Posted on 02/04/2009 4:24:53 AM PST by Reaganesque
February 2, 2009 Cambridge University researchers have developed cheap, light-emitting diode (LED) bulbs that produce brilliant light but use very little electricity. They will cost just GBP2 (USD2.80) and last up to 60 years. The gallium nitride based bulbs are 12 times more efficient than conventional tungsten incandescent bulbs and three times more efficient than compact fluorescent low-energy bulbs. As well as lasting 100,000 hours, ten times as long as today's eco-bulbs, the LED bulbs do not contain mercury, so disposal is less damaging to the environment, they do not flicker and fully illuminate instantly, unlike the current generation of eco-bulbs.
The 100,000 hour LEDs use gallium nitride, a man-made semiconductor used to make light-emitting diodes. LEDs are currently available as replacement bulbs but they cost $25 - $50 each which makes them too expensive for widespread use. To achieve the price break through the Cambridge scientists have developed a process where they grow Gallium Nitride on silicon wafers instead of the current method, which requires sapphire wafers.
The 10-fold price reduction could slash household lighting bills by three-quarters. A manufacturer has begun work on production prototypes and the first bulbs could be in the shops within two years. The head of the Centre for Gallium Nitride, Professor Colin Humphreys, said: "This could well be the holy grail in terms of providing our lighting needs for the future."
"We are very close to achieving highly efficient, low-cost white LEDs. It is our belief they will render current energy-efficiency bulbs redundant."
LED’s are bright, and they turn on and off instantly with no noticeable dimming. This is only what I have observed. I like the idea.
Let me get some now. I keep most of the lights off in my house when I am home as it is, but since the government won’t build nuclear plants to make energy costs cheaper, then this will help.
When it is economically feasible, I will replace every incandescent bulb in the house with LED’s.
Now that 0be is POTUS, from all the continuing media coverage, I’m surprised that I still need to have light bulbs at all.
The headline says sixty years. The article says 100,000 hours. Whick is it?
Hopefully not too far off. I was at Costco this weekend and saw two 40 watt LED bulbs that screwed into normal sockets for $20. That's not bad.
Which
There is no way that the companies that manufacture and sell light bulbs are going to stand for bulbs that last for 60 years hitting the market.
I have a friend in the antique business, and he has antique incadescent bulbs that still work today, that that is not uncommon for those bulbs that have survived this many decades. When incadescents were first made, then lasted a very very long time, but somehow, manufacturers figured out how to shorten their life. Funny how that works.
As the cost of LED bulbs comes down, they will figure out how to shorten the life of them too.
60 years...so long as you don’t exceed 100,000 hours.
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If this new bulb is as bright as they claim then I’ll be impressed and the first in line to convert the entire house. But from what I’ve seen so far regarding LED bulbs, I’ve been left in the dark. (pun intended)
that’s so true, we toured Organ Cave in West Virginia and there was a bulb that had been burning deep in the cave since 1920.
5 hours a day for 60 years is 109,500 hours. 60 years seems a good ball park average.
By the time an LED hits the 100,000 hour mark it would be very dim.
Did they come in 100 watt units?
They had a floodlight LED bulb that I didn’t look too carefully at, and it might have been 100 watt. They had a big display.
“LEDs would be a great step in the right direction.”
I have envisioned LED bulbs as a matrix of thousands of the diodes on a film, enclosed in a bulb.
This is the same concept as the modern integrated circuit.
Different color leds could be mixed to soften the light.
I wait to see if I am right.
Same here. I've already replaced all of my home and auto flashlights with LED flashlights. I've found a computer store that has these little 9 LED units for about $4 each (including the batteries!), and they're blindingly bright and the battery life is amazing (3xAA). I also picked up a rugged Energizer "Hard Case" light, which is far more rugged, and was still pretty cheap, and it included the batteries too!
Mark
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