GroovyGreen.com – Start Today :: Save Tomorrow

Althought most people still tend to ignore the problem, 20% of all electricity in US buildings is eaten up by lighting–and nearly half that amount is used by traditional, incandescent light bulbs. Our current solution is the highly efficient CFL or LED bulb. While still a little pricey, these bulbs tend to pay for themselves–and then some–over the course of their long lifetime. The one largest complaint (and it’s barely noticeable) is that CFL bulbs do not give off the same color of ‘light’ as their incandescent counterparts. The Organic Light Emitting Diode (OLED) will change everything–from televisions to phones to lightbulbs–and be fully configurable to mimic daylight, conventional bulbs, etc. with increased efficiency. In fact, researchers believe that eventually OLED bulbs will be 100% efficient with all electricity being converted to light, without the heat loss associated with current bulbs.

Anyways, we’re building up to this wonderbulb in baby steps. Since researchers are dealing with an organic material, the process of producing light is very sensitive to conditions such as moisture, heat, and lifespan. While the other two have been solved to some extent, there was always a question as to the longevity issue. It appears that Konica Minolta have solved that problem by producing a bulb with a brightness of 1,000 cd/m² and an expected lifetime of about 10,000 hours. From the article,

“Running at 64 lumens/W, the device can be used as a backlight for handset displays. The company claims that it offers the world’s most efficient electric light source and is suitable for use in general lighting applications.”

Breakthroughs like this are wonderful because the application of OLEDs is not limited to cell phones or your standard bulb-like product. Instead, certain panels of a home’s wall might have OLEDs installed to give off light. Shower ceramics might glow, your ceiling might be touch sensitive to only light the parts of a room you’re interested in. It’s all geeky, modern, future talk, but the applications in current homes might surprise some people turned off by the idea. One thing is for sure, the days of the 130 year old incandescent light bulb are certainly numbered. Hit the jump for more!
Link: Konica Minolta Calims OLED Breakthrough