Switch to LEDs, CFL going to be history next year

Vijay C Roy in Chandigarh

Many of us have substituted our old incandescent light bulbs with CFLs (compact fluorescent lamps) in the name of greater efficiency. Today we have a similar task at hand: switch to LED (light emitting diode) lamps. The transition has been so swift that the industry thinks by next year, CFLs will be history in the country.

Introduced in 1998, CFLs progressively got cheaper and more efficient, using 75% less energy than a regular incandescent bulb. But they never quite overcame the problems that made them unlovable: They need time to light up fully, the light is often harsh, and the glass tubes contained toxic mercury. 

The situation has come to such a pass that many CFL manufacturing units have become commercially unviable. The reason is changing market and technology landscape. And for consumers, anything cheaper and durable is preferable. In July this year, Wipro Consumer Care and Lighting said it had shut down its CFL unit at Mysuru. The closure affected 84 employees. Similarly, Philips Lighting India: its Mohali CFL unit would shut shop in the second half of the next year. The closure would affect over 700 employees, including 69 full-time and about 650 contingent workers.

"This is in line with the Centre’s drive to switch to energy-efficient LED. The weak demand for conventional CFL products has become unviable to sustain our production at the current site,” a Philips spokesperson said. Havells, too, has its plans ready. “We have already curtailed production of CFL and are likely to discontinue it by next year,” said Ajay Saraf, Business Head, Lighting Havells India Ltd.

Industry sources say LED is more versatile with more longevity. The CFL can be used only for domestic purpose, whereas LED can be used for any application. Market prices of LED lamps in India have nosedived by almost three times on the back of a government- sponsored Ujala scheme. This has impacted sales of CFL bulbs. Yet, most households continue with incandescent bulbs. 

Thanks to Ujala, the lighting majors have had to lower the LED prices. The price of a 9W LED bulb being distributed under the scheme run by state-run Energy Efficient Services Ltd (EESL) is around Rs 70. The scheme brought down their prices through bulk procurement without any subsidy. 

The total market for lighting industry is estimated around Rs 11,399 crore in 2016. According to Electric Lamp and Component Manufacturers Association of India (Elcoma), around 1.85 lakh persons were employed in the Industry in 2016 and 200 units were engaged in production. Currently, the lighting industry is dominated by Philips, Havells, Bajaj, Crompton Greaves and Wipro. Some of the recent entrants in this space include Eveready, Orient, Usha and Syska. Shyam Sujan, secretary-general at Elcoma, says the total production of CFLs in India was one billion when the demand had peaked. The capacity of is being converted into LED lamps. “The present production of CFL is about 200 million whereas LED lamps are about 450 million pieces.” 

The lighting industry has called for stronger regulatory enforcement to ensure that LED bulbs comply with safety standards. A study conducted by Nielsen across New Delhi, Mumbai, Ahmedabad and Hyderabad has found that 76% of LED bulb brands are non-compliant with the government mandates. The LED industry sold about 53 crore bulbs till October this year.