IAEEL newsletter 3-4/97
IKEA gives away 25 MW
IKEA gives away 25 MW
During three autumn weeks in 1997, Ikea, the Swedish furniture giant with department stores in 28 countries, gave away more than half a million CFLs to its Swedish customers, with a ²nominal worth² of 25 MW of peak-load savings. On top of that, Ikea has drastically reduced the retail price of screw-base, electronic-ballast CFLs. Ikea aims to sell several million CFLs in 1998, and the campaign is combined with a large light-source mercury recycling program.
Ikea was initially a low-price furniture postal order company in the southern Swedish province of Småland. Its products are now found in virtually every Swedish home as well as in many offices. Their main line of business is still furniture packaged in pieces in cardboard boxes, with screws and assembly instructions attached. But they also sell towels, household utensils, and ‹ light sources. The Ikea CFL give-away campaign was launched in October 1997. During three weeks, more than half a million CFLs were given away to customers who turned in a coupon published in all major Swedish newspapers. One of the reasons for concentrating on Sweden was that the penetration of CFLs is low in Swedish households. For instance, the average number of CFLs per household in Sweden is only 0.3-0.5, whereas in Germany it is probably around 3.0.
Then why is Ikea spending all this money? ³We wanted to give the Swedish people a chance to see the advantages with CFLs. We have about a hundred luminaire models in which CFLs would fit. Every time we design a new lamp we try to adapt it for screw-base CFLs as well,² says Tina Paulsson at IKEA. However, Ikea is also marketing dedicated CFL luminaires.
Giving away lamps was just the start of a larger commitment. By giving away lamps Ikea wanted to raise the awareness of CFLs and attract attention to their low-price CFLs. Ikea has managed to press the retail price for electronic-ballast, screw-base CFLs down to approx. US$5. (In Sweden, the Ikea lamps are sold for SEK 39).
Ikea¹s price is less than half the current average price for an electronic-ballast screw-base CFL in many markets. According to Ikea, the cost cuts have been achieved by scale of economy, just as with other goods they sell. Ikea does not work much with give-aways or discounted prices. Prices are printed in the catalogues and usually last for a year, and the low price is thus set so that Ikea can make a reasonable profit from each lamp it sells.
LARGE VOLUMES, LOW LABOR COSTS
Lamps are produced in a factory in Xiamen, South China, and low labor costs are an important factor too. The manufacturer has also found a way to produce the lamps without using technology patented by any of the major lamp manufacturers.
Ikea has tested the lamp and claims it is of high quality. However, independent testing will have to verify this.
The lamp campaign is being launched together with SNF, the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation, the leading environmental NGO in Sweden. Tomas Kåberger, vice chairman and former energy officer at SNF, visited the Xiamen factory before endorsing the Ikea campaign. He is quite impressed with the careful handling of mercury on-site as well as with the low content of mercury in the lamps (less than 3 mg/lamp compared with a typical 5 mg).
The Xiamen factory is ISO 9000-certified for both the Chinese and German authorities. Quality control is achieved by very extensive manual testing. According to Kåberger, the manager is also aiming to obtain an ISO 14001 (environmental management system) certification, but that will take another year or so.
ENVIRONMENTAL BENEFITS
The environmental advantage of CFLs is obvious. The give-away campaign alone is likely to have saved some 35 GWh of electricity (50 W saved/lamp x 1500h average annual burning time x 0.5 million lamps). It is, however, not likely that the full potential load reduction of 25 MW will be realized from giving away half a million lamps, since not all lamps will be used simultaneously. But if half the lamps are on at the same time, the Swedish total load will be reduced by 12.5 megawatts.
Many people are aware of the fact that broken or burned-out CFLs and other fluorescent lamps are classified as hazardous waste in several countries, which is not so good for their image. Other people are not aware of this, and as a result the mercury in the lamps ends up in landfills or waste incineration plants.
Ikea has tackled this problem head-on by inviting everyone to dispose of any used fluorescent lamp at the department store, at no cost. The mercury will be collected and recycled in Germany. The goal is to collect and recycle more mercury than the amount contained in the lamps sold at their department stores.
Fredrik Lundberg