Fluorescent Lighting + Rare Earth Supply

From Craig DiLouie’s article on fluorescent lighting in the November issue of Electrical Contractor magazine:

Now, let’s address the rare earth crisis, which has shifted manufacturer investment and user demand from value-added to basic, lower cost products in some markets.

Energy-efficient, high-color-rendering, linear fluorescent lamps use five rare earth phosphors that, for a period of time, were mined almost exclusively in China. To feed the growing appetite for these materials to its domestic industry, China instituted a policy of limiting exports, resulting in a series of dramatic lamp price increases in recent years.

Although new sources of supply are being developed outside of China, several key materials will remain at risk for the near future, resulting in cost uncertainty for fluorescent lamps.

The result is a shift in focus by manufacturers to reducing cost both internally and externally to the consumer. One short-term option is to use 700-series (lower color rendering) T8 lamps in applications where color is less important.

These lamps were to be eliminated as part of the July lamp regulations, but the major manufacturers were granted an extension to July 14, 2014. As these lamps use 30 percent of the rare earth content as higher color-rendering 800-series lamps, they provide a lower cost. Another sensible option is to use long-life lamps.

Extended-life T8 and T5HO options offer up to 55,000 to 60,000 hours of service life. One new product, the Sequoia T8 by Kumho Electric, is rated at 75,000 hours on a programmed-start ballast at three hours per start.

As the light-emitting diode continues its encroachment into applications dominated by fluorescent lighting, it’s clear that fluorescent will not go away quietly.

EleBlog take: That makes THREE bans on various forms of lighting in 2014:

• Incandescent 60W light bulbs

• New ballast energy standards, as reported earlier

• End of the 700-series T8 extension, as noted above.

Source: http://electricalcontractor.com/?p=7122

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