Nanofiber lighting promises to be better, safer than incandescent or CFL bulbs
By Donald Melanson 
posted February 12th 2010 1:35PM
posted February 12th 2010 1:35PM
Well, it looks like you can add another contender to the great light bulb debate -- a group of researchers from RTI International now says that nanofiber lighter is more efficient than incandescent light bulbs, and safer than compact fluorescents. The secret to that, it seems, is a combination of nanofiber-based reflectors and photoluminescent nanofibers (or PLN), which together are able to form a lighting device that pumps out more than 55 lumens of light output per electrical watt consumed. That's five times more efficient than a regular incandescent light bulb, and since there's no mercury, the researchers say it's far safer than CFL bulbs. What's more, it's also apparently able to produce more natural light than CFLs, although there's noticeably no mention of potential pricing -- they do say that the first products using nanofiber lighting could be available in three to five years, though. Video after the break.
[Thanks, DeFlanko]
[Thanks, DeFlanko]
3-5 years, yeah. good luck with that. Everything awesome is 3-5 years out perpetually.
@Ghen Tomorrow.. Tomorrow.. Awesome is only..... 3-5 Years awayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy....
@
and what happened to quantum dots?
I'm in ur lightbulbz stealing ur nanoz.
i think we should be putting more effort into figuring out a way to shine our eyes like riddick.
way cooler and much more efficient than light bulbs.
@vlad the inhaler
I've got 20 menthol Kools just for the occasion.
Why are there not comparative numbers for CFL efficiency?
@jaejae
Because they aren't favorable. :shrug:
Great! I'll save 50$ a year on electricity by replacing all the incandescents in my house with these @ $20 a piece. That's roughly $4,000. Where do I sign up?
@ArhcAngel ...and once you've laid out all the cash for your hyper-efficient light bulbs, your utility company will raise their rates due to lost revenue.
So....better than LEDs?
@c w j: If you watch the video, the light source is an LED - this 'nanofiber' is only a filter sheet that makes the blue LED appear as a more pleasing color. Impressive? Sure. A new form of lighting? Not really.
@GeekPI Exactly, nothing new, nothing spectacular. When it comes to LEDs, the biggest problem with their efficiency is efficient extraction of light from the material.
Current white LEDs are in principle blue LEDs embedded in phosphorus which then absorbs the blue light and re-emits it at large range of wavelengths, in effect giving blue light.
I would say, that the biggest motivation for this research project is providing salaries to those who do it. A little disclaimer here: I am a researcher myself.
"Safer" that CFLs because they have no mercury. That is such a bogus argument. There are legitimate reasons why people don't like CFLs, but the mercury content is just a useless debating point. The amount of mercury is very low, and it only ever escapes if you break a bulb. There is more mercury in the air and water due to burning coal than from any other source. And they are working on eliminating mercury from CFLs also.
Are these new lights dimmable is what I want to know. I use CFLs, but there are some rooms where dimmers are a requirement in my opinion. Particularly bedrooms and dining areas. The LED lights that are starting to show up the hardware store are also not dimmable. Such a disappointment.
@glennS
yeah, I was wondering how efficient these were compared to LED lighting, which are completely undimmable, so if the nanofiber is dimmable, that would easily make it more marketable than a LED light.
@glennS
The problem isn't that the mercury will leak out and harm you directly, it's that too many people can't be bothered to recycle these CFL's and the mercury ends up in the landfill. One bulb isn't that big a deal, but millions are. Mercury is a nasty toxin that finds its' way into our food all too easily. Getting rid of it in products that get thrown into landfills can't happen too soon, for all of our sakes.
@ummhello
Dimmable LEDs are available. The live entertainment industry uses them all the time.
@zekone
Yeah, but how much do they cost? Dimmable CFLs are available too, but they all suck because they don't dim enough.
I just hope they have comparable CRIs to incandescents – I can’t stand those dreary CFLs…
@bradbodily Must not have any of the newer CFL's because they put off a much more natural light than incandescents ever did. The ones about 6 years ago were very dull and yellowish but the new ones are like natural light.
@bradbodily 'Daylight' CFLs with reasonable colour values are available if you like white light (I do). I'm not sure they are quite as good as 'daylight' incandescents but they're good enough for me. They are significantly more expensive than ordinary CFLs... but less expensive than these. (Compared to incandescents they will easily pay back the cost, of course.)
I don't know if it needs nanofibres, but LED lighting should be a step forward especially for areas where CFL isn't really well-suited (if you turn lights on and off very frequently, for instance, or if you need a small/odd form factor). I expect in a few years it will be cheap enough to use at least in those areas; maybe eventually it will take over from CFLs.
By the way I kind of think one of the limitations of lighting is nothing to do with the lighting technology but only with the control technology. Making an LED light that can dim is trivially easy - making one that can dim itself based on the variations of the up-to-220V mains supply is a bit random. Similarly, LED lights should probably be able to colour-shift with remarkably little effort, but you probably don't have a lightswitch with colour options. Probably LED lights will really come into their own if we get to a point where an alternative infrastructure can be considered, i.e. it doesn't have to work with your existing wiring and switches.
So this is just an LED with a defractor film over it?
I wonder if they would be better for indoor horticulture . . . if they are better mimics of natural light, that is.
@bolezhinkov damn hippies.
There are dimmable cfl bulbs out there
why's he only talking about the energy footprint of the US... will they not work in the rest of the world.. what a twat
As efficient as these will be, they will still jack the price up high enough to where they will not be cost effective.
So they used a blue CREE led? (Looks like one at least)
Why not just use a white LED and thats it? White LEDs are blue LEDs with a glob of yellow phosphorus material on them. Same stuff they sprayed on the nano fiber. Looks like these guys took a step back...
All LEDs are dimmable. You blink them really fast with a varying duty cycle. Jargon: PWM.
In most phones you can change the brightness of the screen. Put yours on the lowest setting, sit in the dark and wave the phone back and forth in front of your face. You should be able to notice the blinking. Works better with light text on a dark background.
will wonders never end... the way consumers are conned into buying such products.
@Hbishop
Of course! Because as we know, the ONLY reason for being more efficient is for if you believe in global warming... definitely has nothing to do with saving money, wasting less, and... saving a lot of money.
:rolleyes:
Cree has already achieved greater than 100 lumen per watt and many of the high end manufacturers Nichia, TG, and Luxeonare there or near there as well. TI makes a driver IC for them that can dim them with the standard phase shift dimmers found in most houses. Led specific dimmers use PWM which is the same way the ccfl backlights in lcd screens are dimmed.
"The XP-G LED can produce up to 367 lumens when driven at 1A, at a typical efficacy of 111 lumens per watt"
Our future is looking bright..
I agree that is seems like every new promising technology is 3-5 years out but I believe that this nanofiber technology is here to stay! Below is a link to a great video produced by a non-profit I'm working with, that explains how these nanofibers are made and what their role in our society's future could be! Let me know what you think!
http://www.ndep.us/LabTV2.aspx?id=54&t=Spinning%20Nanofibers