Energy-saving lamps are on everyone's lips these days, after presidential candidate Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi referred to their possible role in easing the country's energy crisis in interviews. Using the bulbs could be one way to address the energy crisis and encourage people to save energy, he commented. The government is following suit, with Finance Minister Hani Kadri saying recently that it was setting out new procurement regulations that would ban the purchase of non-energy-saving lamps and electrical equipment. It would start the change to smart energy through the use of light-emitting diode (LED) lamps that would save energy in the long run, he said, adding that the state might need to buy some 250 million LEDs. LEDs are the most energy-efficient form of lighting, according to Mohamed Attia, owner of Sina Light, a local lighting company. They could work from 50,000 to 80,000 hours, much longer than the compact fluorescent lamp (CFL), another type of energy-saving lamp commonly used in Egypt, which works from 1,000 to 10,000 hours depending on the quality of manufacture, he said. Attia said that there had been increasing demand for LEDs, adding that this was likely to rise now that the government was heading towards using them. The Alexandria governorate had ordered some 50,000 LEDs to distribute to residents in addition to its plan to light the streets with the lamps. “The world has been turning to the use of LEDs over the past few years due to their benefits such as small size, long life, low heat output, energy savings and durability,” Attia told Al-Ahram Weekly. However LEDs are neither produced nor assembled in Egypt, which means they have to be imported with many companies selling them at prices ranging from LE35-55. Fake LEDs can be found on the Egyptian market at LE12, Attia said. Due to the increased demand for LEDs and the government's intention to move towards them, “several companies are now seeking to assemble LEDs here in Egypt,” he added, saying that their use could save up to 50 per cent on lighting bills. “We've been working with LEDs for some years now, but the issue only caught the public's attention when Al-Sisi spoke about it.” While LEDs are more efficient than CFLs, people are still buying CFLs because of their cheaper price, Ahmed Al-Sayed, owner of a small electrical shop in Dokki, said. Al-Sayed said that 70 per cent of the energy-saving lamps on the Egyptian market were of poor quality. “Most of the imported lamps are of poor quality and they don't last for more than two or three days,” he said. Prices of CFLs range from LE6-18, while some brands reach LE25. Al-Sayed said that energy-saving light bulbs were not a new idea for his customers, many of whom had been buying them regularly. However, he expected the demand to increase after Al-Sisi had talked about their benefits. Al-Sisi said in one of his interviews that households using 6,000 megawatts of electricity for lighting could reduce this to 4,000 MW by using energy-saving light bulbs over a four-month period.
