Doutbless I have blogged on the subject before, but this morning I was reading the Ikea newsletter where on page 37 I read: “Consigli Ecologici” the article comments on the savings made by installing thermal windows, throwing out your old machines and substituting them for new ‘A’ class domestic white goods, recycling used drinks tins, and repairing dripping taps.
Now I can go with the dripping taps bit. One of our water sources here at Bellaugello Gay Guest House in the beautiful Umbrian countryside in central Italy is our own spring. Water oozes out of the ground just above a layer of clay. Last year we spent considerable time devising a system for collecting this water which now enters a settling tank before being pumped up the hill behind the main guest house to descend by gravity and be used for watering the garden, flushing the toilets and feeding the washing machines. Yes water is precious and I assidiously close taps. Repairing a dripping tap costs nothing and saves buckets and on the whole I do have a sensible ecological policy here at Bellaugello Gay B&B.
However I read a bit further on in the Ikea newsletter that “Da agosto, prima di quanto previsto dalle legge, IKEA non verdera piu lampadine a incandescenza.” From august earlier than required by law IKEA will no longer sell incandescent lamps. and that makes me see red.
How dare the law prohibit us from using the good old fashioned incandescent lightbulb? I have a wonderful antique French chandelier in my sitting room and it uses the particularly small (and frighteningly expensive) E27 lighbulbs which sit in artificial candles, no longer will they be available. How am I suposed to put ‘lampade fluorescenti compatte’ in my chandelier? Have you seen just how large they are and all that electrical gizmo in the base, yeah will look really great.
Will somebody just tell me this; Why are the public letting themselves into being deceived that by installing these ‘low energy lamps’ as we are being forced to do is in anyway saving energy or being ecological.
These lamps are fluorescent tubes and require complicated starter motors and sophisticated electronics to get them to light. Do not tell me that these parts do not cost, have environmental impact, are all resourced from everywhere on the planet and thus unlike a Coca Cola tin not shipped five times round the world at great environmental impact.
Some international company is making a fortune out of selling these. How did they convince the EU to outlaw the competition? It strikes me as unjust.
They weigh more than conventional incandecent bulbs so must have a phenomenal transport and logistical impact and they do not last. Heed my advice buy all the incandescent lightbulbs you can before they disappear, in the long run they are the environmentally friendly alternative, I still have some burning merrily after twenty years continious use and house moves across continets and just think of the ‘Hall of Mirrors in the Palace of Versailles’ lit by fluorescent lightbulbs…….