Europe says goodbye to 60-W bulbs

In Europe, this month marks the initiation of something called the Stage 3 ecodesign requirements. In plain English, it means that conventional 60-W incandescent bulbs no longer meet the energy efficiency standards for light sources in Europe and thus can no longer be sold.

Last September, it was 75-W bulbs that were eliminated; 100-W bulbs went off the list the year before. Now, clear bulbs rated at 60-W or above sold in Europe must have an energy-label class of C or above where A is the highest, G is the lowest. This effectively means halogen lamps are the only incandescent technology that will meet the new regulations.

Next September, other regulations kick in that require all clear lamps at all wattage levels to hit class C or above. Frosted lamps (known as pearl lamps in Europe) have had to be class A since Sept. 2009. Effectively, that has meant they had to be fluorescent or LED technology.

Regulations in Europe now apply only to non-directional lamps. Future versions will cover directional lamps.

More details are on the EU lightbulb site: http://ec.europa.eu/energy/lumen/professional/index_en.htm

The site laying out the requirements is here: http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2009:076:0003:01:EN:HTML