October 22 is the International Day of Light. This day in 1879 Thomas Edison invented the electric light bulb. Back then it was a real technological revolution. However, today incandescent lamps seem to live out their remaining days. Using them is really uneconomical (experts have calculated that only illumination consumes about 20 percent of the whole electric energy in the world). That is why about 30 countries have already refused to use them and EU banned their production and importation.
Ecologists say that the age of Edison’s light bulb will finish in 2016. By that time national programs of using energy efficient lightning will be implemented in every country of the world, manager of the UNEP project Gustavo Manez Gomis declared recently.
The Ukrainian government is also trying to make Edison’s light bulb fall into oblivion. The Cabinet Council planned to completely switch to energy efficient lightning by 2014. However, today some initiatives have not even started yet, for instance, the ban to use powerful incandescent lamps. Back in 2008 the government banned using incandescent lamp with a capacity of 100 watt and more (except for light bulbs bought earlier) in state-financed organizations and municipal institutions. There is no similar ban for residents so far.
Ukraine’s potential in energy saving is very high. There are several rating agencies checking the amount of energy countries use, and Ukraine, unfortunately, is among the countries consuming the most electricity. We could easily consume at least a third less electric energy, experts assure. Thus experts at Philips opine that Ukrainians could save at least 80 percent on bills for electric energy is they replaced their old incandescence lamps with energy efficient ones.
On average, the lights are on eight hours a day. When using a usual 100 watt light bulb we consume 24 kilowatt hours a month; if we multiply this number by the tariff rate of 0.2802 hryvnias, we will find out that we pay 6.72 hryvnias a month for one light bulb.
Taking into account that there are several light bulbs in an apartment, for instance, four, we pay up to 27 hryvnias. Only for light bulbs. Let’s compare it with a 20 watt energy efficient light bulb. Consuming the same amount of electricity as in the first example we will have 4.8 kilowatt hours a month. Multiplying this by 0.2802 hryvnias we will get 1.34 hryvnias per month. In this case we will pay 5.37 hryvnias for four light bulbs. So, the approximate sum of money an average family could save every month is about 22 hryvnias per month, which makes 244 hryvnias per year.
However, the recent research demonstrated that even without these simple calculations Ukrainians are well-informed about energy efficient technologies and are actively implementing them in their everyday life. It should be noted that their motivation is not only economy, but ecological thinking as well. According to the research carried out by the company GfK Ukraine, 32 percent of Ukrainians think that “energy saving is not a financial issue but an ecological one.” So, nearly 36 percent of pollees answered that they mainly use energy efficient light bulbs at home. Other 46 percent of interrogated claimed to use both usual and energy efficient light bulbs. So, according to this research, nearly 80 percent of Ukrainian urban population use at least one energy efficient light bulb in their apartments. However, when presenting the results of the research, senior manager of the company GfK Ukraine Anastasia SHURENKOVA noted that it was a very optimistic result. The poll was carried out through the Internet, so researchers think that their data is based on the opinions of the best Ukrainians, those who have an active position in life. That is why, Shurenkova remarked, it is obvious that the general rate in the country might be slightly lower.
