The ESL looks promising - at least it doesn’t look like a dairy queen cone ;-)
I’ve noet read a good description of how it works - the conventional approach to making enough of an electron beam to excite phosphors is with several KV of high voltage, and that would seem to imply a potentially noisy (EMI-noisy) switching power supply. Anyone know?
Interesting product the ESL. I did note that the initial claims for 6000 hours while better than current bulbs is much lower than the 40,000 to 50,000 hours claimed by the LED mfgs. CNET had an article showing ESLs at half the price of LEDs but they would need a 20,000 hour lifespan to break even.
Vu1’s web site played a little fast and loose with their comparison chart claiming LEDs could not be dimmed (they can, I have one) and also claimed LEDs were not as recyclable as the ESLs. Hmmm, seems the ESL will require, to produce the high voltage needed, quite a bit of silicon based products encased in plastic as would the LEDs.
Also, the color temp comparison of the ESL vs LEDs were slanted by Vu1 and that may be true for CURRENT LED bulbs but both products could easily be produced in a wide range of color temperatures. If that were not the case LED TVs could not work. A bulb constructed with multiple LEDs of mixed colors could easily mimic any color temperature required.
There was also another claim that LEDs were susceptible to high temperatures (actual temp not defined) while the ESLs were not. Given the requirement to have a High Voltage power supply built in I would suspect the silicon based products in the ESL would also have an issue with higher temperatures. In any event it is good to have competing technologies as the CFL is a horrendous choice forced upon us by lawyers (congress) acting as our energy guardians.
