"It pays, one way or the other"
"It pays, one way or the other"
We guarantee that this offer will interest your customers, Osram writes to its retailers. To help more residential customers overcome one of the barriers that discourages people from investing in energy-efficient technologies, Osram has introduced a two-year warranty on their electronic, compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) sold in Europe.One way or the other, you will get your money back, Osram writes in another brochure aimed at the potential buyer.
When the campaign was first launched in Germany, the lamps were accompanied by a small chart with which the customer could calculate the savings that would accrue from the investment he or she was considering.In most household applications the lamp will pay for itself in less than two years, Osram claimed.
Given a typical German electricity price (Osram uses DM 0.23/kWh in their example, ~$ 0.14) this certainly holds true for most residential applications. However, payback time differs greatly depending on lamp price, hours of operation, and the wattage of the lamp that is replaced.
To further reduce market barriers, the IAEEL Newsletter offers our readers an example of a CFL investment where we have done the calculations for you. Below, we assume that a 60-W incandescent is replaced by a 15-W CFL and that the lamp is in use 2 000 hours per year (which is generous-1200 h/year would be more realistic for an average household application). At a CFL price of $ 12 and an electricity price varying from 5 cents to15 cents, the simple payback time of the investment varies from 2.7 to 0.8 years. If the lamp price is $ 18, payback time varies between 4 and 1.3 years.
There is no information from Osram as to how this campaign has been received by the customers.
Nils Borg
Evan Mills