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. "

Comments

Light emitting technology

[wowbagger]

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?