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A light bulb that lasts for 30 years sounds pretty sweet
We all know about halogen light bulbs and how much more efficient they are than regular light bulbs, but they aren't the end-all be-all of lighting solutions. In fact, there's a new bulb out there that make halogens look downright irresponsible.
This LED light bulb, designed by Frog Design, will last you for a whopping 30 years before burning out, using a fraction of the energy of normal bulbs. It's shaped like a regular old lightbulb, and it plugs into any regular light socket. Whether or not the light is a warm glow or a harsh white light is yet to be seen, but if it's the former, get ready to never change a light bulb again.
Frog Design, via PSFK
By Craysh at 8:07 PM ON 10/22/08
I just had 3 light bulbs go out practically in sequence. Me Wanty...
By Batwaffel at 1:25 AM ON 10/23/08
This was featured several months ago with pretty much the same information that was just posted. How about a word on when these things are going to come out and how much?
The other thing that gets me is, while it looks cool, a single LED will be pretty much useless unless they designed this thing in a way to which it will wash instead of remain directional. A clear bulb... that would be hard to do.
By the Ramen Noodle at 1:43 PM ON 10/23/08
Perhaps the omnidirectional ability of an LED is what makes it much more expensive to produce.
By Holysheet at 3:54 PM ON 10/23/08
but... the question is the price? if it costs like 10,000 bucks for one... then it would be kind of bad?
By Boxerfanatic at 4:51 PM ON 10/23/08
The directionality of the light is mostly up to the optics involved. The diode itself only emits one frequency of light, in one direction.
Phosphors or multiple LEDs of different colors, and other glowing additives can modify the light by adding light of a different frequencies.
Then the optics re-direct that light, and cover the diode to protect it. Some optics don't modify the direction of the light, other optics do. The trick that has been difficult has been to maintain brightness while spreading the light pattern out toward omni-directional, like a glowing filament, which gives off light radiantly in all directions.
The wider you try to spread LED light, the uniformly less intense it gets from any given direction. So the LED output gets raised, or more LEDs get added.
It will be interesting to see if an incandescent replacement LED bulb will end up being comparable to incandescent in frequency (color/color temperature) and radiance. (uniform flood pattern.)
By CoolProducts at 2:18 PM ON 10/24/08
If I'm not mistaken, LED technology keeps getting cheaper.. therefore high life, low energy consumption products will probably be a growing trend in the future as well as having relatively cheap price tags.
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CoolProducts:
If I'm not mistaken, LED technology keeps getting cheaper.. therefore high life, low energy consumption products wi...More »