Friday, November 6th, 2009

LED Lighting Contest

The LED-based light bulb entered by Philips Electronics in the L Prize competition. courtesy Philips.

While your local hardware store may be urging you to convert incandescent lights in your home to compact fluorescent lighting, researchers are hard at work developing the next bright thing in lighting -- LEDs. Earlier this fall, the first entry to the Department of Energy's L Prize competition was submitted by Philips Electronics. The competition offers a ten million dollar cash prize for the development of a LED lightbulb that would replace the common 60-watt 'Edison' style incandescent light bulb and the PAR-38 halogen reflector-lamp bulb. The winning entry must meet certain requirements for durability, energy efficiency, and quality. We'll talk with the manager of the DOE's LED lighting program about the competition and the drive towards more efficient LED-based bulbs.