Householders in the United States are preparing to upgrade their lighting with more energy efficient lamp technologies after the country's ban on 40W and 60W incandescent lamps came into force at the beginning of January.
The phase out, which is similar to the one that has already taken place in Europe, states that only lamps that meet certain energy-efficiency standards may be manufactured by or imported into the United States. The piece of legislation is known as the 2007 Energy Independence and Security Act and was signed into law by President George W. Bush in December 2007. It has already phased out 100W incandescent lamps in 2012 and 75W versions in 2013.
According to research conducted by the US government agency, Energy Star, 70 per cent of the estimated 4 billion light fittings in the US continue to use inefficient lamps, so the impact of the phase out is anticipated to be significant. In a survey conducted by Osram Sylvania in the US, two thirds of those questioned said they intended to switch to more efficient technologies, although 30 per cent said they planned to stockpile incandescent lamps while they were still available (as in Europe, the phase out doesn't ban the buying or selling of the lamps, only the manufacturing of them).
It's estimated that if every house in the United States replaced just one incandescent lamp with an Energy Star alternative, it would be the equivalent of taking 800,000 vehicles off the road in terms of greenhouse gas emissions.
