The Hindu Business Line : Switch over to CFLs

Recently, I travelled to Matunga Gymkhana from Four Bungalows, Andheri (West), via the Western Express Highway, Bandra Kurla Complex area; I reached Matunga at around 6 p.m.

It seemed like Mumbai was celebrating Diwali. At least the brightly illuminated hoardings (although the sun had not set then) en route gave that impression!

A rough estimate put the number of hoardings at around 1,300, and each of them had 6-12 bulbs. And these bulbs are switched on one hour in advance, for it takes at least that much time for the light to turn fully bright. There are 1,326 hoardings on the left side of the road alone, and let us double the estimate on the whole stretch for our study.

Each hoarding has, on an average, six bulbs, some even 12 high-wattage bulbs. Thus we get about 15,780 bulbs adding up to 3,156 KW (at 280 watts a bulb) or 31.56 MW. If we calculate for the whole city, power consumption would be 320 MW.

A few months back, Maharashtra had banned illumination of hoardings in the evening and restricted the peak load for power consumption for lighting of these hoardings up to 10 p.m. This step was withdrawn due to some unexplained reasons.

Power crisis

At the same time, Virar does not have power for most part of the day, except for 4-5 hours. Pune also does not have adequate power. And Mumbai talks of creating an IFC in the city!

Most small restaurants, I noticed during my travel, were well illuminated using high-wattage, gas-filled bulbs. And many shops also used similar bulbs. There was a general feeling of festivity everywhere with no concern about the power crises we are facing.

At around 10.15 p.m. I found that many shops and restaurants were still open, with hardly any customers. Obviously the Shops and Establishment Act is not popular and has not been strictly enforced by the Municipal Corporation.

A sample count of the road lamps, lighting in factories, airports, and other establishments in Mumbai shows that about five million gas-filled lamps are used. If compact fluorescent lamps (CFL) are used, the power consumption in such areas will drop dramatically.

The cost of replacing the conventional lamps will be recovered in less than two months from the savings made in the power bill. The running cost of CFL is also low. The use of incandescent bulbs should be banned as has been done by many other countries, or the Government should at least bring about parity in the prices of CFL and incandescent devices. This parity will motivate domestic users to switch over to CFL.

Bulb-banning campaigns

The Delhi Government has banned the use of incandescent bulbs and electric geysers in all restaurants and eateries. Australia will officially make the switch away from incandescent bulbs, by phasing out inefficient lighting over the next three years.

Similar bulb-banning campaigns are gaining momentum in the UK and California, with CFL getting a thumbs-up. Although these lamps cost more upfront, these last four to 10 times longer and use only 20 per cent of the energy that incandescent bulbs need. Canada plans to ban incandescent bulbs from 2012 onwards.

The California Assembly has adopted a resolution to phase out incandescent bulbs.

And many other countries are planning to ban incandescent devices. Even big distributors of electrical goods have stopped stocking incandescent lamps. Hence, it is time our country woke up to the power crisis that we are facing, and make the switch over to CFLs.

It is time our Government and the people of the country woke up to the opportunity being lost every day!

(The author is a freelance writer.)

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