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Sharp redefines white light

By | June 15, 2009, 6:04 AM PDT

While having my house renovated I am learning there are many shades of white.

Just try getting some white paint at the local do-it-yourself shop and you will see what I mean.

You want brilliant white, eggshell white, a clean white or a pure white? (I don’t know, I just want some white paint.) You want the white of notebook paper or the white of ice cream?

Sharp of Japan, which is trying to break into the residential light bulb market, understands this, so one of the big innovations in its new line of bulbs is that you can adjust them for up to 7 different shades of white.

Starting in Japan, users will get a little remote control they can use to adjust the color of their white light on the new high-end DL-L60AV bulbs.

The new bulbs also last a lot longer than other bulbs and use a lot less energy. Gizmodo says they also emit almost no light in the ultraviolet range mosquitoes like.

The equivalent of a 60 watt bulb can be used for six hours at an energy cost of just one cent. (That’s based on a cost of 22 cents per kilowatt-hour, close to what Georgia Power dismissively called recently the high cost of solar generation.)

Of course, it will cost you. Try $40 per bulb, over $80 for the fancy one with the remote control. And it’s only being introduced in Japan to start.

Gives me time to get my white pallette together. (The bulb shown is tuned to the white of a vanilla ice cream cone. Uhh-h-h-h, ice cream.)

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Dana Blankenhorn

About Dana Blankenhorn

Dana Blankenhorn was a contributing editor for SmartPlanet from 2009 to 2010.

Dana Blankenhorn

Dana Blankenhorn

Contributing Editor

Dana Blankenhorn has written for the Chicago Tribune, Advertising Age's "NetMarketing" supplement and founded the Interactive Age Daily for CMP Media. He holds degrees from Rice and Northwestern universities. He is based in Atlanta.

Follow him on Twitter.

Dana Blankenhorn

Dana Blankenhorn

Dana Blankenhorn has been a technology reporter since 1982, a business reporter since 1978, and a writer for as long as he can remember. His Schwab IRA has a few tech stocks in it, most notably some Intel and Applied Materials bought over 10 years ago. But the vast majority of his tiny fortune (emphasis on the word tiny) is invested in mutual funds. He presently writes for no one else but ZDNet, SmartPlanet and himself. But if you've got an opportunity let him know. If he takes the gig he"ll first add it to this disclosure page.

He writes for SmartPlanet and is not an employee of CBS.

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