Page 1

By 2010 Australian shops will no

longer sell standard (incandescent
)
lightbulbs. People will be forced
to
switch to compact fluorescent
gas emissions by 800,000 tonnes lamps (CFLs) …even though they
a year. This is like switching off cost more to buy.
a big coal-fired power station Why? Standard bulbs are very
for 2 whole months. inefficient. Most (95%) of the
energy carried by the electricity is
transferred as heat – not light!
Australian Energy-saving CFLs are five times
Environment more efficient.
Minister

Did Australia get there first? No! The

governments of Cuba, Venezuela and
Belize gave out millions of free energy-
saving lightbulbs back in 2005.

How much energy – and cash can YOU save?

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How do lightbulbs work?

Electricity flows through the mercury vapour.

The mercury atoms give out ultraviolet light.
The tungsten filament is 2 metres 1 Glass bulb This makes the tube's coating fluoresce, or glow
long and very thin. It has a high
brightly.
resistance. When an electric
current flows through the 2 Argon gas
filament, energy carried Efficiency: about 20%
by the electricity is
transferred to the
surroundings as heat 3 Tungsten filament
and light. The filament
reaches 2,200˚C! 1 Glass – inside surface
covered with phosphor
Efficiency: about 5% 4 Contact wires coating
Who invented the lightbulb?
Humphrey Davy had a
creative bright idea in 1801.
He passed electricity through
platinum strips to make them 5 Electrical contact 2 Inside the glass
glow. But the strips got so hot is mercury vapour
they evaporated… and argon gas
Later, Thomas Edison led a team of
scientists. They worked really hard and
tested thousands of filament materials.
By trial and error they found the best:
carbonized bamboo. Their light bulb
lasted more than 1,200 hours.

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 Page 3

How much energy – and cash can YOU save?

My kids want to
chuck out the
lightbulbs... 100W
they reckon 40W
40W
energy-saving Bathroom
ones will save Bedroom 2 Bedroom 1
us ££££s...

Kitchen Living room

Hall

100W 60W 60W

Do the calculations in the table on page 4.

Then work out:
– How much money will the family save in a year?
– How much energy (in kWh) will the family save in a year?
– How much less CO2 will go into the atmosphere in a year?
(Generating 10kWh of electricity produces about 4 kg of CO2)
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 Page 4

How much energy – and cash can YOU save?

A B C D E F
Power of old Power of new Power saved How long is Energy saved Money saved
light bulb energy-saving (watts) the light on in each week each week
(watts) fluorescent A–B a week? (kilowatt (pence)
light bulb (hours) hours) E × 8p
(watts) C × D/1000

Kitchen 100 20

Living room 60 11

Hall

Bathroom

Bedroom 1 40 9

Bedroom 2

Total
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 Page 5

But what about the cost of buying energy-saving bulbs?

OK. So energy- F
saving light bulbs Table A
will cut down our Standard lightbulb cost
Cost of replacement
electricity bills. energy-saving lightbulb

But they're 40W 47p 9W £2.92

expensive to buy. 60W 45p 11W £2.94
Will we really
save money? 100W 21p 20W £2.95

Use the information in Table A to help you fill in Table B

Table B
Difference in price
Average saving on
Energy-saving between energy- Pay-back time
saving bulb and electricity bill per
lightbulb
standard bulb week

40W £2.92
5.2p
60W £2.94
8.2p
100W £2.95
13.2p
© Science UPD8 at www.upd8.org.uk