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Let there be light....well, a new light bulb at least

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  • Let there be light....well, a new light bulb at least

    Here is a glimpse of what could be the successor to modern day light bulbs, the Plasma light bulb which puts out nearly 10 times as much light, uses half the power of a traditional light bulb and can reach temperatures that are equivalent of the surface of the sun.


    At 140 lumens/watt, these pill-sized plasma light bulbs by Luxim are a pretty awesome contender for "light of the future". They are almost 10 times more efficient than traditional incandescent light bulbs, twice as efficient as current high-end LEDs, and they also beat CFLs, most of which are around 50-80 lumens/watt. Only the prototype 300 lumens/watt nanocrystal-coated LEDs can hold a candle to them.
    And the light from Luxim's LIFI bulb is not ugly either: color rendering index (CRI) is 91. Lifetime for a bulb is estimated at 20,000 hours, and a relatively large amount of power can be pumped through them, allowing a tiny bulb to produce 30,000+ lumens (not something LEDs can do).

    Alternative lighting solutions are all the rage right now. People are finally realizing that a big, clunky incandescent light bulb, which gets so hot it burns your hand, is not a particularly efficient way to illuminate a room. But despite the quick rush to change over to compact fluorescent (CFL), concerns over the potential health impacts and mercury content in CFLs are driving folks to look for other alternatives, and a little bulb the size of a Tic Tac may be the solution.

    The bulb, filled with argon gas, pumps out an impressive 140 lumens (the standard way of measuring the efficiency of a bulb) of light per watt. More lumens per watt means that more of the electricity that is pulled in to the bulb is turned into light instead of being wasted as heat.

    An RF (radio-frequency) signal is generated by the solid-state power amplifier and is guided into an electric field about the bulb. The high concentration of energy in the electric field vaporizes the contents of the bulb to a plasma state at the bulb’s center; this controlled plasma generates an intense source of light.


    Luxim seems to want to use them in projectors, but since even a tiny light bulb can produce as much light as a street lamp, sky seems to be the limit if cost can be brought down.



    Here is the video:
    YouTube - Plasma Light Bulb
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