If you thought the EU were done with lamp regulations I am sorry to disappoint you. I has ben a long time since I lsat blogged on this site however things are moving again and a new found of consultations is on the way.
Back in November 2013 I reported the discussions regarding the review of stage 6 of the original 2009 regulations on domestic lighting. The draft regulation has now been published and is open for comments via DECC in the UK or through your local equivalent government department. The brief result will be that mains voltage halogen lamps will be banned in September 2018. This takes away the majority of lamps that have become the preferred replacement for the original incandescent lamps. Incidentally this will remove the remaining bulk European domestic lamp manufacturing capacity so the EU becomes an economic hostage to China and the Far East for the provision of the vast majority of domestic lighting.
Other parts of the draft bring into line the wording of the “special lamps” exemptions with the reflector lamps regulation of 2012.
There is also a larger review of all the EcoDesign lighting regulations being carried on by VITO and VHK the two consultancies responsible for the original studies. They are inventing a new measure of lighting energy use called MELISSA. Unfortunately this is based largely on studies and information pre-dating the first stage of the domestic lamps regulations therefore it is extremely dubious as a measure of the effectiveness of the existing regulations and a very unreliable basis for future regulations.
As expected no one is doing the work necessary to really understand and measure the effects of the current regulations. This is vital and urgent work to ensure firstly that the existing regulations are meeting the expectations (highly unlikely!) and how to set targets effectively to achieve the aims of reducing both energy use across the EU and specifically reduce CO2 emissions. These are not the same thing. The CO2 depends entirely upon what generating capacity is available and used during the peak lighting hours. Obviously renewables such as Photo Voltaic are not available but more alarmingly the base load generating capacity in many EU countries remains coal fired and this is what has to stay in use at night. As I have mentioned in previous posts this issue will not be fixed by changing lamps but has to be dealt with as changes to infrastructure (expensive!) and through regulation of the generating companies (politically unpalatable.)
At any event please keep your eyes out for opportunities to become involved in consultations and take opportunities at election time to question your local politicians about there position on EcoDesign regulations.
