Saturday, April 24, 2010

Ain't Technology Grand?



It's amazing what happens when energy prices go up. People go to work and invent new products that use less energy. We've seen it in the automobile industry with the advent of hybrids that get 40 to 50 miles per gallon; and electric cars soon to appear at home driveways. We've seen the trend to sustainable and recycled in furniture which save resources. Then came the CFL, which was eight times longer lasting than an incandescent light bulb.

We've read about LED lights, but they have not been either cheap enough or emitting the right light, but that's about to change. GE just presented a LED light bulb that emit as much light as a will 40-watt incandescent, but will only consume 9 watts. It will last 25,000 hours three times as long as a CFL and 25 times an incandescent. Philips, not to be outdone, will offer later this year a LED that will emit as much light as a 60-watt incandescent bulb, but consume just 12 watts of power and is dimmable.
Lighting consumes 22% of the electricity in the U.S., much of which gets wasted.

If the LED trend becomes a way of life, waste from light could be greatly eliminated
My main concerns are the color of the light and the cost. It can't be too white. It must be like the color of candle light and it must be affordable.

Bev & Mike
Landfair Furniture + Design gallery
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2 comments:

Joel and Stacey said...

I will be very interested to see how the new bulbs perform! We have been looking into them for sometime too and like you I am concerned about the color. If the Philips version is comparable to a 60watt, the right color light AND dimmable that would be awesome!

traci zeller designs said...

Thanks for stopping by my blog! You are so right -- I'll be very interested in how these LEDs perform. I really just can't stand the look of most CFLs, although I haven't tried the GE Reveal CFL. I'm such a fan of the regular GE Reveal and everything else just doesn't look as good!