With a federal lighting efficiency mandate looming, lighting companies are developing LED bulbs designed to replace 100-watt incandescent lights.

Osram Sylvania today showed off a prototype of an LED bulb that gives off 1,500 lumens--as much light as a 100-watt incandescent--and consumes 14 watts. It also said that its 75-watt equivalent will be available in July.

Another company, Switch Lighting, today announced its own 100-watt equivalent which it said produces 1,700 lumens of white light and will be available in the fourth quarter, according to a representative. A version with a warmer light is due in mid to late 2012.

The announcements were made in conjunction with the LightFair lighting conference, where a number of new efficient LED lighting products are being introduced.

Osram Sylvania said its dimmable 100-watt equivalent will come in the A19 shape and have a color temperature of 2700, similar to an incandescent bulb. The color rendering index, a measure of light quality, will be over 80 and the bulb is rated to last 25,000 hours, or 25 times more than incandescent bulbs.

It has a shape meant to disperse light evenly to make it suitable for many uses, such as desk lamps or overhead lights. The company didn't announce pricing but its current general-purpose LED bulb, a 60-watt equivalent, costs about $40.

Switch Lighting, a venture capital-backed start-up based in San Jose, Calif., has an unusual design to ensure even light and long life. The small coin-size LED light sources are placed around the edge of the bulb, rather than at a single point. … Read more

Philips is introducing an LED bulb that gives off as much light as a 75-watt incandescent bulb and consume 17 watts of power.

The lighting giant said today that the EnduraLED A21 will be available in the fourth quarter for a price expected to be between $40 and $45. It will show off the bulb tomorrow at the LightFair lighting conference, where many LED lighting announcements are expected.

The EnduraLED A21 will be the first general-purpose LED bulb to give off as much light as a 75-watt incandescent bulb, according to Philips. It will be rated at 1,100 lumens and an efficiency of almost 65 lumens per watt.

The bulb itself roughly resembles a crown, a design meant to give off light evenly. LED light sources give off directional light, making them very good at downlights or spotlights, but now manufacturers are designing bulbs to disperse light more in all directions.

The bulb will have a rated life of 25,000 hours, or about 17 years with four hours of daily use. The color rendering index, a measure of light quality, is 80 and the color temperature is 2,700, or a warmer yellow light meant to be similar to incandescents.

Philips last year started selling a 60-watt equivalent LED bulb with the same design and LED light sources, which is available through Home Depot for $39.97. It uses 12.5 watts.

Lighting manufacturers are seeking to boost the brightness and light quality of LEDs to make them attractive alternatives to incandescent and compact fluorescent bulbs. The prices for LED bulbs are much higher but are expected to drop over time.

Philips said that over its lifetime, an EnduraLED A21 could save a home or business $160. There are about 90 million 75-watt incandescent bulbs sold every year in the U.S., and switching to LEDs would eliminate the carbon emissions of almost 1 million cars, according to Philips. … Read more

Semiconductor company Marvell today is set to introduce a chip geared at improving the light from LED bulbs and connecting them to a network.

The 8801 chip is small--about the size of a penny--and will be about the same price as existing LED lighting electronics. If Marvell signs on light manufacturer customers, it could bring the very good light quality of some commercial LEDs to more affordable consumer products, said Kishore Manghnani, vice president of Marvell's Communications and Consumer business. He said the chip, which integrates multiple functions on this single controller chip, is being tested by commercial or consumer light fixture makers now and it takes them about six months to introduce products with new chips.

Light quality for consumer LED bulbs has improved over the past few years but the color rending index (CRI), a measure of quality, is still not as high as incandescent bulbs. With the chip, Manghnani said a CRI of 95, higher than most of the consumer LED bulbs available now, is possible.

The chip can control the current and temperature of two types of LED light sources. So a fixture or bulb maker could use the chip and driver to use LEDs with two different colors, such as white and red, to improve color rendering. Until now, the electronics to control different colored LEDs would be too large or expensive for consumer products, Manghnani said.

The Marvell component will also make LED dimming more precise and allow a lighting company to embed a wireless chip in the bulb. With a wireless ZigBee or Wi-Fi radio, lights can be controlled from a central point or set on a schedule. Last week, Google demonstrated a networked LED bulb controlled by its Android@Home software due for release by the end of the year.

Marvell's main business is designing electronic components for consumer electronics but it is pushing into energy efficiency with LEDs and connected appliances, such as smart thermostats or smart outlets. One product already available is the Radio Thermostat which connects to a home Wi-Fi network and can be controlled from a smartphone. … Read more

General Electric next week will show off overhead LED light fixtures designed to replace florescent tubes with thin, flat plates of light.

The company tomorrow is expected to announce the line of LED Edge lighting fixtures that can be suspended from ceilings or recessed flush with ceiling tiles. The first of the products, a square troffer fixture design for recessed lighting, will be available by the end of this year. More stylish suspended fixtures are slated for release in the first half of next year.

The four fixtures are built around coin-size LED light sources and a textured optical screen … Read more

By the end of this year, people will be able to buy an LED light bulb controllable from an Android device, part of Google's move into home automation.

At the Google I/O conference today, Google demonstrated how Android devices, including tablets and smartphones, can act as a hub for controlling multiple devices in the home, including lighting, appliances, thermostats, and music.

Google concocted a lighting demo system with Lighting Sciences Group, which developed an LED bulb that can talk to Android. It uses a new mesh network wireless protocol rather than Wi-Fi, ZigBee, or the other proprietary home … Read more

In the space of a few years, I've gone from one lighting technology to another and now to three lighting types in my home. I suspect others will be in the same shoes as lighting options expand, notably those involving LEDs.

Eager to cut down my electrical load, I essentially converted to compact fluorescent lighting (CFLs) years ago. Recently, though, I've replaced CFLs with efficient LED bulbs and even energy-hogging incandescents to address an unfortunate feature of CFLs: turning them on and off frequently degrades their life.

CFLs are still a good deal both financially and environmentally. They … Read more

LED lighting company Cree is taking on the overhead fluorescent lights that are a fixture of office buildings with a light source it says will quickly recoup the investment.

The company today announced a new line of "architectural troffers," or rectangular-shaped fixtures designed for overhead lighting. The troffers use Cree's LED light sources, which offer a longer life and improved efficiency over fluorescent lights, according to the company.

The fixtures offer a white light with an efficiency of 110 lumens per watt and a color rendering index, a measure of light quality, of 90. The lights can … Read more

Lighting manufacturer Lighting Science Group announced yesterday it will begin selling low-cost LED lightbulbs on Amazon.com beginning today.

The company's A19 omnidirectional 8.5-watt bulb (40-watt equivalent) will sell for $21.98, and is only the first in a line of low-budget LED bulbs planned for sale at the online superstore, according to Lighting Science Group.

The company says its bulbs will last up to 23 years, and are 76 percent more efficient than a standard incandescent bulb.

"Lighting accounts for more than 18 percent of the average U.S. household's energy bill--that's because incandescent … Read more

BOSTON--Many green-tech start-ups are formed with the hopes of bringing a scientific discovery from a university lab to market. Digital Lumens has taken a different tack: it's applying well-known computer technology to dramatically boost efficiency in lighting.

On Friday, I visited Digital Lumens' office here to get a closer look at its commercial LED light fixture, a rectangular-shaped spot light roughly the size of a desktop computer. On one side are three light bars blasting out light, on the other is the computing "horsepower" that allows it to be controlled like other equipment on a company network. … Read more