Light bulb fiasco

[empip]

Here is some 'joined up Government' .....

Get ready for the light bulb tax
In an effort to reduce household energy consumption, the Government is considering a 'green' tax on inefficient light bulbs, encouraging a switch to dearer, energy-efficient ones.

W T F

EU urged to end duty on China's low-energy bulbs
...But this week the EU is likely to extend a five-year anti-dumping duty on low-energy bulbs from China, the world's largest producer, whose exports are growing at 20% a year and are worth $8bn a year....

What can you expect from a Govn with an admitted cowboy deputy PM ?

 

[ninebob]

Jeez - is there anything left for them to tax next?

 

[empip]

Jeez - is there anything left for them to tax next?

Here is some more of similar ....

..Passport prices will rise from October 5 as travellers are again forced to pay for increased government security measures.
The second rise in 10 months will see adults paying £66 for a standard passport, with a child passport costing £45.
As Times Online Travel revealed on May 3, it was also confirmed today that all applicants, including those who are simply renewing a passport, will have to be interviewed in person by 2009. The Passport Agency is to open 65 new offices to cope with government demands...

So how much by 2009 then?? 65 new offices to staff .... Crazy stuff .. prelude to ID cards I guess, or perhaps they will be additional in cost..

We have to be rid of this lot ... Brown will be worse again !!

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Here is some 'joined up Government' .....

Get ready for the light bulb tax
In an effort to reduce household energy consumption, the Government is considering a 'green' tax on inefficient light bulbs, encouraging a switch to dearer, energy-efficient ones.

W T F

EU urged to end duty on China's low-energy bulbs
...But this week the EU is likely to extend a five-year anti-dumping duty on low-energy bulbs from China, the world's largest producer, whose exports are growing at 20% a year and are worth $8bn a year....

What can you expect from a Govn with an admitted cowboy deputy PM ?

Low energy lightbulbs will not fit in some light fittings. Who is to pay for their replacement?

Low energy lightbulbs cannot be used when people have fitted dimmer switches. Who is to pay for the replacement of the switches?

Low energy lightbulbs cannot be used when people have fitted 12V lighting systems. Who is to pay for the replacement of those?

Low energy lightbulbs often flash regularly when used in 2-way switching circuits, requiring modifications to be made. Who is to pay for those?

Some of the potential work listed above cannot be done by unregistered electricians in kitchens and bathrooms without submitting a Building Notice to LABC. Who is to pay for that process, or for engaging an electrician?

 

[ellal]

Low energy lightbulbs will not fit in some light fittings. Who is to pay for their replacement?

Low energy lightbulbs cannot be used when people have fitted dimmer switches. Who is to pay for the replacement of the switches?

Low energy lightbulbs cannot be used when people have fitted 12V lighting systems. Who is to pay for the replacement of those?

Low energy lightbulbs often flash regularly when used in 2-way switching circuits, requiring modifications to be made. Who is to pay for those?

Some of the potential work listed above cannot be done by unregistered electricians in kitchens and bathrooms without submitting a Building Notice to LABC. Who is to pay for that process, or for engaging an electrician?

an apathetic public...?

 

[Adam_151]

Also consider that what is considered wasted energy in the form of heat might not always be that, in winter it'll mean your central heating has to work less hard, etc. So they save less energy then they would appear to at first glance, and they cause poisonous matterials to end up in landfills

They just want to appear to be doing something green...

 

[empip]

I was pointing out the strange idea from HMG to tax incandesant bulbs whilst the EU (on our behalf) are taxing the import of Chinese low energy bulbs.. Protecting business at the expense of the environment.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

The environmental issues may not be as clear cut as you think.

The Chinese do not have a very good record in this respect, so who knows what damage is being done to the environment by their manufacturing processes (think of the toxic metals used etc), and by the generation of the electricity that powers the factories?

 

[Adam_151]

Ban, you are making me feel guity about my recent purchase of a cheapo chinesse MP3 player off ebay lol , to replace one that had broken* £14 for a 512meg one, can't complain. Was tempted to get an Ipod, but I'd only break or loose it, with something at £14, it hardly matters


*buttons behind the volume selector had broken off the board, I soldered them back on (I have too much time...), held the battery in it to test it and it seemed to work, then the battery slipped out, and it never powered up again

 

[RF Lighting]

Don't forget as these CFLs contain mercury vapour, they are classed as hazardous waste, and you should pay for them to be safely disposed of.

As the company I work for are bulk producers of 'hazardous waste' (dead flourescent tubes) we have to pay 50p per lamp for their safe disposal.

 

[joe-90]

They say that 20 years from now, China will use as much oil as can be produced world-wide all on its own! It'll all end it tears (and world war)

 

[Nige F]

I was pointing out the strange idea from HMG to tax incandesant bulbs whilst the EU (on our behalf) are taxing the import of Chinese low energy bulbs.. Protecting business at the expense of the environment.

Agreed, and who runs the EU Mon cher with the most nuclear powered stationd .....selling power to UK........China`s Industrial Revolution will make ours and our Empire look like a Banana Republic.........I reckon I`ll just about see it @ it`s zenith before I shuffle off

 

[vokera80e]

Low energy lightbulbs will not fit in some light fittings. Who is to pay for their replacement?

Low energy lightbulbs cannot be used when people have fitted dimmer switches. [/quote]

i wondered why the low energy bulbs wouldnt work in my dimmer.... i know answer now..

 

[empip]

The nuclear wisdom of young Blair

When it comes to nuclear power, Dave "Chameleon" Cameron may be a few colours short of a rainbow when compared with Tony Blair. Even in the Labour Party few remember it, but one of Blair's first big jobs was as Neil Kinnock's shadow energy secretary, and his demolition of the muddled finances and environmental hazards of nuclear power played a large part in establishing him as a potential party leader.

"What is unbelievably depressing about the [Conservative] government's response is that they see, in the evidence about greenhouse gases, not an opportunity to promote environmental concern but a chance to make the case for nuclear power," he thundered, back then.

Blair had the job in 1988-89, just as the Tories were pushing electricity privatisation through the Commons, a step that forced them to publish the first detailed analyses of the nuclear industry's finances. When the City saw the huge liabilities for dealing with nuclear waste it was horrified. Blair took the opportunity to demonstrate his rhetorical and analytical powers.

"It will be the consumer who will pay, along with the taxpayer, as we shall see later," he warned the Commons. "The irony . . . is that, whereas the profit from the electricity industry moves to the private sector, much of the risk and liability stays in the public sector."

In those days, the cost of cleaning up after half a century of nuclear power and weapons research was estimated at less than £10bn. Since then, Blair has overseen the creation of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, which has a budget of £70bn and rising. Most of this will fall to the taxpayer to pay.

Blair also warned, back then: "Radioactive waste is a major environmental problem and one for which we have no easy answer at present . . . When people learned that nuclear reactors must be left for 100 years before final decommissioning takes place, it provided them with a considerable education in the environmental implications of nuclear power."

Blair anticipated by 14 years the findings of an energy report published by his own policy research unit in 2002 and an energy white paper in 2003, both of which concluded that the best way to cut carbon emissions was energy efficiency.
(29 May 2006)

Has he done enough in 14 yrs?

 

[empip]

WEEE & Hazardous Waste
A report produced for DEFRA...Research continues into new types of lamps and reduction in mercury content.
Typical mercury content in the 1970s was about 100 mg/lamp, but developments reduced this to less than 20 mg/lamp in the 1990s and nowadays, the majority of fluorescent lamps contain less than 10 mg/lamp.
Note: the issue of mercury emissions to the environment have to be considered in life cycle terms.
This is because mercury is emitted during the generation of electricity from fossil fuels. Thus, the total emissions of mercury over the lifetime of a CFL plus the mercury content of the CFL are lower than if equivalent incandescent lamps are used over the same lifetime because CFLs are more energy efficient...