I am delighted to report that these lamps are very nicely made and provide great dimmable light that is very close to incandescent. The light compares very favorably with the other LED, incandescent and CFL lamps in my kitchen. In fact, I like them just as much as the incandescent, which will soon be obsolete and unavailable. The LED (a CREE LR6) and CFL fall short for various reasons, but I keep them around for comparison's sake.
I ordered eight of these lamps at $19.95 each from Vu1. I kept four for myself and passed on the other four to local designers to get their feedback.
Three went to local interior designers who have told me that they are very pleased with their performance and color rendering.
I sent the fourth to the renowned San Francisco lighting designer Randall Whitehead, who is the person who first gave me an inkling about Vu1. Randall mentioned the company last year during a seminar he was presenting. Intrigued I investigated. I have been closely following the company ever since.
Here is Randall's take:
CFL to ESL…introducing the first mercury free fluorescent
After many years of waiting patiently, I am now holding in my hands a compact fluorescent lamp (CFL) that is mercury free. I've been following the development of these lamps by the VU1 Corporation for around three years now. I've been pretty excited about the possibility, but the actual production date kept getting pushed back. Now it is finally available to consumers.
I think that this is a huge step in the right direction.
Note: I keep using the word "lamp", which in the lighting industry means "light bulb", just to be clear.
Officially they are calling it an ESL (electron stimulated luminescence) lamp. I figure that's to separate their products from fluorescents in general. That's A-OK by me. The first type of lamp they have released onto the market is an R30, which is a very popular lamp for recessed fixtures and track fixtures. Even though it's a lamp that I don't use very often in my design, I can see where it makes sense for it to be the first one to be introduced.
This lamp offers 65 watts worth of illumination for 19.5 watts worth of energy usage. The color of the light is very incandescent (2800° Kelvin) which I think is a good thing. The front of the lamp is made of a thick glass, which when screwed into a recessed fixture or track light looks very much like the reflector lamps that we're all used to seeing. From the side it has a plastic collar on it which I feel gives it a little more durability. It says right on the collar mercury free and disposable. It can go right in the trash. Yeah!
The lamp is dimmable as well. I tried it out on a number of dimmers, including the cheapest one I could find and it really seemed to be doing a fine job at dimming. The lamp has a rated light of 11,000 hours which is a 1000 hours more than a standard CFL. I won't really be able to personally verify this for another 10,000 hours or so.
It also shows on the box that it is UL listed. Also a good sign. The one thing I noticed that surprised me is how hot the lamp gets. It warms up like incandescent lamp, much more than I'm used to with the standard CFL's.
If you want to learn more about this lamp go to www.VU1.com. They have a video you can watch. I do believe that this lamp is a valuable addition to the emerging category of earth friendly, energy-efficient light sources.
Randall Whitehead is a nationally recognized lighting designer and author. You can follow him on twitter @RDWlighting and on his blog http://randallwhiteheadslightingsolutions.blogspot.com/
Thank you Randall. I too remain excited about Vu1's potential. I just received notice that they have applied for UL Approval for their new A19 lamp (the old familiar Edison bulb shape), which is due out in August and projected to be $10-12.
In the meantime, if you would like to try the Vu1 R30 lamp in one or more of your existing 6" screw-in type recessed fixtures: go to Destination Lighting and buy one. If you buy three, shipping is free!
Please let me know what you think of them.
Peggy
10/20/11
An update on my testing of Vu1's R30 lamps:
Two, that I placed in 4" recessed cans, burned out after a few months of use.
Please make sure that you place these lightbulbs only in 5-1/2 or 6" recessed fixtures. The 4" fixture does not have enough room around the lightbulb for heat dissipation. My bad. It says so right on the box.
Also, Vu1 has just signed an agreement with a Chinese lighting manufacturer, Huayi Lighting Company Ltd., who produced the lighting for the 2008 Olympics famed "Birdnest Stadium", to produce all of their lightbulbs. They estimate release of the first Chinese-made products in January 2012.
Peggy
