On Wed, 09 Apr 2008 16:41:22 GMT, "James Sweet"
wrote:



"default" wrote in message
...

On Mon, 07 Apr 2008 16:37:44 GMT, "James Sweet"
wrote:

Who
knows what else might be on the horizon.

Aluminum foil lamps outshine incandescent lights
http://www.news.uiuc.edu/news/07/0604lamps.html




That's interesting, however it states it uses a gas plasma to excite a
phosphor coating, so for all practical purposes it's a fluorescent lamp and
will have the same light characteristics.

True enough the only interesting thing is the flat panel emitting
surface and "require no ballast, reflector or heavy metal housing."

No ballast seems unlikely; what does limit current?

Both Phillips and G.E. have announced plans to introduce incandescent
lamps by ~2010 that "will have efficiencies on a par with CFL's."
They also claim a better quality of light - which has to mean that
they are using waste IR to heat the emitter.

I figure they probably could have developed this years ago if they had
the incentive. With CFL's costing ~$1-$5 each, and government
mandates they now have the incentive. A bulb will be cheaper to make
unless something else comes along to change things. Perhaps they
intend to try to force a mandate that CFL's be outlawed due to the
mercury they contain.

Politics, marketing hype, and emotion - hard to design around those.
We see how well the "Hydrogen Economy" (most plentiful fuel in the
universe) is taking off . . . or the alcohol subsidies which have the
effect of raising food prices and may never break even, if corn is the
only viable feedstock in the US.

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