GeoBulb LED light bulb uses just eight watts, rings up at $120
By Darren Murph 
posted Mar 29th 2009 11:51PM
posted Mar 29th 2009 11:51PM
[Via Times-Standard]
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Hey! You got your tentacles in my lightbulb!
You got your lightbulb in my tentacles!
What's with the octopus/doily?
its "grabbing" the future :P
I believe it is a heat sink, since led bulbs run pretty hot
heat sink seems unlikely for a number of reasons...
The first, and most prominent being that heat is a sign of inefficiency when it comes to lighting systems... How can a bulb that uses only 8 watts produce more heat than a 60-100W bulb that is giving off approximately the same amount of luminous energy?
Second, it seems that even if the bulb was massively inefficient (8 Watts of thermal heat generation), even ignoring forced convection, if you approximate the surface as a sphere... actually I'm going to stop before I start calculating the rate of heat transfer, I have a whole class for that, I shouldnt be doing it in my free time (over worked chemical engineering student here >_>)... I'll just leave it to my 'engineering intuition' (as the profs call it) to say that the bulb should do just fine without any kind of heat sink unless the materials have a far lower melting point (which is possible, comparing tungsten to an LED... but unlikely to that magnitude).
cheers
benhc911: Please read up on LED Thermal Management Basics over here: http://www.lunaraccents.com/educational-LED-thermal-management.html
I believe that the octopus/doily is two fold. 1) A Heat Sink and 2) a creative way of making this bulb look similar in shape to a standard incandescent.
led is not comparable to incandescent in terms of heat. you can't run a chip at lightbulb temps..it be dead in a second:)
heatsink is required.
Dangit, Ham Sandwich, that was good. Almost too good...
pass
It looks like it is eating itself... to save power, I'd wager.
Man that is a sexy looking light bulb
Seconded.
http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=10051&langId=-1&catalogId=10053&productId=100527355&N=10000003+90401+4566+4294910899
$5.85 for 4. Use a whole 6 watts more. BFD.
Well the price of the LED lights are very high but that's because it is new tech. Once the prices fall this will replaced CFL's because they are better for the earth because they don't use any Mercury like CFL's do. That's why they say you should not just toss a CFL in the trash. It is not really just about the little lower wattage.
You'll need a hasmat team to come clean up the mercury in them if they break. This video is a must see. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tv59PJ30WeM
LED Bulb breaks in your fridge. No Problem
CFL Bulb breaks in your fridge (not counting the temp problem) Enjoy at your own risk
Uses DOUBLE the power, and has less than HALF the lifespan. Great comparison.
Why would you spend so much money on a bulb to put in the fridge? How long do you keep the door open?
Gilbert King:
>>This video is a must see.
[[Citation required]]
Doesn't seem worth it to me either... but I guess that's the case for many new technologies. Still, for sake of comparison, I've got a 7w CFL at my home that had been on 24/7 for roughly 3 years and 9 months. Yeah, yeah... I get that this is doesn't have the same drawbacks as a CFL, but it's still just LEDs. I mean, come on.. $120? The CFL was like $4.
God so this is the next product I'm going to hear advertised on Coast 2 Coast constantly.
Wow, at an average of $12 a year you can have an expensive light bulb - I thinkI'll just stauy with my CFL and their $1 a year expense.
$120 may sound like a lot for a lightbulb, but it's got a second use .. in the daytime you can play badminton with it.
If it doesn't have that flicker usually associated with LED bulbs, I may just buy one.
This uses a different kind of LEDs
Those don't flicker
Sam's Club has 1.5 watt LEDs that are supposed to be a 40 watt equivalent in three packs for $15. The ones I bought have been working great for the last couple of weeks.
This uses a different kind of LED.
This has MUCH better color rendition (ie. the light is much nicer), packs much more power, and lasts much longer (this does last lots of years going strong.. The ones you have will be either out or notably dim in, at most, a year)
Of course, this is assuming the ones you have are of the kind that have multiple small LEDs in them. That technology is considered obsolete for lighting among those of us who know about LED lighting. If you got of the ones that have only a few big LEDs and a huge heatsink, then congrats, you got the deal of the decade.
CFL bulbs were touted has power saving and longer lasting so I paid the extra money. But I can say now that I've tried almost every brand of CFL bulb out there and they all fail way before their lifetime. I know that your not supposed to put them in closed enclosure, so I don't. But the heat from just one bulb itself is enough to cause it to malfunction over time. Looking closely at dead bulbs, i've seen them burn a little brown near where the glass enclosure hits the plastic.
At the cost of that LED, i question whether it really lasts as long as it says. Often, companies push profit margins too far. I already get plenty of bulb failures from CFLs, and high quality LEDs are hot enough to need actual heat sinks to cool them. I'm all for saving money but i think ill wait this one out. Claiming stuff on paper =/ real life.
Absolutely correct. CFLs are made just a bit too crappy, so when the comparisons on energy, waste, and bulb life are calculated, they never consider that about 10-15% of CFLs die WAY before they are supposed to. Incandescent bulbs, by comparison, almost never have infant mortality. Of course with 15% early mortality, CFLs still win the energy equation. I just wish there was a place I could spend another dollar or two and get a more reliable CFL bulb. As it is, the expensive bulbs are made no better than the Costco specials. What dies is not the bulb, but the electronic components in the base.
Unlike CFLs or Traditional bulbs, the 30,000 hour rating is also a 70% output rating, meaning they will last much longer than 30,000 hours, they will just put out less than 70% of the power they did at hour 1.
I like the design of the heatsink.
I'd really like to see a LED bulb to replace spot lights and large outdoor lighting requirements as well. I've been using energy efficient bulbs for many years (they last longer). It is good to see LED technology advancing, hopefully I replace every light buld wih energy efficinet soon.
Pffff!!!! LED bulbs come with heat sinks not because they will melt, burn or explode. It's because the cooler they are, the BRIGHTER they get. That's why.
No.
LEDs can still melt or burn out ahead of claimed lifetime if there's no heat-sinking. Too little or too much heatsinking can certainly affect lumen output and color rendering while it's still burning though.
I have 18 bulbs in my home. About eight of them are on any time both my roommate and I are home.
Supposing I wanted to replace only the commonly used bulbs with LED bulbs, that would run about $1,000.
What a joke. I might be willing to spend up to $10 per bulb (Total of $80)... but for $1,000, I'd be better off lighting my rooms legions of Olevia HDTVs.
Do you pay the electricity bills? If so, then if you calculated the cost of how much money you and your roommate would save over the course of your lives using these "expensive" lightbulbs you would realize that they're maybe just worth it. But of course that requires foresight, something you likely lack.
Wonderful... of course LED's CRI is still even worse than those ghastly CFLs...
Not much worse
The Z-Power P7, a common LED among high-power LED enthusiasts, has a CRI of 70: http://www.seoulsemicon.com/en/product/prd/zpowerLEDp7.asp
Very cheap CFLs have less than that
CRI of 70 is an ugly light. I should have said, LEDs have a lower CRI than the ghastly CRI of even the good CFLs.
Daylight CFLs have CRI of about 88. I've got some; they seem pretty nice to me and I like the way you can have them on when it's only a bit gloomy, rather than totally dark outside, and it merges with the daylight without clashing so much... Most people prefer the 'soft' light though.
As for this LED bulb, nice efficiency and I like the style of that heatsink. With all those little holes the heatsink actually reminds me of a gas mantle (and no, I'm not old enough to have seen one of those outside a museum). LED bulbs should be good for situations where CFLs aren't really suitable because the light's turned on and off frequently. Unfortunately, the price is still a little high.
@benhc911 - It most certainly IS a heatsink. But while the LED bulb throws off only 7.5W of heat (a bit less since some energy is making light), and the incandescent makes 60W of heat, the tungsten filament in the 60W bulb LOVES heat (that's what is making it glow), while semiconductor LEDs don't like heat at all. Without serious heatsinking, the LEDs will die. They also make less light the hotter they get.
Finally, a low-power LED bulb in a beautiful package. This would make an excellent topper for a wizard's staff.
This is what pops up over Cthulu's head when it has an idea
Maximum Light!
I have a feeling these bulbs won't sell well to the trypophobia crowd.
Lumos!!!
Lumos schlumos - i'd shout "VAS LOR" =)
Uses 1/5x the power, but it's brighter, & 2/3s the cost.
http://store.earthled.com/collections/earthled-evolux
I meant to say, uses 1.5x the power...