Obviously, it\'s time to ban Edison\'s light bulbs.
European leaders, green experts and widely reported U. S. bulb provisionsS.
The Energy Independence and Safety Act of 2007 urgently pushed for the elimination of incandescent lamps.
The plan seems to be to convince everyone to switch to a compact fluorescent lamp (CFL)
It was a technology introduced in the 1930 s and perfected when the rocks were young, computers using vacuum tubes. What irony.
In the 21 st century, we will usher in a revolution in semiconductor lighting.
Semiconductor LEDs (LEDs)
In the end, we will have the ability to fundamentally change the entire lighting landscape, with amazing improvements in lighting efficiency and efficacy. The high-
Power LED comes directly from the same semiconductors, digital infrastructure, and intellectual property that bring us iPhones, laptops, hybrid cars, and xbox.
Although the word \"revolution\" depreciates due to excessive use, LED is only the third revolution in lighting technology since the fire broke out.
But that\'s okay.
Even Yahoo technicians are no exception!
Has jumped on the CFL-
The craze has launched a website called www. 18seconds.
Org encourages and calculates the benefits of replacing bulbs with current bulbsvaunted CFL. (
There must be a how-many-bloggers-to-change-a-light-
Make a light bulb joke somewhere. )
Wal-Mart\'s retail industry
Wal-Mart has promised to launch CFLs.
And, in desperation to cut demand,
Power companies are a loyal supplier of yesterday\'s solutions that they will promote and even give away.
So, why are you rushing to push them now?
Answer: energy.
About 12 billion electric lights on Earth use Edison bulbs;
The third one is in the United States. S.
So it takes about 2 trillion kilowatts to illuminate the world.
A few hours a year, or an hour.
The eighth of all electricity.
This requires a lot of fuel: nearly a billion tons of coal per year. In the U. S.
Half of them are actually coal. Or, in oil-
Equivalent clause, United StatesS.
On roads in the United States, the energy used by lighting is equivalent to 50% of the energy used by all cars.
What is the reason we arrived in this state?
It has been centuries since people were eager for lighting, and the real economic cost of lighting has completely collapsed.
Lighting a room today is 1,000 times cheaper than dawn in the 20 th century and 10,000 times cheaper than in 1850.
As a result, the appetite for the core product of lighting technology has soared.
Human consumption 40000 trillion lumenshours per year.
Focus on lumens, not bulbs, to understand the future.
So far, there are only three kinds of lighting techniques: fire, one is a torch, butter and candle, and the other is a whale and kerosene oil lamp;
The perfect electricity incand in 1879; and electric-
Induced Fluorescence was introduced by GE in 1938.
In 1962, GE engineer Nick holoniak invented the LED, marking the next fulcrum of lighting for thousands of years --
To the more common and cheaper troops.
Holonyak may eventually become more famous than Edison.
LEDs are made of various mixtures of \"compound\" semiconductors, mainly gallium and indium.
All the old forms of lighting use brute force to heat things up until it glows.
The main difference with LED is that photons are emitted by designing a precise semiconductor junction and by tuning to take advantage of the elegant and efficient quantum phenomenon of emitting photons.
A rough analogy: this is the quantum equivalent of using a propane lighter instead of rubbing a rod to make a fire.
By 1968, commercial LEDs were launched quickly.
The early bulbs flowed out of poor little lumens, ridiculously efficient, with less varlumens converted than the notorious inefficient incandescent lamps.
Nevertheless, they are enough to launch a revolution.
Tiny, solid, robust and very long-
Live LED is ideal for instruments and indicator lights (
And cheesy digital watches).
Over time, engineers quickly perfected the machines of photon semiconductors.
Today\'s led is 1,000 times more efficient than in 1968.
Comparable efficiency must be made by the world of semiconductors, etc.
Microprocessor citing Moore\'s law-
Named after Intel.
Founder Gordon E. Moore--
This indicates that the speed of the information processor is (
Or twice as cheap)
Every 18 months
The Led has followed a smaller one
Known photon equivalent known as Haitz\'s law, named after LED researcher Roland Haitz.
The law stipulates that the LED brightness is doubled every 18 to 24 months.
On the eve of the 20 th century, the first high
Brightness led appears.
Measured by key economy and environment
The meter lumens generated per watt, led is now about to exceed all the front dilution light sources.
LEDs have reached 100 lumens per watt, 200 visible.
Incandescent lamps are about 15 lumens per watt, and CFLs are about 80 lumens.
LED pioneer Corey passed a related milestone in last September to launch a small LED that produces 1,000 lumens, the output of standard bulbs, but the efficiency is almost five of standard bulbs
The application of the Led is followed closely by its increasing power and falling cost, from early instrument displays to traffic signals, car brake lights and interiors to rear
Lighting mobile phones and LCD screens (
Apple\'s new Macbook Air)
, Signature decorations (
2007 Christmas trees at the White House and Rockefeller Center
Chandelier of Buckingham Palace.
High global sales year-
Even before the invasion of 4 billion LEDs, the brightness led has totaled $40,000
Lumens market for general lighting.
The general lighting currently provided by incandescent lamps is roughly the same (
Dominant position in the residential market)
And fluorescent lamps (
Dominant position in commercial buildings).
With the decline in lumen power and cost, there is still one last obstacle for the led to overcome in order to overcome general lighting.
The reason why most people resist and will resist the use of CFLs is also hindering the adoption of LED (
Especially indoor lighting)
Is the quality of light.
It\'s too bad if you don\'t notice it.
For a wider range of applications, the CFLs must achieve the light quality of incandescent lamps.
All lumens are not more equal than all calories.
Eyes are as sensitive to quality as taste.
McDonald\'s 1,000 calories are not the same as 1,000-
Foie Gras.
CFL\'s 1,000 lumens are visually demanding and can make food (and people)
It looks ugly, compared to just 1,000 of Edison\'s incandesence.
Optical scientists cleverly named the visible mixture of colors presented in light as the color rendering index.
The CRI gold standard value is 100, which is the color of the pleasant Edison incandesence.
CRI below 90 is obviously annoying.
CFLs are produced and basically stay within the CRI 70 range due to physical and chemical reasons.
But LED lights have been accelerating the CRI curve.
For example, LED lighting equipment has just started selling 12-
Looks like a standard 60-92 CRI Watt product
Compared with CFL, the energy of indoor floodlights in Watt is reduced by 50%.
Others will follow. (
Corey recently announced the acquisition of LLF;
Fully disclosed, we are an investor in LLF. )
Add a very long life in the led benefits ledger.
Edison light bulbs burn 1,000 hours before the hammered metal filaments fall off.
CFLs reached 10,000 hours.
The Led lasted 50,000 hours and soon lasted 100,000 hours.
This alone feature is enough to make the led play a huge advantage in many applications, especially in outdoor and industrial environments, in reducing maintenance costs.
The small size of the LED optical chip allows another advantage of optical physics: Engineers can use small side lenses to make efficient extraction, direct and focused lumens possible to achieve useful lighting with less lumens-
And much less energy. -wasted.
The semiconductor properties of Led bring more benefits.
The Lumen can be controlled and modulated for color and space distribution to create smart lights that are adapted to the environment or needs.
The headlights or room lights can be spectral tuned according to the inherent differences in daytime, night and peripheral vision, thus providing more comfort and safety.
Led can also communicate through electronic modulation lumen.
The brake light can be spoken to the cruise control device of the trailing car;
The headlights talk to the Signpost to activate-
Car audio/video warning.
Opportunity is not by imagination, but by the speed of collapse.
So far, lighting experts will not notice the advantages of LED over CFL liabilities.
Fls contains a small amount of mercury.
Not a lot alone, but billions of dollars add up and no one really believes recycling will keep all Mercury away from landfill sites.
Also, do not expect more efficient incandescent lamps.
While they may never be able to beat LEDs, these new alternatives can match the CFLs and enjoy a huge advantage at a lower cost of capital in the case of occasional need for lumens
So, who is the LED player?
This dynamic and fast-growing market is full of opportunities.
As mentioned earlier, both Cree and GE are leaders, and although both are pioneers, the former is a pure drama and the latter is clearly not.
Siemens is a major non-
It has LED power supplies for Osram optoelectronic semiconductor and OSRAM Sylvania.
Another major participant is Royal Philips Electronics, whose number is
1 position in global lighting.
Not a pure game, but it\'s almost-
Fourth of its sales came from lighting.
Philips has been actively buying LED properties and Hewlett-
Lumileds lighting equipment in Packard/Agilent, 2005.
Philips also won the LED light pioneer color dynamics in 2006 (
$0. 791 billion)
And the TIR system of white LED technology.
If Philips gets rid of its low
It could become the undisputed dominant global product.
Pure game of 21 century lighting.
Included in the moving workers LED-
Zumtobel, Austria, has a long history of efficient lighting or smaller pure lighting
Like Dialight of England.
On the LED chip
There are also Seoul Semiconductor in terms of supply, as well as LED semiconductor tool manufacturers such as Aixtron and Emcore in Germany.
And Veeco Instruments in the United States. S.
Although many people have not yet reached anyone\'s sight, the ipo will certainly appear. Perhaps the U. K. -
Based on custom lighting (
Responsible for the public relations relocation of Buckingham Palace)
Recently merged with Los Angeles
Based on ledtrooper, will be the first.
Forecasts for the $12 billion LED market in four years may underestimate what will happen.
As Haitz\'s law continues to reduce costs, applications and markets will emerge in ways that cannot be expected.
Think about it, ranking first in the world.
6 billion people without modern lighting and electricity.
For developing countries, there is still a long way to go for modern cable grids and lighting.
Their lumen comes from fuel.
Burning Lights collectively consume an amazing 1.
3 million barrels of oil per day (
Equal to the total output of Qatar).
But combine (soon cheaper)
Solar cells and solar cells, will allow for a leap on cable, just as mobile phones allow to surpass landlines in areas where there is no cable in the world. A solar-
Battery LED lights can already generate lumens at a fraction of the cost of a kerosene lamp.
Right in front of us: a wireless lighting revolution, a phrase my daughter created when she came back from her work in rural Haiti, where she saw that wireless phones were easier to reach than wired phones.
In addition to investment opportunities, led\'s delightful light bulb tsunami has brought countless social benefits.
Government regulators and policy experts may be trying to claim that they are pushing a faster LED revolution with the CFL --centric ban-the-bulb movements.
But better technology will take over when it\'s ready.
Although this may not be tomorrow, LED-
Now can be the center of the future.
In any case, why would the market waste precious money on yesterday\'s technology on the eve of tomorrow? It won\'t. Mark P.
Mills is a physicist and colleague.
Founding partner of digital power capital, energy technology risk fund.
Mills is also working together.
The author of endless Wells: Twilight of fuel, virtue of waste, and why we will never run out of energy (
Basic Books 2005).
Mills may hold positions in companies discussed in this column and may provide technical assessment services for companies interested in the company.
You can contact him at @ digitalpower. com.
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