Philips promotes use of CFL lamps

CEBU, Philippines - To support the government’s aim to encourage energy efficiency practices, Philips Philippines promotes the use of the compact fluorescent lamps (CFL) instead of the incandescent bulb.

Philips Lighting chief executive officer and general manager Rico Gonzales however, said that the company has not set a timeline yet as to when it will stop manufacturing incandescent bulb.

He said the Philippine market still has to be educated about the benefits of shifting from using the seemingly cost-efficient incandescent lamps to CFL.

Gonzales, together with Philips Philippines officials, was in Cebu Thursday to officially turnover to the City of Talisay its donation of P50,000 worth of CFL lights to public market vendors, in order to introduce the usage of CFL that can slash energy consumption of at least 80 percent.

This Dutch lighting brand—Philips, is now roaming around the country in partnership with the Local Government Unit (LGU) to promote the usage of CFL, starting with the heavy users like the public market vendors.

According to Gonzales, phasing out the incandescent bulb today will be very difficult as the demand is still there, as this is sold affordably to as low as P20 per bulb, while the CFL is sold at P99.

“It is hard to pull out the availability of incandescent bulb immediately, the demand is still there, and we might lose the opportunity. But, we are on our continuous effort to discourage the market in using incandescent,” Gonzales said adding that as this early, the market still not ready to shift totally to using CFL.

However, Philips through its educational campaign, emphasized the long term benefit for utilizing CFL, as it can last to at least 6,000 to 8,000 hours, while incandescent although low in price, can only last for 1,000 hours.

In Europe, on the other hand, Gonzales said there is a move to totally phase-out the availability of incandescent bulbs by 2012. In the Philippines, however, Gonzales said the company still on the educating the market, as well as working closely with the government.

According to Gonzales, Philips will pioneer a nationwide campaign in promoting the use of CFL, not only to save people from paying high electricity bills, but also to promote energy-efficiency which is now becoming a “universal” trend.

After the CFL, the market will be educated to the use of LED (light emitting diode), which is the future of lighting system, Gonzales said.

At present through, the market still has to be gradually introduced to newer energy-saving technology such as CFL, as the cost of CFL products in the future is expected to drop as the demand strengthens.

Philips already has introduced several energy-saving lighting products, those that are tagged with “yellow label” duly registered by the Department of Energy (DOE).

Aside from its manufacturing plant in Netherlands, and other countries in Europe, Philips also maintains plants in some countries in Asia, such as Thailand, India, Indonesia, China and Singapore.

Soon, the ASEAN plus three countries, Korea, Japan and China, will set its own “Energy Efficiency Protocol”, setting a unified standard for all appliances and lighting manufacturers in making quality and authentic energy-saving devices.