Great Energy Efficient Lighting Article

There was a fine article in yesterday's San Francisco Chronicle Home and Garden section on Experts illuminate the future of lighting, wherein Jeannie Matteucci, a great journalist who specializes in home-related articles, interviews my mentor in lighting design, Randall Whitehead, of Randall Whitehead Lighting, Inc.

Randall is a trail blazer extraordinaire and I thank him for sharing his expertise with thousands of designers like me over the years.

Now we are moving into LEDs and, as before, Randall blazed the way. I was right with him too.

There will soon, very soon, be other new kinds of lighting to excite our senses and save our planet. Randall told me a few months ago about one that he has been watching:

Vu1 is a Seattle-based company creating a new kind of light bulb based upon an entirely new lighting concept:

Introducing: Electron Stimulated Luminescence™ Lighting TechnologyElectron Stimulated Luminescence (ESL™) Lighting Technology is an entirely new, energy efficient lighting technology. It is neither incandescent, fluorescent nor LED. 
To contrast: 

• Incandescent bulbs heat a filament to generate light. 
• Compact Fluorescent Lights (CFL) send a current through a mercury vapor that emits UV light to excite a phosphor. 
• Light Emitting Diodes (LED) create light by electrically stimulating a semiconductor material

ESL Lighting Technology uses accelerated electrons to stimulate phosphor to create light, making the surface of the bulb “glow”.  ESL Technology creates the same light quality as an incandescent but is more energy conserving. There is no use of the neurotoxin Mercury (Hg) in the lighting process.

Vu1's first offering, an R30 light bulb made to fit in recessed ceiling light fixtures, is nearing production. UL approval is due soon.

Here's a video released in July 2010:



This is so exciting! I can hardly wait to get my hands on one. I wonder too what other lighting innovations are just over the horizon?

What's next Randall?

Peggy