GE Ends Development of Incandescent Bulbs, Focuses on LEDs
It was February of 2007 that GE announced a high efficiency incandescent (HEI) bulb that was comparable to that of compact fluorescents (CFL). The HEI bulb provided better light quality and without any nasty mercury. The bulb was expected to hit the market sometime in 2010.
But announcements of Australia, Canada, and even some U.S. states planning to ban the bulb made companies like GE and Philips question their longevity. Especially when these bans would start as early as 2012.
So in October of 2007, GE announced it would be closing plants and even cutting hundreds of jobs in order to restructure its light bulb business. Harvard business school professor Daniel Snow claims that GE’s HEI was the company’s “last gasp” of inspiration on the Edison bulb.
GE spokesman David Schuellerman said this about GE’s current plans:
GE Consumers & Industrial and GE Global Research have suspended the development of the high-efficiency incandescent lamp (HEI) to place greater focus and investment on what we believe will be the ultimate in energy efficient lighting — light emitting diodes (LEDs) and organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs). Research and development of these technologies is moving at an impressive pace and will be ready for general lighting in the near future. LEDs and OLEDs used in general lighting are now poised to surpass the projected efficiency levels of HEI, along with other energy-efficient technologies like fluorescent, and have the additional benefits of long life and durability.
I was actually looking forward to the HEI bulb - I love CFL efficiency but the sterile light gives me seizures. Hopefully LED lighting can mimic that of incandescents. If not, you might catch me joining forces with that crazy Minnesota congresswoman Michele Bachmann.
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I don’t think the other commenters are getting the full meaning of the story. GE was working on an incandescent bulb that was just as efficient as a CFL. The incandescent has been vilified as a power waster so places were passing laws to ban them. Well, what if there were an incandescent bulb that was more efficient than a CFL, should it be banned too? That is why the ban laws were not a good idea; they should have just required bulbs to be above a certain power efficiency number, not blindly ban any particular type of bulb. Now, because of the potential for incancesdents being banned, GE will stop work on the high-efficiency incandescent bulb. Too bad, maybe it would have been a good alternative for those that like the warm light from them.
Personally, I think this is something LONG over due!
jess
http://www.anonymize.us.tc
Yep,
If you’re still complaining about the quality of CFL lighting you need to visit Home Depot and check out the new varieties. They now have “soft white” and all the other various “shades” of lighting that incandescent bulbs come in. We’ve been using them in our house an no one can tell the difference.
That said, LEDs are the future.
Those of you who can tell the difference in color, flicker, or whatever else must be talking about the stone age CFLs since the new ones are indistinguishable. Maybe it’s just a testament to how long the bulbs last. Anyways, you’ll all saved $50/bulb in energy costs so maybe you can afford to spend $4/bulb to get the new kind. I hope all aren’t going back to incandescents without trying the new CFLs…
To those who say the new “warm” CFL bulbs look exactly the same as incandescents, you people are just insane or legally blind.
For one thing- CFLs output their light in one specific tiny frequency of light, no matter what they consider “warm” to be. Incandescents emit light over a much larger range of frequencies.
There was a study last week that showed 40 percent of people could not tell the difference between HDTV and just plain digital TV. Which is not surprising since 75 percent of the population has vision so crappy that they have to wear contacts or eyeglasses.
Oh and dont forget that CFLs cannot be used in ceiling can lights, nor in enclosed spaces, nor in situations where moisture and high humidity may occur.
Interesting, this is a huge step forward from GE. I’m looking forward to this helping bring the price of consumer LED devices down.
I use CFLs with no complaints - where I am able to. But we repeatedly run into the limits James noted on where you can use them. We’re stuck with incandescent lights in some places where CFLs would make much better sense, such as in our front porch light and various closet lights. I’m looking forward to the advent of competitive, usable LED general lighting sources. Bravo to GE for putting serious resources into developing LED and OLED technology.
The first CFL’s we bought were cold, industrial light. We then got the warm ones. I don’t really notice a difference. When I got them, they said they would last 5 years. Since we don’t have recycling or anyway to dispose of toxic waste in our community, I thought I’d be OK because surely by then we’d have recycling. In less than 6 months, 3 of my bulbs have blown out. Now what do I do with them? Ideas?
Alot of people here are claiming that the new bulbs are way better than the old ones but there are still many really bad CFLs that flood the market are are hard to avoid so this process can be trial and error. One should research the bulbs they wish to buy before installing them since product quality varies considerably. The ones you get very cheap at home depot are most likely to be bad as are almost all dimmable bulbs that I’ve come across. GE and Philips are generally good but vary from bulb to bulb. Sylvania is also decent but then again I haven’t tried many of their bulbs and they may very. nVision bulbs from Home depot are total garbage. They take a good 15-20 seconds to warm up and do flicker from time to time. If the balast that powers the bulb is crap so will the quality of your light. I guess you get what you pay for. Dimmable bulbs in my experience have been a complete disappointment. Of five Sylvania BR30 15W-2700K bulbs purchased last year 2 have already died. If your dimmer is less than 40% dimmed the bulbs will not turn on and flicker on and off completely at anything less than 50%. They are slow to warm up and are very dim initially. At full brightness they are fine after a minute or so but then what’s the point of having a dimmer. I also have installed LEDs in my home and I have to say I have been very impressed. They turn on instantly to full brightness and can be purchased with warm light settings ( http://www. earthLED.com ).The problem with these is that they cost big $$$ about $50 or more for each bulb. I know you can get cheaper ones but like CFL’s quality varies alot and most of the chinese made ones are garbage and will likely fail prematurely. Getting GE behind this effort will be great if it reduces cost and brings reliability.
What about low voltage Halogens? (the kind moujnted in ceiling-mounted can lights) Wheredo they fit on the efficiency spectrum?