My blog on ENERGY STAR’s integral light bulb spec brought to mind another recent development in the world of solid state lighting — the first entry in the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Bright Tomorrow Lighting (a.k.a. “L-Prize”) Competition in the category for the 60-watt Incandescent Replacement Lamp.
For those of you who may not be familiar with the L-Prize, please see last year’s blog LED Designers, What Are You Waiting For? To summarize, the DOE has announced a $10 million prize to go to the first entrant who could produce an energy efficient replacement lamp for the 60 watt incandescent bulb. Included in the requirements are that the lamp must consume less than 10 watts, must deliver more than 90 lumens per watt, and last at least 25,000 hours.
Compared to the Integral LED spec in development, these requirements provide quite a challenge. The table below illustrates a couple of major differences.
| Integral LED Draft 3 | L-Prize | |
|---|---|---|
| Min. efficacy/lumens per watt | 50* | 90** |
| Min lifetime | 15,000 hrs. | 25,000 hrs. |
* For lamps < 10 watts
** L-Prize lamps must consume less than 10 watts
Even though products entered must be packaged (assembled) in the United States, the contest is open to the world. The first entrant in the L-Prize competition was submitted late last month by Philips Electronics of The Netherlands.
Once submitted, entries must go through an extensive two-step evaluation process. Performance and light output are measured in the first step and manufacturing ease, longevity and stress testing are done in the second phase.
Though the $10 million dollars is nothing to be sneezed at, the winner of the contest will also be first in line for federal purchasing agreements, utility programs and other incentives. The volume of sales could make the $10 million seem like a trifle, not to mention the positive impact on the environment.
The DOE estimates that in 2010 there will be 971 million 60-watt A-19 lamps in the U.S. that require replacement. Swapping them all with the L Prize winner would avoid 5.6 million metric tons of carbon emissions in one year and save approximately 34 Terawatt-hours of electricity. That’s enough electricity to power the lights of 17.4 million U.S. households for that period of time.
It will be interesting to see who else will come forward to enter. As with other applications, the contest may even spur a best practices movement among manufacturers, inciting them to create products that go far and above the call of duty.
To read more on the L-Prize, see:
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