This looks great, but it's a concept not a product or even a prototype. And once they start trying to make one, they will find that the concept is fundamentally flawed. An incandescent filament needs to be kept warm to function well. The bulb help keep it warm. An LED, on the other hand, needs to be kept cool to maximize efficiency and life. That's why real LED bulbs have fins and such, rather than being encased in a bulb. This concept would only work with a low-power LED putting out the light of a nightlight.

Handsome packaging, but the problem is heat removal, not the concept of a screw compatible bulb. Although LEDs are much more efficient than incandescent (about 8x) and fluorescent (about 2x today, and soon 4x), they still generate heat. The ABSOLUTE efficiency is only about 10%. So while an LED replacing a 100W incandescent uses only 12W of electricity, 90% of that 12W is turned into heat. Removing that 10W of heat from inside a sealed glass bulb down a long thin stalk, to a conventional lamp socket that has no provision for heat removal, all at an affordable price, is the key design problem. Period.

Long term the issue goes away- lamps and fixtures will be designed as an integral unit, with no separate bulb, and a lifetime guarantee. Short term specialized solutions exist (e.g. halogen bulb replacements where the bulb hangs freely in the circulating air around a track or wire frame), but fail in tightly sealed environments like recessed ceiling fixtures.

Turns out to be a "systems" problem, not a matter of slick bulb design.

Whether or not the actual product will work, the theory that environmental design doesn't have to be 'supersexy, fluid' and 'found in high-end design stores' is a great one. That demographic already does it's thing! It's good to see possibilities for people who can't afford new houses and new technology to still make a difference.

uh, no, charlie. for one thing, they are engineers and probably know a lot more about lighting in general, LEDs, etc. that I do or you do. and anyone who cycles can tell you that you can encase LEDs (even high-powered ones) in even smaller cases than this, and they put out a heck of a lot more light than a night light. i done household tasks with mine during black-outs.

I'm not sure Charlie is correct here or if his point is really that much of an issue. I already own an LED bulb that fits in a standard socket. It's basically 30 standard LEDs, so it's nothing special. They're all encased in a housing far more so than the one above. I also own an LED headlamp that encases its hyper-bright LED completely in a plastic lens and then also inside a plastic shell. I own another LED flashlight that has it's 90 lumen CREE LED encased inside. None of them have any cooling mechanisms or anything like that and they're super bright.

Even if the heat did cause the LED to degrade quicker, it'd be insignificant. LEDs get around 60,000 hours. A massive 30% degradation would still give you around 40,000 hours, which is still 4.5 years running 24/7.

For me the issue with these bulbs is that they're so expensive that if you buy one to see how they work out, you've just dropped $30 or so to find out that the bulb doesn't meet your lighting needs.

I can't see why this concept can't sell. Heck, they look like a regular incandescent light bulb. Even michelle bachmann got to admire this!

Great design, but doesn't solve the fundamental problem with LED's is getting a diffused bright light. LED's work great for spot lights like headlights or flashlights, but try to light an entire room with them and you will need a lot more than one tiny led.

I've had good luck with the CL-3 "bulb" from EarthLED which screws in to a normal socket. The "warm white" tone is about equivalent to a 30-watt incandescent. I just got a CL-5 which is closer to a 45-50-watt incandescent and so far, so good. I bought one of their $30 bulbs to test it out and have liked it so much I've now bought a total of 7 bulbs from them. Worth a look if you're after LEDs that screw in to normal lamps and sockets. Yes they are expensive (though they'll pay for themselves over time with energy savings) and yes you need to put them in non-enclosed spaces (for heat reasons) but I've been happy with them so far.

I'm not going to try and make any arguments about the technical details because I'm no engineer, but having dealt with product design in the consumer market, they have one obvious idea correct.

To make a product like this appeal to the mass market, including the majority of people that can't afford high-end products, it will need to become a relatively low-cost solution that fits within current architectures. Otherwise, these types of solutions will only be accessible to those with higher amounts of disposable incomes.

I know it would be nice to think that all people are willing to make the investment to drastically change the way in which they light their homes (e.g. buying all new lighting with LED built-in), but the reality is most people won't or can't change that significantly. Too often I read out about pie-in-the-sky solutions that aren't even remotely practical for the average person. Kudos to someone at least giving the effort for a common sense solution!