The light bulb was one of the greatest inventions in mankind’s history. Since then, light bulbs haven’t really gone through many changes until very recently. Newer technologies such as CFL and LED technology greatly reduce wasted energy while still providing usable light.
And then you have things like this — the Hybrid CFL + Halogen bulb made by GE. The reason for the mash-up is rather minor — CFL’s can sometimes take up to a minute to fully illuminate. During that ~1 minute start up time, the tiny halogen inside provides instant light. Once the CFL is up to full speed, the halogen shuts off.
Pointless? Yeah, pretty much. Given that these “new” hybrids will fetch a small premium (undisclosed thus far) and don’t actually offer anything new or useful means these will more than likely fail to take off.
- September 16, 2009 5:16 am
Having to constantly replace light bulbs in your house is not only a pain in the you know what, it’s a constant reminder of the money you’re literally burning away day in and day out. Compact fluorescents have come and alleviated some of the pain of illuminating our man-made structures yet there is still progress to be had. Enter the realm of Panasonic land where we measure bulb life in decades — not hours. Initial models of said bulb will shine with roughly the same output as your old and trusted 60 watt incandescent. So it isn’t the brightest, but you’ll save a ton of money. Also to consider is price. Because of the “newness” factor, expect to pay around $40/bulb…in Japan…come October. Then again, costing a whopping $2/year in energy costs and a lifetime of 19 years will easily sell itself. Order me a case…
Source: Dvice, Inhabitat, Cnet
Imagine a world where we didn’t have to have lights in every room with accompanying fixtures and stands taking up valuable space in our living quarters. Imagine a world where light could be placed anywhere we wanted, invisible to the naked eye until we needed it. Jonas Samson has envisioned and created what is quite possibly the coolest interior design product ever: Light Emitting Wallpaper. The paper is actually constructed of several layers; one for electricity, one where the LED’s reside, and finally a traditional wallpaper layer on top. Using the LED’s will greatly reduce the size and energy footprint (green #1) of the household which in return saves money on your wallet for electric bills. One caveat however is the cost. Marketed as a higher end premium product, those green bills you will save from reduced electrical costs will go in to the rather pricey entrance fee to join the cool kids club. With a price of roughly 6000 Euros/$8,500 USD (per yard?….green #2), only the truly wealthy will enjoy this new wallpaper for the immediate future. If you’re itching to get your own, you may want to put the horse back in the stable for a bit as it hasn’t been released to the public yet. Prohibitive costs aside, this wallpaper is insanely cool. Would you deck out your house in it?
Source: Walyou, Jonas Samson
Lighting as of late has been on a mad rush towards LED’s as they are smaller, run much cooler, and use far less energy than old, and inefficient incandescent light bulbs. But why let tree huggers and global warming nonsense get in the way of you and your passion for good ‘ol warming sensations from incandescent light bulbs. The USB powered incandescent light will add that familiar yesteryear glow to whatever it is that needs a little extra guiding light in your life while simultaneously making your energy bill rise. Super! Joking aside, this is the first incandescent USB powered light that I know of (please correct me if I’m wrong). While the more forward thinking will stay clear of such old and antiquated technology, sticklers of the good ‘ol days will feel right at home as they venture into this new landscape of gadgetry. To get yours, stop on by JTT and let go of $15 from your grasp.
Source: Coolest Gadgets, New Launches
