All Thai govt organizations to use LED light bulbs in five years

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All govt organizations to use LED light bulbs in five years

BANGKOK, 2 July 2015 (NNT)-In an effort to cut energy cost, the Ministry of Energy is determined for all government organizations to replace the 3 million light bulbs now in use with LED ones within 5-6 years' time.

According to Energy Minister Narongchai Akaraserani, around 10% of government buildings nationwide have already installed LED light bulbs in their offices.

He added that around 450,000 regular light bulbs will be replaced this year. The Ministry of Energy will spend 2 billion baht on replacing the remaining 3 million regular light bulbs with LED over the next 5 -6 years.

The Ministry will also encourage private organizations to follow suit, enticing them with financial support from the Ministry in the beginning.

Even though LED bulbs are twice as expensive as fluorescent ones, they last as much as 10 to 15 times longer; besides, they require only half as much electricity, Mr. Naronghchai said.


-- NNT 2015-07-02

[Crossy]

We just had LED street lights installed in the village to replace the ancient and marginally functional fluorescent jobbies. Very nice they are too, when they are actually turned on (seems to require a special occasion).

I seem to remember at least 2 years ago Swampy were going to replace those awful halogen up-lighters with LED fittings, nothing has occurred

[Anthony5]

On the new highway stretch into Pattaya a lot of LED road signs have been installed in the past year. Most of them not functioning anymore, others have the solar cell nicked, but it is clear that they buy the cheapest Chinese crap available.

[thhMan]

The issue is....

How many Thais does it take to screw in a lightbulb

Seems that things sometimes dont get done, so that question may never get answered

[EnglishJohn]

Mr. Naronghchai should try a few himself before making such statements.

I have them all around my house (maybe 40 bulbs) and one or two blow every week. The problem is that the LED's are all in series so if one goes, the whole bulb goes.

It's easy to use a broken one to fix others as they go (if you have the equipment) but I get nothing like the life they claim from new.

Maybe they work forever with a perfect power supply, but it seems they can easily pop with the rough and ready type we get in Thailand.

[Jimbo1964]

The good LED light bulbs do last for ages without any hassle but the market is flooded with cheap Chinese crap. So you get what you pay for and knowing Thailand's purchasing people they will probably go for cheap as Anthony5 says.

[attrayant]

I teach about LED versus fluorescent & incandescent in one of my science lectures. Last year the students chose that topic to base their class project on. They did an analysis of one building of my campus and showed a return on investment after, I think it was three or four years. The presentation never even made it to the director - when the assistant found out how much one fixture cost, she said "too expensive!" and that was the end of that. They'd rather hang ugly fluorescent tubes overhead that burn up twice the energy.

[ChrisY1]

I guess now there'll be a major government purchase of x thousands of bulbs....all at highly inflated prices......

[Prbkk]

I guess now there'll be a major government purchase of x thousands of bulbs....all at highly inflated prices......

That microphone company might be a supplier of LED

[Barin]

I teach about LED versus fluorescent & incandescent in one of my science lectures. Last year the students chose that topic to base their class project on. They did an analysis of one building of my campus and showed a return on investment after, I think it was three or four years. The presentation never even made it to the director - when the assistant found out how much one fixture cost, she said "too expensive!" and that was the end of that. They'd rather hang ugly fluorescent tubes overhead that burn up twice the energy.

Expensive is not the only disadvantage of LED bulbs.

Unfortunately at present they are not available in the same brightness range as incandescent bulbs or fluorescent tubes.

The technology will certainly be improved in 5 years time.

At present in the shop area to produce the best luminance only the fluorescent tubes are the best choice (still the best balance of efficiency and price).

[Barin]

I teach about LED versus fluorescent & incandescent in one of my science lectures. Last year the students chose that topic to base their class project on. They did an analysis of one building of my campus and showed a return on investment after, I think it was three or four years. The presentation never even made it to the director - when the assistant found out how much one fixture cost, she said "too expensive!" and that was the end of that. They'd rather hang ugly fluorescent tubes overhead that burn up twice the energy.

Expensive is not the only disadvantage of LED bulbs.

Unfortunately at present they are not available in the same brightness range as incandescent bulbs or fluorescent tubes.

The technology will certainly be improved in 5 years time.

At present in the shop area to produce the best luminance only the fluorescent tubes are the best choice (still the best balance of efficiency and price).

A small correction:

Unfortunately at present they are not available in the same brightness range as energy saving bulbs or fluorescent tubes.

[Barin]

Taking into account the current efficiency of the LED bulbs (there are also LED tubes available) and their current price we can say that they are heavily overpriced at present.

Hopefully the price will go down considerably in 5 years.

[attrayant]

Luminosity wise, fluorescent tubes are omnidirectional and not all of that 1000 (roughly for a 20 watt tube) lumens hits the work area. 20 watt tubes go for around 50 baht in my local mom & pop shops, but I don't know what they quality of those tubes is. That puts an equivalent well-made LED downlight at about 8-10 times the price. If a fluorescent tube needs to be replaced once a year (generous), the LED downlight wins in cost alone and that's not even considering power consumption savings. The LEDs inside are not hard to replace, and individual surface-mounted LEDs are pretty cheap. I have a bag of 50 that I got for 200 baht. I bought them thinking I'd be replacing one at least once in a while, but it has been two years now and I haven't needed to replace any.

Additional savings can be realized by doing things like having a centralized DC supply instead of each light wired to its own mini-power supply. Yes it's definitely an investment, but over time it will almost certainly pay off. Let's just hope they've done a cost benefit analysis and choose well-made units.

[Reigntax]

The can install as many lights and whatever type they desire but they will still remain in the dark.