sciam.com — The incandescent lightbulb is a miracle of modern engineering. It requires a vacuum inside, blown glass and special filaments to work. Yet despite more than a century of refinements,an average bulb emits just 15 lumens of light for every watt of electricity it consumes.
Apr 13, 2006 View in Crawl 4
dlvolkApr 13, 2006
It is my understanding that CFL gets more lumens per watt than OLED, am I wrong? So how is OLED going to be better than what most people use incadescents for (area lighting, where CFLs already replaced incandescents)?CFL 20W @ 1200 Lumens = 60lumens/watt (<a class="user" href="http://www.we-energies.com/residential/energyeff/lighting_facts.pdf)">http://www.we-energies.com/residential/energyeff/lighting_facts.pdf)</a>OLED : 25 lumens/watt (from article) "A 100-watt bulb is about 15 lumens per watt and we're at about 25 lumens per watt just on the lab bench," Forrest says.
aveyuenApr 13, 2006
@dlvolk: While it's true that OLED's are less efficient than flourescents right now for large scale lighting, there are two advantages to OLEDs: 1) they are easily dimmable, unlike fluorescent lights and 2) they have potential to be high volume, i.e. could be made super-cheap via inkjet printing techniques.
cliche_kittyApr 13, 2006
In most, if not all, thermodynamic systems, you lose a lot of enerygy as heat. Even the theoretical Carnot engine is not 100% efficient.
bennyboyApr 13, 2006
the fact that someone here is using the term "vacuum filled" is blowing my mind... a vacuum is by deffinition the absense of matter. something cannot be filled with the absense of matter. and vacuum in this context is the wrong term to describe the inside of a lightbulb anyway. sure, they may be filled with an inert gas, but the "vacuum" that is described is realy a slight under pressure. the inert gas and underpressure both serve the same purpose. Lightbulb fillaments are typically tungsten or some other reactive metal. the fact that electricity is running through them and heats them only serves to make them more reactive (which is why they "burn out"). they are encased in inert gasses, because "inert" means that the gasses do not react well with other materials. they are also heald at an underpressure because there will be fewere molecules to react with. this underpressure can be easily observed in modern light bulbs. take a small butane torch and hold it to the glass bulb of the light. the glass will begin to heat and soften. as the glass softens, the pressure differntial will cause the glass to flow toward the direction of the under pressure (Inward). soon, the glass with thin enough that a funnel shapped hole opens into the bulb. (this method can also be use to make lightbulb bombs. just do the above procedure, make the funnel/hole, and proceed to fill it with black powder or gasoline or some such. then screw into a socket, and wait for someone to turn on the light. the filliment will ignite the bulb, and fun will be had by all)
Closed AccountApr 13, 2006
great! when and we can i buy one?
reflexApr 14, 2006
We tend to forget the environmental costs of manufacturing exotic OLED devices. One reason that they're much more expensive to make than a traditional incandescent bulb is that they require significantly more technology (and therefore complex chemicals and manufacturing processes). The question we should be asking is: "how much energy is wasted in their production?"
freescotlandApr 14, 2006
LED Christmas lights <a class="user" href="http://www.christmaslightsetc.com/led-christmas-lights.htm">http://www.christmaslightsetc.com/led-christmas-lights.htm</a>no affiliation or endorsement
enchanterkuFeb 23, 2009
I'm not at all affiliated with this company, but I've been playing with their OLED displays lately, and they're pretty fantastic. Specifically I've been using this 2.4" display:<a class="user" href="http://www.4dsystems.com.au/prod.php?id=31">http://www.4dsystems.com.au/prod.php?id=31</a>Thought I'd share, they're ideal for small projects.