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Photonic Structure Increases Light Bulb Efficiency
An Anonymous Coward writes "A new experimental microscopic tungsten lattice
can increase the efficiency of an incandescent
electric bulb from 5 percent to greater than
60 percent. This is done by converting waste
heat into visible light. "
According to the article "The work was performed with a photonic crystal operating in the mid-infrared range". Though the author states further that there are no known obstacles to downgrade into the visible light range, why did they start in the Infrared spectrum to begin with?
Why would anyone want to make a currency that's going to be worthless in a few years.
Invest in EURO's !
Damn those people from the electromagnetic radiation cabal!
Jeez how about putting a reflective coating at the base of the bulb, where the 1/3 inch support stems from. Multipled by number of bulbs in existance, big energy savings. There may be a reason why we want to illuminate the 3/4 base, but I can't think why, other to shorten bulb life.
couldn't resist:
Q: How many programmers does it take to change a broken light bulb?
A: None, it's a hardware problem.
can increase the efficiency of an incandescent electric bulb from 5 percent to greater than 60 percent. This is done by converting waste heat into visible light. "
Well
No shit!
How else do you improve the efficiancy of something!
Anyone quoted by a reporter knows how little they understand
Don't believe what you read is the truth.
If this goes through and they manufacture these cool, efficint bulbs, how will I get get my Easy Bake Oven to work?
The work was performed with a photonic crystal operating in the mid-infrared range, but no theoretical or practical difficulties are known to exist to downsizing the structure into the visible light range.
So, they don't have any theory to explain this, but "theoretically" there won't be any problem turning this into something useful. Yeah, sure.
Here now, 600% more efficient than normal bulbs and also getting very cheap. They also switch on more gradually, making them less painful on the eyes.
it's all very nice to create a light bulb that's more energy efficient, but how much more does it cost to create? I understand it's proof of concept at the moment, but it's kind of like those ultra fuel efficient cars; great, you save petrol costs, but you'd need to keep the car for ten years to save enough in petrol to cover the difference in cost between it and a normal car.
-- james
The coolest element of them all..
If you don't belive me read the book "Uncle Tungsten".
Great book, a must for anyone remotly intrested
in chemistry or the history of chemistry.
Ok, so it's a shameless plug.. but I just had to push that damn fine book.
Take that Law of Conservation!
When mine eye falls upon that light
mine heart turns dark for the unmourned waste
when in history we once feared night
and strove to banish it, with undue haste
that good man Edison born forth the device
which only made use of one in twenty
driven by power that which was low in price
and of that juice there would be plenty
now science improves upon that thought
with a tungsten lattice that uses three in five
hidden with answers we long have sought
was the mythic efficiency for which we strive
And nothing remains of that electricity hog
Save twenty-two billion metric tonnes of smog
Three-dimensional (3D) metallic crystals are promising photonic bandgap structures: they can possess a large bandgap, new electromagnetic phenomena can be explored , and high-temperature (above 1,000 C) applications may be possible. However, investigation of their photonic bandgap properties is challenging, especially in the infrared and visible spectrum, as metals are dispersive and absorbing in these regions. Studies of metallic photonic crystals have therefore mainly concentrated on microwave and millimetre wavelengths. Difficulties in fabricating 3D metallic crystals present another challenge, although emerging techniques such as self-assembly may help to resolve these problems. Here we report measurements and simulations of a 3D tungsten crystal that has a large photonic bandgap at infrared wavelengths (from about 8 to 20 m). A very strong attenuation exists in the bandgap, 30 dB per unit cell at 12 m. These structures also possess other interesting optical properties; a sharp absorption peak is present at the photonic band edge, and a surprisingly large transmission is observed in the allowed band, below 6 m. We propose that these 3D metallic photonic crystals can be used to integrate various photonic transport phenomena, allowing applications in thermophotovoltaics and blackbody emission.
Doesn't this look like some explanation: the material (unlike metals) has a bandgap, i.e., is insulating and cannot absorb or emit radiation at low frequencies. So the energy has to be dissipated at higher (visible) frequencies. Apparently the output is higher than naive calculations would predict. So the puzzle is not why the frequency of the emitted light is so high, but why the output is so strong for a given temperature.
Because I sure did.
To avoid having this fall into the hands of Westinghouse or GE, do not create a company and go public.
...or get an identifiable tatoo on your ass.
It's the only way to save the world.
Game: Player 'Donald J Trump' now has AI skill level 'experimental'.
Sorry, I really meant to use the preview button. O.K., here the clickable link: Nature article: first paragraph. Obviously also my statement about this material being insulating was wrong since the band gap only starts at 20 micron (on the low-energy side). Finally, most of the emission seems to be near 6 micron which is still well in the infrared (visible light is .4-.8 micron).
light bulb wastes power
tungsten evaporating:
produce more photons!
I've always been amused by the observation that in cold climates, incandescent light bulbs approach 100% efficiency, since the heat is desirable.
I call all trolls and crapflooders to trash that place!
And what about when my daughter finds a birds nest that has fallen out of a tree and we need to fabricate a incubator out of a box and a 25 watt light bulb to keep it warm?
This is horrible news. Think of the children. Call your congressman and ban this insanity.
And here is another.
A 60% efficient incandescent bulb would have a whole lot of applications beyond just saving money on the power bill.
Think projector lamps: Think about the waste heat they wouldn't generate. Think about the cooling fans they won't need. Imagine a 40-watt bulb throwing as much light as a 500 watt bulb does today.
I sure hope this hits the market sometime SOON.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
Does anyone understand article far enough to tell if this can be used for example to convert some light from one wavelength to other, and increase solar cell efficiency?
AFAIK, solar cells only use some wavelengths efficiently, other are wasted.
fucktard is a tenderhearted description
Since I can't find it, perhaps somebody from this specific field can answer these questions:
What part of our total electricity production is going into creating light?
What part of creating light is done with conventional light bulbs?
Are the energy savings of this new type of lamp higher than with current 'green' light-bulbs?
What would the cost offset be compared to conventional lighting? The only thing mentioned is it will be cheap due to the fact that silicon technology production is cheap. How cheap is that compared to conventional light-bulb production? Can't be cheaper.
Does it cost more in waste-processing?
Only if we answer all of these we'll know if this will be cheaper for the total product-life-cycle.
---
Karma? What's that again?
Normally a high frequency when absorbed by a blackbody emits lower frequencys.. is this still all happy with the 2nd law of thermodynamics? Considering it is an incandesant source... whoa..
Blue's shorter wavelength.
Older fluorescent technologies maybe but the current crop of products in the shops come in different colours and shades of light.
Phillips for instance do a fluorescent bulb which they describe as warm white is the same shape and is only fractionally bigger than a normal bulb. Fits in a standard socket and lasts for, well, 5 years in my case.
The bulbs are still more expensive than normal ones but you save in buying replacements and in electricity costs.
Government of the people, by corporate executives, for corporate profits.
So how much longer before our fiddling with lightbulb structures turns a simple light bulb into a photonic computer. Then how long before said computer goes insane shifts over to a red color and then when we go,'all right bring he pod bay lights back to normal, bulb' they reply 'i'm afraid i can't do that, dave'. To which we will reply, 'who the fsck is this dave person...honey we need to get a new bulb, this one's gone insane...'
If Mr. Edison had thought smarter he wouldn't sweat as much. --Nikola Tesla
Since when do americans care about wasted energy?
Ok it sounds like a troll/flamebait but it's true that by buying something else than SUVs and 7.9l engine cars, you could spare a lot of energy and get rid of those stupid speed limitations! (Which are here precisely because cars' engines eat too much!)
Great news though, seeing how many light bulbs there could be on earth, the gain could be colossal!
That'd be Philips even.
i li psSelect?select=_SP4&java=on&choice=0
http://www.eur.lighting.philips.com/servlets/Ph
Government of the people, by corporate executives, for corporate profits.
The science of turning electric power into light has really changed in the past decade. I've seen a graph in one of my engineering trade journals showing the efficency of LEDs in lumens per watt. Just a decade ago, the best LEDs were two orders of magnitude less efficent than flourescent bulbs. Now, the new generation of blue and white LEDs are more efficent than flourescent, and are approching the levels of low pressure sodium lights.
If we extrapolate from the given 5%->60% levels given in the article, that would raise incandescent lights to nearly the levels of flourescent, without the warm-up time flourescent has.
Now, the problem with LED vs. flourescent is cost - LEDs are much more expensive in terms of lumens per doller than flourescent. Would microstructured tungsten be any cheaper?
www.eFax.com are spammers
This would make for an incredibly cheap and effective night vision system with a small battery and a CCD camera. IR floodlight with 60% efficiency... mmmmmm.
I've had enough abrasive sigs. Kittens are cute and fuzzy.
I actually had the attitude toward lighting that you mention, when I lived in a house heated with resistance heating, so I didn't care if I left the lights on during the winter. The point you forgot to mention is that that electricity is only about 30 percent efficient in the use of fuel, assuming it was generated in a coal or oil-fired plant and transmitted long distances. There are better ways of heating a home, the typical oil or gas furnace is about 85 percent efficient or better these days. It actually costs less to heat my drafty old farmhouse that sits exposed on a windy hilltop with oil than it did to heat a sheltered townhouse with units on both sides with resistance heating.
What is the projected lifespan? The only way a technology such as this would be accepted by big manufactures is if they have a short life span. Think about the millions of light bulbs that burn out every day and the $$$ companies such as GE & Westinghouse generate in replacements.
Improving a 40 watt light bulb by 60% would make it like a 64 watt light bulb. 500 watts? You're suggesting a 1150% improvement.
Of course, watts are a measure of consumption, not output. The entire premise of measuring light output via the bulbs power consumption is wrong.
Vanguard
That which does not kill me only makes me whinier
Next up:
The few people who tried flourescent bulbs correctly noted that they can be harsh light. This doesn't have to be the case.
Economics works against flourescent bulbs... generally you have a choice in sizes, but there aren't any choices in "mood" (soft, tinted, etc).
The answer of course is reflected light, or otherwise hiding the bulb. Lampshades and light bounced off the ceiling works great. Not to mention, these things *greatly* reduce the air conditioner strain during the summer (I used to live without AC, but New England summers are rather hot now.).
It's sad that standard incandescent lightbulbs are not efficency-regulated out of existence. You pay LESS for efficent lighting, if you factor in all the increased energy taxes which come about due to pollution.
Now all they have to do is combining that technology with CPUs. Cool running processors that light up your computer from inside! Sombody call Apple ;-)
Lars T.
To the guy who modded me down from perfect to terrible Karma - Apple haters still suck
but it's true that by buying something else than SUVs and 7.9l engine cars
USian drivers buy SUVs because they don't want to get hurt in a potential wreck with an SUV.
stupid speed limitations! (Which are here precisely because cars' engines eat too much!)
Actually, U.S. roadways have speed limits because of the reaction time of the average USian driver, especially taking into account effects such as highway hypnosis.
Will I retire or break 10K?
This really sounds like a short story I read quite some time ago, where this guy that works in his dad's factory, and the factory is about to go under because he's getting the "squeeze" put on him by large corporations. The son invents a lightbulb that uses VERY little electricity, and then also thinks that it can be reversed to where they can create solar panals that are very efficient. They do, but the large corporations close in, and send "mafia guys" to get them, and the only way they can make sure their invention gets released is to opensource it. Kinda cool in a way...now that I think about it...I wasn't even involved in open source when I read it.
The book was "The Man Who Sold the Moon" and the story was "Let There Be Light."
Sorry to be a stick in the mud about this one - being a bit offtopic, and all, but Heinlein didn't write that story...though I wish I knew who did...It sounds interesting...
You're probably thinking about how Harriman thought of the Light-switch that turned off the light whenever it sensed nobody in the room...it was a passing idea for him that George Strong picked up on, marketed, sold the bejesus out of, and funneled the profits back into the Moon-rocket venture...
I'm fairly certain He did not write the story you're talking about...Strange, though- it does sound like one of Heinlein's plots...
Sig currently under construction. Mind the gap....
Incandescent lamps... around 20 lumens per watt. Fluorescent lamps... about 70 lumens per watt. White LED, 50 lumens per watt and climbing. And the power requirements and ability to fit them into small spaces are much less tricky than for fluorescent.
LED's are almost there--and efficiencies are climbing. Main problem right now is that they're expensive. But already, I see they're being used for the red, and, increasingly, the green lights in traffic lights around here.
By the time this stuff makes it out of the lab, LEDs will be cheap and even more efficient than they are now.
And, of course, all the gee-whiz wizards-of-the-labs articles never say how much the new technology is likely to COST. And the stated efficiencies tend to decline as the devices start to approach reality...
If they can really make these things twelve times as efficient as LED's AND give a pleasant, flattering light spectrum AND get the cost down, it will be interesting.
"How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!
I think the greenhouse effect has more to do with absorption than with angle of incidence. Blackbody emission peak wavelength decreases with temperature. The Sun, a 6000 K blackbody, emits visible light, which passes through the windows and is absorbed by the interior. The interior, a 300 K blackbody, emits infrared, which is absorbed by the windows.
In his autobiography, 19th century instrument maker John A. Brashear describes a project to make lenses out of salt crystals for an astronomer who wanted to make infrared observations. Salt is supposed to be much more transparent than glass in that band of the spectrum.
Sorry bud, but I'm currently looking at the book, and it does seem to say "Robert A. Heinlein" on the cover.
It's my birthday damnit, give me a break!!!!!1111111
A breakthrough in solar energy ?
I wonder what the energy density from the sun is in the IR spectrum ?
Absolute statements are never true
For you? Sure, why not- Happy Birthday...
However....(Sorry, I can't resist...)I'm looking at the collected short story book by Heinlein "The Past through Tomorrow" which contains a very long short story entitled "The man who sold the moon".
4th story, second page, 6th paragraph.(p 123 of the book)
Read it...It's a good story- but unless he's got another book entirely by the same name (This short story is around 100 pages by itself...), then the idea you mentioned ain't there...
As I said, though- Let me know what it is when you find out...It does sound pretty neat.
And Happy Birthday! (Yes, I know I'm a bastard for not giving you the break...;-)
Sig currently under construction. Mind the gap....
You're right.. the man who sold the moon is a completely different story. But I do remember the Heinlein story mentioned, and I'm pretty sure that it is somewhere in The Past Through Tomorrow. The light panels (which also work as solar cells) developed in the story are the basis for the "rolling roads" that replace highways.
There's no such thing as a USian.
You see, some countries in the world are called "The United States of X". Generally because, accurately or otherwise, they're supposedly a federal union of autonomous "states".
People who live in one of these "United States" countries are called after the place where the states are located.
Citizens of the United States of Mexico are called.... Mexicans.
Citizens of the United States of Brazil are called.... Brazilians.
Citizens of the United States of America are called.... Americans.
But the entire Western Hemisphere should be called "America"! It's unfair that just the USA uses that name!
Unfair in what way? Brazil doesn't lack a name. Canada's not hurting for a moniker unrelated to the name of its continent.
Besides, geographical names are blurry anyway. By "Africa'' a lot of people mean simply "sub-Saharan Africa". Peru used to mean all of non-Brazilian South America, not just one Andean country. Some names (e.g. Iraq, Pakistan) are simply made up out of nowhere.
So why invent the ugly term "USian", which could equally well apply to several different countries, when everybody the world over knows what an "American" is?
All employees must wash hands before seeking equitable relief.
If that were true, a 40-watt flourescent tube would output ~20000 lumens, not ~3000.
100% efficiency would be about 680 lumens per watt. Flourescents do about 80, incandescents do about 18.
Oh, and misspelling words like "flourescent" and "ballast" hurts your credibility.
Mine, too.
*ducks and runs*
This is Sandia. One of those governement labs with supercomputers and stuff. Like ASCI Red, the world's 3rd fastest supercomputer, for example.
They've got an OC-48 2.5 Gbps link to San Francisco. That was in 2000, they may have upgraded since then...
yeah, I know, they may have outsourced the web server to a 56k modem line, but somehow I doubt it...
HIV Crosses Species Barrier... into Muppets
Granted this is on the heels of the bubble fusion article
But this is superlatively revolutionary. Take the two possible big-hit applications: massive energy efficiencies coupled with a 20-30% increase in photovotalic efficiency (read: reduced cost) and this is a big step toward alternative energy.
Imagine a mass-produced fuel cells and increased efficiency photovotalics with lighting generated by these things. Who needs a power company?
Hey, I'm just your average shit and piss factory.
Hmmm.....That could be why it sounds so familiar....I suppose it's been about a year since I've read through that book...Time to give it another whirl if I'm missing details like that again...
-Damn, But I enjoy Heinlein stuff....
Sig currently under construction. Mind the gap....
Since converting to compact flourescent bulbs at home over the past three years, I've often wondered why projectors still use incandescant bulbs. I certainly won't be buying a projector for home use until the problem of cooling is solved. Having brought a few projectors home to try, I've found that the noise from cooling fans outweighs the benefit of the big screen.
:-)
Cool stuff. Literally.
This is great work. But if people want high-efficiency, pleasant-looking light-bulbs, they can already get them and save money in the process. The fact that people don't buy them despite all their advantages suggests that the problem isn't technology, it's people.
Forgive me if this is a horrible misunderstanding of the technology, but isn't it because flourescent bulbs "flicker" at 50 Hz? (or 60 Hz, depending on your power source) AC power source oscillate at 50 Hz, flourescent isn't a "continuous" light output; I expect you would see a visible flicker with flourescent. Typically a monitor should update at at least 70 Hz to begin to look relatively stable to human eye, depending on the sensitivity of the viewer to flicker. Most TVs update at 50 Hz (I've seen some that update at 100 but I'm not sure what they're doing to get that, wouldn't they need to buffer and replay the entire signal for the last frame?), I can definitely see a horrible flicker when I watch TV, and will usually get a headache within two hours or so of watching.
If it bothers you that much, I'll rewrite yerricde's comment without using the Esperanto-inspired term "USian", so that you can respond to the comment rather than to the language.
but it's true that by buying something else than SUVs and 7.9l engine cars
American drivers buy SUVs because they don't want to get hurt in a potential wreck with an SUV.
stupid speed limitations! (Which are here precisely because cars' engines eat too much!)
Actually, American roadways have speed limits because of the reaction time of the average American driver, especially taking into account effects such as highway hypnosis.
-- PinocchioThe reason we use incandescent lamps for projectors is that you need a point source to be able to focus the image. A flourescent source is too large (a 13W biax lamp would need to be 60" away from a projector to focus the image!), but metal halide lamps work well for high wattages.
What is amazing is that this is about 3x more efficient than flourescent or High Intensity Discharge lamps! That doesn't quite sound possible... but that is what they are saying!
With a magnetic ballast, flourescent lamps do flicker at 50 or 60 hz, but electronic ballasts operate in the kHZ range.
The frame rate for tv is 30HZ with NTSC, and 25HZ for PAL (effectively matched to the power supply). You do get interesting results when you record with NTSC equipment outside of the US under flourescent (magnetic ballast) equipment...
My prediction: Twenty years from now light bulbs will still be the same as they are today. However, on the late-night infomercials you will see ads for the "amazing tungsten lattice light bulb", yours for only three easy payments of $19.95. Act now and recieve this keychain flashlight absolutely free!
I wonder what portion of electricity consumption is dedicated to lighting? Probably a small number, maybe 2-3%, but then consider the reduced heat coming from the lights, which will reduce cooling costs.
Of course, you would probably see your heating costs rise slightly as well. One interesting thing in economics is economic / technological thresholds; small changes suddenly unleash tectonic changes just because some small thing that was economically prohibitive before crossed that 1% difference in cost that makes it feasible. I wonder what it might be here...
If your bitterest enemies are people who hack the heads off civilians, then I would say you're doing something right.
Ha.
So if we have a United States of Africa, do we call them African? How about United States of Asia? Asians?
You get the point? Citizens of the United States of America are Americans, as well as the people of Canada, Mexico, Brazil, etc.
The only real way to fix this short or changing the name of either America (the continent) or the USA is to refer to people from the USA as -
Americans of the United States
:. Ultimate Control Dedicated/VM Servers
I think the color of the light produced would be very important for its potential uses.
Can you imagine a Beowulf Cluster of these????
Yeah... shoot me...
Ha.
So if we have a United States of Africa, do we call them African? How about United States of Asia? Asians?
You get the point?
What point? Hypothetical countries need hypothetical names?
But, sure, we can play that game. Let's say we had a hypothetical federation of European nations, which we'll call the "European Union". What are people from within this Union supposedly called? Europeans. What about places which are in Europe but not in the European Union, like Norway? Norwegians.
All employees must wash hands before seeking equitable relief.
Hmm .. this whole thing reminds me of the word "Linux" being used to refer both to the kernel itself, as well as to an entire Linux-kernel-based distribution which includes tonnes of other GNU software.
:) tell when someone means free-as-in-beer or free-as-in-speech.
.. things are the way they are, "American" has come to imply "USian" (which really is a horrible 'word'), and people should accept it and move on.
Occasionally, some people will jump up and get anal when people use "Linux" to refer to the latter, saying stuff like "Linux is a kernel you dolt".
The fact of the matter is, words CAN and OFTEN DO have more than one meaning (in fact, the word "run" in English, for example, has over 100 different particular subtle or non-subtle variations in meaning).
In the vast majority of cases, the particular meaning that a speaker/writer intends is amply evident from the context in which it occurs to anyone with half a brain, that is, there is very seldom room for confusion. We can all usually tell when someone means Linux the kernel, or Linux a distribution. Likewise, we can all (most of the time
In this case, the word "American" is used sometimes to refer to anyone from either the North American or South American continents, and other times (more often, simply for historical reasons) to refer to someone from the US of A. This isn't necessarily because "USians" believe that they are the only Americans, its most likely simply because its convenient to speak that way, and because of the abundance of American ("USian") media, has become commonly accepted as a meaning for the word, and it has to a large degree "crowded out" the more general meaning of "American".
The point is that when someone says "American" on slashdot, but actually means "USian", everyone here is intelligent enough to understand which meaning of "American" was implied. So to complain about it is really a bit anal. Language is a dynamic, constantly evolving thing, and it is very often the case that logically "wrong" words get chosen for something (e.g. "atom" is a misnomer), or that words change in meaning through usage (e.g. "hack"). People should just get over it, and not take it so personally
The best part comes in a couple years, when we get to watch GE and whoever else makes light bulbs neglect to put these on the market for as long as possible, or jack up the price.
The technology to make ultra-long-lasting lightbulbs has been known for ages, but they've only been available for a few years now, I wonder why? Maybe it's because bulb manufacturers make more money by selling shorter-lived bulbs...
Yes, there's a Heinlein book called The Man who Sold the Moon. It's a collection of Future History stories, with the story "The Man who Sold the Moon" as its "title track".
I've never read it, because I assumed that The Past Through Tomorrow contained all the Future History stories.
Because some idiot decided that there needed to be 3600 seconds in an hour, and so using a 100W device for an hour somehow uses 360kJ of energy.
If your target audience uses a calculator to get fifty percent of a hundred, you don't want to inflict our silly Sumerian time scale on them. (Was it the Sumerians who did the base-sixty nonsense? Or was that the Babylonians?)
--grendel drago
Laws do not persuade just because they threaten. --Seneca
So that white powder inside the tubes is flour? Cool; I've always wondered what that stuff was...
C'mon, it's obvious he knows how to spell it, and just made a typo--he spelled it correctly 4 of the 5 times. Whereas you misspelled it 3 of out 3 times. 3 strikes and you're out!
Is there some entropic reason why light cannot be turned into electricity? We know about heat, but not about light. Is there even somewhere to start with the whole S=k ln W thing? I asked a couple of physics professors around here, but no one really seemed to know. I think it might be an open research topic. Someone should do a bunch of math on the subject.
References, anyone?
--grendel drago
Laws do not persuade just because they threaten. --Seneca
because you need a point source of light
for the average projector.
The list the sizes of the little tungsten rods as "1.2 mm, the rod-to-rod spacing is 4.2 mm". I think they mean 1.2 um and 4.2 um (u = mu), micrometers, not millimeters. They should have someone with an education in science or engineering read over this stuff before they publish.
Just like translated text should be read over by a native speaker. "All your base are belong to us."
Don't Bogart the fish sticks
Could you make a sweet ass heat sink out of this? Think about it, you coat a processor in this stuff and the waste heat is converted into light. Your heat sink would glow rather then just get hot. Then you would have case lighting standard! They could just put it on at the factory.
Don't Bogart the fish sticks
Don't forget that the manufacture of these 'eco-friendly' bulbs involves nasty things like mercury vapor (correct me if I'm wrong), and all the compounds involved in production of plastics and electronics.
In contrast, a conventional light bulb is produced with a little hot sand, a puff of air, some argon and metal (anyone know how earth-friendly the bakelite insulator is to produce?)...
If we all had ample supply of free power (nuclear, fusion, solar, wind, whatever), we'd be nuts to use CF. As it is, we have limited power, and generate it from messy sources (coal, fossil fuel, nuclear plants with no means of acceptable fuel disposal), so CF makes a decent tradeoff.
It helps that the production of CF bulbs pollutes countries nobody cares about (Mexico, Malaysia IIRC, etc), while conventional bulbs pollute the air in developed countries directly (power plant emissions).
Personally, I use a few CFs to save on the electric bill and keep things cooler, but I'm not under the illusion that they're much friendlier for the environment. BTW, Connecticut customers should note that Northeast Utilities offers a 'SmartLiving' catalog of CF products for deep discounts ($2-$3/bulb); they have a crisis in the delivery system (ongoing NIMBY syndrome for high voltage lines), so they're quite eager to reduce demand.
Now, if these new bulbs can get to the point of being fabbed using clean semiconductor manufacturing techniques (again, semiconductor techniques aren't always that clean, but we're talking sand and tungsten in this case), and placed in simple enclosures (no need for the HV fluorescents need), *and* last sufficiently longer than standard bulbs... That is truly a holy grail.
BTW, even if they only emit a single wavelength or IR, there are fairly efficient (CF) phosphors that the glass could be coated with. Phosphors aren't always that clean to produce, but in this case, there'd still be a huge energy savings in *the manufacture* of each bulb..
Detroit is having more and more trouble generating enough electricity in cars to run all of the electric gadgets. And I'm not talking wasteful gadgets like radios and GPS units. I'm talking about useful things that could raise fuel efficiency like electronic valves that can be fully computer controlled.
One of their bigger problems is that there always has to be enough left over to run the headlights. This would considerably reduce the necessary budget there.
Soon the police helicopters' infra-red camera will have to go back to only tracking sweaty criminals.
So, since EVERYONE KNOWS who you're talking about when you refer to people from the USA as Americans, there is no need for a new term.
"The question of whether a computer can think is no more interesting than that of whether a submarine can swim" -EWD
Hallam's Tungsten, is it?
Entropy
e=mc^Hawking, that's for sure! :)
How expensive (or cheap) something is, in this case a "light bulb," can be determined by manufacturing cost, output (in lumens), energy consumption cost, replacing cost, and lifetime of the product. If something costs 5x more but lasts 10x longer and uses less energy and has a higher output, you don't have to be a math major to find out what is the better deal.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Btw, and important: Those just can't be millimeters (mm); they must be micrometers, and somebody with inadequate education didn't know what to do when a greek lower-case mu was essential. Sometimes the context will allow you to substitute a latin "m", but this is just unusual enough, imho, to make that a very bad choice. Gotta go, soon, so I don't know whether someone else picked up on this, later on.
Enby in Waltham
In addition to the fact that a projector needs a point source, a fluorescent lamp also wouldn't have the right color spectrum to make the projected image look right. Although I suppose that could be adjusted for to some degree.
Hey kids, there's only 5 days left 'til Yak Shaving Day!
if you can not use them like normal incandescent light bulbs????? Do they work in the three way lamps??? NO!!! Can you fit them into normal light fixtures that cover the bulb??? NO!!! Do they look good hanging out for all to see??? NO!!!
I purchased a couple of those incadesent replacements a couple of years ago...and the sh*tty things were to big to replace the globe.
I dont know about you, but I kinda like the globes the light fixtures in my house have, and I think most others feel the same way. I think most people feel like me and won't buy the high-efficiency light bulb because they dont f**king fit into standard light fixtures.
If they make the damn things small enough to REALLY replace regular lightbulbs then maybe people would buy the fluorecent replacements.
But until then...I sticking with my incandescent bulbs.
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The frame rate for tv is 30HZ with NTSC, and 25HZ for PAL
Yes of course :) Forgot about Americans use NTSC, I live in a PAL country ..
Isnt it 50 Hz interlaced, or something like that?
The problem with your whole argument is that the way it is used, people ONLY refer to people from the US as Americans, when two continents have rights to the word. At a UN meeting, when someone asks all the Europeans to raise their hands, can Norwegians or can't they? I believe a continental name is more powerful than a national one, as the people of Myanmar know. Regardless of who is the ruling force, the geographical designation given to a people by the rest of the world should not be taken away because one nation has 50% of global wealth and only 6% of global population, and so gets the idea that they are more important than a title which all the people of two continents can rightfully claim.
People in Soviet Russia, however, appear to be afflicted with amusing juxtapositions of the aforementioned situation
All his old short stories (and a couple of novellas in installments) (the stuff on the "Future History" chart) were originally published in pulp-fiction SF magazines like "Amazing Stories" and "Astounding Science Fiction" or some such. These are worth a mint now, if anybody's dad still has a box of them left in his attic.
Later, paperback publishers (Del Rey?) went through the stuff, and picked and chose to make anthologies, usually naming these after one of the short stories contained therin to maximize reader confusion and therby hope to sell him the same short story multiple times.
IIRC, "Let There Be Light" was included in (at _least_) anthologies named "The Past Through Tomorrow", "The man Who Sold The Moon", and "The Green Hills Of Earth", each of which contained a (sometimes not-so-)short story bearing the same name as found on the anthology cover. I've other anthologies named "Revolt in 2100" and "The Menace From Earth", both of which are also short stories.
And it's ABOUT TIME somebody around here came up with this cold-light technology, which time-line three has had since the sixties.
Exceeding the recommended torque is not recommended.
Add "Methuselah's Children" to the above list.
Exceeding the recommended torque is not recommended.
I use my SETI@home farm to heat the apartment, then write off the electricty bill as a business expense :)