Time magazine Lauds Philips' LED as One of the "Best Inventions of 2009"

Philips Electronics announced on Nov. 13 that its recently revealed LED replacement for the common household bulb was named one of the "best inventions of 2009" by TIME magazine. Under the heading "The $10 Million Lightbulb," the editors declared ...
Nov. 13, 2009
Philips Electronics announced on Nov. 13 that its recently revealed LED replacement for the common household bulb was named one of the "best inventions of 2009" by TIME magazine.

Under the heading "The $10 Million Lightbulb," the editors declared "with the flick of a switch, Philips Electronics may have just dramatically lowered America's electric bill," noting "Philips' LED bulb emits the same amount of light as its incandescent equivalent but uses less than 10W and lasts for 25,000 hours -- or 25 times as long."

More important to the electrical industry is the fact that this lamps it the first entrant into the Department of Energy's Bright Tomorrow Lighting Prize (L Prize) competition, which offers a $10 million prize. Following this testing and assessment, Philips intends to bring the LED replacement to market, at which time the lamp is expected to use 20% of the energy of an incandescent, while providing the same quality of light consumers have come to know and expect.

Learn more about the L Prize competition from DOE's LED guru Jim Brodrick on a great podcast that aired Nov. 6 on National Public Radio's "Science Friday," hosted by Ira Flatow.

About the Author

Jim Lucy Blog

Chief Editor

Jim Lucy has been wandering through the electrical market for more than 30 years, most of the time as an editor for Electrical Wholesaling, Electrical Marketing newsletter and CEE News. During that time he and the editorial team for the publications have won numerous national awards for their coverage of the electrical business. He showed an early interest in electricity, when as a youth he had an idea for a hot dog cooker. Unfortunately, the first crude prototype malfunctioned and the arc nearly blew him out of his parents' basement. Before becoming an editor for Electrical Wholesaling magazine and Electrical Marketing, he earned a BA degree in journalism and a MA in communications from Glassboro State College, Glassboro, NJ., which is formerly best known as the site of the 1967 summit meeting between President Lyndon Johnson and Russian Premier Aleksei Nikolayevich Kosygin, and now best known as the New Jersey state college that changed its name in 1992 to Rowan University because of a generous $100 million donation by N.J. zillionaire industrialist Henry Rowan. Jim is a Brooklyn-born Jersey Guy happily transplanted in the fertile plains of Kansas for the past 20 years.