Are we done yet? An assessment of the remaining barriers to increasing compact fluorescent lamp installations and recommended program strategies for reducing them

Tami Rasmussen and Jennifer Canseco, KEMA Inc., Sustainable Market Strategies Group, U.S.A.
Rob Rubin, San Diego Gas & Electric Company, U.S.A.
Anu Teja, Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance, U.S.A.

Keywords

compact fluorescent lamp, residential lighting, market transformation, market barriers, saturation, technical potential

Abstract

Residential energy efficiency lighting programs in active regions of the United States have been successful in dramatically increasing compact fluorescent lamp (CFL) purchases over the last decade – where currently a majority of households have one or more CFLs installed. However, in these regions CFLs are used in less than 10 percent of residential lamp sockets, and much untapped energy savings potential remains.

Consumers in these active regions with CFLs already installed could expand their existing CFL installations by a factor of five. The reasons that they are not doing so include waiting for incandescent bulbs to burn out, issues with CFL performance, the need for specialty CFLs (which are expensive and not widely available) and the higher cost of CFLs.

Programs in these active regions should consider the following recommendations for increasing CFL installations: encourage consumers to retrofit more CFLs and not to wait for incandescent bulbs to burn out; track and address CFL performance issues for the range of CFL products; broaden program strategies to address specialty CFLs; expand incentives to year-round and to more stores and products; and track market barriers at both the household and lamp socket level.

In regions of the United States or countries with emerging residential CFL programs, program planners should consider the following recommendations: research the lighting market and introduce program strategies within existing market channels; focus first on the most basic style of CFLs that are designed to replace standard incandescent bulbs and move to specialty CFLs later; and track and monitor product quality from program inception.