(Credit:
ClearLite)
Florida-based lighting company ClearLite is introducing a new CFL bulb with an unbreakable safety shell that prevents mercury from escaping, a feature that addresses some health concerns with CFLs.
The SX-4000 silicone skin remains intact even if the ArmorLite bulb inside shatters, according to ClearLite, which is rolling out its bulb in December and January.
Not everyone is aware of the danger of broken CFLs. Because of the small amount of mercury in them, current EPA guidelines call for evacuating people and pets from the area where a bulb has shattered.
(Credit:
ClearLite)
They also call for the room to be aired out for 15 minutes and the air conditioning to be shut off.
The 9-watt (40-watt equivalent) and 14-watt (60-watt equivalent) ArmorLite bulbs look somewhat like incandescents and can be used for 10,000 hours, according to ClearLite. They contain amalgam, an alloy of mercury, in solid form.
CFLs can usually be recycled at retailers or municipal hazardous waste programs, though the silicone skin in ArmorLite bulbs will require extra steps or a special program to process.
The 800-lumen bulbs are Energy Star-rated and will be available in "natural soft white" and "natural brite white" varieties, with a suggested retail price of $7.99.
The silicone skin may have some effect on the perceived color of the light. There's limited color temperature information on this page, and a bit more information about ClearLite bulbs in this video.
ClearLite plans to produce other varieties of ArmorLite bulbs such as a bathroom-use vanity globe. Samples of the A-shape bulb are already available.
(Credit:
Quirky)
Good thing the lightbulb-shaped Watt Time alarm clock (Watt Time, geddit?!) isn't made of glass or it could pose a hazard when annoyed sleepers roll over to smack the snooze button located on the top of the socket.
Instead, the gizmo is constructed of high-gloss, hard plastic that illuminates the bright blue LED time display. If you don't like waking to sound, you can set the bulb to light up when it's time to crawl out of bed.
(Credit:
Quirky)
While the Watt Time features a sleek, simple design (all set buttons sit discretely on the back of the bulb), the product might not appeal to those with meticulous interior-design taste. After all, it could appear at first glance that you just left an old bulb on your nightstand when you went to change the one in the reading lamp.
Still, it's a bright idea for people who like their products infused with a touch of playful.
Watt Time comes via Quirky, a relatively new collaborative design community that also conceived of the super-cute DigiDue tripod we told you about recently. The Watt Time is currently on presale at Quirky's online store for $24.99.
High price and a strange color. No, we're not talking about a hairdo. Those are the two factors that have kept light-emitting diodes, or LEDs, from becoming a mainstream light source.
But that might change soon, said Zach Gibler, chief business development officer of Lighting Science Group, which plans to announce distribution deals with major retailers for its LED bulbs that screw into a regular socket.
Lighting Science Group's new LED lightbulbs.
(Credit: Lighting Science Group)LED bulbs for household use have already been around for some time, but their success has been limited. The main obstacles have been that they cost more than incandescent lightbulbs and emit a sometimes unnerving color of light.
Lighting Science Group this week plans to introduce a portfolio of LED replacement white lightbulbs that it hopes will attract more consumer interest. The product line uses the same sockets as Edison bulbs.
According to Gibler, the bulbs perform well on a warmth and color rendering index--blue looks blue, yellow looks yellow, etc.--they have a long life cycle, and consume 80 percent less energy than incandescent bulbs.
Gibler believes 2008 could be "the year of LED" for residential use and lighting in general. The market potential is big, particularly considering that legislation will outlaw the sale of incandescent bulbs by 2012, he said. He compared the adoption of LED lights in homes to another lighting product, the flashlight.
"Three years ago you could hardly find an LED-based flashlight; today it's hard to find one that is not LED light," he said.
Lighting Science Group sells its products through wholesale stores and on its own Web site, but it expects to announce soon distribution deals with one or two retail chains to make the new LED bulbs more available.
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At $40 to $110 apiece, the LED "in-screw" bulbs may still seem too pricey for a lot of consumers. But Lighting Science Group's pitch is that a 50 cent Edison bulb will last for 750 to 3,000 hours, while an LED has to be replaced only every 50,000 hours (or 10 to 30 years). The company says the cost savings is almost $740 over a lifetime due to much lower energy consumption.
Vrinda Bhandarkar, a research analyst at Mountain View, Calif.-based Strategies Unlimited, said she is impressed if the "bulky looking lamps" actually perform as well as the company says. But the price has to come down a lot before consumers--and not just businesses--start buying them, she said. For a proper light in the kitchen it would take at least four big bulbs, which would cost about $440.
"They will be used for retail display, hotel lobbies, for paintings that hang up high, and places where you need a high ladder to change lamps," she said.
Gibler, who has a lengthy career in the lighting industry and took on responsibility for business development at Lighting Science Group last year, believes the price for LED lights will come down as chips get cheaper.
"They will be half the cost in another two years," he said.
(Credit:
ThinkGeek)
Why did this LED lightbulb catch our eye? Three simple reasons: 1) We like LED stuff; 2) we like weird remotes even more, and 3) Caroline McCarthy demands that we post anything that might vaguely qualify as "color-changey."
Naturally, this multi-color LED lightbulb with remote was a no-brainer. The bulb, which we saw on the Gadgets Weblog, has 16 colors that can be adjusted at various brightness intensities and includes "transitions effects" such as longer times on particular colors and slow fades in between. Perfect to create the right mood, per orders from the The Ladies Man.
Most lightbulbs create light with a pair electrodes. Luxim does it with radio waves.
The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based start-up has come up with a way to get rid of the parts inside of high intensity discharge (HID) lamps that are often the first to fail. As a result, Luxim's LiFi (light fidelity) lamp provides more lumens per watt and lasts longer than competing products, according to the company.
Your fancy lightbulb, sir.
(Credit: luxim)In traditional HID lamps, high voltage pulses pass between two electrodes. The energy creates plasma from the ambient gases trapped inside the bulb and you get light. The electrodes, however, degrade over time. Tungsten splatters off of them and blackens the surface of the bulb.
By contrast, the Luxim bulb doesn't have electrodes. Instead, a radio frequency amplifier pumps RF waves to an antenna inside a resonant cavity. The interaction between the waves and the crystal cavity convert trapped gases into a plasma.
"The structure creates a concentrated electrical field in response to a standing wave," explains Julian Carey, vice president of sales at Luxim. "It creates a plasma inside a quartz capsule."
Luxim's bulbs get 120 lumens per watt, thus making them more energy efficient. By contrast, many HIDs only get 90 lumens per watt. (Top-end LEDs crank out around 70 lumens per watt). Light sources are big with investors these days.
Panasonic has inserted Luxim's bulb into projection TVs. It can also be used in projectors. Investors include Crosslink Capital and Sequoia Capital.
"It has a 5X lifetime" in projectors over regular bulbs, Carey said. "The lifetime of the light source is as long as the projector itself."
Radio waves are part of the electromagnetic spectrum (so says the Harvard grad at the desk next door) like visible light and microwaves. But they have a different wavelength.
Retro, as we've noted in this space, is the new new. And though it may be a bit premature to declare the incandescent lightbulb in that category, it seems we're getting closer all the time. That may be why Ecogeek is touting the GlowBrick phosphorescent light cube, which pays homage to the bulb's iconic form without wasting energy. It could also help scare away kids on Halloween when you run out of candy.
(Photo: Ecogeek)
We got a kick out of this slightly mind-bending lightbulb by 100% Design. In addition to adding some verve to the common household item, the Lamp/Lamp, coming soon, adds another possible joke to the lightbulb-joke genre: How many bloggers does it take to...well, you get the picture.
Thanks, Gizmodo, for helping us see the light on this wacky gadget.
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