Halogen on the Way Out

Halogen lights will no longer be available in Australia from 2020. The Council of Australian Governments (COAG), the forum chaired by the PM that manages matters of national significance, made the decision after a period of consultation with the lighting industry’s peak body, Lighting Council Australia. The Lighting Council’s CEO, Richard Mulcahy, said “we expect the halogen phase-out will set a date when halogen lamps can no longer be imported into Australia, while specifying a grandfathering period to deal with stock already in the country.”

Strong lobbying

The outcome was influenced by lobbying from the Lighting Council who were strongly of the opinion that original proposals from the Department of Environment and Energy “would have raised consumer prices and have seen job losses in one of Australia’s few remaining viable manufacturing industries.” The main objection to the early recommendations was the “additional $80 million worth of red tape” anticipated in complying with new regulations mandating minimum energy performance standards for LEDs.

Reasonable compromise

Richard Mulcahy said that the halogen phase-out “was a very reasonable compromise that will align Australian regulations with those applied overseas.” He explained further that “we expect there may be exemptions – for example for oven lights, which are required to operate in high temperature environments. [But] unless the particular product is subject to an exemption, we expect that halogen lamps will not be available on the retail market.”

Reduced energy use

The common goal in this process is a reduction in energy use. In case you didn’t know, LEDs are at least four times more efficient than halogen. The government estimates that the change will save Australian consumers $1.48 billion over ten years. Australians will no longer be able to choose halogen out of habit or because they consider the cost of upgrading to LED is too great. The reduction in energy use will benefit both the environment and all Australians.