The State government’s decision to make compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs)
mandatory in all government offices and buildings will not dim the
Mysore Palace as the good old incandescent bulbs will continue to light
the heritage structure.
The State government’s initiative was
aimed at saving energy and reducing electricity bills. In a bid to
implement this, the Mysore Palace Board too called for expression of
interest from manufacturers of bulbs that would not only cut bills but
would also reproduce the same luminosity as incandescent bulbs. A few
companies came forward and held demonstrations by lighting one portion
of the palace with CFLs.
However, the CFLs failed to match the
15-watt incandescent bulbs in luminescence and the proposal to replace
the bulbs were dropped.
Deputy Commissioner Harsh Gupta,
member-secretary of the Palace Board, told Deccan Herald the decision
was taken after a committee constituted by the board too ruled in favour
of incandescent bulbs. “The committee studied the proposals and
witnessed the demonstrations at the Amba Vilas Palace. They also did a
feasibility study on replacing the bulbs and decided to retain
incandescent bulbs,” he said.
Gupta added that the board had
already installed LED bulbs in the palace premises to conserve energy,
but did not want to take a decision on replacing incandescent bulbs in a
haste as it would compromise the beauty of the illuminated palace. “The
golden orange glow emitted by incandescent bulbs cannot be replicated
by CFLs. People are very intelligent, they can make out even the
slightest change in the colour,” Gupta said.
Deputy Director of
the Mysore Palace Board, P V Avaradhi, pointed out that the palace is
illuminated for just six to seven hours in a month and the electricity
bill comes up to around Rs six to seven lakh a month for all the
installations including illumination. The hours of illumination is more
only during the ten-day Dasara festival. Given these circumstances, the
board felt that it was not feasible to switch to CFLs.
The board
even toyed with the idea of installing LED bulbs which consume less
power, but the investment is huge. Around 97,000 bulbs are used to
illuminate the Amba Vilas Palace and to replace them with LED bulbs the
board would have to shell out at least Rs six to seven crore.
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