Fluorescent Tube Ban Sept 2023

[Mark Carver]

Just been to to TLC to purchase some comfort components, and noticed a poster saying Fluorescent Tubes will be banned from Sept 2023.

Presumably the sale, but after Googling there's suggestions that their use will also be banned from that date, but all the sources of that are from LED vendors.

Is that right, I seemed to have missed the news until today ?

My mother still has them in her kitchen and bathroom in her 1980s timewarp house, I was planning to swap them out for LED tubes this summer while there's lots of daylight available.

I suppose the next challenge will be disposal, so I'll get a move on !

[The Natural Philosopher]

Well they would say that. wouldn't they?

I don't see how their use rather than their sale, can be banned. That sort of draconian legislation is only met with in the EU...

[Andy Burns]

more likely the manufacture, than the sale.

AI search results

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[Mark Carver]

Yes, Quite

There might be nonsense ahead, when it comes to house surveys etc though ?

[The Natural Philosopher]

"RoHS stands for "Restriction of the use of Hazardous Substances". Specifically, it refers to the use of mercury in lamps. Mercury is considered a hazardous substance and its use in electrical or electronic equipment is prohibited. Until now, there were exemptions for T5 and T8 fluorescent lamps, compact fluorescent lamps and special purpose lamps. However, earlier this year, these exemptions, defined in Annex III, were amended. Accordingly, the *production* of many fluorescent lamps will be banned. Only for HPD lamps and special purpose lamps may be produced for another 3-5 years. "

"In addition, the ban refers to *production* of corresponding lamps. The use and also the sale or purchase of stock products *are still allowed*. The RoHS directives only provide for a so-called "phasing out" of non-sustainable light sources. "

So its the *production* that is banned, not the sale or use of the lights.

Which is fine. LED are in every way better. If you cant be arsed to convert when you tubes die, buy some spares NOW.

[Peter Johnson]

Fluorescent tubes are taken for recycling at the council tips in Leicester. I shouldn't imagine that they are alone in doing this.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Well yes. I am sure that any electrician will also telly you that he cant work on your property as it contains mercury lamps etc etc.

Remember when we were all told to switch to CFLs? Now they ban them. Remember when we were all told to switch to Diesels? Now they ban them.

There ought to be a word for 'planned obsolescence by legislation' Especially in German..

[Mark Carver]

All the residential area street lamps round here (in fact all over Hampshire) are CFLs (And useless)

[Mark Carver]

Same at mine, but that won't last forever.......

[John Walliker]

Our local dump (waste transfer site) has a container for collecting fluorescent lamps. A recycling company was fined a few years ago for exposing workers to hazardous levels of mercury vapour from processing such waste.

John

[The Natural Philosopher]

I wonder if the big mercury arc lamps are banned as well? Street lights always have been naffing useless.

[Colin Bignell]

I have far more than I am ever likely to nee in my lifetime, given that the only remaining fluorescent strip lights I have are in the garage, which I rarely need to go into at night, and the loft, where the period between my visits is usually measured in years.

[jkn]

Strangely enough, the garage and the loft were the *first* places I converted fluourescent lamps to LEDs!

[Theo]

"Legislation being brought forward this month will also include the removal of fluorescent lights from shelves from September 2023."

This one puzzles me:

"Today’s plans also include a ban from September on the sale of lighting fixtures with fixed bulbs that can’t be replaced – meaning the fixtures have to be thrown away. Fixtures such as these account for 100,000 tonnes of electrical waste every year – out of a total 1.5 million tonnes of electrical waste each year."

There's an awful lot of LED fixtures with the LED integrated into the unit - there's no 'bulb' to replace, and indeed it would be difficult to build the same form using a removable bulb. I wonder if that made it into legislation and how it's been defined.

Theo

[Robin]

The word "from" is ambiguous. I'm not affected (leaving aside 3 in the loft which will probably outlive me). But my poor understanding is the ban /starts/in Sept 2023 but is phased in. A lot more in Feb 2024. Some not until 2027.

And while the change is in legislation for "use" my (equally poor) understanding is that the ban actually bites on what can be marketed.

If you want to know if e.g. you can still buy a high pressure sodium (vapour) lamps for general lighting purposes in lamps with improved colour rendering index Ra >60 the answer may be at

[Alan Lee]

Oh yes. Car headlights. When that goes now, it isnt a £5.99 lamp that needs to be bought, but a new £320 headlight.

[Theo]

Yebbut... it's now a plastic dome containing a surface covered in LEDs, of various types. Maybe there's an ECU in there to flash them and whatnot, which you might keep when replacing, but I don't see us going back to a world with discrete bulbs you can swap at the side of the road.

Same goes for ceiling lights: those thin LED panels containing hundreds of COB LEDs, which are just that plus a bezel and a couple of PSU components. I don't see how you'd make that with a replacement 'bulb': the fitting *is* the bulb.

For domestic stuff there is an argument that light fittings should come with a standard connector, like a C5, figure-8 or something, so normal householders don't have to employ an electrician to swap such a light fitting over. But I don't see that proposed here.

Theo

[NY]

The problem is that existing fittings will need to be converted or totally replaced.

I need to get my arse in gear and go out and buy some more tubes while I can: one tube fell out of the fitting on the floor and smashed at one end (*) and two other tubes often fail to strike which may be tube or starter (**).

(*) Yes, I opened the garage door immediately and let the mercury vapour dissipate.

(**) I need to swap the starters round and see whether the problem moves with the starter or stays with the tube. But it's a faff having to get the step ladder up to the rafters, then collapse it, move it to another place and extend it again. I need to Just Do It ;-)

[NY]

Were you able to use the existing fittings with new/no starters, or did you need to buy new fittings as well? Do the LED "tubes" provide as much light?

[Max Demian]

How are they worse than CFLs, or are they going to be banned too? What about 2D lamps, which are electrically similar to tubes but just bent into a different shape?