Panasonic's new EVERLED light bulbs to light up your life for 19 years
By Laura June 
posted Sep 16th 2009 3:56PM
posted Sep 16th 2009 3:56PM
Long-lasting light bulb technology is nothing new -- people have been trying to up the lifespan these bad boys for some time. Long-lived light bulbs are generally uber-expensive, too, but we like to keep our eyes on such things. Panasonic's just unveiled the EVERLED, a line of bulbs set to be launched in Japan at the end of October. Lighter and more efficient than other LEDs on the market, these babies use 85 lumens per watt for a 40W bulb. Though the bulbs are not going to be cheap -- about $40 -- the company claims they'll have a lifespan of 19 years, bringing the overall costs down considerably. Still, we'd have to see them last that long to believe it.
[Via Inhabitat]
[Via Inhabitat]
Too bad these light bulb wont work with that switch that dims the intensity a little bit. Like those spirally light bulb, you can't switch the intensity, stays bright.
they should
It says the 7.6-watt model is compatible with dimmer switches.
It's a LED. Not a fluorescent light. Dimming LEDs is no problem whatsoever.
Dimming an LED is easy, but getting it to work with conventional dimming circuits is very tricky. The LED lamp housing contains a driver (regulator) circuit that provides a low-voltage, constant-current power to the LED. To work with a dimmer, the driver circuit must work with a wide range of input (average) voltage, AND also measure the input voltage and vary the output current accordingly.
Thanks, kk, for clearing that up.
@KK
As you're implying it would be much easier and more efficient to just build the lights to run off constant voltage and have a microcontroller in the lightswitch to signal the bulb to regulate it's output. Now we just have to wait for those smart home lighting systems to become ubiquitous!
You can actually get really good dimmable CFLs, but they are a little pricy. I got a 18W one from about 15 UK pounds. I think it was this one, but can't remember off hand:
http://www.lightbulbs-direct.com/product/2645/megaman-liliput-dimmerable-18w-e27-es-warm-white/
19 years?! Thats as long as I have been on this earth!
How long were you on your previous one?
LOL
When you read the specification on such claims they always say silly things like 'when used 1.5 hours a day average' or some such joke.
From the jap site I get 40,000 hours, so 4.5 years of continues use? That's not that bad, but not really that exceptional for LED is it?
I have a Panasonic Light Capsule (now discontinued) that I purchased 10 years ago (from Lowes?) and it's still going strong. So if they claim this LED bulb will go for 19 years, I'd have to believe them.
Wow... if true, these are the light bulbs that will create whole new generations of homemakers who know nothing about screwing a bulb. Time to get into the light-bulb scewing business.
Q: How many mid-twenty-first-century people does it take to screw in a lightbulb?
A: Do what?
"Screw a light bulb? I've got standards, man."
Getting paid to screw? Is that legal?
Just like the wiper blades which a lot of people don't know that they can be swapped within 1min.
19 years is a great deal though. I have a roof spotlight with 5 light bulbs, after three months there are just two left shining brightly. This would be a huge contrast.
its always those insects which destroy the bulbs.
Where can I get one?
up your *** and around the corner.
DUH i meant street.
I will believe this when Panasonic starts offering a free 19-year replacement should the bulb fail.
I have an incandescent bulb in my living room that I haven't had to replace since I moved in ten years ago (it'll be out when I get home I'm sure). Which is great due to it being on a vaulted ceiling 26 ft up. I have also replaced almost every CFL I have switched to in the last two years that said right on the package "will last for five years!*" of course the * goes to small print that says "UP TO FIVE YEARS". Call me in 19 years and let me know if the bulb is still working.
Chad,
I know an 85 year old who still works and travels by plane between residence and office every week. I also knew a young child who died of cancer. Don't go telling me that older people are more likely to die. My examples clearly prove otherwise, just as your single incandescent sample proves your case utterly.
David
David, here's a little help for you:
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/pedantic
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/humorless
Good luck!
I don't get why people are so concerned with this shit. It's like HDTVs that say they last 20 years. Maybe they last 20 years, but I'll still end up buying a new one every 2-5 years as technology gets better. I'd rather pay a quarter for one that'll last one year than $40 for one that lasts 19 years, because that way when I drop it, I won't shoot myself.
You are going to shoot yourself for dropping a $40 light bulb?
I just do not get all these people who delight in wasting energy. Waste is like bling - it's so yesterday. Not to mention unintelligent.
Actually it's 85 lumen/W for the "30-watt equivalent" lamp, which is the 4.0-watt model.
I wish they'd just call it a "340-lumen 4-watt bulb."
Except that most people don't know how bright a lumen is anyway. the real reason it's listed is that there's been a Lumens/Watt efficiency arms race between the major LED manufactures. The best (and most expensive) examples are up to 145 lm/w. "30 watt equivalent" tells you how much brightness to expect, the Lumens/watt figure lets you compare efficiency against the competitors.
@Doug: The 'equivalent' numbers are pretty much bullshit, though. I think they pick the highest 'equivalent' wattage they can possibly get away with, on the basis that some company somewhere made a 60W bulb with a filament made of plasticine and the glass bulb painted black, and it put out about the same light...
However, all the packs quote lumens, and these appear to be broadly accurate, so you can actually tell how bright bulbs are (or aren't).
I noticed this when buying a new CF bulb in the supermarket the other day. The 'equivalent' numbers are bound to be awful because they always use a number that was a common category for incandescent lightbulbs. So if it should be, say, '56W equivalent' they'll call it '60W equivalent'.
I was buying a new bulb because a current one was too dim; went from a 580-lumen 60W equivalent bulb to a 700-lumen 60W equivalent bulb. (It does use 1 more real watt, incidentally.) Really big difference, identical 'equivalence'. I think people will need to learn about lumens as a measure because you can't really tell how bright a bulb is any other way.
Thanks for clearing that!
By the way since the time I started using energy-efficient lamps I don't care how much they save (my PC eats much more) but they do save a lot of time on going and buying a replacement lamp. Few years, 0 replacements. Great!
At some point this long-lasting light bulb idea fails to make economic or even practical sense. The longer a light bulb lasts, the more likely it is to succumb to "accidental trauma" like brooms or flying children and break before its time had come. Also, the more likely that the inhabitants of the building the light bulb is in will move on- at 19 years even homeowners are often moving out or dying, leaving the "cost savings" of the bulb to be passed on to the next inhabitant unless they carefully pack up all their light bulbs with them when they move. Finally, over 19 years there are definitely going to be changes in lighting and maybe even how we power our homes- you may be stuck with an antiquated "energy efficient" light bulb that just won't die and that you need to run a generator to power because everyone else has moved on to luminescent fusion-powered floating sentient mini-clouds.
I don't know where the 19-year figure comes from - the linked page just says 40,000 hours, which is only 4.5 years. Maybe someone assumed it'd be used 8 hours a day?
I was going to make a snide remark about that last I saw a broom or flying child hit a ceiling fixture, but then I realized you must have been talking about floor lamps. Either way, I've been using CFLs pretty much everywhere except bathrooms and a few dimmer switches for close to 10 years, and I've only ever had one break, and that was because a cat knocked over a lamp. And I did take my CFLs with me when we moved. I will buy these LEDs when they make economic and practical sense. So far the only LED bulbs I have seen are not dimmable, and that is disappointing. The dimmable CFLs that I have tried suck.
"luminescent fusion-powered floating sentient mini-clouds"
How is this not highest ranked? Come on people wake up, it's way past coffee time.
I don't think extra longevity is a problem as long as you can break even on cost vs. CFL's in a relatively short amount of time. If you have to run the thing for 20 years before you realize that savings, it's not such a deal. If the light was cheap enough to start out with, when you get your first shipment of mini-luminescent, sentient clouds from skynet, you can toss the old bulbs into the matter eradicator, having gotten your money's worth 18 years ago.
I agree completely.
This is even more stupid than the switch from gas to electric was.
People will just never learn the obvious lesson of the foolishness of technological development.
They are all such suckers.
I mean, imagine if you bought 5 of these things.
That's $200.
Then in two years you move and somebody else gets the benefit of not filling the landfills higher and using less energy off the coal fired grid!
Then what!?
I mean - you can't take them with you!
They are screwed in pretty tight I bet.
Poor gullible bastards.
Yes, they always assume a certain amount of hours a day with energy saving bulb claims, so yes this will last 4.5 years when kept on all the time.
And there no doubt will be a fall-off in brightness over that time, but that's normal.
i dont want a light bulb to last 19 years...in 1 year a better one will come out that lasts 30 years and uses half the power, make it cheaper not last longer
The Philips Masterled bulbs are already rated with a 25-30 year lifespan.
This Panasonic news is not so 'newsworthy' after all.
This is the Catch-22. LED's by their nature last 50,000+ hours(=20 years in normal residential use). They are also increasing in efficiency at a very rapid rate, doubling every 2 years or so, and their cost per lumen has been similarly decreasing. You could buy this lightbulb now now for $40, or you could buy one 4 times as efficient for 1/4th the cost in 4 years. It always makes sense to wait just a little longer till you plunk down the huge chunk of change for the lightbulbs you'll be living with for a few decades.
LED lighting is going to be the only way to go soon, but probably not till we level off in the 250-300 lumen/watt ballpark. I give it 4-5 years, just my candlepowerforums.com informed guess.
DutchGuy,
Good info.
http://www.prismaecat.lighting.philips.com/ecat/Light/ApplicationRouter.aspx?fh_location=//prof/en_GB/categories%3C{fepplg}/countries%3E{en_GB}/status%3E{act}/categories%3C{c_0002fepplg_75_ep01}/categories%3C{c_0002fepplg_2310_ep01lssl}/categories%3C{c_0032fepplg_2420_ep01lret}&fh_reftheme=promo_75140964,seeall,//prof/en_GB/categories%3C{fepplg}/countries%3E{en_GB}/status%3E{act}/categories%3C{c_0002fepplg_75_ep01}/categories%3C{c_0002fepplg_2310_ep01lssl}&fh_refview=summary&left_nav=gb_en&
Man, those Dutch guys make a lot of LED :)
How in the heck do the test it and come up with it lasting 19 years? It isn't like they had this technology 19 years ago and the first one just burnt out...
They had a time machine for that.
It's the same way HDD lifetimes are processed. You put several hundred on "heavy load" and you can derive failure rate and time based upon those statistics.
Statistics math is crazy, dude.
Light blub usually breaks because of a electric surge. They should make light blub have warranty. I would not trust it to last 19 years.
Wow, buzzer, where are you from?
I have only once in my entire life (I'm 40) seen a light bulb break from a surge and it was during a storm.
Switching the bulb on creats a very micro-surge ... hence why a bulb predominantly goes when you flick the switch. This coulpled with the fact a traditional filament wears down over the course of it's life (less so when filled with a tungsten based gas) does somewhat lessen it's potential maximum.
The real question is whether it is bright enough to replace current bulbs?
It's a little over 1/3 the brightness of a conventional 60W incandescent bulb. It can certainly replace your desk lamp, which is the ideal application IMO.
Task lighting - Yes.
Area lighting - nope.
Have they tested allready ? :p
Laura June,
Thank you for using the reference of how many lumens per watt (the efficacy) of this bulb. That is the true reference of light source efficiency.
When referring to LED lighting, it is also important to note the color temperature of the bulb. The ultra white/blue LED lamps are the ones with a high efficacy. If you look at the 'standard household' warmer color temperature, those LED lamps have 2/3rd's the lumen levels for the same amount of wattage.
Compared to incandescent, these are a big step up. However in the warm, pleasant color temperatures, they are equal to CFL's in efficacy. In comparison to max lumens however, they're fairly dim, sub 400 lumen level. You need 3 of these lamps to reach the same overall lighting levels as a typical CFL. LED's on the market don't yet reach the efficiency of T-5 fluorescent bulbs, which can have up to a 108 lumen to watt output.
Also, the rated life of these LED's are nothing special. Every major manufacturer rates their LED lamps for 35-50k hours.
I had a feeling that the comments section would have people complaining about the shorter-than-advertised life of CFL bulbs, and I was not disappointed.
Here's the secret: CFLs die early if you turn them off after they've been on for less than 15 minutes.
It's something to do with incomplete warming of the inverter, I don't recall exactly. Anyway, after learning about this I started leaving the CFLs on for a while, and I haven't had to replace any bulbs since.
Thanks, that explains why it's my bathroom cfl's that like to fail.
Yeah, that's why I want to get an LED bulb for my bathroom. Unfortunately, in this country at least, nobody sells the bloody things - well, they sell useless pieces of crap like the one above. 340 lumens? Please. Double it and now we're talking.
that's a really helpful tip. thank you.
Can you guys imagine soon the iHouse will be possible! Built in lightbulbs everywhere but they last 150 years!
Way too expensive...
Interesting, in the future we won't be replacing bulbs when they stop working, but when they become obsolete (the newer models having a more natural light, etc.)
I already do that with bicycle headlights, where efficiency is crucial. I've been using a 200-lumen LED headlight from Dinotte for a while now. I'm tempted to upgrade to their 400-lumen (dual-LED) model, even though my current one works perfectly fine.
Oh, and for those who thought $40 was a lot for the Panasonic LED bulb - my Dinotte 200-lumen lamp cost me about $180 (and still does). Even without the rechargeable battery, it costs $120. And worth every penny.
I love that these new-fangled bulbs tout their uni-directional light dispersion as an advantage. They say, "all the light is directed downwards, so none is wasted on the ceiling or walls!" Bullshiz! Imagine how weird the room would look if the only light came from what is essentially a spotlight in the middle of the ceiling! Furthermore, not all light sockets face downwards. Table lamps would end up sending all the light upwards (leaving the shade/bowl completely dark), and ceiling lights with sideways-facing dual sockets would direct all the light sideways.
They really need to get on figuring out how to make the light omni-directional.
Where does it say the light is unidirectional? From the photos it looks like the cover is translucent or frosted, and acts as a diffuser.
Obviously it is difficult to decipher what the website says, but I've seen other websites specifically advertise how great it is for a bulb to finally come along that doesn't waste light by sending it towards the ceiling/walls. With this bulb, it looks like, at the least, the light cannot go "backwards", as the frosted diffuser does not stick out of the sides at all. What people don't realize is that the ceiling often helps reflect the light downward into the rest of the room.
Alex is dead-on here... spend some time talking to an architect or interior designer and they will probably cringe at the suggestion that light is "wasted" by reflecting, washing, or cascading it off the wall or ceiling. Some of my most successful projects emphasized ambient light and reduced the need for task lighting. This type of bulb is clearly better for the latter.
John,
As an efficiency and lighting designer for an Architecture firm - you are absolutely correct. I recently wrote a blog post related directly to this issue. Reflected light can do wonders to the apparent light in a workspace.
http://geekpi.com/?p=412
Try telling that to all the vast number of people who have populated their entire houses with those little 50W halogen spotlights. The issue with these is that because they are directional lights it takes a lot of them to light a whole room. So you end up with using upwards of 1KW (sometimes 2KW or more) to light a room when you could do it with say 60W of CFLs in standard lamps or table lamps scattered around the room. That is a grotesque level of waste but people do it all the time. The reason, of course, is ignorance - if you ask most people how much power their lighting uses they just don't have a clue.
@David
Have you considered seeking professional help? I used to be pretty tightly wound myself so I "understand"
Internet, serious business.
This is good for lazy people like me, if you come to my house you will notice all ceiling light bulbs do not work, because it's too much work to replace them, next time i will replace them is gonna be with these LED lightbulbs!
I have a whole lot of 60W bulbs and a bunch of 100W in use. I can't think of one place I would use a 30W or 40W bulb. Fail.
(open question)
How many Apple fanboys does it take to change a light bulb?
"We don't need to change it. It just works."
I think you mean iLuminators.
I think the proper term is the LEDs "deliver 85 lumens per watt" vs the term "uses"
But that's a lot for US$40 each
Is it a problem that I want to replace every light around me to an LED...
And this brings me one step closer to doing so, and being broke.
You could get a puppy, and the light bulbs at the same time. When the dog dies, you'll know its time to get new lights.
An LED lightbulb is like a Porsche 911 with square wheels.
Hasn't anyone else noticed? The technology that needs to change is the BULB, not what's inside it!
Think about it. The bulb was designed:
A - Convenient. The bulb shape was easy to evacuate air from.
B - Disposable. They burned out fast and needed to be replaced easily.
C - Practical. Electricity was rare, power receptacles few and far between. One bulb per room - better make it bright!
Consider their weaknesses:
A - Fragile! any way you slice it, a bulb still hangs out there in space, making easy targets for the children on flying broomsticks mentioned above.
B - HOT! Who wants to touch a bulb that will burn you?
C - Too bright! Any single-source light has to be.
LEDs could solve all these issues, but not when they're squeezed into a bulb! Spread em out! Diffuse lighting from many LEDs is way easier on the eyes, doesn't take up precious real estate, lasts damn near forever, and uses a fraction of the power without heat!
When GE starts selling OLED sheets to put over my windows, or when MIT couples a tiny WITricity reciever to a single led I can stick the ceiling, then I will remove all the bulbs in my house, stomp triumphantly on them, plaster over their fixtures, and finally light my house with LEDs.
Until then, keep polishing that bulbous turd, cuz it still looks like sh!t to me.
Just like "they" said. The light bulb is going to be history.
Lifespan of 19 years? Yea..RIGHT~ ~!
like turning it on for only 5 - 10 minutes per day just like the philips living color led...which it claims to have 8 years lifespan but with microscopic remarks saying like assume 10 - 15 minutes per day!~
This kind of lifespan claiming is BS!~
The linked site clearly states 40,000 hours life. So it's 19 years assuming it's used 8 hours a day. Seems like a reasonable assumption for most household lamps. But of course, it'll only last about 5 years if kept on continuously.
WHY DOES THIS KEEP COMING BACK UP ONTO THE FRONT PAGE. STOP BUMPING THIS ARTICLE ENGADGET
/cruisecontrol