Krypton, Xenon, New Lamps?

Should lamp issues be discussed in the elect/bat forum or here?

I'm intrigued that new technology may be applied to incandescent lamps but don't know where that info is available. What's on the horizon with new incans?

I forgot who stated that they didn't care for kryptons but if you are reading this, will you please expand on that subject? It seems that well designed xenons are brighter but that isn't always the case. I've found good performance with halogens too.

What are the advantages of the various types of lamps? What's an up-to-date source for info and purchases?

Again, thanks, CPFers.

I believe that there were people working on new incandescent lamps. Two come to mind. Ceramic "filament" lamps and Rhenium cluster microwave lamps. The former uses a conductive cermic like HfC that has a melting loint well above that of Tungsten. That should allow the incandescent body (the "filament") to work at higher temperatures and produce more light - in theory. But ceramics are less conductive than Tungsten metal. So the incandescent body no longer resembles a filament. More like a rod. I think some lamps were made successfully, but it never got to the market.
The later was tried out by Philips in Germany. Rhenium metal particles were heated by microwave in a cavity to above their melting point (Rhenium is the only metal to have a melting point close to and a little higher than Tungsten) so they become droplets of white hot melted metal. they are so small they stay airborn in the plasma. They give out light much like the white hot carbon particles do in a candle flame - except that they are much hotter. Never saw the light of day either.
Now that I am warming up the grey cells, I seem to recall that some people was also working on using Fluorine as the "Halogen" in the halogen cycle lamps. Claims it allowed higher operating filament temperature at the same life. Corrosion or other parts of the lamp was a problem (Fluorine is the most active non metallic element we know). I guess the IR reflecting coating technology proved to be more effective, so that went silent too.
On a more realistic level, I think that IRC applied to smaller lamps is the next step. Osram have got it down to 20W. Now to apply it to the HLX projection lamps! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif Will be especially good for battery operated equipment like ... em, say flashlights! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/blush.gif At their best, they consume 1/3 less energy for the same luminous output. The future is BRIGHT.

well i'm one of the ppl who have said i don't care for krypton bulbs..

they work fine in some flashlights as replacements, but i've only found maybe one krypton flashlight that i liked upon using it.. i just find they're not as white or bright as xenon..

that's why you don't see a Streamlight TL3 Krypton, if you ask me..

-Ryan