The following is an extract from the SLL Newsletter and in our opinion sums up the concerns and frustrations of many in the lighting industry about the impact on design issues and supply of products.

SLL urges industry to consider the impact of the withdrawal of tungsten lamps

" The Society of Light and Lighting [SLL] actively promotes energy efficient lighting solutions and accepts a withdrawal of inefficient tungsten filament lamps could lead to a reduction in UK energy consumption but is concerned whether the current options fully meet the lighting requirements for the spaces and tasks to be lit.

SLL's main concern is that in removing existing, albeit energy inefficient, lamps from the market, future lighting installations using the more efficient alternatives will not be able to achieve the lighting effects that current lamps can produce. Issues of concern to domestic users include - amount of light, warm-up time, ability to dim, flicker, colour, appearance and rendition, lamp life, degree of sparkle, availability of suitable luminaires [and shades] and cost.

Information from manufacturers does indicate that many of the technical issues could be addressed and that lamps are currently under development that will meet most of the characteristics of tungsten filament lamps. While lamps will use various approaches, such as fluorescent, LED or high efficiency filament technologies, they will be more energy efficient than current tungsten filament lamps.

The Society believes that all these new lamps, must be manufactured to remove all the conditions listed above, together with a wide range of suitable luminaires, and should be readily available before existing lamps are withdrawn. It therefore calls on those in the supply chain, lamp and luminaire manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers to ensure that suitable lighting equipment is readily available to the market, to meet timescales for proposed withdrawal of current lamps. "

The Society of Light and Lighting is a professional body for lighting in the UK and is a subsidiary of The Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers [CIBSE]

 

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