Our favourite ever US President, albeit from a very short list, talks about increased rules for lighting efficiency:
Now I know light bulbs may not seem sexy,” Mr. Obama said, “but this simple action holds enormous promise because 7 percent of all the energy consumed in America is used to light our homes and our businesses.”
The new rule, scheduled to take effect in 2012, will cut the amount of electricity used by affected lamps by 15 to 25 percent
We believe this will be the biggest efficiency savings from any appliance standard ever,” said Steven Nadel, executive director of the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, an advocacy organization.
Putting in something as un-sexy as lower energy bulbs, does more than only annoy Daily Mail readers, something we find valuable in itself. It saves money obviously, and carbon. But reducing electricity use for lighting, which we predict will be far deeper and faster than most realise, will also have an impact across the electricity generation sector, which will put further downward pressure on gas prices.
How far will lighting spend drop? By 2020, we think there is promise through any number of research avenues to make new lighting technology that makes energy use so cheap as to possibly not be worth the effort of metering it. An example of how wide the research net has been pushed, is how it's not just about engineers or physicists but also even chemists:
A single molecule that reliably emits white light could speed the development of low-energy LEDs for the next generation of light sources and displays, say chemists
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