn't of any use to the minority with ES fittings

According to the BBC report:

... Energy suppliers' research suggests that 6% of the bulbs will be unused...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8145963.stm

milliemonster

Well all the one ones I got were bayonet fitting and I duly replaced all the lights in my house with them, however, I have not seen any reduction in my bills at all

moonrakerz

Premier wrote: »

What is the source of your statistics please?

It was in one of the broadsheets.

kippen_noedel wrote: »

If electricity consumption goes down 10% that means 10% fewer power stations need to be built, which will save companies hundreds of millions in capital projects

I'm afraid this response shows a complete lack of understanding of the business world, the companies WANT to spend "hundreds of millions in capital project", the more the better.

Who do you think pays for these capital projects ? You do ! Mr Eon or Mr EDF don't pay for it out of their private building society accounts.

If a company builds a £100M power station it does that in the expectation of getting a certain percentage return on it's investment. It probably has to borrow the money to build the station. If it borrows the money at 10% and aims for a 10% return on investment it has to make £20M a year profit from that power station just to cover that. That profit comes from what you pay them for your electricity !
If they can't get an adequate return, the power station doesn't get built. They will build in France or Germany instead, then when we run short of Electricity we have to pay even more to import it !
You seem to think that they just build a power station for the fun of it.

st999 wrote: »

You use one 100watt bulb to light your room or you need to use 3 18watt low energy bulbs to get the same light.

So what is the problem? 54watt is still less than 100watt. I used to use 2 100 watt bulbs in my lounge now I use 3 18 watt low energy bulbs. I use less energy and my lounge is brighter.

Valid point, that is whythey are considering doing away with "wattage" on light bulbs and replacing this measure with "lumens", ie: the actual light output - but already people are complaing because "it will be difficult to understand !"

Premier_2

moonrakerz wrote: »

It was in one of the broadsheets...

No doubt where "a source said" :rolleyes::D