Eternaleds debuts world's first liquid-cooled LED light bulb

We know you probably wouldn't answer "What's the perfect companion to a liquid-cooled PC?" with "a liquid-cooled light bulb," but amazingly enough, that's a viable answer starting today. Eternaleds is stepping up big with planet's first liquid-cooled LED bulb, the HydraLux-4, which will arrive in warm white and daylight white and should save you bundles on your energy bill over the next score. The company asserts that these bulbs produce "360 degree lighting" and can emit the same amount of illumination as a 25W incandescent with just 4W of energy. Each bulb is rated for 35,000 hours of use, and considering that a single one costs only $1.75 per year to run (at eight hours per day), we suppose the stiff $34.99 sticker is somewhat warranted.

[chris nolte @ Jul 15th 2009 7:19PM]

first lol

[Jinto @ Jul 15th 2009 7:41PM]

...

[dan @ Jul 15th 2009 8:04PM]

Let me get this straight...

It's 25W incandescent of light for 4W of cost? The equivalent in compact fluorescent is 5.75W of cost. Not much of an efficiency bump, and probably not much of a lifespan bump, for what will be an exorbitant price bump. But a bunch of rich people will have it. . . .

[KMAN @ Jul 15th 2009 11:01PM]

@Dan

You are only looking at this on one dimension...

Florescent bulbs light output diminishes over time and the bulbs don't last nearly as long as an LED (esp. a well cooled one).

CFL bulbs also have a flicker, which for most is subtle while LED bulbs are a solid state, so its a constant thus far more pleasant light. CFLs also have a slower start up time...

Not necessarily saying LED bulbs are THE answer, just understand that there are many variables.

I ordered one of each spectrum of these bulbs after being very happy with this bulb:
http://www.earthled.com/evolux-led-light-bulb.html

[why not the LS2LS7? @ Jul 16th 2009 12:10AM]

White LEDs used in these devices use phosphors, just like CFLs and thus have the same light quality as CFLs and also dim over time too. Also, you cannot see CFLs flicker, they flicker at about 30,000Hz, which is about 400 times too high for even the most sensitive person to see them flicker.

CFLs do take longer to turn on, but honestly, even cheap (I paid about $2.00 a bulb) CFLs turn on before I can get my hand off the light switch (about 1/3rd second) so they're more than fast enough.

[DarkLight @ Jul 16th 2009 1:00AM]

@LS2LS7: No. Technically it's turning on, but it produces a very dim light, and takes a short but very very annoying while to reach full power. It only gets worse in winter. LEDs produce a very satisfactory "instant full-on" and "instant full-off".

And no the light quality is not the same. LEDs are less than stellar (compared to incandescent), but CFLs are much worse, they always give me headaches. I don't know why, but they do. Up until I made the jump to LED, I was using fair "full-spectrum" CFLs (of the cheaper ones that are acually only above average in terms of CRI, but that's still above average), and I couldn't stand them, that's what pushed me to LED in the first place.

LEDs don't dim over time as dramatically as CFLs, and if the lamp is well designed they last waaaaay longer.

For the record, most LED lamps also flicker because of PWM power control...

[why not the LS2LS7? @ Jul 16th 2009 1:33AM]

DarkLight:
No, I'm not dumb here. It is at over 60% brightness by the time I get my finger off the switch.

I have bulbs you could not tell are CFLs because they're in enclosed fixtures. You cannot see the flicker, the pause at turn on is barely perceptible. If you pay close attention you will notice that it isn't quite full brightness for about 30-35 seconds, but it's much more than bright enough. One of them is outside on my porch, I've had no coldness problems (however, it doesn't get below about 35F here).

No, neither CFLs nor LEDs match the CRI of incandescents, but on a good CFL you won't be able to tell the difference except in really weird cases.

Philips (Lumileds) seems to think LEDs drop in output over time significantly. Are you saying they don't know what they are talking about?

I was wrong about the light quality. Not all white LEDs used in these situations use phosphors. The ones that do act very much like CFLs (except for instant on), the other ones have a bluish cast to the light, but do have no phosphors and can have a better CRI.

[Valicore @ Jul 16th 2009 1:57AM]

What about the mercury in CFLs?

[why not the LS2LS7? @ Jul 16th 2009 2:18AM]

The amount of mercury is miniscule. There is only 3x as much mercury in a can of tuna as there is in a CFL, and the tuna is designed to go directly in your mouth.

If you get your electricity from coal, the amount of mercury emitted by a power plant to run an incandescent bulb over its lifetime versus a fluorescent bulb over its lifetime is many times as much as the amount of mercury in the bulb.

[Rick @ Jul 16th 2009 10:45AM]

@ LS2LS7- CFLs for recessed lights, they are a little smaller and are stuck inside a r40(?) shell take half a minute to get to full brightness. So while, yes, they do turn on instantly, they take a while to get to full brightness and that can be odd when used in a closet.

They do flicker. I have then in my dining room chandelier and the flicker is extremely annoying and I'm concidering going back to incans.

[DarkLight @ Jul 16th 2009 1:59PM]

Well, I agree that you can't really see much of a difference over those white-painted "soft" incandescents, but neither can you with the good LEDs. On the other hand, I can see the difference between CFLs and LEDs very clearly - LEDs have a better tone (as long as you don't buy the bluish ones). CFLs, there's just something wrong with them. Unless you buy of the expensive ones that cost as much as the LEDs (or more).

And as for LEDs dimming down fast, well, at least I don't know what they're talking about.. Maybe they're talking about their own LEDs, which are some years behind in terms of technology.

The CREE XLamp is guaranteed at 70% initial output after 100,000 hours of continuous usage.
This is running at the intended power of 1W. A very important detail, because apparently it's a common practice to overdrive 1W LEDs at 2 or 3W (since they can run for a good while even when overdriven this way). That's why I said "if the lamp is well designed".

Also, AFAIK all LEDs use phosphors.. The difference is that the cheap ones produce blue light and shine it into a yellow phosphor, producing a light that looks white but actually isn't. The good ones produce UV light into an RGB phosphor, giving out true white light. And theoretically (though I don't know if they're in production) there is a third kind which uses RGB+CMY phosphors. This last one would be kickin' butts in terms of light quality.

[nrb @ Jul 16th 2009 3:35PM]

I agree with some of you about CFLs. They do flicker. Maybe they're not supposed to, but they do. I had CFLs all over my house, but I removed most of them, as they were driving me nuts.

I also tried CFLs as my outdoor lights. I didn't care if they flickered a little. In the winter, They start at maybe 10% brightness and take 30-40 minutes to obtain full brightness? Useless. Replaced with all motion sensing incandescent and mercury vapor.

I'm also tired of the CFL ratings. Why is a 60W equivalent, once it gets to full brightness, so much dimmer than a 60W incandescent?

Of course, there's the issue with (intentionally) dimmable CFLs.

The only place I still have CFLs is the laundry room. The lights in there are on all of the time and I'm not concerned with light quality. I want better and lower power bulbs, but there's not a good alternative for most situations. Bright LEDs are just too expensive.

[Erb @ Jul 15th 2009 7:21PM]

If the water is inside bulb shaped glass, wouldn't it eventually get hot enough to boil and bust? O.o
(I have no clue how hot the LED will actually get, just curious)

[Jinto @ Jul 15th 2009 7:24PM]

Liquid cooled, doubt its water. Oil maybe?

[Kevin Atkison @ Jul 15th 2009 7:26PM]

"Likewise, the liquid inside is equivalent in composition to baby oil so it's completely non-toxic and UL compliant." It's boiling point is prolly much higher than H20.

[j_g_puff @ Jul 15th 2009 7:31PM]

I've got baby oil.
I've got LEDs.
I've got a glue gun and some perspex tubing.

Anyone want to pay me $34 to knock something up?

[BigD145 @ Jul 15th 2009 7:36PM]

$34 won't cover even the first month's child support payment.

[Rekit @ Jul 15th 2009 7:24PM]

water + lightbulbs = me scared

[James @ Jul 15th 2009 10:24PM]

Its not water its oil.

[dsteve303 @ Jul 15th 2009 7:26PM]

I didnt know LED bulbs had to be cooled?

[Michael Scrip @ Jul 15th 2009 7:30PM]

Yeah... most LED bulbs of this size have huge heatsinks, or in the this case, liquid.

Maybe it has to do with power conversion or something? Do these things have transformers in them?

[BigD145 @ Jul 15th 2009 7:37PM]

LED's are diodes. Diodes heat up.

[Miguelitosd @ Jul 15th 2009 7:43PM]

@Michael Scrip
ah, I missed the metal heat sync in relation to the 360degree claim. Otherwise I was going to ask how exactly existing lights don't give off light for 360degrees. If just comparing to other, similarly classed LED bulbs.. then it makes sense.

[Pena47 @ Jul 15th 2009 7:26PM]

lol, don't drop it!

[Kevlar @ Jul 15th 2009 7:54PM]

Dropping a "normal" incandescent or CFL bulb would produce a similar result: the bulb would stop working.
This one would shatter in a puddle of oil, not explode and send glass shards everywhere.

[Tdburn @ Jul 15th 2009 7:27PM]

According to the description: "the liquid inside is equivalent in composition to baby oil so it's completely non-toxic and UL compliant."

Sweet stuff. I love the idea of LED lighting but are they all still in the BLUE realm of the spectrum?

[DarkLight @ Jul 16th 2009 12:46AM]

"which will arrive in warm white"

RTFA.

[acme @ Jul 15th 2009 7:31PM]

wonder if they can make it uv reactive

[Darak @ Jul 15th 2009 7:33PM]

Anyone got a comparison for how much a traditional incandescent and CCFL cost in electricity per year & upfront?

[sam @ Jul 15th 2009 7:41PM]

i wanna know how much a modern energy efficient bulb would cost too for 8hrs a day for 1yr.

[josh_has_a_barber @ Jul 15th 2009 7:48PM]

Ok, so accorrding to http://www.betterbulb.com/ a CCFL runs at 18w so;

18x8 = 144w/day
144x365=52560w/year
52560/1000=52.56
52.56*0.15(cost of a kw of electricity according to http://www.eternaleds.com/News-a/134.htm)

for a grand total of;
7.884 so $7.884 a year

[jdechko @ Jul 15th 2009 7:50PM]

I'm going to go with approximately $10.94 ($1.75*25/4). I don't know though.

But at $35 each it would take about 3 years to break even on a bulb.

[Darak @ Jul 15th 2009 7:56PM]

I actually just went looking around through the read link and some googling. And, while the 6$ a year cost more on a CFL bulb from the BetterBulb.com figures doesn't seem enough to justify the cost, it gets worse:

This bulb replaces a 25W incandescent bulb at the consumption of 4W. Guess how many watts a CFL 25W equivalent uses from some quick Googling? 4 or 5 Watts. So that's a saving of roughly....zilch over a CFL. Soooo why are these better exactly?

[Dean @ Jul 15th 2009 8:04PM]

These are better than CFLs because the color temperature of the light is far more natural (and adjustable) while simultaneously avoiding that nasty headache inducing 60 hz you get from CFLs. You could put an LED in a spot to shine directly on the surface you want while you have to reflect a CFL off something.

[Kevin Atkison @ Jul 15th 2009 8:48PM]

Also, LED's are instant-on. CCFL's take awhile to warm up... but really at this point, unless you have money to burn, just stick to CCFL's for the time being... LED bulbs will come down a lot and in two years time they will be cheap and affordable and will be a no-brainer to buy.

[dtothem @ Jul 15th 2009 9:23PM]

Also - no mercury, if the companies PR spin is to be believed, and the lights can be dimmed - you should see my CFLs when I accidently hit the dimmer dial... all 6 of them splutter and struggle!

[why not the LS2LS7? @ Jul 16th 2009 12:13AM]

CCFL is not the same as CFL. This bulb is only slightly more efficient than a CFL. As mentioned above, it would take a hair over 5W of CFL to light as much as this 4W bulb.

Many LEDs in this range use phosphors to light up, those will not look any better or worse than CFLs. Some do not, but you'll pay more.

(I should not have put above that all white LEDs used in these type of lamps use phosphors).

[bigd7387 @ Jul 15th 2009 7:43PM]

I really can't see me mixing water and electricity no matter the savings.

[Aaron C-T @ Jul 15th 2009 7:51PM]

It's not water.

[Plothole @ Jul 15th 2009 10:21PM]

And even if it was, water and electricity by themselves don't do much of anything. It's the minerals dissolved in impure water that cause short circuits.

[•••• @ Jul 15th 2009 7:56PM]

in hawaii I'd say its worth the premium, at 20¢ per Kwh here and about 2.5 years to break even with the bulb savings its not bad but only if it came in 100, 65 watt equivalents too... and I hope the liquid doesn't leak.

[Logboy @ Jul 15th 2009 7:56PM]

Yes but if the bulb breaks is it going to kill my cat?

[Dalcébolus @ Jul 15th 2009 11:13PM]

If your cat is alergic to baby oil, then maybe yes.

[webterractive @ Jul 15th 2009 7:59PM]

This is where the green shift fails, no one in their right mind with today's economy is going to pay $34 for a light bulb. I'm sorry earth but you're taking one for team, in my place at least.

[Michael @ Jul 15th 2009 8:02PM]

A 25 watt traditional light bulb is not a lot of light output. We these things can equal a 60-75 watt bulb then I'd be interested.

[•••• @ Jul 15th 2009 8:04PM]

the site says 50, 75, 100 watt equivalent bulbs are coming by the end of the year

[DarkLight @ Jul 16th 2009 1:09AM]

I wonder what LED are they using... Because in a room I have 4 CREE XLamps XR-E running at 3W each, and I swear that each one of them is way more powerful than a 25W lightbulb (which is indeed very dim).

Maybe they're talking about total output? Because LEDs are very directional. That would make more sense. But you'd have to compare it to a 25W lightbulb mounted on a very tight reflector to be fair.

[tyger11 @ Jul 15th 2009 8:12PM]

CFLs typically seem to be lifetimes estimated at between 8,000 and 10,000 hours, so these will supposedly last much longer, in addition to the better quality light. Once these hit the 60-75W-equivalent range of regular incandescent output, these should be a good deal.

Comparing the price of these to regular CFLs isn't accurate - compare them to color-corrected CFLs, which are much more expensive ($20-40 for 60W-equiv ones).

Also, no Mercury = no toxic hazards upon breakage, which is teh aw3s0m3!

[jason @ Jul 15th 2009 8:21PM]

"The company asserts that these bulbs produce "360 degree lighting" and can emit the same amount of illumination as a 25W incandescent"

Ten incandescent 25W bulbs isn't enough to read a book, unless it's less then 2 feet away. This isn't near enough light. Even my little desk lamp is 35W, the other incandescent bulbs I have are 60W. All these would be good for is ambient lighting, you aren't getting any work done with these.

[Garst @ Jul 15th 2009 8:30PM]

This is a real head scratcher. I didn't know that LED light bulbs got hot enough to even burn someone. Isn't the liquid only just reducing the amount of usable light?