A Delightful Opportunity
A Delightful Opportunity
By the year 2020, about 44 TWh of electricity could realistically be saved in domestic lighting across the EU by installing energy-efficient compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs). Such savings would make a substantial contribution towards achieving the targets agreed upon at Kyoto with regard to reducing CO2 emissions, writes guest author Jane Palmer, who participated in the recently completed European DELight study.
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European domestic lighting energy use has never been modeled carefully. However, modeling work carried out in connection with the European Domestic Efficient Lighting (DELight) study indicated that there is a residential lighting savings potential of 44 TWh, or 43 % in the European Union«s 156 member countries. Unlike the assessments made in many other studies, this is not just a technical or a techno-economic estimate of the potential. Through practical research, it has been possible to obtain estimates based on what consumers may accept. Thus the investigation should complement the findings of other studies. (See, for instance, IAEEL 3/96). The DELight report also gives detailed recommendations concerning policies that could deliver the savings identified.
The focus of DELight has been the role of the domestic luminaire. Previous research and practical experience have established that estimates of domestic lighting energy savings achievable by changing the lamp alone, without any consideration of the constraints of the luminaires (in terms of changed light distribution, the possibility of reduced light flux, etc), result in overly optimistic and inaccurate estimates. In comprehensive studies (including field studies and hands-on home surveys) concerning consumer acceptance in the three partner countries, DELight has investigated the potential for using compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) in the existing luminaires from both technical and aesthetic perspectives. More than 20 households in each country were visited, and CFLs were installed in various types of luminaires. The homeowners were then asked to judge how well the CFL fit into the luminaire and how the light was distributed and perceived.
One of the main findings of DELight was that 70% of the 150 million households in the EU still do not own a single CFL. However, among the 45 million homes with CFLs, there is an average of around three per household. Hence, the crucial factor involved in penetration appears to be getting that first CFL in Ñ once people have acquired one CFL, they tend to purchase another two or three. The main challenge now is to find the most effective way to introduce that first CFL into the 105 million European households currently without any.
A telephone survey undertaken as part of the DELight project highlighted one of the major barriers to the penetration of these CFL-less households - namely, the lack of knowledge and awareness of the characteristics and performance of CFLs. When asked to describe the quality of light from a CFL, 51% of non-owners had no opinion. Among owners, most considered CFLs to give a clear/bright light. In addition, owners generally had a positive attitude toward their CFLs - when asked if they felt that CFLs provided a suitable light for all their activities, 69% of owners replied yes, whereas 51% of non-owners were not able to answer, reflecting their lack of knowledge of such lighting. People cannot appreciate the advantages of using CFLs in their homes without first-hand experience. Providing such persons with opportunities to test CFLs or to see them in use in lighting displays in shops could help bridge the gap between knowledge and experience, building a positive image of CFLs and encouraging their wider use.
People without CFLs often give the lack of suitable luminaires as a reason for not owning any. However, the detailed survey (of 24 households in each of the three partner countries) revealed that CFLs could have been immediately installed in 42-46% of the existing luminaires designed for incandescents, or about eight luminaires per household, without making any modifications to the luminaires. By replacing only four of these incandescents with CFLs, annual savings of 200 kWh per household could be achieved. This represents a quarter of household lighting usage in each of the three countries. Hence, a large proportion of the total aggregate savings could be realized without requiring any changes to the existing luminaires.
However, there is always a risk that the homeowner will switch back to incandescents the day the CFL fails. Therefore, there is a need to promote luminaires dedicated to efficient lighting in order to achieve long-term savings. Thus any energy policy aimed at furthering the adoption of efficient domestic lighting should contain the following two key strategies:
- get a CFL into every home so that households can experience the advantages of this type of lighting;
- design policies that help increase the proportion of household luminaires dedicated to more energy-efficient light sources, such as pin base CFLs.
Hence, efforts to transform the lighting market must run (and are, in fact, running) along two parallel lines: While a positive image of screw-base CFLs is being created through information dissemination, advertising, and education, the market for dedicated CFL luminaires is currently being developed through high-profile design competitions, procurement programs, and rebates.
At the same time, work to further the develop the market for integral ballast CFLs (those intended for use in luminaires designed for incandescent bulbs) is under way, supported by education and advice aimed to ensure that people use these bulbs correctly in their luminaires.
FROM REBATES TO CABE
There are several possible policy instruments that could be used to achieve this transformation of the market. Information/education is one means. The EU energy-labeling scheme and the many national and local screw-base CFL promotion programs will probably have a major impact over the coming 10 to 15 years. Gradually, programs for dedicated CFL luminaires will become more important and have an impact on the total lighting energy usage. In the area of residential sector lighting, building regulations have very little significance. However, they may become more important in the future, depending on the structure of the housing market in a given country. In the UK, for example, the majority of lighting is hard-wired and the luminaires thus belong to the house. In Sweden and Germany, the majority of luminaires are portable or can easily be removed and brought to a new house or apartment. Minimum efficiency standards for light bulbs would be a powerful instrument that could have a major impact on the overall efficiency of light bulbs sold in Europe. It is unclear, however, whether such standards will ever be introduced.
One recommendation made in the DELight report is that an average corporate "fleet" efficiency scheme could be introduced. We have chosen to call it cabe (Corporate Average Bulb Efficiency), since it has been inspired by the US Corporate Average Fuel Economy (cafe) standard. The US cafe standard is a mandatory federal standard applying to passenger cars and light trucks. It is expressed as a shipment-weighted average efficiency for all cars sold by a given manufacturer. So, for example, for every car sold that falls 10% short of the standard, the same manufacturer must sell at least one car that is 10% better. cabe would require lamp manufacturers to achieve a certain level of efficiency for each bulb sold. The approach has the advantage of combining flexibility regarding the type of lamps sold with guaranteed savings.
A mandatory cabe standard would be more difficult to introduce than the cafe standard, for many reasons: For instance, the tracking of product flows is harder for lamps than for cars, where each vehicle is registered and tax is paid. It is also harder to define the efficiency criteria for a cabe scheme, and the proposed scheme probably would have to rely on voluntary agreements with manufacturers. If such arrangements could be made the impacts promise to be great. The figure shows an estimate of the impacts such a cabe scheme could have on the UK sales of efficient light sources.
Jane Palmer
The author works with the Environmental Change Unit (ECU) University of Oxford, UK. The DELight study is the result of collaboration between the ECU, the Swedish National Energy Administration (EM), Sweden, and Energiestiftung Schleswig-Holstein (ESH), in Kiel, Germany. The study was funded by the European Commission under the SAVE program, the UK Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions, and the EM.
For more information, contact:
Dr Brenda Boardman, Environmental Change Unit, 5 South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3UB.
Tel: +44 1865 281 180, Fax: +44 1865 281 202
E-mail: brenda.boardman@ecu.ox.ac.uk
Copies of the DELight report can be obtained from Sarah Darby at the ECU (address as above).
The report is also available at the IAEEL web site archives at www.stem.se/iaeel.