GE Quietly Folds on High Efficiency Incandescent
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 12. 1.08
Old Thomas Alva was no slouch with the elbows in the corners when it came to patent battles or discrediting competitors, and neither are his successors at General Electric. While we generally admire the company, we were not impressed with their announcement a year and a half ago that they were working on more efficient incandescent bulbs, that "In addition to offering significant energy savings comparable to CFLs, the 21st century version of Edison’s bulb provides all the desirable benefits including light quality and instant-on convenience as incandescent lamps currently provide at a price that will be less than CFLs."
I wrote that the timing of the announcement was suspicious(it was the same day as the launch of 18 seconds.org and a lot of incandescent bans were being discussed) , and " would also suggest that announcing a bulb that will be half as good as a CFL when it is launched in three years has just given a whole lot of people an excuse to do nothing."
Jeff Immelt, GE President, New York Times
Tyler Hamilton of Clean Break wondered what had happened to this new superbulb, particularly since GE had restructured its lighting business in the meantime; he got this response to his request for information.
"GE Consumers & Industrial and GE Global Research have suspended the development of the high-efficiency incandescent lamp (HEI) to place greater focus and investment on what we believe will be the ultimate in energy efficient lighting — light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs). Research and development of these technologies is moving at an impressive pace and will be ready for general lighting in the near future. LEDs and OLEDs used in general lighting are now poised to surpass the projected efficiency levels of HEI, along with other energy-efficient technologies like fluorescent, and have the additional benefits of long life and durability."
So was it ever real, or was it just a political diversion to stop efforts to bring in incandescent bulb bans? Who knows. The one thing we do know is that the 130 year old Edison incandescent bulb is now officially dead, going out not with a bang, but a whimper.
More on Light Bulbs in TreeHugger:
GE announces High Efficiency Incandescent Light Bulbs. Why?
Ed Begley, Jr. on Saving Energy, Saving Money, and Looking Up
CFLs Could Curb Global Lighting Demand by 40% - and At What Cost?
Real Simple's Top Compact Fluorescent Bulbs
CFL Bulb 2.0 by Felix Stark Looks Like an Incandescent
all posts tagged compact fluorescent light bulbs
Thirsty for more? Check out these related articles:
- Un-Treehugger Events of the Year
- Can't Afford a Hybrid?: Reduce Your Carbon Emissions with these Cheaper, Better Investments
- Top 10 TreeHugger Stories of 2008
- How to Go Green: Cocktails
Eco Friendly Flooring Guide is a Great Resource
|
The Smoke-Free, Nicotine-Free and Now Organic Swedish Snuff
|
I understand the need for improved energy efficiency when it comes to light bulbs but no one seems to be addressing the potential health risks caused by fluorescent lighting like headaches, migraines, melanoma... this is aside from the mercury content of these light bulbs which can really cause problems should one break in your home. Shouldn't someone be working on a better alternative instead of jumping, with eyes closed, on the fluorescent lighting bandwagon?
Headaches/migraines were supposed to be caused by flickering fluorescent tubes. To my knowledge none of the new FL bulbes or tubes flicker.
I haven't heard of melanoma caused by efficient lighting.
People are working on better alternatives. LEDs are going to be the best way to go. Check out www.ledlight.com for some ideas.
Helene - many, many people *are* working on improved lighting. First of all, the mercury content of all types of fluorescent lighting has been and continues to decrease over time. (For example, the most recent "tube" lights, T5 tubes, have a coating on the interior that reduces mercury loss substantially, which both increases the bulb's brightness later in its life AND reduces the amount of mercury it has to contain, down to about 3mg per tube.) CFLs are following the same path - average CFLs now contain about 4mg of mercury, but some newer CFLs contain as little as 1mg.
Second, as the article notes, there's been and continues to be a huge amount of development in LED and OLED lighting. It's mercury-free, starts instantly, great in directional applications, and the prices have been jumping downward over the last two years. They're still expensive, but they're now starting to be the best choice for an increasing number of applications.
regarding LED bulbs, I have a coworker who mentioned that Wal-Mart is carrying a line of LED bulbs, I don't know the brand or quality, but apparently the price is relatively low for the brightness.