ENERGY EFFICIENCY

To offset the environmental costs arising from the use of light bulbs with low energy efficiency, the government introduced a fee through Decree-Law No. 108/2007, of April 12 (opens a new window).

According to the arrangement provided for in said Decree-Law, are charged all the bulbs with low energy efficiency traded or released into the national territory, being excluded from those for the export or intra dispatch.

The light bulbs with low energy efficiency are:

- Incandescent Lamp:
Lamp in the production of light and heat occurs when electric current travels a coiled filament of tungsten, contained in a glass ampoule containing an inert gas. They have low efficiency light, not surpassing the 15 Lm / W in lighting for general use. Only 5% of the electricity consumed is transformed into light, with the remaining 95% converted into heat. Their average length of life is a thousand hours.

- Mercury-vapor lamps at high pressure without metal iodides:
Discharge lamps of high intensity, that looks like white light blue and luminous efficiency up to 61 Lm / W, the powers ranging between 50 W and 1000 W. They are typically used in lighting of public roads and industrial areas.

- Tubular fluorescent lamps:
The fluorescent lamps emit light by passing electric current through a gas inside the tube. This gives almost the entire discharge, ultraviolet radiation which is invisible to the human eye and which in turn is converted into light by the fluorescent powder that covers the inner surface of the tube.

- Halogen lamps:
The halogen lamps operate in a manner similar to incandescent lamps, but they have been enhanced with the introduction of halogen gas, which, within the bulb, combine with particles of tungsten filament of disconnected. This combination, plus the current heat inside the lamp, causes the particles are deposited back in the filament, thereby creating the regenerative cycle of halogen. The result is a lamp with additional benefits when compared to incandescent, including: more white light, bright and uniform throughout its lifetime, higher efficiency, wide variety of forms, applications and the possibility of the issuance of guidance according to different light angles of opening, life between the two thousand and five ten hundred hours and smaller.

Lamps alternatives for high energy efficiency:

- Integrated CFLs:
It is a fluorescent lamp miniaturizada which is intended to replace the ordinary incandescent light bulbs. For them, their duration varies on average eight times more and convert about 25% of the energy they consume into visible light.
Much less heat and have longer service life, among the five the fifteen thousand and ten hundred hours. They are an alternative for greater efficiency and economy in interior lighting, replacing ordinary incandescent lamp.

- Sodium vapor lamp at high pressure:
Discharge lamps, high-intensity light with high efficiency up to 150 lm / W, long life and hence long intervals for replacement. In elipsóides and tubular versions, these lamps differ by the emission of light yellow and gold, suitable for lighting of where the reproduction of color is not an important factor. They are an alternative to mercury vapor lamp without iodides metal, allowing greater efficiency and economy in public lighting, but with lower quality of color reproduction.

The rate on the bulbs with low energy light bulbs focuses on the following:

- Incandescent light bulbs use of generic, without halogen, in any form or type of finish (clear, matte and Opaline), with fixtures E14, E27 and B22, power between 15 watts and 200 watts and operating voltage between 220 V and 240 V, which still included in fixtures.

- Mercury-vapor lamps of high pressure without iodides, usually used in urban and industrial lighting, with power of 50 W and 1000 W.

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