CFL's? Nope. LED's? Nope. The bulb of the future may be the Fipel.

[Xithras]

Researchers at a North Carolina university have developed a replacement for fluorescent lightbulbs that is flicker-free. The Fipel, or field-induced polymer electroluminescent technology, is made from layers of light-emitting polymer with nanomaterials that glow when an electric current is introduced. The light burns brighter than a conventional bulb and is longer-lasting, says its creator.

Dr David Carroll, the professor of physics at Wake Forest University, believes that the breakthrough is more significant than OLEDs. "What we've found is a way of creating light rather than heat. Our devices contain no mercury, they contain no caustic chemicals, and they don't break as they are not made of glass."
http://www.fastcompany.com/3003573/fipel-major-plastic-light-bulb-breakthrough-darkens-fluorescents-future


//article 2
The inventor of the device is Dr David Carroll, professor of physics at Wake Forest University in North Carolina. He says the new plastic lighting source can be made into any shape, and it produces a better quality of light than compact fluorescent bulbs which have become very popular in recent years. The new light source is said to be twice as efficient as fluorescent bulbs

&quot Compact Flourescents) have a bluish, harsh tint to them, " he told BBC News, "it is not really accommodating to the human eye; people complain of headaches and the reason is the spectral content of that light doesn't match the Sun - our device can match the solar spectrum perfectly.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-20553143



For those of us who have long complained of headaches from CFL's and LED's, this is awesome news! A low power, full spectrum bulb without any harmful chemicals is exactly what we need to replace incandescents. The second article also contains a brief mention that one of their experimental bulbs has now been running for TEN YEARS.

So hold off on investing in those $30 LED's for your house. These should start hitting the production lines in 2013, and may make all of our current "eco" bulbs obsolete!

[silverweb]

1. Bookmarked for after work.

[Kaleva]

2. Rec'd

[Warpy]

3. Sounds good to me. Too expensive, though, until

it goes into large scale production.

I went CFL 17 years ago. They'll work fine until the new ones come out.

[TreasonousBastard]

4. Full-spectrum fluorescents have been available for years...

with CRI's in the high 90's and in various color temperatures. I even used to sell 3200K fluorescent tubes to photo studios. Most fluorescents are too green or yellow because red phosphors cost significantly more. "Daylight" lamps are too blue for the same reason.

That they aren't easy to find is another thing.

Anyway, this stuff sounds pretty good and should turn the lighting industry on its ear if it's what they claim and they can get into production.

[AtheistCrusader]

6. 'regular' fluorescent tubes seem to have gotten stupid expensive lately.

What's up with that? 10 pack at Home Depot going for 130 bucks? For T12-40's? For why?

Did I miss a memo?

[TreasonousBastard]

8. Cool-whites? That's nuts-- I thought they were still a buck or so...

Could be some factories shut down somewhere, trade battles stopping imports...

Are you sure they were cool whites or warm whites? Full spectrum could be around 10 bucks a lamp, but yer basic shit fluorescent shouldn't be up there.

(I gotta get to the Borg and check this out)

[AtheistCrusader]

10. I found a Phillips 2 pack for 10 bucks.

Cheapest I could find on the shelf. I'm not sure what the color spectrum was. I needed them for my garage.

[Xithras]

11. Here's a challenge. Find a full spectrum CFL that fits into a regular closed e26 fixture.

I've seen a few full spectrum CFL's on the Internet, and all were huge. Way too big to fit into a normal light fixture. I've NEVER seen one in a retail store.

My big issue with CFL's is actually flicker anyway. The light color on the newer CFL's, even the cheaper ones, is OK. The flicker gets me pretty quickly though.

The color on LED's is another story. Those things are terrible.

I'm just hoping that these fipel bulbs pan out and live up to their claims. A full spectrum, flicker-free bulb would be great. Unless those photos are faked, it looks like they're nice and bright too.

[TreasonousBastard]

15. Never gonna see that CFL...

With fluorescents, the amount of light is dependent upon the interior surface area of the tube so for more light you need a bigger tube, not just a different filament. Then, you have to have that ballast on the bottom. When buying a new fixture, this should be taken into account, but retrofitting or tossing old fixtures is a problem.

I'm not overly sensitive to the flicker, but I have seen some that are annoying even to me. All fluorescents flicker to some extent, but proper ballasts make it tolerable. It seems tough enough to engineer a decent ballast in that tiny package and the cheap ones just aren't going go have it.

[Egalitarian Thug]

5. Sounds good, but will they work with a dimmer switch? n/t

[Xithras]

9. Good question. No idea.

I have dimmers everywhere in my house. They all still run incandescents because I can't find a dimmable CFL indoor flood that will last more than 6 months and doesn't flicker. A quick google doesn't turn up anything on the Fipel one way or the other, so I guess we'll have to wait and see.

[msongs]

7. when will China start exporting them to us? nt

[Hekate]

12. I can hardly wait -- hope they work out!

[Snarkoleptic]

13. I'd love to see CFL's off the market.

Each CFL has around 5mg of mercury, which is enough to pollute 6,000 gallons of water.
They can be responsibly disposed of but I'm guessing the majority of them go into landfills.
Your local Lowe's and Home Depot will typically have a CFL recycle station near the front entrance (if you don't see it, please ask).
If you don't have one of these big box stores nearby, your municipality may have facilities.

[KurtNYC]

14. Bulbs aren't the future

The essence of a bulb design is that it gets screwed into a socket and when it burns out you unscrew it and throw it away.

Every press release tells us that something better is on the way but we are 40 years into the ecological crisis and we have done almost nothing to start living with the new normal: hurricanes, drought, radical temperature swings, the spread of tropical diseases and the extinction of key species.

Unfortunately our problems will not be solved by press releases or by waiting.

[Xithras]

16. I don't know about that.

The most common form of lighting is still a fixed fixture in the ceiling of a room. Unless someone develops a light that lasts forever, the lights in those fixtures will still need to be replaceable. Tubes and bulbs will be around for a LONG time. Still, one of the more interesting things about the fipel is that it's solid plastic (and presumably recyclable). It can be formed into any shape, so theoretically we could see light "sheets" and all sorts of other interesting new lighting ideas pop up that are simply not possible with our current glass or point-light fixtures.

As to the last bit, I wouldn't have posted this if it were just another vaporware press release. This technology has apparently existed in the lab for 10 years, and is now being publicized because it's going into production. Unlike most announcements, this one isn't YEARS down the road, but months. That IS worth anticipating.