HN Explorer

7 comments

[ 4.3 ms ] story [ 31.9 ms ] thread
Andys
How is this different from an arc lamp / high-intensity discharge lamp as used in spotlights and car headlamps?
ars
Quite different. HiD lamps use a strong electric current to heat up and excite a plasma. These use radio waves to heat up the plasma.

There is no cathode or anode.

ajb
Unfortunately, there's apparently an ongoing patent dispute between these guys and Ceravision, both of whom claim to have invented the technology.
ars
Why does everyone compare with LED's? For bulbs in actual production - outside a lab - CFL's easily beat LED's and produce better light to boot (better color).

What is it with this obsession with LED's?

I saw an LED lamp for sale in a store and one thing was conspicuously missing - the panel on the side that told me how many lumens it produces. There were very excited about the watts, but wouldn't say how much light it makes. And probably for a good reason. (And isn't that panel required by law?)

mhb
I was playing around with some 3W LEDs and a problem I didn't anticipate was dissipating the heat generated. An incandescent bulb radiates a lot of its heat, but in an LED it all comes out the back and has to go somewhere. It needs a surprisingly large heat sink to dissipate it. So they're not going to be drop-in replacements for incandescents unless they become a lot more efficient.
derekaharris
I just finished an industry analysis for the light bulb industry in the US. The LED technology is advancing at such a fast rate that although they are prohibitively expensive now, in 5 years they will cost less than CFLs and provide higher quality lighting. The big three light bulb manufacturers (GE, Philips, and OSRAM), which make up 95% of the US market, are buying LED firms like crazy. LEDs last about 10x longer and use 1/10 the electricity of CFLs as well. CFLs contain a small amount of mercury which will help speed adoption of LEDs.
ars
LED's do NOT use 1/10 the electricity of CFLs. Besides being not true, that also violates the laws of physics. CFL's use appox 3 times the theoretical best efficiency possible - so at best a different bulb could use 1/3 the electricity of CFLs. And that's the theoretical maximum, and not likely to be reached.