Westinghouse LED bulb replaces incandescent lighti

Westinghouse Lighting Corporation Introduces LED Technology for General Illumination

Patented Polymner Lensing Technology Increases Applicationrs

Philadelphia, PA (May 2003) - Westinghouse Lighting Corporation announces a patented light emitting diode (LED) technology system at LightFair International, New York. This unique system leads the evolution of LED applications from specialty lighting to general illumination.

Unlike CFLs, the system is easily dimmed, has instant start capabilities, operates well in cold weather applications and does not flicker.


so on and so forth, read it here:

http://news.managingautomation.com/fullstory/22749

Re: Westinghouse LED bulb replaces incandescent li

Dang. Nothing solid yet. And I hate press releases since they're fluff.

Re: Westinghouse LED bulb replaces incandescent li

I hate vaporware also. Lock up the marketing people and let the engineers run the show!

Re: Westinghouse LED bulb replaces incandescent li

Eh, the problem with engineers is they can't make anything sellable without constant prodding from sales & marketing.

Re: Westinghouse LED bulb replaces incandescent li

I'm guessing that a new mortgage would be necessary to finance replacement of all my incandescents. And I limit them since I use CFL on the lights that get longer continuous use. I didn't see any mention of cost but their 12v garden flood light is $198.

Re: Westinghouse LED bulb replaces incandescent li

More info here:

http://www.nynewsday.com/technology/chi-0409120492sep13,0,3586966.story?coll=ny-technology-headlines

Re: Westinghouse LED bulb replaces incandescent li

[ QUOTE ]
idleprocess said:
Eh, the problem with engineers is they can't make anything sellable without constant prodding from sales & marketing.

[/ QUOTE ]

The problem with sales/marketing is that they can't sell anything without engineers.

Let's tell both sides of the story please. There's an element of truth in both statements.

Re: Westinghouse LED bulb replaces incandescent li

Of course - I'm not trying to flame anyone. I used to do engineering work and know the tendency to go off the deep end in persuit of engineering perfection - resulting in missed deadlines and unsellable products.

Re: Westinghouse LED bulb replaces incandescent li

[ QUOTE ]
idleprocess said:
Eh, the problem with engineers is they can't make anything sellable without constant prodding from sales & marketing.

[/ QUOTE ]

That's because they have a constant desire to twiddle with it and make it better!

Re: Westinghouse LED bulb replaces incandescent li

Yeah, and it is common place for sales/marketing to rush a product off to market before it's ready, resulting in unhappy and future lost customers. Besides tarnishing the brand name....

Re: Westinghouse LED bulb replaces incandescent li

In all honesty, I'm not surprised this isn't being sold yet. LEDs just aren't there yet for general lighting. The main problems now as I currently see them are cost, efficiency, and output. These all need to be brought up (or down as the case may be) to CFL levels before the general public will start buying LEDs in large quantities. It will happen, just maybe not for a couple of years. I certainly look forward to nice, dimmable 5000K LED replacements for those horribly inefficient, horribly yellow small base chandelier bulbs. This is one area that CFLs have failed to penetrate to any great extent.

And on another note I do hope that once LEDs are readily available incandescents for general lighting are no longer sold at all. There are some who will refuse to change unless they have no choice, even if the replacement has no disadavantages. Frankly, I can't see that LED, once developed, would have any disadvantages over incandescent. They will be efficient, dimmable, long-lasting, have good or even perfect color rendering, and be available in a wide choice of color temperatures and even colors. And long term I believe they will cost even less than current incandescents. When you consider how cheap incandescents have gotten despite requiring exotic materials and gas fills at low pressures, it's fairly easy to imagine LEDs costing even less.

Re: Westinghouse LED bulb replaces incandescent li

They'll need to sort out the problems that are afflicting LED traffic signs - nothing like paying 10x as much for a "permanent" replacement for an incadescent (fixture and all) only to have it fail in the same timespan you'd expect an incadescent to fail in...

Re: Westinghouse LED bulb replaces incandescent li

[ QUOTE ]
jtr1962 said:
In all honesty, I'm not surprised this isn't being sold yet. LEDs just aren't there yet for general lighting. The main problems now as I currently see them are cost, efficiency, and output. These all need to be brought up (or down as the case may be) to CFL levels before the general public will start buying LEDs in large quantities. It will happen, just maybe not for a couple of years. I certainly look forward to nice, dimmable 5000K LED replacements for those horribly inefficient, horribly yellow small base chandelier bulbs. This is one area that CFLs have failed to penetrate to any great extent.

And on another note I do hope that once LEDs are readily available incandescents for general lighting are no longer sold at all. There are some who will refuse to change unless they have no choice, even if the replacement has no disadavantages. Frankly, I can't see that LED, once developed, would have any disadvantages over incandescent. They will be efficient, dimmable, long-lasting, have good or even perfect color rendering, and be available in a wide choice of color temperatures and even colors. And long term I believe they will cost even less than current incandescents. When you consider how cheap incandescents have gotten despite requiring exotic materials and gas fills at low pressures, it's fairly easy to imagine LEDs costing even less.

[/ QUOTE ]

Especially when the luxeon die only cost 0.02-0.03 USD each.... (as thats what it costs now)

....what the market will bear....

Re: Westinghouse LED bulb replaces incandescent li

I imagine a good part of the cost is in the testing and packaging rather than the bare die. As good as they are, I feel Luxeons are somewhat overpriced. $3 to $5 retail to an LIII would be fairer given what these likely cost to manufacture. Of course, if most of the extra money is being put into R&D for even better future products then I have no problems with current pricing. Down the road, however, LEDs need to get a lot cheaper if they are ever to compete with incandescents and CFLs.

Re: Westinghouse LED bulb replaces incandescent li

Most LED manufacturers are in no rush to get LEDs into the general lighting market because LEDs have just recently become mainstays in niche lighting markets.

Packaging is the majority of the cost for most electronics. A great deal of reserach goes into making packaging cheaper.

An analogy:
I spend more on optical media storage as I do on recordable optical media. I was buying CD-Rs for $0.10 each and spending close to $0.25 storing each disc. It's a price of doing business and well worth it.