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Scientists Build a Better Incandescent Light Bulb… Six Years After Last US Factory Closes
CNS News ^ | April 22, 2016 | Barbara Hollingsworth

Posted on 04/25/2016 6:58:38 AM PDT by The_Victor

Protoytpe of a new energy efficient incandescent light bulb. (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

Six years after the last incandescent light bulb factory in the U.S. shut down due to strict new federal energy conservation standards, scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have come up with a technological breakthrough that could make incandescent bulbs twice as energy-efficient as their replacements.

MIT researchers discovered that by wrapping the filament of an incandescent bulb with a “photonic crystal,” they could “recycle” the energy that was typically lost as heat to create more light.

The new technique “makes a dramatic difference in how efficiently the system converts electricity into light,” said the research team led by MIT professors Marin Soljačić, John Joannopoulos and Gang Chen.  

Their results were published online in the January edition of the journal Nature Nanotechnology.

“The heat just keeps bouncing back in toward the filament until it finally ends up as visible light,” MIT post-doctoral researcher Ognjen Ilic explained. “It reduces the energy that would otherwise be wasted.”

In 2007, Congress passed the Energy Independence and Security Act, which set new energy conservation standards for lighting fixtures and other products by 2014 in order to reduce energy use and greenhouse gas emissions.

The “new light bulb law”, as it was called, required “25 percent greater efficiency for household light bulbs that have traditionally used between 40 and 100 watts of electricity,” according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

The stringent new standards effectively prohibited the manufacture of most ordinary incandescent light bulbs in the U.S. As a result, GE shuttered the last domestic incandescent light bulb factory in the nation in 2010, laying off 200 workers in Winchester, Virginia.

Since then, incandescent bulbs have been largely replaced with more energy-efficient compact fluorescent lights (CFLs) and light-emitting diode (LED) lamps. In February, GE announced that due to poor sales, it would no longer make or sell CFLs – which contain mercury - in the U.S., and will focus on the more expensive, but longer lasting LEDs instead.

But a new generation of incandescent bulbs could be twice as energy efficient as LEDs without the drawbacks, including higher initial cost and “inconsistent” white light.

“Whereas the luminous efficiency of conventional incandescent lights is between 2 and 3 percent, that of fluorescents (including CFLs) is between 7 and 15 percent, and that of most commercial LEDs between 5 and 20 percent, the new two-stage incandescents could reach efficiencies as high as 40 percent,” according to a press release from MIT.

The MIT researchers noted that the greater increase in energy efficiency also comes with “exceptional reproduction of colours and scalable power.”

In February, Rep. Michael Burgess (R-TX) introduced the Energy Efficiency Free Market Act of 2016 (HR 4504), which would prohibit states and federal agencies from adopting “any requirement to comply with a standard for energy conservation or water efficiency with respect to a product.”

“This legislation eliminates the overreaching arm of the federal government that continues to force itself into the household of the American consumer,” Burgess said. “When the market drives the standard, there’s no limit to how rapidly manufacturers can respond when consumers demand more efficient and better-made products.”

According to the Energy Information Administration (EIA), commercial and residential users in the U.S. used 412 billion kilowatthours of electricity for lighting in 2014. Lighting accounted for 15 percent of their total electricity use.



TOPICS: Business/Economy; Extended News; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: incandescent; lightbulbs
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1 posted on 04/25/2016 6:58:38 AM PDT by The_Victor
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To: The_Victor
AMERICANS! Your government has taken you by the scruff of your collective necks and shaken all the sense out of you. How could a people be so stupid as to let the government dictate such bizarre things?
2 posted on 04/25/2016 7:02:31 AM PDT by Don Corleone ("Oil the gun..eat the cannoli. Take it to the Mattress.")
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To: The_Victor

Further proof that allowing the government to choose the winners and losers is a lose-lose proposition, every time. Free market, when allowed to work, will always operate more effectively and provide a net benefit.


3 posted on 04/25/2016 7:03:44 AM PDT by T-Bird45 (It feels like the seventies, and it shouldn't.)
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To: The_Victor

Of course, it will cost $30 each.


4 posted on 04/25/2016 7:04:53 AM PDT by Da Bilge Troll (Defeatism is not a winning strategy!)
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To: The_Victor

Who ever would have believed that our government has been reduced to passing laws regulating flush toilets and light bulbs?


5 posted on 04/25/2016 7:06:31 AM PDT by IronJack
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To: T-Bird45
Well, this story is obviously false.

The science was settled that incandescent bulbs were not efficient, so that's the end of it.

6 posted on 04/25/2016 7:07:17 AM PDT by Mr. Lucky
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To: The_Victor

I’m liking the new LED bulbs.

The CFL’s are dangerous garbage. I’ve had them blowup and shoot sparks out of the base.


7 posted on 04/25/2016 7:08:32 AM PDT by headstamp 2 (Fear is the mind killer.)
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To: The_Victor

Well, if it’s an efficiency-based standard, this new technology would not be against the law.

The key here is that it isn’t a straight black-body radiator—non-visible radiation from the filament is used to excite photons in the visible range from the surrounding crystal.

Very cool (or hot, if you like).


8 posted on 04/25/2016 7:10:10 AM PDT by Pearls Before Swine (The would-be Empress has no clothes. My eyes!)
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To: The_Victor

When the market is allowed to work, it works.


9 posted on 04/25/2016 7:10:54 AM PDT by arthurus (Het is waar. Tutti i liberali sono feccia.)
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To: headstamp 2

I still have some CFL bulbs but am replacing them bit by bit by LEDs. I have used the CFLs since they were pretty new and have had no problems at all with them. Disposal has been no problem because they don’t burn out. One has quit on me the in 15 years whereas I used to have to replace an incandescent bulb every couple of weeks. Our neighborhood electricity supply has always fluctuated and that seems to be death on Incandescents.


10 posted on 04/25/2016 7:15:34 AM PDT by arthurus (Het is waar. Tutti i liberali sono feccia.)
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To: The_Victor

Actually, Thomas Edison invented a better incandescent light bulb a long time ago. I remember when I visited his lab as a kid they had original light bulbs still burning 75+ years on. I think he just realized that if the light bulb never burned out, you could only sell one set to each customer, so he included “planned obsolescence” in his product.


11 posted on 04/25/2016 7:17:32 AM PDT by Boogieman
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To: The_Victor
I do like the soft LEDs, but they're so expensive. We never converted any lights to the CFLs. And I do miss the incandescents......I loved putting a scent ring on them for a very subtle vanilla aroma in some of our rooms.
12 posted on 04/25/2016 7:18:23 AM PDT by originalbuckeye ("In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act." - George Orwell)
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To: headstamp 2

I’ve had 3 running for 10 years. No problem. I don’t plan on buying more these were freebies when the craze started.


13 posted on 04/25/2016 7:19:10 AM PDT by enraged
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To: IronJack
"...our government has been reduced to passing laws regulating flush toilets..."

I always flush the low-flow toilets/urinals two or three times just out of "Green" spite....

14 posted on 04/25/2016 7:19:21 AM PDT by Psalm 73 ("Gentlemen, you can't fight in here - this is the War Room".)
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To: AdmSmith; AnonymousConservative; Berosus; Bockscar; cardinal4; ColdOne; Convert from ECUSA; ...
...scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have come up with a technological breakthrough that could make incandescent bulbs twice as energy-efficient as their replacements. MIT researchers discovered that by wrapping the filament of an incandescent bulb with a "photonic crystal," they could "recycle" the energy that was typically lost as heat to create more light... "The heat just keeps bouncing back in toward the filament until it finally ends up as visible light," MIT post-doctoral researcher Ognjen Ilic explained. "It reduces the energy that would otherwise be wasted."
In that case, it should run cooler.


15 posted on 04/25/2016 7:20:32 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (Here's to the day the forensics people scrape what's left of Putin off the ceiling of his limo.)
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To: headstamp 2

Really? I’ve been using CFLs for a while and never had an issue. What brand are you using? Even a better question, how is the power quality where you are located?


16 posted on 04/25/2016 7:20:35 AM PDT by PJBankard (Political Correctness has killed America. It is time America is resurrected.)
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To: Da Bilge Troll

...Of course, it will cost $30 each...

But, not for those who bought a lifetime supply of the now forbidden ones at closeout prices and put them away.


17 posted on 04/25/2016 7:20:36 AM PDT by Sasparilla (Hillary for Prosecution 2016)
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To: Da Bilge Troll

and will be made in Mexico or somewhere else, not the US.


18 posted on 04/25/2016 7:21:23 AM PDT by CatQuilt (Lover of cats =^..^= and quilts)
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To: Mr. Lucky

We don’t need an army of nerds in D.C. dictating what products can be manufacured and what people are allowed to buy. The only space for government in consumer goods is truth in labeling and prosecution for fraud.


19 posted on 04/25/2016 7:21:29 AM PDT by WMarshal (Trump 2016)
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To: arthurus

The old light bulbs always lasted a long time. The new ones need constant replacement.


20 posted on 04/25/2016 7:21:43 AM PDT by This I Wonder32460
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