1. English Google translated: http://translate.google.co.il/translate?sl=iw&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=iw&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ynet.co.il%2Farticles%2F0%2C7340%2CL-4187499%2C00.html
2. Original hebrew untranslated: http://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-4187499,00.html

 man that means you losing bulbs fast off the market, is this eco (...). some people will go nuts
 It like one of your freedom to use incadescent taken away.    is there there electrical energy shortage?
i would say this complete ban on incadescent is nonsense.

Yes. Most of the CFLs today in Israel are of generic brands and not from manufacturers.
They wants also to force consumers to replace their old refrigerators, air conditioners, TVs and home appliances to new "more energy efficient ones", which, of course, willn't last for long and often will be defect directly from the manufacture.
They promotes Samsung and LG refrigerators that are all made in China and are of very low building quality, and have a very short life, because of their unnecessary electronics and Samsung crap LED panel inside their refrigerators and too much formidables sizes and unnecessary features.
I think that Amcor was and still is the best home refrigerator in Israel, because it is made in Israel and it is all mechanic and isn't offered in formidable sizes and bottom freezer at all.
All Amcor refrigerators are available only with 500 and 550 litre capacity and with a top freezer only, and not the "Trio" three doors style and without a water device and a digital display: Only a simple mechanical controling like the old refrigerators, but with a 4 minutes compressor delay.

Well there go our rights as consumers. I am all for saving energy (less money to pay in utilities ) but I don't need someone else telling me what to do.  LET PEOPLE DECIDE FOR THEMSELVES!

man that means you losing bulbs fast off the market, is this eco (...). some people will go nuts

Speaking of "(...)", the democracy and politics in Israel is so corrupted. We had experienced several anti-democracy rules.

So you are forced to use CFLs in the utility cupboard, bathroom, shower, sheds and outhouses which all tend to have short switching cycles and often enclosed fittings, resulting in an expensive, environmentally unfriendly lamp full of different (unrecyclable) materials being used in a position which will invariably kill it much faster than an incandescent lamp?

That's not communism, it's a dictatorship!

Absolute madness!  


BG

BG101: Yes. This is true.

This act (i'd call it an ACT rather than law, like the dangerously invasive anti-terrorism ACTs in America) is one of emergency steps the government is taking as result of last year's electricity crysis, where generators had to be powered up



I. for one, would suggest other ways :

Make the electricity costs go up non-linearly with usage. So that, over certain amount of KWh / 2 months (the electric company is billing every 2 months here) you pay 1.5X, over certain amount 2X, etc (considerations are different for homes, factories etc). This won't affect the ones who use electricity efficiently in every area, but force the ones that waste to reconsider their use

Switch off selectively lighting in streets - most streets are over illuminated at several times more than is actually needed

Suggest change in work hours for institutions where applicable, such as breaking up the work day to parts. This will change the time when people come home and power up the A/C, water heater etc. all at the same time and create overloads

"Dimming" the voltage from 230-240V to 210-220V. This will theoretically save 15% power for all resistive loads (in fact much less power will be saved since the heaters with thermostats will work for longer duty cycle, but it will save on those who power thir water heaters "for 1 hour" before taking a shower)

Also if TV's are such an issue that bans are considered, get the local TV stations to move the high rated shows to a different time which will be off-peak, or to VOD-only (and access to this show on VOD without extra cost). Same for news etc



And also, the project of fridge replacement is a scam. They say that changing an "average size" (~480L) fridge will save up to 600 NIS in a year in electrecity costs, and that the freon in it is harmfull to the environment

I measured how much our 20 year old 420L Tadiran fridge takes. Guess what? Power (stated on back label) * duty cycle (measured with a clock wired to the thermostat) * 365.25 * 24 * electricity rates = about 215 NIS in a year altogether. Now factor min that the new fridge would take some power as well

The freon in the fridge is in a sealed system - it makes no harm as long as it is there. It makes no sense to replace a fridge due to it containing freon - if it fails and you have to replace the compressor, then would be the time to reclaim the freon from it - at no more harm to the environment than reclaiming the freon at any other time

The new fridges suggested are some new fridges which are known to have failures (guess with what ? Right the smart electronic controls) would never compete with this Tadiran in reliability - no single failure with it from when it was bought in the very beginning of the 90's and permanently plugged in ever since