I do not know about the situation in Germany but given the active and vocal
environmental movement in that Country.....

I can however say that in the UK the Electricity Companies sell domestic
customers low energy compact fluorescents at subsidised prices.

I know at one time in Denmark an electricity company there was giving these
bulbs away. The reason was pure economics. The Electricity Company made more
profits by giving away these light bulbs and reducing power consumption. The
calculations were simple, if each household used an energy saving bulb
instead of a conventional one then the power saved meant that they didn't
have to construct another power station to meet the projected demand. With
all the environmental and planning hurdles to overcome, building a New Power
Station is an expensive and protracted process, those costs have to be
recovered which means you have to increase the price to the customer or
reduce your profit margins. Or you reduce demand with a small hit on your
bottom line (even that can be absorbed as part of an advertising campaign
letting everyone know what you are doing to help the environment) Net
result, No investment in a Power Station giving bigger profits on a reduced
turnover and you have a nice green image.

Chris Carr


> Tom,
>         I understand your point of keeping the wasted heat down. Who
> wants to pay twice for inefficiency?
>
>         But your point of the power co's offering coupons for free
> fluorescent bulbs tweaked something that has been bothering me for
> some time.
>
> < caution long rant >
>
>         I was in Germany about a year ago, and a store there was
> selling compact fluorescent bulbs for iirc around 8 DM ($ 6 CND,
> $4.50 US). Since it seemed to be the type of consumer store that
> sells excess inventory, I'm not sure if these were normal prices or
> deeply discounted ones.
>
>         If this was the normal price then either this product was
> being subsidized, or bulb suppliers in Canada/US are gouging us.
> Since here, in Canada, similar bulbs are being sold for $11 - $13
> CND, or about twice as much. I'd be interested to hear from someone
> who has more insight into the true situation in Germany. These were
> manufactured by Kess in Essen.
>
>         Since compact flourescents are so much easier on the
> environment why does the government not step in and provide an
> incentive to the consumer to buy or the manufacturer to supply these
> by providing subsidizes to lower the cost to the consumer. I feel the
> market for these is suffering from the chicken and egg thing. No one
> wants to buy at the present price, so manufacturers don't want to
> build massive quantities because no one wants to buy them at their
> present price etc. etc. etc....  So the subsidizes can be seen as a,
> temporary, priming the pump, sort of scenario to be removed once more
> bulbs are bought and they become cheaper to mass produce.
>
>         Why does it take a crisis to have people, who are in a
> position to do something about it, focus on a solution? Surely the
> value of saving energy exists before the crisis, perhaps even helping
> to avoid the crisis in the first place.
>
> < /caution long rant >
>
>         Now for the [EE] portion; It was interesting that these bulbs
> had a standard N/A (I'm not sure about Mexico) base, and that they
> would work at 120 VAC, but I'm sure this over stresses some of "the
> small parts". I haven't used it a lot. But it does seem to make a
> good portable garage light (trouble light) since it doesn't have a
> filament to break.
>
>
> Heinz
>
>
> At 5:41 PM -0700 7/3/01, Tom Handley wrote:
> >    Olin, due to the power crisis here in the West, the two local
> >Portland, OR power companies are giving away coupons for free
> >compact flourescent bulbs. I've been using them for quite awhile
> >to not only cut down energy and get longer life, but to keep the
> >wasted heat down during the hot summer nights.
> >
> >    - Tom
>
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