Start-up company NanoLight has developed a LED light bulb with several innovative features and light output equivalent to a 100-watt incandescent bulb. The LED luminaire emits a luminous flux of over 1600 lumens while consuming just 12 W of power. This luminous efficiency of 133 lumens per watt, although not the world’s best as claimed, is still very good.

 

LED equivalents for relatively low-wattage incandescent bulbs are readily available nowadays, but 100 W equivalents are still rare. The combination of high efficiency and a less populated market niche is not the only thing that set this LED apart. The designers went to great lengths to make it look unusual. The rationale for the design is partly based on aesthetic considerations, but a key factor is that it has a light distribution characteristic of almost 360 degrees, very similar to incandescent light bulbs. Up to now, the more or less focused beam of LED luminaires has made users hesitate to switch from incandescent bulbs or CFLs to LEDs.

 

Additionally, the prototype is designed to work over a very broad voltage range, which makes it usable almost everywhere in the world. It is also less susceptible to brown-outs than CFLs, and it is dimmable.