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It's that time of year again, when we look back on lighting as so much more than just what we use for seeing, but as something that offers beauty and opens up avenues for new technologies to improve our lives. Let's take a look at lighting in the year 2016.
An Incandescent Bulb Comeback?
Just a couple years after the most common incandescent household bulbs were phased out by efficiency legislation, lovers of incandescent lighting cheered the news of technology that could make these light bulbs even more efficient than LED bulbs. Researchers at MIT developed this technology to "recycle" photons with a coating on the glass envelope of the lamp.
Early tests showed results 2-3 times more efficient than standard incandescents, which is still not as efficient as LED bulbs. This would mean replacing an old 60 watt incandescent with one using just 20 to 30 watts, while an LED can do the same job at around 9 watts. But this would be good enough to allow the new bulbs to be manufactured and sold under current legislation. Yet the potential is for them to become far more efficient than this. Unfortunately, if they ever do produce bulbs like this, they're probably some years off and their retail costs and rated life are unknown. Still, there is a great affection for the warm look of incandescent bulbs, and no one seems to question their impact on human health the way they do with LEDs and especially fluorescent bulbs. (Probably because they've been around for more than 100 years.) If you had a chance to use incandescent bulbs again and they were just as efficient as LEDs and cost the same ... would you go back to light bulbs that only last about 1000 hours? It will be interesting to see whether these bulbs become available in time. UV LEDs Purify Water Off Grid
Electric lighting has certainly transformed the world. Lights are so common today, it's hard to think of a world where nighttime was controlled only by candles. But we love that today, light isn't just for seeing; it's frequently used to promote human health.
Enter the story of a new water filtration system designed for getting clean drinking water to communities all over the planet without the need for electricity. Using solar panels to power the system and UV LEDs to purify the water, this system can be inexpensively run, creating a job for the operator and cheap water for the community. When you understand that children and adults alike are up long before the sun in many parts of the world, searching for water; hauling it; facing dangers along the way; and often getting polluted water in the end ... this is the kind of solution that can seriously save time and lives, allowing these communities to focus more of their energy on education and other productive activities. 
Photo from LEDinside.com and credited to K.M. Persson.
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A few years ago, getting an A19 LED bulb to replace common household and office light bulbs meant spending $10 to $15 per bulb. In the last couples years, generic LEDs have fallen under the $3 mark and, in some cases, under $2.
But we've written before about avoiding generic LEDs because of their potential problems when compared to trusted brands. Which is why we were excited earlier this year to announce that we had A19 LEDs from the trusted Satco brand (a US brand that's been around for decades) for under $3 (when bought in a 4-pack). Since then, we've also broken the $5 mark with Sylvania BR30 LEDs, and continue searching for the right combinations of quality and price to give customers a good lighting experience on budget. You can see some of our best values in home and office LEDs here. |
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Mood Lighting for Animals
Farmers are learning more about how lighting affects the animals they raise, recognizing that animals see lights differently than we do. Specialty LED bulbs are able to adjust the lighting for different stages of the animal's life, or can mimic days and seasons. More careful use of lighting may be able to keep animals calmer and happier as they're raised while also increasing the animal's weight.
Converting Near Infrared to Visible Light
Scientists found a better way to convert near-infrared waves into visible light. While it sounds like a promising development to make incandescent bulbs brighter without more wattage, the application is really geared more toward applications with microscopes or other instances where light needs to be projected.
Near infrared passes through new material and becomes visible light. Image: Nils W. Rosemann
20,000 Watt Light Bulb Test
We enjoyed one man's adventures with a 20,000 watt incandescent light bulb, which you can watch in the video below. Seems like plenty of people are curious about how bright a bulb can get -- the video's had 3 million views and counting as of this writing. It's not only impressive (and no doubt extremely hot) indoors, but even lights things up substantially outdoors!
300th Anniversary of America's Oldest Lighthouse
September 14 marked the 300 year anniversary of America's oldest lighthouse, located in Boston on Little Brewster Island. Lighthouses are a great example of how light helps to save lives, even with their technology pre-dating electric lights.
The T12: an Electrician's Halloween Poem
This year we had some fun for Halloween, writing a parody of Edgan Allan Poe's famous macabre poem, "The Raven." Ours is called "The T12," referencing of course a T12 fluorescent lamp. The poem is chock full of lighting references while capturing some of the psychological torment of Poe's original narrator. In our case, however, the narrator isn't tormented by some lost love, but by the fact that the lights have gone out in his home. Enjoy:
Light Used to Purify Air
We already spoke about UV LEDs being used in a water purification system. This article shows a new development by Russian physicists to use light in air purification. One application, according to the article, is to develop antibacterial paints.
DarkLight Lets LiFi Work in the Dark
We've talked before about LiFi as a replacement for WiFi -- it uses light instead of radio waves to transmit data, and it's faster and more secure. Just one problem: you probably don't want to leave the lights on at all times just to transmit data.
Enter this new development called DarkLight, which is designed to let LiFi work in the dark. Effectively it would cycle lights on and off so quickly, you would never see the light. This might beg the question ... would we still subconsciously recognize it, and would it therefore still have an impact on psychology or health?
Enter this new development called DarkLight, which is designed to let LiFi work in the dark. Effectively it would cycle lights on and off so quickly, you would never see the light. This might beg the question ... would we still subconsciously recognize it, and would it therefore still have an impact on psychology or health?
Milk Tastes Better with LEDs
Research from Virginia Tech suggests that milk kept in refrigerated displays using LEDs retains a good taste better than milk kept in displays using fluorescent lights. The article we've linked to suggests that riboflavin in milk oxidizes under fluorescent lights, not only affecting taste but also nutrition. Of course the effects will differ with the container the milk is kept in, but this research gives retailers one more reason to move from fluorescent lights to LEDs.
Niagara Falls Lighting Upgrades to LED
And finally, in December of this year, Niagara Falls finally upgraded to LED lighting, which highlights the falls more beautifully while saving a great deal of money and energy over time. Stop on by the article for some beautiful images from the newly lighted falls.
And with that, we conclude our review of lighting in 2016. Did we miss some of your favorite advances in lighting? Feel free to leave a comment, and if you liked this review, remember to share it with others!
And with that, we conclude our review of lighting in 2016. Did we miss some of your favorite advances in lighting? Feel free to leave a comment, and if you liked this review, remember to share it with others!
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