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LED Light Bulbs That Last 60 Years to Get Cheaper

by Tim Stevens on January 29, 2009 at 12:32 PM

Super-Efficient LED Bulbs to Get Cheaper
Those old-school incandescent bulbs you grew up with are on their way out, deemed too inefficient for a continued life in today's eco-friendly society. But their replacements, compact flourescent (CFL), have their own share of issues. Some people find that the next-gen bulbs give them headaches, and since each one contains a bit of mercury they aren't exactly green themselves. For that reason, many have seen LEDs as a possible replacement, but they have their issues, too, primary among them being cost. That could change thanks to a British professor's newest tech, which could make the bulbs considerably cheaper.

LEDs are small and don't give off much light, but they last for literally decades (like, 60 years) and give off virtually no heat, making them three times more efficient than the twisty CFL bulbs. Professor Colin Humphreys at Cambridge University has come up with a way to make them far cheaper than normal, creating a more efficient way to produce gallium nitride, a material required for the production of LEDs. His discovery could pave the way to LED bulbs that cost less than $5 a pop. However, we're still at least a few years away before these could go into mass production, meaning you're going to have to keep hitting the Asprin or guiltily using your old incandescent bulbs. [From: The Daily Mail]

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Tags: bulb, cfl, cfls, eco friendly, EcoFriendly, energy, energy efficient, EnergyEfficient, led, light bulb, LightBulb

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