More LED bulb options

[pete_c]

Thank you Ano.
 
How do the lights work with no power supply?
 
Here I just purchase some new lamps for the Amana Microwave.
 
They look fine but they flicker when in dim mode.  I have been replacing the old bulbs now every few months since we first turned on the Microwave.

 

[ano]

Here is some good information on how they work.
http://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/blogs/dept/guest-blogs/led-filament-bulbs
 
I have heard some reports (my company owns a publication that tests led bulbs) that some people see a flicker with these bulbs. I myself never have.
 
So to make a long story short, they use many led chips bonded to a glass substrate with a phosphor covering (the yellow part you see.) No power supply because there are so many LEDs in series, they don't need one, they run on 120V or 220V. (They probably have a resistor and diode). Get one and try them. They are pretty cool, literally. 
 
By the way, in 5 or 10 more years, LED bulbs will likely be obsolete, largely replaced by lasers. Read my blog for more details....
http://goo.gl/mcNymJ

 

[Neurorad]

Ano, very interesting read. Probably a little further off than 5-10 years, IMO, that we'll see laser light bulbs for the home.

I'm very eager to see those laser headlights in action!

BTW, I'm one of the people who finds cheap, strobing LED tail lights very annoying.

 

[sash]

other then  the  lack of mercury and the faster start time then a CFL  . energy consumption is the same in  LED ..   as they are  both 60 lm/w
 
metal halides or high or low pressure bulbs are much better at  90 - 150 lm/watt. if you are looking purely at energy efficiency. even if the colour is off
 
as to the strobing yes,  very noticeable and takes awhile for the eyes to get use to it. . even changing from a  cfl flat screen monitor to led flat screen monitor is quite distressing on the eyes for a long while.  I had them for two years now and still my eyes get beat from them even much faster then a cfl  driven monitor

 

[ano]

other then  the  lack of mercury and the faster start time then a CFL  . energy consumption is the same in  LED ..   as they are  both 60 lm/w
 
metal halides or high or low pressure bulbs are much better at  90 - 150 lm/watt. if you are looking purely at energy efficiency. even if the colour is off
 
as to the strobing yes,  very noticeable and takes awhile for the eyes to get use to it. . even changing from a  cfl flat screen monitor to led flat screen monitor is quite distressing on the eyes for a long while.  I had them for two years now and still my eyes get beat from them even much faster then a cfl  driven monitor

By my calculation, many of the filament LED bulbs are 800 lm and consume 6 watts, or about 133lm/watt. The biggest problem I had with CFL was that they wouldn't last very long, and in the winter, when your house was colder they would take 5 or 10 minutes to warm up.  That was very annoying, especially for light you just need for a minute or two.
 
Its hard to tell the timing of laser lights.  The Department of Energy has awarded UCSB a $2.7M 3-year grant to research them. Their goal is to produce a 200 lm/watt, 1000 lm light source by the end of three years and the research doesn't even start until this April.

 

[RAL]

The biggest problem I had with CFL was that they wouldn't last very long, and in the winter, when your house was colder they would take 5 or 10 minutes to warm up.  That was very annoying, especially for light you just need for a minute or two.

 
Agreed!  CFLs have a lifetime of about 3000 to 4000 start cycles, as I recall.  The CFLs I've used would last little more than 2 years as a result.  And would take longer and longer to reach full brightness as they aged.  No such problems with LEDs.   I'll never buy a CFL again.

 

[pete_c]

Here particularly interested in car headlights.  I am noticing as I age my eyes do not adjust as quickly to nighttime driving as they used to.
 
My automobiles today utilize Xenon which does work for me.  Over the last few months have replaced some of the interior lighting with plates of warm LED lighting which works.  It is brighter and turns the interior space to daylight.    When it shuts off (dimming slowly) I do not notice any LED flickering. 
 
I have noticed though that the side glare from the new interior lighting if on really bugs me at night. 
 
IE: wife turned one lamp on one night while driving and I told her politely to shut it off as the light irritated me.
 
So a quickie clip and paste here. 
 
We’ll start by looking at automotive headlights, which have used light sources through the years ranging from acetylene and oil, to incandescent lamps, Xenon high-intensity discharge lamps, and LEDs. Certainly automotive headlights have evolved through the years but why now lasers?
 
I have spoken with BMW and Audi, and they say they can get a brighter light intensity from lasers that can be tighter focused. BMW claims that the light it can get from lasers more than doubles the range they can get from LEDs. In addition, the laser die is 100 times smaller than with an LED, which in turns gives car designers more flexibility including installing the laser module a distance from the actual headlight window and feeding the light via fiber cable.
 
One benefit that laser headlights don’t bring to automotive headlights is cost. I’m told that laser headlights are at least twice the cost of LED headlights, and can be considerably more than that.  The BMW i8 was the first car which offered laser headlights as an option. The car lists for $135,925 and that is without the laser headlight option which adds another $10,500 to the price.
 
BMW has utilized fiber optics since the late 1990s for the headlamp angel eyes - thinking it started with the 5 series back then. 

 

[ano]

Here particularly interested in car headlights.  I am noticing as I age my eyes do not adjust as quickly to nighttime driving as they used to.
 
My automobiles today utilize Xenon which does work for me.  Over the last few months have replaced some of the interior lighting with plates of warm LED lighting which works.  It is brighter and turns the interior space to daylight.    When it shuts off (dimming slowly) I do not notice any LED flickering. 
 
I have noticed though that the side glare from the new interior lighting if on really bugs me at night. 
 
IE: wife turned one lamp on one night while driving and I told her politely to shut it off as the light irritated me.
 
So a quickie clip and paste here. 
 
We’ll start by looking at automotive headlights, which have used light sources through the years ranging from acetylene and oil, to incandescent lamps, Xenon high-intensity discharge lamps, and LEDs. Certainly automotive headlights have evolved through the years but why now lasers?
 
I have spoken with BMW and Audi, and they say they can get a brighter light intensity from lasers that can be tighter focused. BMW claims that the light it can get from lasers more than doubles the range they can get from LEDs. In addition, the laser die is 100 times smaller than with an LED, which in turns gives car designers more flexibility including installing the laser module a distance from the actual headlight window and feeding the light via fiber cable.
 
One benefit that laser headlights don’t bring to automotive headlights is cost. I’m told that laser headlights are at least twice the cost of LED headlights, and can be considerably more than that.  The BMW i8 was the first car which offered laser headlights as an option. The car lists for $135,925 and that is without the laser headlight option which adds another $10,500 to the price.
 
BMW has utilized fiber optics since the late 1990s for the headlamp angel eyes - thinking it started with the 5 series back then. 

Unfortunately if you live in the U.S., you won't be seeing laser headlights for a while.  The U.S. has very antiquated laws on headlights. Even matrixed LED headlights are not allowed in the U.S.  If you want laser headlights, you have to move to Europe.

 

[pete_c]

Interesting.
 
Relating to the optics (but not laser stuff) I was able to purchase devices made for the EU version of my automobile.  Well that and I would just purchase them on my visits to the EU in the early 2000's.
 
My early mods on one vehicle 6 months after purchase all came from the EU. 
 
The E46 was built there and very modular.  Most of the devices / parts I installed were way beyond what the dealer knew about. 
 
In fact they were clueless and continued to service the vehicle with the extended warranty coverage.

 

[pete_c]

Very well written article Ano. 
 
Personally just looking forward to what is to come relating to the use of laser lighting and do understand its a few years ago.