LED Lighting - And All Things Green

Mmmm.....tallscreen.

Is bigger always better? In this case, I would say yes. At least in terms of sheer awesomeness. What you’re looking at here is a future 33-story LED screen on a building in Dubai. You know, the place where the mega-rich go on vacation and they have nothing better to do than create their own islands in the shape of palm trees? 

This screen is so large that you can see ads on it from 1.5 km away. How’s that for getting your message across to the masses. All I can think about is a massive game of Tetris, where each block is the size of a small office building. 

Then when I’m done with than, how bout some Arkanoid and then finish the day off with a quick game of Raiden Fighters. Oh the possibilites…. How much do to you think it would cost for me to rent that for a few hours? Do you take Amex?

[Via Engadget]

Burn Baby Burn!

It’s 6pm the night before the prom and you stare at yourself in the mirror. You realize that no matter how much makeup you put on, it’s apparent that your pasty white skin is the result of all those long days studying indoors so you could get into MIT, rather than hanging out on the beach like the rest of your friends. All the tanning salons are booked solid through the weekend for the last-minute party rush and those tanning sprays made you look like a carrot the last time you used it. What do you do?

Being a future MIT alum, you craftily Macgyver together a rig of CFLs and toast yourself for 10 hours underneath to make it to the ball in time to claim the crown of Prom King.

Now you already know that those long fluorescent tubes used in tanning beds share the same genealogy, but did you know that they also carry similar hazards?

A study by the Health Protection Agency in the U.K. showed that some compact fluorescent lightbulbs, which have a visible coil emitted ultraviolet (UV) radiation above the recognised safety limits. Basically it’s saying that those lights that giving you a tan. Now that would be a good thing if you needed it, but sitting in front of one for 8+ hours a day is definitely more than you should get.

About 20% of the CFL bulbs tested emitted UV-C radiation which is more harmful than the more common UV-A or UV-B, and and it’s the same kind that’s used in hospitals to kill germs, and can cause DNA damage, leading to skin cancer.

The highest levels of UV radiation, about an inch away from the bulbs, was the same as exposure in direct summer sunlight, the agency said.

Now this doesn’t apply to all bulbs, but the most common bulbs do have this problem. So stop sitting so close to the light, cuz that burning sensation you feel in your eyes may or may not be just simple eyestrain. Oh well, on the bright side, I guess it gives me a legitimate reason to take more breaks during work…

I think I’ll stick to LEDs for my office lighting needs…

[Via The Guardian Via The Health Protection Agency]
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Size comparison to a regular incandescent bulb

“It walks down stairs
Alone or in pairs
And makes a Slinkaty sound

A spring, a spring
A marvelous thing
Everyone knows it’s Slinky”

Which this is not. But it does have that feel with its funky looking heatsink. This monster is made in Korea and is one of the brightest screw-in replacement LED bulbs I’ve ever seen. This is WAY brighter than the LR6 we mentioned in a previous post. The size is almost definitely for heat dissipation reasons. Which works wonders because for the brightness and light that this things produces, the bulb only gets slightly warm. Other lesser sized bulbs with a smaller heatsink and more compacted LEDs would definitely be too hot to hold, though not skin-scorching like an incandescent can be. The size IS quite…large…but it’s not as heavy as you would think considering it’s for heat-sinking purposes.

It’s interesting because many people think that if you buy an LED bulb - it must have a CREE chip to be the “brightest”. Absolutely untrue. The LEDs in here are “no-name”, but put into a package that can disperse heat extremely well, you can pump up the power and get more light. See the pictures below for an example of how it lights up a room. And this is a terrible placement for it too. I was lazy. :(.

22W Lighting up a room

Looking at the top of the bulb, you can see the array of LEDs used to give off this massive amount of light. The nice thing about using so many LEDs vs. say 10, is that you’re not driving each element so hard that it HAS to give off lots of heat in order to function without overheating. Touch the top translucent plastic cover, and you’ll see its cooler than the back of your LCD monitor that you’re using to view this picture. OVerall, a pretty good design. Unfortunately, this sample I got is not yet in full production yet, or I’d get a crate full of them. Have you seen brighter? Let us know in the comments!

P.S. I’m eventually going to make a video of this bulb too. And it won’t need to be connected to an AC outlet to work. I heart LEDs. 

Closeup of the monster

So this is a quick and raw video of one of our new products that can be found on the website. It’s the Eternaleds Lumistick. It’s 4.5 watts of PURE POWER! But seriously, it’s actually pretty bright and small enough to put anywhere, like under a kitchen cabinet, or in a drawer. Which also means that I have a lot of ideas for some arts and crafts for it. Imagine taking two of these and attaching it to an AC battery back, adding a red tinted filter to it, then running around in a park. Can you say Instant Lightsaber? That is one of my ideas for a video in the next coming months. If you have any questions about it or if you’re interested in seeing any other Eternaleds bulbs in action, post in the comments. Enjoy!

Luke, I am your father.