Gallery of Lights
Lamps => Modern => Topic started by: Jace the Gull on December 01, 2011, 08:25:38 PM
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Very curious about this new lamp...
It is not incandescent, nor CFL nor LED....
HOW CURIOUS!!!
https://www.facebook.com/VU1Lighting?sk=info
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It's halogen. They sell these at Lowe's according to the website. I went to the Lowe's website and these are listed as 65w halogen reflector lamps with 3000 lumens. No price on the website though.
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Are you SURE they are halogens...it doesn't say so in their website....
The page says:
The biggest difference is the ESL bulb is mercury-free. According to the company, ESL buls use “accelerated electrons to stimulate phosphor to create light, making the surface of the bulb ‘glow.’
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here's the link (http://www.lowes.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10151&catalogId=10051&cId=SEARCH&productId=3558760&cm_mmc=SCE_gps-_-gps-_-gps-_-Vu1%201-Pack%2065-Watt%20Soft%20White%20Halogen%20Light%20Bulb&CAWELAID=1095627283) It's possible that Vu1 has produced halogens in the past and this "ESL" lamps isn't up on lowe's yet. :-\
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Very Interesting stuff!
Here's (http://www.vu1corporation.com/technology.php) the website and it dosen't sound like any halogen lamp I know of.
I'm still curious about how it works though.
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That is correct the Vu1 lamp is not a halogen, it is a electroluminescent lamp that uses a phosphor to create light. Similar to CRTs.
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Hmm you mean like those electroluminescent panel night lights.
(http://www.reuk.co.uk/OtherImages/moonlight-night-light.jpg)
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Ahh. I always thoguht those were LED. :-[
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How interesting! I assume this design involves using a high voltage flyback?
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ESL is a short for "Electron Stimulated Luminescence".
Acording to the article in Wikipedia (Although Wikipedia writ??? that the article about Electron Stimulated Luminescence is written like an ad), ESL lamps operates similar to a CRT, but but lacks magnetic or electrostatic deflection.
Electrons from a cathode, passes through a vaccum atmosphere and strikes a phosphor coating, causing it to glow.
Because this mothed is very reliable, the lamp should have very long life. However, since the electronic driver integrated inside the lamp, the lamp life depends on the driver life which is at max several years if well made.
So like LED light bulb and sometimes also CFLs, the general failure mechanism of ESL lamps is "Ballast electronic", provided that an ESL lamp that operates with an external driver will be made, so when the driver will fail, it will be seperately replaced and the bulb continue to operate with the new driver.
The CRI of ESL lamp, like fluorescnets and induction, depends on the phosphor coating. Vu1 ESL lamp have a triphosphors coating and hence they have Ra8=85, similar to most CFLs.
Also the dimming possibility of ESL lamps, like CFLs and LED lightbulbs, depends if the driver optimised for working with a dimmer switch. Vu1 ESL lamps are dimmable in this case.
The ESL lamp is for sure mercury free, as the lamp uses electrons through a vaccum to operate the phosphors like a CRT tube, instead of UV radiation which the mercury is the only element that produce them efficiently.
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I actually had one of those nightlights a few years ago, not sure where it went though.
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ESL= Cathode ray tube (without picture)
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dor123 gave a good description of the ESL technology....and yes...think of a small CRT TV displaying a completely white screen but using a warm-white phosphor.
I was trying to get my hands on an ESL lamp since early last year; they were supposed to be for sale in an R-30 bulb through Lowes.com, but the launch was botched (as Lowes didn't have a category for the ESL lamps, so they classified them as "halogen"); and last month, a few hundred lamps went on sale twice, but sold out in hours and I missed out both times. I think VU having some issues getting an adequate supply for sale.
From what I've read on VU1's Facebook site, the lamps dim quite well and have better colour (no mercury lines in the spectrum) but still don't look quite like incandescents (they aren't a point source, and they do use a phosphor, just like white LEDs). It seems the cathode takes a second or two to heat up so the light turns on by starting with a spot of light in the centre and spreading to the edges - still a lot quicker "on" than a CRT tube though. A few people have mentioned early failures. The bulb glass is also reportedly quite heavy.