A better light bulb

Osram Sylvania has introduced a 100 watt equivalent LED bulb whose shape and light color mimics that of a traditional incandescent. [NY Times]

Light Bulb Manufacturers unhappy with Congress

U.S. light bulb manufacturers are displeased that Republican lawmakers have delayed efforts to introduce more efficient bulbs, a move that was supposed to have taken effect January 1.

Manufacturers like General Electric, Philips, and Osram Sylvania have been planning for four years to meet the new efficiency standards, which would have required incandescent bulbs to be 30 percent more energy-efficient.

But in negotiating a year-end spending bill last week, Republicans in the House of Representatives and Senate included language that blocks the Energy Department from enforcing those rules.

The National Electric Manufacturers Association has been urging lawmakers not to delay enforcement of the new efficiency standards, arguing that light bulb makers have been planning to introduce new, more efficient bulbs since the passage of an energy law in 2007 under President George W. Bush. 

Philips introduces 75W equivalent LED light

Philips claims that the new lamp will create light that will be indistinguishable from a standard incandescent light bulb. 

LED lamps are expected to revolutionize the lighting industry because of their sharply reduced power consumption and their long life compared with standard incandescents. But to date, market acceptance has been slow given the high initial cost and limited brightness. LED lamps have only been able to emit light equivalent to a 60-watt standard bulb.

On Friday, Philips will look to change that game by announcing that it will market an LED lamp later this year whose light output equals that of a 75-watt incandescent.

The bulb, the EnduraLED A21, will retail for about $40, last 25,000 hours and produce 1100 lumens of light by consuming just 17 watts of electricity. (A standard 75-watt lampfrom GE produces 1170 lumens.) 

Over the life of the lamp, Massachusetts consumers will save $300 in electricity costs alone and will break even in 1.6 years.  

"The trick with an A lamp is how to project 1100 lumens in 360 degrees," said Ed Crawford, general manager of lamps for Philips Lighting, North America. "It's absolutely more difficult to do 1100 lumens in an omni-directional lamp."

To accomplish that, the new lamp, available around September or October, contains 18 LED modules fixed in multiple directions. Various metal fins surrounding the lamp are used to dissipate heat.

Read more in the NY Times article

Changing that light bulb - no big deal?

Lester Brown reports that shifting to CFLs in homes, to the most advanced linear fluorescents in office buildings, commercial outlets, and factories, and to LEDs in traffic lights would cut the world share of electricity used for lighting from 19 percent to 7 percent. This would save enough electricity to close 705 of the world's 2,670 coal-fired plants. (See data.)

That's more than 1/4 of all the coal plants in the world. 

That's a pretty big deal!

Boston based Lighting Efficiency Company

Digital Lumens introduced a wireless sensor and software controlled LED lighting system for commercial lighting installations that it claims will reduce energy use by up to 90%. 

Each "Intelligent Light Engine" has a built-in on-board computer – as well as sensors and wireless mesh networking capabilities that share key information across the system.

The Intelligent Light Engines form a Smart Light Grid – a lighting network – that enables all fixtures in the system to communicate with each other, respond to a neighboring fixture's state and/or system-wide programming, and provide usage and occupancy data to the Light Rules management system.

http://www.digitallumens.com/2010/03/digital-lumens-enters-led-lighting-market-with-game-changing-approach-to-energy-efficiency/

http://www.digitallumens.com/2010/03/a-radical-approach-to-energy-efficiency/