Luxim Plasma Light Bulb Kicks Some Serious LED Butt

[Pat McCotter]

Luxim Plasma Light Bulb Kicks Some Serious LED Butt
by Michael Graham Richard, Gatineau, Canada on 04. 7.08



At 140 lumens/watt, these pill-sized plasma light bulbs by Luxim are a pretty awesome contender for "light of the future". They are almost 10 times more efficient than traditional incandescent light bulbs, twice as efficient as current high-end LEDs, and they also beat CFLs, most of which are around 50-80 lumens/watt. Only the prototype 300 lumens/watt nanocrystal-coated LEDs can hold a candle to them.

And the light from Luxim's LIFI bulb is not ugly either: color rendering index (CRI) is 91. Lifetime for a bulb is estimated at 20,000 hours, and a relatively large amount of power can be pumped through them, allowing a tiny bulb to produce 30,000+ lumens (not something LEDs can do).

An RF (radio-frequency) signal is generated by the solid-state power amplifier and is guided into an electric field about the bulb. The high concentration of energy in the electric field vaporizes the contents of the bulb to a plasma state at the bulb's center; this controlled plasma generates an intense source of light.

Luxim seems to want to use them in projectors, but since even a tiny light bulb can produce as much light as a street lamp, sky seems to be the limit if cost can be brought down.

[K. Darien Freeheart]

Unfortunately, way too powerful, even dimmed to 20% (per spec sheet) for anything I'd ever use it for.

I love the temp of the light though. Sure beats the sometimes eerie LED lights.

Luxim... Make RV lights that don't cause planes to land on my motorhome and I'll be a customer!

[Keyser Soce]

Can't seem to locate a retailer. Help?

[doobie]

I could totally use some in my garage!  I'd start with two and see how that went before going with 4.

[Pat K]

 

[Russell Kanning]

they probably are not available or too expensive right now ... but that looks cool

[Recumbent ReCycler]

It looks like they are being used in some products now, but their web site doesn't give much information on what products use their technology.

[ByronB]

That is awesome, quite similar to my 400 watt metal halide in luminous efficiency, CRI, bulb life, and color temp but with marked improvements (20-30%) in all four catogories... plus the quicker restart makes it a real winner... I think I want some for my car headlights.

[tracysaboe]

Too bad we'll be in the midst of massive hyperinflation in the US by the time they're being mass produced.

I'm afraid we're going to see a real dollar crises with-in the next 5 years, and I'm guessing sooner. I hope I'm wrong.

Get your savings, in Gold/Silver/Non-Perishable food/Guns/Foreign currencies, etc. Then you'll have wealth to take advantage of these new technologies when they become available.

Tracy

[MaineShark]

Wow.  Talk about long time-to-market.  I think the first time I read about that technology was about 10 years ago (maybe more).  When I didn't see more for years, I always just figured it was cost-infeasible and had been tossed aside as a dead end.  Guess not.

Joe

[Fluff and Stuff]

Too bad we'll be in the midst of massive hyperinflation in the US by the time they're being mass produced.

I'm afraid we're going to see a real dollar crises with-in the next 5 years, and I'm guessing sooner. I hope I'm wrong.

Get your savings, in Gold/Silver/Non-Perishable food/Guns/Foreign currencies, etc. Then you'll have wealth to take advantage of these new technologies when they become available.

Tracy

It's also vitally important for liberty lovers to move to NH if they want a massive network of support for coming problems.

[Friday]

What do people think of using bright light as a form of weapon?  Does it really work?  I never heard of this before.  Here's an example: 
http://www.surefire.com/maxexp/main.pl?pgm=co_disp&func=displ&strfnbr=6&prrfnbr=24531&sesent=0,0&search_id=1299111

[Russell Kanning]

i wasn't looking for new weapons ... are you?

[Friday]

i wasn't looking for new weapons ... are you?

Yes. 

[Keyser Soce]

At the Review Conference of the 1980 Weapons Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons in Vienna last year, States Party to the convention adopted a new legally binding instrument of humanitarian law prohibiting the use of laser weapons designed to blind soldiers or civilians

http://www.redcross.int/EN/mag/magazine1996_2/18-19.html