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.
Photo: © Jonoman1 | Dreamstime.com
It is so unfortunate that even wonderful new technological and environmental advancements are now costing jobs. Is there no way around this??
like david schuellerman i allso have seizuer like spells with the lousy floresent lights all my life from 1954.
so i hope LEDs can have some red light added so i dont have to live out side for the rest of my life becaues you all want to be more energy eficent and having me floping on the floor like a fish out of water.
Wow…this is AWESOME news since there is NO way I would ever endorse CFLS and their nasty mercury!
Thanks Jerry for sharing. Awesome job!
Sounds a pity they abandoned those development plans Jerry…
All lights have advantages, none should be banned.
People can make up their own minds about the advantages, including any energy savings, and pay more for using ordinary light bulbs if that’s what they want.
Does society need to save energy?
No, there’s plenty, including new renewable forms.
Does society need to save on greenhouse gases?
Yes, on current evidence.
But everyone forgets a basic simple fact:
Light bulbs don’t give out any gases.
Power stations don’t necessarily either.
Power station emissions can of course be dealt with themselves (including by new energy forms)
- bans are unfair on emission-free households
and in the end don’t save that much energy or money or emissions anyway as explained on
http://www.ceolas.net/#li13x onwards
Also:
Imagine if LED lamps are so great:
Then people will want to buy a lot of them.
Again, therfore no need to ban bulbs in that case.
After all, the perverse logic of the light bulb ban is that people don’t want to buy “energy saving” fluorescent lights, so they have to be forced into it: No need to ban an impopular product!
When transistors came, that didn’t mean having to ban radio tubes (valves)….