Citizens of the Earth, you're looking at the lightbulb of the future. In the coming years and decades our lives won't be illuminated by simple spheres or coils of white. Oh no; future bulbs will have cool fins and flares that make them look almost worth the $40 to $50 we'll pay for the things. That's what GE plans to ask for its Energy Smart LED bulb when it ships sometime in the next 12 months, and while that is a lot compared to the exiting options, look at the benefits: GE's bulbs will last a whopping 17 years when used four hours a day, and they give off light in all directions -- not focused in one spot like
previous designs. But, most importantly, they're very efficient, using nine watts to give off the equivalent amount of light of a 40 watt incandescent bulb. That's 10 percent less than a 40 watt equivalent
CFL, and there's no mercury or other toxic goop involved here either. It's the future, folks. Start saving.
posted April 13th 2010 9:27AM
Can you use dimmer switches with them? Or are our lighting options going to be just on or off?
I get why people are concerned with mercury in CFLs. But that statement by the republican senator is just fanaticism and demonstrates pure ignorance of the science. The problem with mercury is not it's existence -- it is the exposure. Mercury does not vaporize if exposed to air. It does not automatically enter your mouth or nostrils if a thermometer or CFL containing mercury is shattered. In other words, the mercury in a CFL is a potential, not actual, threat to health. I'm not sure if the entire Senate building would have to be evacuated, but certainly a Haz Mat team would be called into the clean up the spill. Assuming the Haz Mat team was able to successfully clean up the spill, your actual exposure would be nil, or extremely trivial.
However, power plants do in fact emit mercury into the air, which is most certainly a threat to the general public health. This is an actual risk, not a potential risk. As you know, CFL use less energy than incandescent bulbs. The difference in energy consumption translates to more mercury being emitted into the air over the life of a CFL bulb than the amount of mercury contained in a CFL bulb. In other words, the use of incandescent bulbs already exposes people to more mercury on a per CFL bulb-life basis than the amount of mercury contained in a CFL bulb. And this is mercury that is airborne, toxic, and bio-accumulating in your tissues, as well as the tissues of fish and other animals.
So, while the Senator makes a point of saying that a CFL bulb contains mercury, it is a *potential* threat to health. Proper handling and disposal reduces the chance of it becoming an actual threat to health. That being said, the actual threat of mercury is already currently far greater when using incandescent bulbs because it causes more mercury to be airborne and emitted into the atmosphere where you and Little Nemo have no choice but to breath it in.
These things really need to be brighter.
@Mike V
They are already.
The GE light bulbs are just obsolete.
Have a look at this one:
BIOLEDEX® 8W SuperFlux-LED Bulb E27 - 600 Lumen Warm White
* LED light bulb with 54 very bright LEDs and ca. 600 Lumen
* Compared with about 60 watt light bulb
* Color: WARM WHITE
* Base: E27
* Luminescence: ca. 600 Lumen
* Angle: ca. 270°
* Voltage: 230V
* Dimensions: Ø 50 mm x 120 mm
* Power: ca. 8,0 Watt
* Very long life span of ca. 50.000 operating hours
* LED lamps do not become hot, therefore no fire risk exists
or this one:
BIOLEDEX® 13W SuperFlux LED Bulb E27 - 1000 Lumen Warm White
* LED light bulb with 88 very bright LEDs and ca. 1000 Lumen
* Compared with about 100 watt light bulb
* Color: WARM WHITE
* Base: E27
* Luminescence: ca. 1000 Lumen
* Angle: ca. 270°
* Voltage: 230V
* Dimensions: Ø 70 mm x 140 mm
* Power: ca. 13,0 Watt
* Very long life span of ca. 50.000 operating hours
* LED lamps do not become hot, therefore no fire risk exists
- cheaper
- more lumen per watt
- longer live span
Best regards
I hate to rain on their parade, but a quick search reveals some '40W equivalent' CFL bulbs using, um, 7W. Those aren't expensive bulbs either, so that plus the power saving probably means the lifetime cost is significantly less for CFL. (Yeah, no mercury is good.) GE do have a 40W equivalent using 10W, so they're not actually lying or anything... but with all these bogus 'W equivalent' claims (note that the actual light output, in lumens say, varies significantly between different bulbs with the same claim - as well as with different 40W incandescents, for that matter) who knows what the truth is.
And let me join everyone on the '40W isn't enough' bandwagon. Get it to 60W, and maybe I'll buy one for my bathroom. Turning the light on and off for short periods of time, which is what usually happens in a windowless bathroom, is a bad way to treat CFL bulbs. Not the end of the world, but not ideal.
Not dissing the product, good work to get to this stage with the nondirectional light and whatever (assuming it works). Waiting for future developments here, though. LED bulbs are definitely the future, they just aren't quite the present yet (imo).
Looks like a cool product. LED lights are awesome for so many reasons. If you wanna check out some different LED solutions including light bulbs and linear tubes go to our website at http://www.GreenRayLED.com