Focusing on the eco-conscious commercial industry, news concerning light-emitting diodes and other ways to save the earth, one bulb at a time.

Tuesday, April 8, 2008

How do Luxim Bulbs work?


So I was sitting at home playing jacks and I couldn't get out of my head how the Luxim bulbs can possibly be so efficient. It must be some sort of voodoo magic. So I did some more research, of what little there was, and found a little animation on the mechanism that causes this little Tic-Tac sized bit of glass to emit this enormous amount of light.

So apparently the way these things work is that it's like a cross between a halogen and a fluorescent. With halogens, the filament material heats up (much like a standard incandescent bulb) and microscopic bits evaporates into the high pressure bulb. With fluorescents, a plasma is formed that emits electrons onto a phosphor to create visible light.

Now with the Luxim, the plasma is created from the gas, and then some metal halide elements in the bulb evaporate (assuming because of the heat from the plasma) and that combination of plasma and evaporated metal halide creates a light that could blind even a deity.

You can take a look at the animation and the description of it.

It looks pretty amazing with some just as amazing claims. The heatsink and heating mechanism looks ridiculously big though, from the picture, so it seems like it may be a while till it's ready for prime time. I'd be totally interested in seeing one in real life. Though from what I read into mechanism of how the bulb gets heated up and the temperatures, I'll make sure to wear my codpiece at the viewing.

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2 Comments:

At April 13, 2008 at 11:44 AM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

Luxim will be displaying product at Lightfair in Las Vegas in late May 2008, if you want to see their product in action. Below are links to product updates from Luxim, including a picture of their (cube) bulb (puck and bulb), compared to a quarter dollar. The product itself if quite small.

Earlier version, built for Panasonic's Rear Projection TV line had larger enclosures, as the dated material on Luxim's website shows.

Luxim has updated their website with more information to support their attendance of Building & Light 2008 in Frankfurt Germany. Highlights: 30,000 hours, CRI 95, CCT Color Temp 5500, 180 watt / 22,000 lumens, 120 lumens/watt. Looks great.

http://www.lifi.com/dynamic/LandB2008.html

http://www.lifi.com/dynamic/pdfs/AboutLUXIM-LIFI.pdf

http://www.lifi.com/dynamic/pdfs/CompLuminairePerformance.pdf

 
At April 28, 2008 at 3:22 PM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

Induction lighting is one of lifes great mysterys, why doesnt anyone know about them? When the lighting application requires the performace of HID or metal halide bulbs only induction lighting can measure up. LEDs are great in low light scenarios but in applications like street lighting they just will not do

 

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