Enlux LED Floodlight with standard fittings

The standard bulb is 95% heat and only 5% light. This is one of the little know facts about Mr Edison's incandescent bulb. (Another is, that out of some 6,000 attempts, one his best successes in finding a long-life filament happened to be bamboo.) Modern geniuses following Thomas' lead have continued to push that proverbial design envelope. Popular Science have recently bestowed their 'What's New in 2004' Grand Award in Hometech to another light, which breaks the mould. Enlux have developed what they call the world's first LED replacement for screw-in incandescent and halogen bulbs. At $80 they are not cheap but you won't need to buy another one for about 35 years! And while Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) are up to 10 times more efficient that standard globes they can still run hot, to achieve a similar light output. Enlux solved this by mounting the LEDs onto a heat dissipating aluminium sheet. And quite obviously they've added those wonderful external fins, that would bring joy to the heart of the Jetsons. Increasing the surface area spreads the warmth rapidly so it cools quicker. Enough so that they can be grasped without burning your hand. The floodlights come in various colours of fin. But what is more remarkable is that 3 hues of light are on offer. These match, to some degree, incandescent (warm), halogen (soft white) and fluorescents (cool white). A trick that those other eco lights - compact fluoros - have not been able to pull off. Bravo Enlux, we reckon Edison would be proud, even if he might wonder why it has taken 125 years! Thanks to ::Futurismic for the heads up. ::Enlux [by WM]

Nice, all white with fins!

Come in black too!

And...in case you were wondering about the bamboo comment, here's more:

Edison tried over 6000 different materials to create a filament that would burn bright enough to give light, without breaking. They needed to be a material that would carbonise. (charcoal, a form of carbon glows when an electrical current is applied to it) He originally settled on burnt cotton but this only gave about a 15 hours of light before burning out. Bamboo gave him 1200 hours and he had a commercial light. I think they have an original bamboo one at the Smithsonian (or somewhere like that) that still works. Today, we use metals like tungsten. Memory checked with help from::History of...


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