Sustainable Design Update

via Jetson Green; posted by Matt Grocoff

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.

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by Matthew Grocoff, Esq. LEED

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.”

Read my full story at Old House Web

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Game over. LEDs win. Early in 2011 I wrote about the rapid ramp up of high-quality LED bulbs. Shortly afterwards, the big box stores started selling absolutely flawless bulbs at the eye-popping cost of $39.95. Even at that price the life-cycle payback still beat the old school incandescent bulbs for total cost. The problem was that it was about an 18 year break even.

That didn’t keep customers from grabbing these bulbs off the shelf. One big box store I visited said they were having a hard time keeping the LED bulbs in stock.

Now you can walk into a big box store and get a Philips Endura LED that uses only 12 watts for only $24.95. Today I was giddy over the sudden price plummet of these bulbs. You haven’t seen this kind of joy except from little Japanese girls finding Hello Kitty hats on sale. Please don’t judge me.

This is a game changer in lighting. Here’s why . . .

READ THE FULL ARTICLE AT:  at Old House Web

Read about the DOE’s L-Prize for lighting: http://www.lightingprize.org/overview_60watt.stm

Here’s the 12W Philips bulb for $24.95