Why, I remember the days when we created light by heating up bits of metal...
Ahh, Yes.......
I remember it well.........
Good 'ol limelight........
Works pretty good too.....
Posted on 01/30/2009 11:39:15 AM PST by PapaBear3625
Winchester, UK - Cambridge University's Centre for Gallium Nitride has developed a new way of making GaN which could produce LEDs for a tenth of current prices and may see household lighting bills reduced by up to 75 percent within five years.
[snip]
Currently GaN LEDs can only be grown on 2-inch sapphire wafers. Following the Cambridge innovation nine times as many LEDs can be grown on a 6-inch silicon wafer compared with a 2-inch sapphire wafer. In addition, edge effects are less, so the number of good LEDs is about 10 times higher. The processing costs for a 2-inch wafer are essentially the same as for a 6-inch wafer. A 6-inch silicon wafer is much cheaper to produce than a 2-inch sapphire wafer. Together these factors result in a cost reduction of about a factor of 10.
(Excerpt) Read more at eetimes.eu ...
When the kilowatt police start metering you use, the LED lights will decrease your consumption enough so you can sneak in an a little illegal AM radio listening.
One thing I like about LED lighting is that in generally involves a bunch of LEDs, which means you can soften the color of the light by mixing in some reds and greens.
The Telegraph says they may be available in two years. Snip... [ Manufacturers have already begun work on production prototypes and the first units could hit shelves within two years.]
you can sneak in an a little illegal AM radio listening.
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You don’t have a crystal set hidden under the stairs do you? Or maybe a Zenith Trans-Oceanic ?? We’re watching you!
I am all for energy savings and reduced cost of lighting. But can any FReepers advise me of ANYTHING that we have now that was predicted to happen five years ago? Hopefully this is not another “flying car” that will soon (5 years?) be appearing in your neighbors drive way.“...lighting bills reduced by up to 75 percent within five years.”
Moore's Law has held up.When they're already making some LED's for flashlights and other specialty apps, a development which cuts the cost of production by an order of magnitude is going to open a BIG market.
Yes, although the glass is blacker than the ceramic as shown in your picture.
Why, I remember the days when we created light by heating up bits of metal...
Ahh, Yes.......
Good point. I once saw an orchestra and noticed the "richness" of the white lights. It wasn't until after the show I sneaked up there and saw blues and reds mixed in with the whites. I was thinking it was just the effects of the fresnel lenses on the powerful lights.
I bought a radio at Big Lots that will run off an AC outlet, but it has a solar panel to assist the batteries when it's outside and if all else fails, a hand crank that winds a spring that turns a little generator.
Aren’t those CFGs or whatever they are already mandated in UK and soon in the US?
He has retired form HP and it derivatives and is now working for Phillips Luminance working on LED lighting yet to come...
Ping to post #31...
Believe it or not, they are designed to fail that way.
Stage lighting makes heavy use of different colored lights to achieve various effects and moods. Your color screen only has red, green, and blue pixels, from which all the other colors are generated. So a lighting arrangement that used red, green, and blue as well as white could be used to generate a wide variety of "mood" lighting effects.
In the US, we have legislation to phase out incandescent bulbs in a few years. UK is just further along.
http://www.ccrane.com/lights/index.aspx
C Crane is selling LED lighting currently.
A bit pricey still.
Everything I bought from them works. And still works. Good company.
I would vote and approve of billions of dollars to build factories IN THE US to make low cost LED replacement lamps for everything from streetlights to nightlights.
And ban CFLs in America.
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