Thisis not about energy efficiency as we already have that. It is aboutlight quality. This is a major breakthrough on sheer quality andflexibility. We can set up any geometry and I expect we will soonlove light panels. A hanging tile gets rid of a lot of hardware wehave no need for.
Howabout a parabolic shell that emits light? The options become endlessthe moment you are not dealing with a lot of metal and glass inawkward places.
Soyes, this technology will meet price point and be outright superiorin light quality. It will still roll out slowly but soon becomefashionable and everywhere.
Wewill really have luminescence rooms in a range of colors such as goldthat augment the white light we use to see well. Perhaps thedarkened room will go out of fashion.
Professor InventsThe Best New Lightbulb In 30 Years
Dina SpectorJan. 22, 2013
Http://www.businessinsider.com/fipel-lighting-technology-david-carroll-wake-forrest-2013-1
Lighting accountsfor about 12 percent of total U.S. energy consumption.
Part of the reason thefigure is so high is that traditional incandescent bulbs (Edison'sfilament bulb) eat up a lot of power to produce light: 90 percent ofthe energy is wasted as heat.
So far the mainalternatives to the common bulb have been compact fluorescent lights,or CFLs, and light-emitting diodes, or LEDs, which can produce thesame amount of light as traditional bulbs while using way lessenergy.
Soon, a fourthlighting option will be thrown into the mix. It's called the FIPEL,which is short for field-induced polymer electroluminescenttechnology.
"This is thefirst new light bulb in about thirty years," says Dr. DavidCarroll, a professor of physics at Wake Forest University in NorthCarolina, who developed the new light source.
To understand how thistechnology functions, you can think of how a microwave works, Carrollexplains.
Take a potato, forexample. When you place your potato in the microwave and press start,the device hits the potato with microwaves that induce what's knownas a displacement current, meaning it makes the water molecules inthe potato flip back and forth. This heats the potato up. WhatCarroll and his team have done is develop a special type of plasticthat, when hit with an electric current, induces a displacementcurrent in the same way. But in this case, it doesn't give off heat,it gives off light.
The new light sourceis made of several layers of very thin plastic. Each sheet is about100,000 times thinner than the width of a human hair. The plastic isinserted between an aluminum electrode and a transparent conductingelectrode. When a current is passed through the device, it stimulatesthe plastic to light up.
Luckily for Carroll,FIPEL has entered the lighting technology ring at a time ofunprecedented opportunity. The phaseout of traditional incandescentbulbs began to take effect at the start of the new year under the2007 Energy Independence and Security Act.
As of Jan. 1, 2013,manufacturers can no longer sell 75-watt incandescents. The 40-and 60-watt incandescents will no longer be available starting Jan.1, 2014.
FIPEL’slight quality is unmatched by any technology currently, theproduct's manufacturer claims.
CFLs use about 75percent less electricity than Edison's filament bulb to produce thesame amount of light. LEDs use even less. This means to make the samelight as a 100-watt incandescent, a compact fluorescent uses 23 wattsand an LED uses 20. The FIPEL is slightlymore efficient than a CFL bulb and on par with an LED, but comes witha few advantages over these other types of lights. CFLs and otherfluorescent light bulbs contain a very small amount of mercury, whichcan be toxic if not disposed of properly. FIPELs do not use anycaustic chemicals in manufacturing and can easily be recycled becausethey're made of plastic.
Some LEDs give off ablueish tint, which many people don't like to look at. FIPEL, on theother hand, can be made to have any tint, including the yellowish hueof the sun that our eyes have come to prefer, having evolved onEarth.
"FIPEL can matchthe response of your eye more perfectly than any other lamp evercreated," Carroll told Business Insider.
Although the new lightsource doesn't have the shape of a traditional light bulb — it'smore a panel — it is moldable, so it can be customized to fit intoconventional light sockets and work with many different types of lampfixtures.
The FIPEL light has alifetime of between 25,000 and 50,000 hours, which is comparable toan LED.Carroll notes onedrawback to FIPEL.
"From a purephysics point of view, the best efficiency that you could everaccomplish with this lamp is still going to be slightly lower thanthe best efficiency you could ever accomplish with an LED," saysCarroll. Right now, LEDs do not perform at their theoreticalbest. But as both technologies mature, you can expect the LED tocome out on top in terms of overall efficiency.
The FIPEL technologyis currently under an exclusive world-wide license by CeeLiteTechnologies. David Sutton, management consultant for CeeLite, saidthe first units for commercial use will be available by the end of2013. The new bulb will cost less than LEDs and slightly more thanCFLs. "In five years,instead of saying I've got to get a new bulb, you're going to besaying I've got to get a new FIPEL. I do believe that these are goingto be ubiquitous," says Carroll.
Readmore: http://www.businessinsider.com/fipel-lighting-technology-david-carroll-wake-forrest-2013-1#ixzz2IonkOtvG
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