Kiss incandescent light bulbs goodbye

Treasury has announced tax hikes on incandescent light bulbs while finance minister Enoch Godongwana delivered his budget speech on Wednesday.

It has proposed raising the incandescent light bulb levy from R15 to R20 per light bulb from 1 April 2024.

This is to encourage the uptake of light-emitting diode (LED) lamps and reduce electricity demand.

“This complements the phase-out of inefficient light bulbs and promotes compliance with the new energy efficiency standards published in May 2023 by the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition,” Treasury said.

Trade and industry minister Ebrahim Patel published the new regulations for light bulbs on 24 May 2023.

The first phase of the regulations kicks in this year on 24 May and essentially bans the sale of anything except LED lamps for general household electric lighting.

Although the regulations do not mention specific technologies, they set strict energy-efficiency standards that incandescent and fluorescent bulbs don’t meet.

Heliogen’s managing director for Africa, Grant Pattison, said last year that incandescent “globes” remain the best-selling light bulb in South Africa.

This is despite them being based on technology Thomas Edison invented almost 150 years ago.

“For some reason, the economics haven’t worked out such that people have stopped buying them,” Pattison said.

That’s despite LED lamps being around ten times more efficient than incandescent globes and longer lasting to boot.

Although they work out cheaper in the long term, the higher sticker price makes them less attractive to consumers.

Pattison said if the entire South Africa could switch immediately from less efficient incandescent and fluorescent light bulbs to LED lamps, it could prevent up to two stages of load-shedding.

Fluorescent bulbs — most of which will also not be efficient enough to comply with the regulations — include the tube lights in factories, offices, and kitchens around South Africa.

So-called “Energy Saver” compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) also use this technology.

Pattison said CFL technology is 25 years old and consumes twice as much electricity as LED lamps.

“They were the original ‘Energy Saver’ bulbs. If you walk into a store, you’ll still see them called ‘Energy Saver’ bulbs, and they’re by no means energy-saving bulbs at all [anymore],” he said.

The first phase of the new rules sets a minimum luminous efficacy of 90 lumens per watt (lm/W) for regular electric lamps. This kicks in on 24 May 2024.

This minimum efficiency may be reduced by up to 25% — to 67.5 lm/W — depending on whether lamps are directional, low-light, and colour-tuneable.

The second phase begins three years after publication and increases the minimum efficiency to 105 lm/W.

Lamps for heating, signalling, imaging, studio and special effects, aquariums, and UV lights are exempt from the regulations.

Battery-operated products like cellphones and other applications outside general household lighting are also exempt.

Those concerned that they will need to change their light fittings or connectors need not worry, Pattison assured.

“Fittings [like bayonet cap or screw-in] are a separate set of regulations. You can make LED bulbs with any fitting,” he said.

“I think it’s a lack of education and perhaps understanding that people haven’t switched by themselves. Therefore, I think it’s appropriate that the regulations step in.”

Light bulbs tested

MyBroadband previously compared various incandescent, fluorescent, and LED light bulbs commonly available in South Africa, testing their power draw and energy efficiency.

Our test results showed that the brightness and power specifications on the packaging of the bulbs we tested were accurate.

It illustrated how CFLs and incandescent lamps don’t currently meet South Africa’s new minimum efficiency standards.

The results also showed that some LED lamps would not meet the second-phase 105 lm/W specification when it kicks in on 24 May 2026.

The results of our tests are summarised in the table below.