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| Closer to Energy Breakthrough in Lighting |
| 2005-09-02 |
| I've posted on previous development in this area. I also hold stock in CREE. DURHAM, N.C., Sept. 2 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Cree, Inc. (Nasdaq: CREE - News), a leader in..., today announced breakthrough performance results achieved in development of Cree Lighting's standard white XLamp(TM) 7090 Power LED. XLamp 7090 LEDs in development have demonstrated maximum luminous flux of 86 lumens and 70 lumens per watt at 350 mA [for comparison sake, ordinary incandescent bulbs give about 8-15 lumens per watt, e.g. an 75 watt Phillips gets about 1200 lumens; high pressure sodium vapor lamps get up to about 80 lumens per watt]. This represents a 43 percent increase in brightness compared with the maximum luminous flux of white XLamp 7090 power LEDs currently in production. "These performance results... closer to achieving the holy grail of 150 lumens per watt," ... [because this is close to the theoretical maximum efficiency] ... notes Steve Johnson, head of the Lighting Research Group at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.... [since LEDs can be made modularly and potentially cheaply, if we get to the 150 lumen/watt stage, it would save enormous quantities of energy and much safer (because of the low current). LEDs currently provide most of the lighting for PDAs, cell phones, etc.] |
| Posted by:mhw |
| #9 I'm still amazed and entertained for hours by my Clapper™ |
| Posted by: Frank G 2005-09-02 19:40 |
| #8 LED lights are getting pretty cheap. If you want to try one without spending a lot of money: 20-LED Pivot Lantern $15.99. Battery or plugin. Great for camping. 5% off coupon |
| Posted by: ed 2005-09-02 18:51 |
| #7 Put me down for 6 so I don't have risk life and limb in certain tree houses. |
| Posted by: Mona Gorilla 2005-09-02 16:08 |
| #6 LED emergency lights could allow emergency illumination in building spaces for many more hours on the same batteries that run incandescent emergency lights for 90 minutes now. I have my emergency light right on my keychain. :) |
| Posted by: Bomb-a-rama 2005-09-02 16:01 |
| #5 BH Existing incandescents have a lifetime of about 1000- 3000 hours of use. The high pressure sodium vapor lights go up to 40,000 hours. In theory an LED light ought to last practically forever but the company is aiming for lifetimes of 100,000 hours. Regarding cost, the cost will probably be initially set as the maximum price that will enable the company to sell everything it produces - so it will start rather high - say $50. However, as they add more production capacity and their R&D costs are spread over more revenue, the price would go down. |
| Posted by: mhw 2005-09-02 13:31 |
| #4 Sorry for the silly question, but how long do these things last? Maybe $50 isn't too bad! |
| Posted by: Curt Simon 2005-09-02 13:17 |
| #3 Wake me up when they announce a production cost breakthrough. And $50 a bulb isn't what I consider a production cost breakthrough. |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2005-09-02 12:21 |
| #2 I was talking to a rep for Dual-Lite emergency lights the other day. They are not quite there yet for minimum ft-candles for LED emergency lights. LED emergency lights could allow emergency illumination in building spaces for many more hours on the same batteries that run incandescent emergency lights for 90 minutes now. |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2005-09-02 11:16 |
| #1 demonstrated maximum luminous flux of 86 lumens and 70 lumens per watt Ye gods, man. I just want to check my text messages, not melt the skin off my face. |
| Posted by: BH 2005-09-02 11:06 |