New Delhi: The common yellow bulb of Indian household will soon loose its luster. Modern day LEDs (Light Emitting Diodes) will soon replace them everywhere.
This year the production of 100-watt incandescent bulbs will be stopped. By 2016, the 60-watt bulbs will be out of manufacturer's list and by 2017 the last 40-watt ones.
According to Sunil Sikka, president of the 68-company Electric Lamp & Component Manufacturers Association (ELCOMA), India still has around 700 million incandescent or Edison bulbs in use. Out of the Rs12000-crore lighting business only 1780 crore goes into manufacturing and supply of LED bulbs.
According to experts, the old-fashioned lighting system will be completely out of sight by 2020. In the last two years, its demand has been constant. However, the bigger concern for all is to push it in the lower-income group which cannot afford the costlier lighting option.
Currently, the difference in the rate of two bulbs is huge – a 60-watt tungsten bulb costs Rs 10 while a 5-watt LED bulb costs Rs 350-400 which is too high a cost for a decent household to afford at oen time. Although the benefits of the latter are far higher but the immediate cost factor does not allow the lower strata to go for the contemporary option. For them, the only attraction towards LED is that it should impact the electricity bills.
Hence the government has come out with a plan for the same. Under the Prime Minster NArendra Modi's scheme of Domestic Efficient Lighting Programme (DELP), government will install LED bulbs in 100 districts every year. Each household will be provided with two LED bulbs at the cost of Rs 10 which is similar to the cost of a 60-watt bulb and to incur the remaining extra cost, a monthly charge of Rs 10 will be added to household power bills for a year.
This is also expected that in the forthcoming years, the prices of the LED bulbs will fall sharply. NTL Lemnis Chief Marketing Officer, Sandip Singh quoted in a statement to Economic Times, “In past one year, prices have tumbled 30-40%, which is unusual and this downward curve will continue in the years to come.”
Ajay Mathur, chief of Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) told ET, “"We have just finished the third tender for 30 lakh bulbs and the price has fallen to Rs 149. We're now in the same range as CFLs. This is the wholesale price. With the price coming down for the retail consumer, we (BEE) need to provide some degree of confidence that it is worth it," he said.
Reportedly, Government has placed a massive order of LED bulbs for 100 cities recently under the DELP or ‘prakash path' scheme. The initiative is being taken to conserve power on large-scale and with the replacement of tungsten bulbs with the energy-efficient one will amount to a huge energy conservation across the country.
Currently, the tungsten bulb manufacturing is already out from the countries like China Brazil and Venezuela.
