Those of you who read my blog regularly know that I have been rather skeptical about the progress of LED’s. While I do believe they’ll play a major role in lighting design, I also believe they have some way to go before they’ll be “ready for primetime.” Enter the DOE and the L PRIZE. The Department of Energy initiative is designed to stimulate competition and innovation in the solid-state lighting arena by offering incentives to develop energy effiecient lighting sources that can replace our incandescent/halogen sources. From the L PRIZE website:
The L Prize competition will substantially accelerate America’s shift from inefficient, dated lighting products to innovative, high-performance products. Just as Thomas Edison transformed illumination over a century ago, the L Prize will drive innovation and market adoption.
The L Prize is the first government-sponsored technology competition designed to spur lighting manufacturers to develop high-quality, high-efficiency solid-state lighting products to replace the common light bulb.
The DOE is offering support in terms of testing and financial backing to the most promising of innovations. I hope this kind of program will get LEDs ready for primetime. I’m always skeptical about government becoming the artibtor of quality, but here are the basic guidlines for the two running contests. I would love lighting geeks like me to weigh in on this one.
60W Incandescent Replacement Lamp
- More than 90 lm/W
- Less than 10 watts
- More than 900 lumens
- More than 25,000 hour life
- More than 90 CRI
- Between 2700–3000 K CCT
PAR 38 Halogen
Replacement Lamp
- More than 123 lm/W
- Less than 11 watts
- More than 1,350 lumens
- More than 25,000 hour life
- More than 90 CRI
- Between 2700–3000 K CCT
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Just like the X-Prize to drive innovation in airspace flight travel and genomics and automotive. Very smart move.
I have been buying LEDs for about a year. I get them from http://www.EagleLight.com because they have a 100% money back guarantee, great prices and stellar customer service.
I’ve seen tremendous improvements in LEDs over the last year. My favorites are the PAR20, the 36 LED VIVID C.Crane bulb, and the Pharox LED bulb, which is a fantastic replacement bulb because it looks just like a regular light bulb and has a soft, warm glow to the light.
I also buy the very bright PAR30 and PAR38 LED bulbs to replace my 75 watt and 100 watt bulbs. They’re more expensive, but they will last 10 years or more and they save me 75% on my electric bill, so they’ve paid for themselves already.
The VIVID 36 LED bulb is less than $10 on eaglelight. The Pharox varies in price. I get it at eaglelight for only $36 - less than anywhere else on the web that I’ve found.
Good luck with your LEDs and please share any LEDs that you try and like so we can hear what others are buying and like, and from where.
Thanks. Art P.