Plasma lightbulb outshines LEDs, 140 lumens per watt

[ramsy]

Just when you had lighting all figured out. Yet another lighting system.

Read full article below.
http://www.physorg.com/news125238861.html

 

[al hildenbrand]

Thanks for the reference. Interesting.

 

[quogueelectric]

6000* hockey pucks and I thought halogen was hot. HOT(Paris Hilton style)

 

[winnie]

35000 lumen and 250W. Pretty nifty, but I'm not about to use it in a flashlight. This will not replace LEDs, which are useful down into the sub 1W power range, but it might knock them out of the running for _bulk_ lighting.

The 6000K temperature is not all that surprising; this is a high pressure gas heated to plasma temperatures.

What is really nifty is the way that they heat the gas, without using electrodes in contact with the hot plasma. There are loads of lamps that work with high temperature plasmas, but they have electrodes conducting current into the plasma, and the electrodes decay over time. This has been something of a holy grail; look up the concept of 'inductive coupled plasma' lighting which people have been researching for quite some time.

I am curious just how efficient the coupling to the plasma is; how much RF leaks out of the system

Nifty stuff

-Jon

 

[Steve-R]

Slick. I wonder how far they are from mass production.

 

[dbuckley]

Reminds me of sulfur lamps. Was a big buzz about them a few years ago, but they never made it to real life in quantity. They also had funky RF technology...

 

[whillis]

Slick. I wonder how far they are from mass production.

Saw a Panasonic TV at Costco today that, according to the box, used a Luxim lamp. 5 year warranty too.