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Panasonic's New LED Bulbs Shine For 19 Years
Mike writes "As lighting manufacturers phase out the incandescent bulb, and CFLs look set to define the future of lighting, Panasonic recently unveiled a remarkable 60-watt household LED bulb that they claim can last up to 19 years (if used 5-1/2 hours a day). With a lifespan 40 times longer than their incandescent counterparts, Panasonic's new EverLed bulbs are the most efficient LEDs ever to be produced. They are set to debut in Japan on October 21st. Let's hope that as the technology is refined their significant cost barrier will drop — $40 still seems pretty pricey for a light bulb, even one that promises to save $23 a year in energy costs."
The CO2 stampede will fade out, the environmentalist crooks will be getting rich with tributes paid to save the Moon, and just when my current stock of incadescent bulbs will be about to finish, I will again be able to buy fine classical bulbs in a shop. This is my 70 year old mother's opinion.
"I have only CFL's in my house."
I certainly do not want to visit your house, then. Thanks, most ppl with spiral CFLs are just mad and would be better off living in a dark room.
My light requirements are:
1. Immediate 100% brightness. I have stairs! I am combining 2 7-W-CFLs with one 40-W bulb, just so that nobody gets hurt. The CFLs still suck, since their light is not nearly as bright as the 40W bulb - that is, in the 5 minutes until the timer turns them off again.
2. My living rooms are for living. I need comfortable light. You can stop thinking about CFLS from here (I have two 28W-daylight-CFLs in my home office - daylight CFLS, costing about 28 euros each. Good light for office work).
3. Dimming capability. My living room has a 3x75W G9 uplight, and I will not replace it.
4. And yes, I have LED lights: 8x Cree Q5 LEDs (21W/1440 lm) in the hall. Not comfortable, but far brighter (!) than one 100W conventional bulb. Since I used a cheap notebook adapter for the 19V they require, the light is still not immediately on (startup delay).
So you see, I *am* experimenting with energy saving light sources, but there's nothing above halogen bulbs, with the pure-white LEDs coming in second (problems: expensive, "yellow" light means low efficiency, good power sources required, dimming by PWM is not cheap and hard to implement in most situations).
If you look at the big picture: my 46" LCD is a bigger energy drain than all light sources combined, especially if you look at the daily usage.