As you probably know, LED bulbs are one of history’s greatest high-tech success stories. They use around 90 percent less electricity than incandescent bulbs, yet last 25 years or more. They turn on to full brightness instantly. They remain cool to the touch. They’re hard to break, and safety-coated if they do.

They also contain electronics — which has sent clever inventors into overdrive. Since the circuitry in an LED bulb can be made very tiny, that leaves a lot of space inside to add chips that connect these bulbs to your phone and your home network.

The smart-bulb revolution began a few years back, when companies started making bulbs that you can control with a phone app — turning on and off, dimming them, and even changing the color.

In the last few months, though, some even brighter ideas in light bulbs have heated up. Here’s what you have to look forward (or upward) to.

Light bulbs for power outages

The first SmartCharge LED bulb was a Kickstarter success story. And its technology is so amazing, you may not believe it.

At its heart, the SmartCharge 2.0 is a battery-backup bulb designed to work when your power goes out. It’s the size of a normal bulb, so you can screw it into any lamp or fixture. Compared with other smart bulbs, it’s refreshingly simple: There’s no Internet connection, app, control box, remote control, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, or new wiring needed.

If the power ever goes out, the backup battery kicks in automatically; the bulb behaves exactly as it always has, for a total of 3.5 more hours of light. (The battery recharges whenever the power isn’t out.) Install a few of these, and you’ve performed your last frantic hunt in the dark for a working flashlight.

But here’s where your mind will fall apart. Read this slowly: You can still turn this bulb on and off from the wall switch, even when the power is out.

How the — ??

It seems like some hideous violation of the laws of physics, but it actually works, as you can see in my video above.

(How does it work? Something to do with checking the impedance of your house’s wiring. All I know is that the bulb doesn’t come on unless there’s at least one nonsmart appliance on the same circuit, like a normal light bulb. That’s why, in the video, you see a standard light bulb plugged into a second switchable power strip.)

You can buy the SmartCharge now, directly from its website, for $25 — or you can contribute to its Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign (which seeks money to expand distribution) and get four for $75. When it reaches stores in the spring, the SmartCharge will sell for $20. In any case, if you live in a place with occasional power outages, you’ll really love this thing.

Fine print: You have to change the battery about once every three years. The bulb can’t be dimmed or used in enclosed fixtures. It works in light fixtures where one switch controls many bulbs, as long as the bulbs are all LED. Wattage: 8 –11 watts, 650 lumens (roughly like a 60-watt traditional bulb). Color temperatures [choices coming in March]: 2700 to 5000 Kelvin (warm yellow-white to cool blue-white).

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