Behold the power of the LED home lightbulb
She's holding a lit lightbulb in her hand. Is the prophecy true? Is she the chosen one?
(Credit: Michael Kanellos/CNET Networks)No, that's just Amber Nystrom, founder of Social Fusion, holding up the Pharox, an LED light by Lemnis Lighting that's designed to fit into an ordinary lamp socket (there's a battery in this one; the home models just screw in). It offers about the same amount of light as a 40-watt bulb but consumes about 90 percent less energy. If you haven't heard by now, lightbulbs waste a lot of energy. Around 95 percent of the energy turns into heat.
LEDs, which are silicon chips, produce heat too, but they crank out far more lumens per watt than regular lightbulbs and they are beginning to challenge fluorescent bulbs. LEDs last longer, so advocates say they'll become the light source of the future. (Fluorescent folks disagree). The Lemnis runs on about 4 watts and lasts 50,000 hours.
I met Nystrom standing in line at the Cleantech Forum in San Francisco. Never know who you'll meet waiting for the buffet.
popularization of mini-LED flashlights and such. I've been waiting for LEDs to
take their rightful place in society, and it seems like we're one big step towards
this happening.
I can't wait for these lightbulbs to hit the shelves. Hopefully the quality of the
light will be similar to the cozy spectrum of incandescent light, as opposed to
the often harsh glare of fluorescent lighting.
for a dozen!!
getting enough light is problematic, because while one LED is relatively cool, a
bunch of them might get hot enough to cook their circuit boards. Until they can
get at least 700 lumens (about the same as a 75-watt Soft White bulb) on a
single fixture -and 1200 for reading lamps, these are just not ready for prime
time.
I agree with others in the blog 40-watt bulbs are not sufficient for most home applications. The most important point however is that LED lighting has not received UL approval for use in the USA (for political reasons), and therefore we will not be seeing LED lighting in homes anytime soon. Let?s keep feeding the US addiction to oil, shall we?
years, figuring they would easily replace the low-wattage compact flourscent
bulbs used for all-night lighting. Perhaps it's the source (some nameless
Chinese firm), but the LED bulbs lasted all of about 300 hours before something
inside of them gave out (most likely voltage regulator circuitry to step the 120V
down to the LED wattage of 1.5 - 3 watts). After replacing a couple, I decided to
step back and wait a few more years for the reliability factor to go up, or a major
firm with a reputation for higher quality to put their label on such products
before I try it again.
None of these would be sufficient for primary room lighting, but they're great for nighttime navigation use. By the way, they are built from discrete plastic-blob LEDs mounted in an asembly, rather than some sort of purpose-built LEDs, which may be holding back the miniaturization.
I expect every year or so we'll see them get improved brightness/volume and color tone. These puppies are going to be ready for primetime pretty soon.
Looking at the array of Led's it would appear bright enough to use in normal Auto Repair environs, but I found that the array needs to be hand held, constantly adjusting to the work plane. A slight movement right or left, or moving the focus of your eyes only slightly right or left, brings a need to adjust the positioning of the beam. It appears more suited to be a flashlight rather than a localized illuminator or local floodlamp. The cordless operation and rechargeability is nice, but the quality of the illumination/ appropriateness is disappointing for a $40.00 price.