Researchers out there excited about what may be tomorrow’s greatest sensation.  Right now collaboration is going on between corporations, and countries to be able to make big advances in offering the PRS-LED.  Using semi-conductor technology they have created 'The White LED(light-emitting-diodes)'.  They are trying to reinvent the light bulb!  This would not be any ordinary light bulb, but one that would require less power than traditional light bulbs, emit more light, and potentially last over 50 years. Imagine bright and cheap light, for a fraction of the cost of today’s conventional light bulbs.

Current conventional incandescent light bulbs have glass bodies.  These bodies have a delicate filament internally, and are filled with a gas.  An eletrical current passes through the filament which heats up and reacts with the gas to glow.  This creates a bright luminescent light, along with heat.  The glass in the bulb is very thin and can break easily.  A fissure or crack in the seal of the bulb kills the vacuem that is required; if the filament burns away or breaks then it doesn't work either.

With technology advancing many new 'energy-efficient' lighting methods have been developed.  The halogen lamps which emitted incredable amounts of 'natural-like' light became very popular.  Halogen bulbs continued to develop to include outdoor use.  They managed to create a halogen bulb which resembled neon lighting tubes, which were coiled into the shape of a traditional bulb.  This model was slow to warm up, but after 12-15 minutes it would reach full brightness, and wasn't temperature sensitive.  The initial cost of the bulb was higher, but they were expected to last up to 8 years.

This new White LEDs (Light Emitting Diodes) was developed by Nichia, a scientist in semiconductor technology.  He discovered that by taking the existing Green LED and Blue LED that he was able to create a white light.  The clarity of the white light is based on the gas being used, and its ability to display all of the spectral colors.  We see this display of colors as white light.  They are continuing to test out different gases to obtain a brighter, cleaner white.

LED's are solid state devices that generate light.  There composition makes it as stable as a diamond.  They are shock proof and vibration proof.  This attributes their longevity of close to 50 years.  The LED doesn't illuminate as great of an area, it is brighter light, more concentrated.  The white LEDs produce "300 lumens per Watt" which makes them more than 15 times more energy efficient than current bulbs.  Because they are not creating radiation like current bulbs, there is no heat production.  Not only do they not create heat, but they can operate at extreme temperatures (-40 to + 80 C°).

No matter how good technically it looks, if it is not practical then the consumer won't buy it.  Why would we the consumers go for this product?   Placing these 'great white hopes' in our home would mean we wouldn't have to change a bulb for 50 years. For most us transient people we may never have to change one.  So the expense of replacing bulbs drops substantially.  The electric bills drops for two reasons:  the PRS-LED is brighter and uses less energy, since no heat is produced by the PRS-LED we have lower cooling expenses.  Outside of the home we could use these lights in walkways without worrying about the durability.  Camping out would mean 35 hours of stories of story telling to the convential 6 hours.

When we consider the larger scale, then we notice that the savings would be monumental.  The amount of energy savings has been estimate to be "2.5 billion Kilowatt hours" per year in the US if we were to change all of the traffic signals.  This give new meaning to the term "think global, act local".  So keep listening for more news on PRS-LED technology.