There is nonsense and there’s nonsense - but the recent trend across Australia, Europe and the USA to ban the bulb is just plain nonsense. At least from my point of view. Rubbish.

First of all it the bulb ban hurts, when you look at it from a design point of view. An almost perfect object, form and fuction going along hand in hand, few cheap resources needed, cheap and easy in production, an easy player when it comes to recycling: some glas, some metal, something isolating in between - nothing much to fuzz about.The official reason for the ban of the bulb is actually its greatest unexpected advantage: light and warmth where you need it - when you need it - both at the same time - instantly. When the family gathers for dinner, the dinner table lamp is switched on, the bulb instantly emits light and warmth. Just like is ancient times, when the clan gathered around the fire place.And hat are we beeing offered instead? Supposedly more efficient, effective, but cold neon light bulbs, packed with semi-hightec components — an over-prized piece of hazardous waste!

Basically I have nothing against neon light - for every task one should always look for the best solution - and there are many tasks neon is currently probably the best choice: hospital corridors, construction sites, street lights — all situations where you just need flat and cold light and emission of heat is not really helping - and therefore a plain waste of energy.

At this point I should probably mention that I don’t need to have bulbs everywhere either - actually where I live we have mostly neon bulbs - sinces ages. But once we have a lamp embracing the bulb, we would of course want to use a bulb. Because good/intelligent design is more important than bad/stupid laws.

see also: Heatball:
www.heatball.de

Bulp Fiction:
www.bulbfiction-derfilm.com (german)

The Phoebus Cartel:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoebus_cartel

The Centennial Bulb:
www.centennialbulb.org