GE Ends Development of Incandescent Bulbs, Focuses on LEDs

December 2nd, 2008 by Jerry James Stone

[social_buttons]According to Clean Break, General Electric has dumped all plans for revitalizing their century-old incandescent lightbulb. Instead, it plans to focus on light-emitting diodes (LED) and its organic counterpart — the OLED.

It was February of 2007 that GE announced a high efficiency incandescent (HEI) bulb that was comparable to that of compact fluorescents (CFL). The HEI bulb provided better light quality and without any nasty mercury. The bulb was expected to hit the market sometime in 2010.

But announcements of Australia, Canada, and even some U.S. states planning to ban the bulb made companies like GE and Philips question their longevity. Especially when these bans would start as early as 2012.

So in October of 2007, GE announced it would be closing plants and even cutting hundreds of jobs in order to restructure its light bulb business. Harvard business school professor Daniel Snow claims that GE’s HEI was the company’s “last gasp” of inspiration on the Edison bulb.

GE spokesman David Schuellerman said this about GE’s current plans:

GE Consumers & Industrial and GE Global Research have suspended the development of the high-efficiency incandescent lamp (HEI) to place greater focus and investment on what we believe will be the ultimate in energy efficient lighting — light emitting diodes (LEDs) and organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs). Research and development of these technologies is moving at an impressive pace and will be ready for general lighting in the near future. LEDs and OLEDs used in general lighting are now poised to surpass the projected efficiency levels of HEI, along with other energy-efficient technologies like fluorescent, and have the additional benefits of long life and durability.

I was actually looking forward to the HEI bulb – I love CFL efficiency but the sterile light gives me seizures. Hopefully LED lighting can mimic that of incandescents. If not, you might catch me joining forces with that crazy Minnesota congresswoman Michele Bachmann.

Photo: © Jonoman1 | Dreamstime.com









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