This product just got UL approval, expect it to show up for retail sales soon. What’s an ESL? Think of it as an unfocused Cathode Ray Tube or CRT. The definition at Wikipedia is: Electron Stimulated Luminescence (ESL) is light produced by accelerated electrons hitting a phosphor (fluorescent) surface in a process known as cathodoluminescence.The light generation process is similar to a cathode ray tube (CRT) but lacks magnetic or electrostatic deflection.
Just wait, somebody will figure out a yoke coil for these bad boys and a way to hack the power supply to modulate video and we’ll have little live video pictures of the sun or some other star on the phosphor screens. Or, we’ll all get to claim we have miniature particle accelerators in our ceiling. Amuse your guests with a a Geiger counter capable of recording Beta and X-rays. Don’t freak out though, we’ve been doing the same thing for half a century with bigger, badder CRT’s in TV sets. Beats having a mercury hazard around.
From the company website: Electron Stimulated Luminescence™ Lighting Technology
Overview
Electron Stimulated Luminescence™ (ESL) Lighting Technology is an entirely new, energy efficient lighting technology. It uses accelerated electrons to stimulate phosphor to create light, making the surface of the bulb “glow”. ESL technology creates the same light quality as an incandescent but is up to 70% more energy efficient, lasting up to 5 times longer than incandescent and contributing to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. There is no use of the neurotoxin Mercury (Hg) in the lighting process.
With this technology, Vu1 has developed its first light bulb that received UL certification in October 2010: the R30 ESL bulb is specifically designed to replace the 65W incandescent R30 flood bulb is recessed light fixtures and the light quality is virtually indistinguishable from this traditional lamp it replaces and, unlike CFLs, is mercury-free.
In addition to the R30, the company is currently developing a variety of highly energy efficient, optimal light quality mercury-free light bulbs. In 2011 and 2012, Vu1 plans to introduce the classic A-type lamp for US and European consumers, the R40 for the US commercial market and the R25 in Europe.
Proven & Safe
In creating ESL Technology, Vu1 merged several existing and proven technologies then uniquely adapted them for “lighting”. The company uses commonly sourced, non-hazardous, commercial materials that are customized to our specifications.
Safe as a lighting source, the ESL technology fits neatly into classic light bulb shapes similar to those familiar to consumers everywhere. This eliminates the need to bend the technology into an unusual, twisted spiral shape (CFL) or have costly and heavy heat dissipation designed into the bulb housing (LED).
Key features of the technology and associated manufacturing processes are patent pending.
Manufacturing
Vu1 operates a wholly-owned manufacturing subsidiary, Sendio s.r.o., in the Czech Republic. This enables the company to manufacture its products directly to protect the company’s intellectual property while maintaining close control over the quality, volume and distribution of initial product production.
The 75,000 square foot facility provides Vu1 with scalable production capability. The site’s initial production capacity is up to 6.8 million bulbs annually with a planned future capacity of 30 million bulbs annually. Vu1 employs a highly skilled team that has been trained at leading manufacturers such as Philips and Sony. The facility is centrally located, enabling efficient worldwide distribution.
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Spec sheet here (PDF)
Once China gets a hold on these, the price is likely to come way down. Right now they are selling at $20.
h/t to Alan
According to their web site, they have only 11,000 hour life and consume 19.5 W. Slightly better than incandescent. Not too exciting because of the up front cost. They can’t compete with commercially available LED versions because the LED bulbs only consume ~10 W and cost ~$20-$25. Even if they were free, they can’t compete with LEDs because of the energy cost.
The possible edge is better light and other minor features such as instant on and dimmable. Perhaps the bulb life and power consumption can be improved?
????
CRTs were supposed to be an EM radiation danger, if one sat somewhere behind one, which was common in many offices. So, I have to ask if these have any “back side” to these ESLs.
RE LED alternatives,
they have problems too, like CFLs:
Lead, arsenic and other toxic content, home breakage and disposal concerns
as covered by recent 2011 University of California research
http://ceolas.net/#li20ledx
.
Will they warm up the bathroom before I shower?
I don’t know about the rest of you but, I have experienced about a 20% DOA and 10% infant mortality rate with CFLs.
“”””” lighthouse says:
May 16, 2011 at 11:54 am
RE LED alternatives,
they have problems too, like CFLs:
Lead, arsenic and other toxic content, home breakage and disposal concerns
as covered by recent 2011 University of California research
http://ceolas.net/#li20ledx “””””
Well the U of C notwithstanding, I think you’d have a hard time finding anything more than trace amounts of Arsenic anywwhere in the vicinity of a competitive LED white lamp substitute for CFLs or incandescents. How about that lead alloy in the very nose of an ordinary incandescent Edison base. Howcum the worry warts have never worried about all the infant deaths from eating incandescent lamps.
And last time I checked, even the older LEDs had Gallium Arsenide in them; not Arsenic. We only have about 92 elements to worry about; let’s not start worrying about ever compound thereof. Humans themselves are compounds of carbon which is well know to be highly toxic. Washington DC is full of highly toxic human beings, as are many State houses. (Unicersities too)
lighthouse – I believe WUWT has covered this research study, or at least one similar:
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2011/02/10/can-we-have-our-regular-old-light-bulbs-back-now/
Basically, my takeaway from the subsequent discussion was as follows:
If you break an LED, do not eat it.
“”””” kadaka (KD Knoebel) says:
May 16, 2011 at 9:46 am
Old CRT monitors are hazardous to dispose, as the TV news has told me, due to the pound or so of lead that is in the glass. I likewise wonder about old CRT televisions. Do these bulbs also have leaded glass, and will similar disposal concerns surface? Will these get caught up in the mandated electronics recycling and disposal programs, (allegedly) coming soon to Pennsylvania?
At least with them being made in the Czech Republic, we know they’re manufactured under tougher environmental and worker-safety standards than if made in China. And I am amazed that the world has changed that much.
Question: If these “are like” CRT’s but without magnetic or electrostatic deflection, then why isn’t the fixed electron beam striking a single dot? Wouldn’t there have to be a deflection system to “paint” the entire phosphor surface? “””””
Nobody said that the electron source is a beam source. A small area source can be nearly isotropic, or at least confined to a forward hemisphere. Possibly the inside of the bulb is conductive coated with Indium Tin oxide for example, or even a thin metal coating, that makes an anode electrode to attract the electrons. Not that I’m pushing the technology; I just think it will have to compete on its own merits, and I don’t think it sounds impractical at this point. But I I was a CFL promoter, I would be concerned about these things.
You missed what to me is one of the most important points -Color Temperature.
According to the spec sheet, the color temp is 2800 K, which is closer to the incandescent than the fluorescent. Having a child who is sensitive to the harshness of CFL lights (can trigger migraines), that’s a huge factor.
“”””” D. J. Hawkins says:
May 16, 2011 at 9:36 am
George E. Smith says:
May 16, 2011 at 8:41 am
[…snip]
The weasel words “up to” are always present in ads, and I always discount them. They are a legalese approach to specifications. The FTC probably won’t allow more factual claims, without expensive experimental proof.
It would be less about factual claims and more about consumer perception. Luminaire life is based on the time to 50% mortality. If the standard deviation for the lamp life isn’t fairly narrow, you’ll get a lot of consumer complaints. Hardly anyone complains when it goes for 2x or 3x the listed life ;-). “””””
Well both incandescents, and fluorescents and CFLs fail catastrophically; I have never heard of one dropping below its “end of life” dimness specification.
LEDs can have infant mortality failures, which are usually packaging and assembly low technology failures. Anything with phosphers in them such as white LEDS or CFLs or these new ESLs tends to have a total on hours slow decay mode, which is often a result of phospher contamination from trace elements. This new type is likely to have an electron source slow decay mode as well. Tehy made a whole slew of vaccuum tubes long before solid state devices took over, so I think there is a lot of mature knowhow behind this new option.
As I said, I will let the chips fall where they may; but it doesn’t sound like a born loser to me.
“”””” kadaka (KD Knoebel) says:
May 16, 2011 at 9:46 am
Old CRT monitors are hazardous to dispose, as the TV news has told me, due to the pound or so of lead that is in the glass. I likewise wonder about old CRT televisions. Do these bulbs also have leaded glass, and will similar disposal concerns surface? Will these get caught up in the mandated electronics recycling and disposal programs, (allegedly) coming soon to Pennsylvania? “””””
Well the Romans had lead plumbing for their water supplies, and it didn’t stop them from becoming a dominant empire for a long time.
The only place you will find lead today in glass, is in your wife’s finest crystal ware, which is hevay in lead oxide that provides high index, as well as high dispersion (low V value). This contributes to the sparkle of “crystal” glass. Lead oxide optical glasses, are now replaced with Lanthanum types.
So what was the name of the last person who died as a result of lead oxide poisoning by “flint” glass. Well I can think of many thousands who got sliced to ribbons by all sorts of glass in car accidents; never ever heard of anyone who died from optical glass lead poisoning.
“”””” John T says:
May 16, 2011 at 1:33 pm
You missed what to me is one of the most important points -Color Temperature.
According to the spec sheet, the color temp is 2800 K, which is closer to the incandescent than the fluorescent. Having a child who is sensitive to the harshness of CFL lights (can trigger migraines), that’s a huge factor.
Well John, the color temperature of lamps; either incandescent, fluorescent, LED or any other phosphor type is completely at the whim of the designers,a nd is easily made any color temperature you want. The resulting luminous efficacy (lumens per Watt) may be a function of color temperature, so designers may tweak on that meet whatever design criteria they want. For me personally, the 2700-2800 K temperature of incandescents, or lookalikes is most unpleasant for reading, and I prefer a somewhat whiter light; but not the 5,000 K stuff.
And I was under the impression that it is fluorescent flickering that causes migraines; and not the color temperature of the light. After all, the color temperature of the sun is almost 6,000 K, so I don’t think you can blame fluorescent migraines, on color temperature; it’s flicker, because fluorescents go on and off every 1/120 seconds ( or worse yet, 1/100 for soem folks.
Incandescents also undergo 120 Hertz pulsation but with a much lower modulation index. Fluorescents go completely out in between flashes. CFLs of course are driven at high frequencies like 40 kHz or more, so they don’t have the flicker of ordinary fluorescents. Well some cheap junk CFLs still have 120 Hz amplitude modulation of the 40 kHz drive signal so they would still have incandescent style pulsations. So buy a better grade of CFL, not made by the lowest bidder.
Eric Gisin-” …electrode-less fluorescent that is excited by microwaves,”
GE R&D was working on this back in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s. They developed a white-light gas-filled glass sphere about 1 inch in diameter with wall-plug efficiency of >200 lumens/W and 100 W – 250 W power consumption (targeting industrial lighting). The light output was a clean blackbody emission from a plasma heated by RF energy. The wall-plug performance included the AC-RF converter, which fit in less than 1 cubic inch. It was, to say the least, spectacular to see in person. There were problems with lifetime, warm-up and cost. Since I have not seen a GE product, I assume it was eventually shelved.
I purchased several LED lights from Costco, thinking that they were the wave of the future – they immediately started to dim out. Then Costco sent out an email saying that they could be exchanged for other bulbs. These were from Feit. I’m waiting for a better source – I still think LEDs with a color temperature like sunlight would be good, and if they can be dimmed in such a manner as to emulate low level incandescent light, even better. I like the lighting effects of the “Golden Hour.” That time of the day, in the morning and evening when the sun is low and the colors redder.
“There is no use of the neurotoxin Mercury (Hg) in the lighting process.” But we threw some in there for fun.
I am considering some new (at least in the UK) LED 10W standard style bulbs which claim a light temperature of 2700. Not cheap (£28) but I hope they’ll last longer than CFLs (which all claimed to last 5 years plus and died within a few months). Also no noticeable warm up time.
_Jim says:
“It’s (it was) the HV (High Voltage) rectifier tube (used at that time) that produced the X-rays …”
Well, not. The electron beam hitting the phosphor on the inside of the CRT produced the x-rays. Color sets were worse. (higher voltage?) Thus the leaded glass. There could be an issue here. A bit of black paper and some photographic film would show it. (does anyone remember photographic film?)
chris y: GE had a 200 lm/w source? I have doubts about that. Those money grubbers would have paid Congress to mandate it. And charged big $$.
LED’s may not come down all that much, wafer yield is already rather good. Bigger wafers may help. Assembly costs could come down. Then we’ll get LED lamps from China about as good as their CFL’s. Which is to say NOT. The source matters more than the technology.
Quantum dots. Any color, high efficiency. Some day we may figure out how to mass produce them.
Well, yes; in intensities MUCH above those considered safe.
We’ll start with an EPA release:
And move on to a earlier-period piece, an article from PopSci circa 1968 courtesy of Google books and detailing how Shunt Regulator tubes were creating STRONG X-rays (in this case, although the high-vacuum, HV rectifiers were capable of creating X-rays in those sets too) in a number of color TV sets.
And an article in time magazine: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,837185,00.html
A couple demos using a HV rectifier tubes to intentionally create X-rays:
An article demonstrating the use of a HV rectifier tube to create X-rays
http://www.kronjaeger.com/hv-old/xray/intro/index.html
And since no refutation post is complete without a Wiki ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-ray_tube
.
Even at 5x life and 70% increased efficiency, $20 for a recessed flood lamp bulb is pretty pricey. There is a long life version from Phillips at about $10, and normal bulbs sell for $2 to $3.
Re George E. Smith on May 16, 2011 at 1:42 pm:
Hey, I said “the TV news” told me about the “hazardous” lead in the glass. Personally I’m still irritated about the banning of lead from plumbing. They never showed any “high lead levels” that weren’t reduced by just letting the tap run for so many seconds, and those were from letting the water sit in the pipes for long periods undisturbed as the leached amounts built up. Lead in plumbing, not counting lead water pipes, wasn’t a problem. Lead in glass, even less of one.
The TV news, specifically ABC News (US), on the World News with Diane Sawyer, just got done reporting on the “How long will you live?” new blood test that checks telomere sequence length. Finishing the report, back at the studio, the bubbly correspondent concluded, and Diane was gleefully agreeing, that exercise and meditation can lengthen telomeres.
Wow, someone alert all the doctors, biomedical researchers, and everyone else who has been working on the issue for decades, seeking scientific methods to do what is universally regarded as (currently) impossible in humans. The TV news has announced the methods already exist. Heck, with meditation you can think your telomeres longer! Dang, I must have missed that press release.
😉
Re: Retired Engineer, May 16, 2011 at 3:42 pm
How about a few scholarly article/research cites on the subject of early color TV sets as a source of X-rays as well?
IEEE Spectrum magazine, July 1968, Volume: 5 Issue: 7, page(s): 95 – 104.
NIH.gov:
Radiol Health Data Rep. 1970 Apr;11(4):179-82.
An investigation of x radiation from color television receivers in Suffolk County, New York.
Radiol Health Data Rep. 1967 Dec;8(12):675-86.
X-ray patterns and intensities from high voltage shunt regulator tubes for color television receivers.
EPA National Library Network :
.
Striking light; spectral curve almost matches that of the sun!
http://www.plasma-i.com/sulphur-plasma-light.htm
Efficiency around 140 lm/W (depending) …
A demo:
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The twisty bulbs made me go screaming into the night, and breaking all kinds of in-city speed limits to BiMart to buy the old-fashioned lightbulb. Why? The twisty bulbs revealed all the gray hair I had in my Irish-red locks.
The various new types of bulbs in practice do NOT last longer than the old incandescents.
But they sure are more expensive!
Bring back freedom, bring back democracy!
Give us incandescents!
(This is a fully paid advertisement for the plant life of the earth.
We must have more completely harmless CO2 if we are to feed the growing population of the earth.)
Bah, the electroluminescent exit sign retrofit kit I invented back in the 90’s was 99.4% efficient. Granted, ESL’s are a lot brighter, hopefully their efficiency is improved. 70% isn’t great.