Inert gas Inert gas An inert gas/noble gas is a gas which does not undergo chemical reactions under a set of given conditions. The noble gases often do not react with many substances, and were historically referred to as the inert gases. Inert gases are used generally to avoid unwanted chemical reactions degrading a sample. These undesirable chemical reactions are often oxidation and hydrolysis reactions with the oxygen and moisture in air. The term "inert gas" is context-dependent because several of the noble gases can be made to react under certain conditions. Purified argon and nitrogen gases are most commonly used as
Phase-out of incandescent light bulbs banned the sale of light bulbs over 40W on 1 January 2017. The UK government announced in 2007 that incandescent bulbs would be phased out by 2011. In 2008, the Irish government announced a phase-out of the sale of any light bulbs with a luminous efficiency of less than 16 lumens per watt. Shortly afterwards, all member states of the EU agreed to a progressive phase-out of incandescent light bulbs by 2012. The initial Europe wide ban only applied to general-purpose, non-directional incandescent bulbs, so did not affect any bulbs with reflective surfaces (e.g. spotlights and halogen down lighters) or