RIGHTLIGHT WEBSITE – A WINNER!

The Government’s launch of the RightLight Website www.rightlight.govt.nz is welcomed by the industry. It contains plenty of good, independently sourced, advice about good lighting practice for both the domestic and the business consumer. It is couched in terms the interested browser will comprehend and allows good decisions to be made before the purchaser buys the product.

The RightLight website follows in the footsteps of other sites such as Sorted, where the visitor can be confident that the advice given is from expert and – importantly - independent sources.

It is also being well supported with RightLight Brand advertising campaign on television and featuring in news and magazine style programmes on TV and Radio.

Lighting Council New Zealand believes this sort of activity by the Government provides a much better return for public money than the previous practice of subsidising low energy products at retail level. Subsidy programmes inevitably distort the natural market and are by their very nature unsustainable for any length of time. This leads to a regression when subsidies are removed with the resultant customer disaffection with the products concerned.

GLS LAMP LEGISLATION CHANGES

The National Government’s move to abandon plans to introduce legislation that would effectively ban the use of the common household lamp is disappointing, and flies in the face of internationally recognised good energy management practices. New Zealand is now out of step with its largest trading partner, Australia, which is continuing with plans to adopt similar legislation later this year.

It means that the household lamps presently available will continue to be so despite the fact that they are, in most circumstances, heavy consumers of electricity. The low efficiency of these lamps is such that that the equivalent performance of any other appliance would not be tolerated.

Nearly all developed countries have legislation in the pipeline that will, over the next few years, restrict or ban the use of GLS lamps, thereby reducing their country’s power costs. Some States in the USA already have such legislation in place, and are benefiting from the resultant reduction in electrical loadings on their electricity distribution networks and, just as importantly, household power accounts. Had the legislation stayed in place the New Zealand Government would have effectively removed the requirement for a medium sized power station on the North Island in the next few years, with all its attendant costs, both financial and environmental.

Major lamp manufacturers throughout the world are gearing up for increasing sales of the more efficient High Efficiency GLS Lamps (HE GLS) and Compact Fluorescent Lamps (CFLs) and reducing manufacturing capacity for the old style GLS Lamps. This is eventually going to have an impact on the availability and costs of quality GLS lamps, and could lead to the deterioration of the quality of lamps available in New Zealand.

Council believes the National Government’s decision to halt the progress of the legislation was short sighted and more politically motivated than it should have been under the present circumstances.

PRODUCT STEWARDSHIP

Lighting Council New Zealand is presently engaged along with other electrical industry groups and The Ministry for the Environment (MfE) in preparing proposals for life cycle management of lighting equipment. Our engagement has been focusing on the impending removal of low efficiency lamps (mainly household lamps from 25W/150W) from the market in October 2009 and their replacement with compact fluorescent (CFLi) lamps. This move is entirely in step with Australia, and many other developed countries are following a similar path in the near future. Other types of lamps will be affected in the next few years as the baseline efficacy level is ramped up to progressively eliminate the less efficient lamps.

Life cycle costing means exactly that, the process starts with the design of the product to ensure as many of the materials used in its construction as possible can be easily recycled, and that any hazardous substances used can also be easily contained during the recycling process. The process also allows for the cost of disposal or recycling, ensuring this falls either on the vendor or the user.

The European RoHS Legislation and WEEE Directives on these matters strongly indicate the path along which NZ and other countries are starting to move.

For further information please contact us at:-

info@lightingcouncil.org.nz

Or to learn more about lamp recycling visit:-

Priority Hazardous Wastes
Product Stewardship
Hints On Recycling
Recycle Your Lamps