Starting September 2009, the European countries will gradually ban incandescent light bulbs, a process that will be completed in September 2012. If my information is correct, Australia, New Zealand and California have taken similar steps.
The reason for this major operation is the wish to reduce electricity consumption; European Union officials have calculated the reduction to be 40 Terrawatts in 2020 (when the last bulb has burnt out).
Preceding this decision, European countries have "harmonized" their power grid voltages. For most countries this meant they sneakily increased their 220 volts to 230, with the exception of the UK where they went 10 volts down.
A simple "tomorrow we increase the voltage" was impossible for technical and political reasons: there would have been too many complaints about motors running hot, TV sets burning out and so on.
The reasoning was that doing it gradually over several years would spread the effects and by the time the operation was completed, most of the old equipment would have been replaced.
So far so good, but whenever I measure the grid voltage at my wall sockets, there is not the promised 230 volts but at least 240, sometimes almost 250 volts!
Supplying 250 volts to a fridge, air conditioner or dishwasher designed for 220 doesn't make it work any better. With luck is only consumes 18% more electricity, without luck the motor dies. Of course it also shortens the life expectancy of light bulbs and any heating equipment.
This practice has been going on completely unnoticed for years already. Your electricity bill is 10-20% higher than necessary and now all light bulbs have to be replaced with something made in China that radiates a nasty blueish light but should save electricity!
Have you ever tried to unscrew such an energy saver after it has been switched on for half an hour? You'll burn your fingers: both the glass
and the socket are scorching hot.
Well, it won't change anything, but I had to get that off my chest.
Regards,
CDK
