Switch Lighting, creator of the only LED that uses liquid cooling technology, is on the cusp of a breakout year in 2012. The Switch bulb creates the same warm color of an incandescent, yet it’s made with reclaimable or recyclable materials using the Cradle to Cradle methodology. Inside the bulb is a liquid thermal cooling solution that helps cool the LEDs from all sides, producing more light from less LEDs. In fact, a Switch bulb lasts about 25 times longer and uses 80% less energy than an incandescent.
In the very near future, expect to be able to control devices, appliances, and lights in your home with the help of Google. That’s the information coming out of Google’s developer conference, Google I/O, where Android@Home was first announced. With the right app, an Android-powered smart device, and an intelligent LED replacement bulb from Lighting Science Group, a savvy homeowner could geek out a home without much effort.
Designer Zeke Shore traces the first tearable vented plastic lid for coffee back to 1967 patent filed by Alan Frank of Philadelphia. Through the decades companies like Solo continually improved the design and the plastic lid became as much a part of American culture as french fries, apple pie and fried butter on a stick.
Today the plastic lid was killed, murdered actually , by a radical reinvention of the disposable coffee mug called Compleat. I give this a design grade of A+. Sustainability grade? Well . . . I’m not sure the planet will notice.
Take-out beverage lids collected in the '90s and early '00s, photographed by sarcoptiform
Gear heads at the NASA Jet Propulsion Lab have created better thermionic power cells by increasing the area of material exposed to heat. Unlike photovoltaic cells that convert light to electricity, thermoinoc cells convert heat (or more accurately a temperature difference) to electricity. The theoretical advantage “thermo cells have is that heat doesn’t travel in a straight line. The surface area of a thermo cell can be increased like a fractal to very high surface areas and every square inch will add to the overall power.
Schematic View - Thermionic Cell - JPL
Shown here are what look like fibers that absorb heat – even though perpendicular to the heat source. These fibers still absorb heat and contribute to the efficiency of the material.
We are a long way off from having really efficient thermo-cells* but remember NASA JPL did create some of the first solar cells and look at the solar market now. Some day we may be purchasing furnaces / engines / wood stoves that make as much electricity as they do heat.
Q: Where do we see thermo-cells today?
A: They are used in coolers you plug into your car. The very simple automobile beverage chiller uses a thermo-cell backwards. You put in electricity and get a thermo-cell that is hot on one side (hopefully on the outside of the cooler) and one cool side. I once plugged my thermo-cell cooler in with the polarity switched and had very warm vegetables when I got to our cabin….
One exciting new entrant into the LED market is the Panasonic “Filament” LED. It’s designed to look like a traditional filament light bulb but uses only a tiny, tiny fraction of the energy. It won the 2011 Good Design Gold Award at this year’s Good Design Award show hosted by the Japan Institute of Design Promotion.
It’s a traditional screw in bulb, uses only 4.4 watts (almost 80% less than it’s incandescent counterpart), and it has a soft, warm glow (for you lighting geeks . . . that’s a 2700 kelvin light temperature).
I think I’ll soon have to write an obituary for the CFL. As my good friend Michael Klement says “CFL’s are the 8-track tape of the lighting world.”
It took curators four years put together the British Museum’s blockbuster exhibit “A History of the World in 100 Objects,” an attempt to tell the history of the world through objects pulled from the Museum’s huge collections. The result: a four hour BBC Radio show + book of the same name, soon to be published in the U.S.
Choosing the 100th object we find was difficult and long debated. In the end the curators chose a humble solar home lighting system for people who don’t have access to electricity.
As many SDU readers know we have been working on a home solar lighting system that can be assembled in the country where it is to be used.
Solar Home Lighting System
In 2008 an international research and development team lead by the Appropriate Technology Collaborative was awarded a grant by the Lindbergh Foundation in order to work with our partners in Guatemala and Nicaragua to build and evaluate various designs for LED lights that are superior in performance to the kerosene lamps widely in use in those low income countries today. Energy efficient LED lights are both safer and more affordable than kerosene lighting.
The Appropriate Technology Collaborative will be working with engineers and educators in Guatemala to teach local tech school students how to design and install home lighting systems in February and March 2012. We will have updates from the field. Stay tuned.
