How they make a Switch Lighting Liquid Filled LED Bulb.

[Brian H]

I found a how they make a Switch Lighting Liquid Filled LED Light Bulb article in a web search.

I have been curious on this bulbs being made.

Announced a few years ago and I believe they had problems getting it to market.

Maybe too late as there are now so many new LED bulb designs.

http://www.extremetech.com/electronics/ ... ight-bulbs

http://www.switchlightingco.com/

[Exten]

Hmmmm...interesting.

 

My 60W insteon spacebulb uses 8 watts of power and only gets a little warm.

I wonder why they want to make such a hot bulb that it needs such a

sophisticated cooling system?

 

Any idea of the $ on that bulb? The insteon spacebulb is way too much

at $30.00 - I only got one for grins to check out. I could never afford

to do up the house in such finery.

 

60Watts of light for 8Watts of power is good, but I have to have more.

I need the 75 or 100 Watt bulb that uses 11 or 12 watts of power so while

insteon has made a kool thing....60Watts just ain't 'nuff light to get my attention.

[Exten]

I'd like to know about the mess it makes when dropped and broken.

Regular broken bulb glass is bad enuff.

 

Anyone got one of these bulbs yet? Let's hear a review

[apostolakisl]

Hmmmm...interesting.

 

My 60W insteon spacebulb uses 8 watts of power and only gets a little warm.

I wonder why they want to make such a hot bulb that it needs such a

sophisticated cooling system?

 

Any idea of the $ on that bulb? The insteon spacebulb is way too much

at $30.00 - I only got one for grins to check out. I could never afford

to do up the house in such finery.

 

60Watts of light for 8Watts of power is good, but I have to have more.

I need the 75 or 100 Watt bulb that uses 11 or 12 watts of power so while

insteon has made a kool thing....60Watts just ain't 'nuff light to get my attention.

 

It isn't that the bulb produces tremendous amounts of heat, it is that the LED itself is poorly tolerant of heat. It uses 11 watts, and converts about 90% of that to light, but the last 10% goes to heat and it is concentrated in a very small LED that has little tolerance for it.

[Brian H]

The Switch Lighting Bulbs are still unavailable for retail purchase.

I have read they are being used by commercial customers and if all goes well. Early 2013 maybe retail.

This has been a real long development time and maybe funding issues.

I saw their bulbs announced a few years ago and at that time they where showing how they finally developed the secret fluid in them.

 

I am on their email updates list but nothing lately.

[Exten]

Switch bulb 9.8 ounces.

Insteon bulb 5.8 ounces

In an upright orientation it wouldn't matter. My concern is horizontal

orientation and my flimsy light fixtures.

 

I bet neither bulb can withstand a 3 fiit drop to the floor and the

switchbulb might make the bigger mess with liquid silicone in it.

 

The insteon bulb lets you not replace a wall switch, yet still have automation.

The switchbulb doesn't appear to have any remote on/off and dim capabilities.

I bet that'll change though. I'm ready to buy a switchbulb anytime.

[Exten]

It isn't that the bulb produces tremendous amounts of heat, it is that the LED itself is poorly tolerant of heat. It uses 11 watts, and converts about 90% of that to light, but the last 10% goes to heat and it is concentrated in a very small LED that has little tolerance for it.

 

My point was that insteon can do it without exotic cooling. And the potential mess of a broken bulb.

The glass is bad enough but liquid silicone on the floor too...hmmm. Never know, the casing may

actually be plastic for all I know.

 

Nonetheless I'll buy one licketysplit because I wouldn't have to replace my switches.

I'm already set up with remore controllable/dimmable switches throughout.

 

The insteon bulbs, while dimmable and on/off-able would require just the standard

light switch, right?

[Brian H]

Yes. The Insteon bulbs would be on a standard switch or in a lamp not on an Insteon Module.

 

I have used a Sylvania UltraLED, Philips EnduraLED, Phillips L-Prize LED and the Lighting Science Groups Ecosmart LED bulbs on Insteon Dimmers as a test.

I originally had CFLs. So all of my Insteon devices are a relay type. Like an ApplianceLinc or SwitchLinc Relay.

[apostolakisl]

It isn't that the bulb produces tremendous amounts of heat, it is that the LED itself is poorly tolerant of heat. It uses 11 watts, and converts about 90% of that to light, but the last 10% goes to heat and it is concentrated in a very small LED that has little tolerance for it.

 

My point was that insteon can do it without exotic cooling. And the potential mess of a broken bulb.

The glass is bad enough but liquid silicone on the floor too...hmmm. Never know, the casing may

actually be plastic for all I know.

 

Nonetheless I'll buy one licketysplit because I wouldn't have to replace my switches.

I'm already set up with remore controllable/dimmable switches throughout.

 

The insteon bulbs, while dimmable and on/off-able would require just the standard

light switch, right?

 

Well, actually everyone else has done it without exotic cooling. I have a bunch of LED lights from different companies (not Insteon) and most of them work quite well. Are they going to last 20 years without this fancy cooling? Who knows. They claim they will. Phillips is likely to be around 20 years from now so I suppose they will have to answer to it if they don't.

 

My gut feeling is that this co saw the main LED light problem that existed 5 years ago. . . dissipating heat. . . and came up with a fancy solution. But everyone else came up with simple solutions. I suspect their product works very well, but I doubt it will be competitive. That's probably why we haven't seen it come to market and I would bet we never do.

[Exten]

Maybe 60Watts without exotic cooling is as far as you can push it?

I have my doubts about that though.

 

Who does LED bulbs 75W or 100W ?

That's the wattage ratings I'm after.

I really don't wanna bother with CFL twisty bulbs - hate the un-natural light.

 

I care not about energy savings when 60Watts of light can be had for 8 Watts of power.

I would MUCH rather be dissipating 12Watts of power and be getting 100Watts of light.

 

I like my insteon spacebulb but it's just not appropriate in situations where you already

have dimmable/remotable wall switches already installed.

[ELA]

Here is an article talking about the cooling system used in the new GE (100 Watt equiv), 1600 lumen, 27Watt -consumption, LED bulb

 

http://ledsmagazine.com/features/8/6/10

[Brian H]

Thanks for the link.

 

I have an EarthLED EVOLUX S LED bulb and they put a small fan in it.

Bet you can guess what it sounds like with a few years use on it.

Cheap fan sounds like a buzz saw now.

It also puts out so much power line noise read on my XTBM X10 signal meter to be over it maximum .99 volt display.

Wounder how they got an FCC approval on the stupid things for conducted power line noise interference.

[apostolakisl]

I kind of doubt any of these active cooling systems will ever be viable. Without 20 years of longevity, the cost of these bulbs is hard to justify. And an active cooling system would have to also last 20 years. Fans and pumps or whatever seem like they will be a huge "weak link" in the longevity. That liquid cooling is passive.. . so at least it has that going for it.

 

It was only a few years ago that they couldn't keep a 60 watt bulb eq from burning itself up, now they are common place (without any special cooling). I suspect that in a few more years, they will figure out how to make led's that don't fail in the heat, or can passively dissipate the heat.

[ELA]

Hello apostolakisl,

Curious where your statement " converts about 90% of that to light" came from?

 

Maybe at the same time that they achieve more than 15-20% of the input power converted to useable light they can also get passive heat dissipation to work.

[apostolakisl]

Hello apostolakisl,

Curious where your statement " converts about 90% of that to light" came from?

 

Maybe at the same time that they achieve more than 15-20% of the input power converted to useable light they can also get passive heat dissipation to work.

 

 

Touche.

 

Producing 10% of the heat of incandescent doesn't make them 90% efficient.

 

But still, if the typical living room lamp light bulb has liquid silicone or a fan in it 5 years from now, I'll eat my shorts.

[arw01]

\

But still, if the typical living room lamp light bulb has liquid silicone or a fan in it 5 years from now, I'll eat my shorts.

 

With whipcream I hope. yeech.

 

Any updates I have missed on the 100 watt bulbs? I've not seen one in a retail store yet, keep checking the lighting isle. I have a few relay switchlincs that I would really rather have dimmers..

[Brian H]

The 100 watt is not quite out yet.

I did get an email from an LED bulb vendor I have used in the past.

They said they expected some soon.

I also saw they are developing a real three way LED bulb to work in lights with a three level type switch.

[arw01]

How are you guys also finding the dim-ability of the leds? I have 2 incandescent 100 watt, 1 60 watt Costco LED, and 1 CFL on a dimmer in the bathroom. it's not too good yet, but that one CFL may mess up the works.

 

My light switch in there doesn't seem to be new enough to take reprogramming of the local on level at night on schedule, but with that CFL I have not pulled that down to 20% to test.

 

Really would like the next LED to be at least 75 watts before I try taking that CFL out of there. We used to have 400 watts in the bathroom, but I've cut that down a tiny bit.