Random Thoughts of Chris Tilley

Listening to the radio yesterday they were talking about Ontario banning incandescent light bulbs and were asking the BC Government if they had any similar plans. The response was along the line of ‘our current conservation plans are sufficient for our needs’. I read into that, sufficient that we will have enough generating capacity and since this is BC were most of our power comes from Hydro there aren’t the global warming fears attached to it. However we are now a net importer of power and that power maybe tainted and the problem is everyone’s to start with so lets reduce, reduce, reduce and become an exporter again. Better for our economy and better for the environment.

A number of countries, provinces and states are either banning incandescent light bulbs or are moving towards a ban. They include Ontario, Australia, California, Connecticut, Nova Scotia, EU, Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands.

I wanted to know the effect of a ban on incandescent light bulbs in BC, Canada and the USA. I used the given number that Ontario has 87 million incandescent light bulbs and divided by the 2006 census. That worked out to 7 bulbs per person. Some of those would be in businesses. Using 7 bulbs per person and multiplying by the population.

British Colombia

28 Million Bulbs
115 Million Dollars per year saved
1.1 Million Tonnes of Carbon
1.9 Million MWh
216 MW Generating Capacity not required

Canada

221 Million Bulbs
908 Million Dollars per year saved
8.7 Million Tonnes of Carbon
15.1 Million MWh
1723 MW Generating Capacity not required

USA

2.1 Billion Bulbs
8.6 Billion Dollars per year saved
82.8 Million Tonnes of Carbon
144 Million MWh
16441 MW Generating Capacity not required

To put that in perspective here are some of the largest power plants (source Power Plants Around the World)

Write a letter to your local, State/Provincial, and federal representatives. The David Suzuki foundation has good recommendation for reaching Canadian Officials as well as good tips in general for getting your letter noticed. For the US Congress, Congress.org has a search box that will give you the contact information for all your representatives. Ask them to ban the bulb and point out to them the savings in dollars, Carbon and generating capacity.