DJ Hero Review
Nissan's LandGlider Narrow track vehicles - the convergence of the car and the motorcycle
Emue and Visa Europe have been working closely over the past 18 months to develop the Visa... Anti-fraud credit card features E-Ink display
SPDY from Google's Chromium development team has achieved 55 percent faster page loading t... Google SPDY aims to make web faster
BMW has brought back the C1 as an electric-powered concept scooter called the C1-E E is for electric: The BMW C1-E concept scooter
Yes, that's supposed to be a piece of underwear. No, me neither. C-string makes your average thong look like grannypants (NSFW)
MORE TOP STORIES »
ECOGIZMO

US$3 LED light bulb lasts 60 years, could end battle of the bulbs

By Paul Evans

17:44 February 1, 2009 PST

The 'holy grail' of lighting

The 'holy grail' of lighting

Cambridge University researchers have developed cheap, light-emitting diode (LED) bulbs that produce brilliant light but use very little electricity. They will cost just GBP2 (USD2.80) and last up to 60 years. The gallium nitride based bulbs are 12 times more efficient than conventional tungsten incandescent bulbs and three times more efficient than compact fluorescent low-energy bulbs. As well as lasting 100,000 hours, ten times as long as today's eco-bulbs, the LED bulbs do not contain mercury, so disposal is less damaging to the environment, they do not flicker and fully illuminate instantly, unlike the current generation of eco-bulbs.

The 100,000 hour LEDs use gallium nitride, a man-made semiconductor used to make light-emitting diodes. LEDs are currently available as replacement bulbs but they cost $25 - $50 each which makes them too expensive for widespread use. To achieve the price break through the Cambridge scientists have developed a process where they grow Gallium Nitride on silicon wafers instead of the current method, which requires sapphire wafers.

The 10-fold price reduction could slash household lighting bills by three-quarters. A manufacturer has begun work on production prototypes and the first bulbs could be in the shops within two years. The head of the Centre for Gallium Nitride, Professor Colin Humphreys, said: "This could well be the holy grail in terms of providing our lighting needs for the future."

"We are very close to achieving highly efficient, low-cost white LEDs. It is our belief they will render current energy-efficiency bulbs redundant."

Paul Evans

Via: University of Cambridge (Cambridge News Online), Daily Mail.

Tags
User Comments (5)
 

This is very cool.

comment

Glenn Wuenstel

- February 2, 2009 @ 11:02 am PST

the future is looking bright!

comment

Facebook User

- February 2, 2009 @ 12:02 pm PST

This is the type of thinking that excites me about the future. Thanks for the great articles.

comment

Abandonvehicle

- February 4, 2009 @ 01:02 pm PST

I've paid more for compact fluorescents. If they can bring these to market at 3 dollars, I'll instantly replace every bulb in my home.

comment

Spirit of 76

- February 4, 2009 @ 10:02 pm PST

I can't wait, but I doubt it will cost $3 at first. My guess is that the demand will far outweigh supply to start, then it will fall and eventually level off.

comment

DanLightning

- February 24, 2009 @ 03:02 am PST

RSS Feed for comments from this article RSS Feed for comments from all articles
Post a Comment

Login with your gizmag account:




Or Login with Facebook:


Connect

Related Articles Email this article to a friend

Just enter your friends and your email address into the form below ...




Privacy is safe with us because we have a strict privacy policy.

Recent popular articles in ecoGizmo
Recent Comments