Old light bulbs could leave homeowners in the dark

19 June 2008

Banning ‘old’ light bulbs could leave homeowners in the dark

A Kiwi lighting engineer says the Government’s move to ban old style incandescent light bulbs in favour of new energy efficient lighting could leave Kiwi homes owners in the dark.

John Heimgartner’s New Zealand owned lighting company, Gartner Superlux, designs and manufactures a range of lighting products at its Mangere Bridge factory in Auckland. He warns that putting energy saving light bulbs into old style fittings creates frustrating dark spots and produces less effective lighting.

Mr Heimgartner says most homeowners respond to this problem by installing higher wattage energy efficient bulbs, but these not only make the dark spot worse, they use more energy, defeating the original purpose.

Mr Heimgartner says, “Both the Government and homeowners need to understand that installing energy efficient bulbs is only half the story. The bulbs need to be matched up with purpose designed downlight fittings. A 15 watt energy efficient light bulb will produce a 41% gain in light output in a purpose designed fitting when compared to a standard incandescent fitting.”

Superlux has designed and manufactured the most effective downlight fitting available in New Zealand that is purpose built for energy efficient light bulbs. The Superlux SD125F not only improves the performance of energy efficient bulbs, it looks good in modern homes because it’s been created to accommodate the design of energy efficient bulbs.

The SD125F is comparable in price to old style downlight fittings and available through electricians or from specialist electrical outlets across New Zealand such as J.A.Russell, Powerbase, Cory’s Electrical; Ideal Electrical Suppliers; Mastertrade; and Rexel New Zealand.

“While we understand that many home owners won’t want to go to the expense of refitting a house-lot of down lights, they could consider replacing the fittings in high use areas.”

“Anyone considering a new build, whether it’s residential or commercial, should ensure their builder, architect or specifier has included purpose designed fittings for energy saver lamps in their plans.”

ENDS

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