Sharp redefines white light

By Dana Blankenhorn | Jun 15, 2009 |

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.)

 

Smartplanet TalkbackShare your ideas and expertise on this topic

The following tags are supported in Smartplanet comments:
<b></b> <i></i> <u></u> <pre></pre>

Leave a Reply

  1. Name: You are currently: a Guest |
advertisement

Quick Poll

advertisement
Click Here
advertisement
Click Here
advertisement

John Dodge

John Dodge has answered the call of journalism for 33 years, most of the time covering technology, engineering and business. While he's run magazines, newsweeklies and web sites, reporting and writing always took up half his time. He has have plied his craft at the WSJ, Boston Globe, PC Week (now eWeek), EDN, Design News, Electronic Business, Bio-IT World, Health-IT World, the Lowell Sun, Haverhill Gazette and Newburyport Daily News. He would have like to have been around when Boston supported seven or more newspapers (1940s) and while steam locomotives still pulled trains, but that era was nearly over by the time he raced into the world. That said, he has been blogging and shooting and editing video, writing for web and other online contents tasks for years now.

He has won numerous journalism awards in the past two years, including two Eddie Golds, one Neal finalist and the IEEE Award for Distinguished Journalism all for his reporting and coverage of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner.

Besides his family and myriad hobbies, reporting and writing is why he gets up in the morning. His personal blog focuses on netbooks and is called The Dodge Retort.

John Dodge

John Dodge prides himself on completely independent journalism. His opinions, observations and reporting are not influenced by any financial holdings. He holds no shares in computer, electronics, software or Internet companies. He also has no business affiliations with organizations except with those for which he creates content as a freelancer.

Dana Blankenhorn

Dana Blankenhorn has been a business journalist for nearly 25 years and has covered the online world professionally since 1985. He founded the Interactive Age Daily for CMP Media, and has written for the Chicago Tribune, Advertising Age's "NetMarketing" supplement, and dozens of other publications over the years.

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.
The Thinking Tech blog focuses on technologies such as virtualization, smart electric grids, enterprise 2.0, open source, data center management, green technology and the intersection between the innovation and application of these advancements.