This
is not about energy efficiency as we already have that. It is about
light quality. This is a major breakthrough on sheer quality and
flexibility. We can set up any geometry and I expect we will soon
love light panels. A hanging tile gets rid of a lot of hardware we
have no need for.
How
about a parabolic shell that emits light? The options become endless
the moment you are not dealing with a lot of metal and glass in
awkward places.
So
yes, this technology will meet price point and be outright superior
in light quality. It will still roll out slowly but soon become
fashionable and everywhere.
We
will really have luminescence rooms in a range of colors such as gold
that augment the white light we use to see well. Perhaps the
darkened room will go out of fashion.
Professor Invents
The Best New Lightbulb In 30 Years
Dina Spector
Jan. 22, 2013
Lighting accounts
for about 12 percent of total U.S. energy consumption.
Part of the reason the
figure is so high is that traditional incandescent bulbs (Edison's
filament bulb) eat up a lot of power to produce light: 90 percent of
the energy is wasted as heat.
So far the main
alternatives to the common bulb have been compact fluorescent lights,
or CFLs, and light-emitting diodes, or LEDs, which can produce the
same amount of light as traditional bulbs while using way less
energy.
Soon, a fourth
lighting option will be thrown into the mix. It's called the FIPEL,
which is short for field-induced polymer electroluminescent
technology.
"This is the
first new light bulb in about thirty years," says Dr. David
Carroll, a professor of physics at Wake Forest University in North
Carolina, who developed the new light source.
To understand how this
technology functions, you can think of how a microwave works, Carroll
explains.
Take a potato, for
example. When you place your potato in the microwave and press start,
the device hits the potato with microwaves that induce what's known
as a displacement current, meaning it makes the water molecules in
the potato flip back and forth. This heats the potato up. What
Carroll and his team have done is develop a special type of plastic
that, when hit with an electric current, induces a displacement
current in the same way. But in this case, it doesn't give off heat,
it gives off light.
The new light source
is made of several layers of very thin plastic. Each sheet is about
100,000 times thinner than the width of a human hair. The plastic is
inserted between an aluminum electrode and a transparent conducting
electrode. When a current is passed through the device, it stimulates
the plastic to light up.
Luckily for Carroll,
FIPEL has entered the lighting technology ring at a time of
unprecedented opportunity. The phaseout of traditional incandescent
bulbs began to take effect at the start of the new year under the
2007 Energy Independence and Security Act.
As of Jan. 1, 2013,
manufacturers can no longer sell 75-watt incandescents. The 40-
and 60-watt incandescents will no longer be available starting Jan.
1, 2014.
FIPEL’s
light quality is unmatched by any technology currently, the
product's manufacturer claims.
CFLs use about 75
percent less electricity than Edison's filament bulb to produce the
same amount of light. LEDs use even less. This means to make the same
light as a 100-watt incandescent, a compact fluorescent uses 23 watts
and an LED uses 20.
The FIPEL is slightly
more efficient than a CFL bulb and on par with an LED, but comes with
a few advantages over these other types of lights. CFLs and other
fluorescent light bulbs contain a very small amount of mercury, which
can be toxic if not disposed of properly. FIPELs do not use any
caustic chemicals in manufacturing and can easily be recycled because
they're made of plastic.
Some LEDs give off a
blueish tint, which many people don't like to look at. FIPEL, on the
other hand, can be made to have any tint, including the yellowish hue
of the sun that our eyes have come to prefer, having evolved on
Earth.
"FIPEL can match
the response of your eye more perfectly than any other lamp ever
created," Carroll told Business Insider.
Although the new light
source doesn't have the shape of a traditional light bulb — it's
more a panel — it is moldable, so it can be customized to fit into
conventional light sockets and work with many different types of lamp
fixtures.
The FIPEL light has a
lifetime of between 25,000 and 50,000 hours, which is comparable to
an LED.
Carroll notes one
drawback to FIPEL.
"From a pure
physics point of view, the best efficiency that you could ever
accomplish with this lamp is still going to be slightly lower than
the best efficiency you could ever accomplish with an LED," says
Carroll. Right now, LEDs do not perform at their theoretical
best. But as both technologies mature, you can expect the LED to
come out on top in terms of overall efficiency.
The FIPEL technology
is currently under an exclusive world-wide license by CeeLite
Technologies. David Sutton, management consultant for CeeLite, said
the first units for commercial use will be available by the end of
2013. The new bulb will cost less than LEDs and slightly more than
CFLs.
"In five years,
instead of saying I've got to get a new bulb, you're going to be
saying I've got to get a new FIPEL. I do believe that these are going
to be ubiquitous," says Carroll.
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/fipel-lighting-technology-david-carroll-wake-forrest-2013-1#ixzz2IonkOtvG
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