From the category archives:

LEDs

Glass LED Lamp: Rechargeable and Cordless

January 29, 2008

This “Rotondo” rechargeable lamp uses LEDs for illumination — it will run for about eight hours before it needs a recharge. The lamp is also water resistant and is made with mouth-blown parnaterraglas with a frosted finish. It will cycle through a spectrum of colors, and can be stopped when the hue you desire is [...]

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First U.S City To Be Lit With 100% LEDs: Ann Arbor!

January 26, 2008

Ann Arbor is on its way to being the first U.S. city to light up its downtown with 100% LED-based streetlights. The city expects to install more than 1,000 LED streetlights beginning next month. The city anticipates a 3.8-year payback on its initial investment.

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LED Bulbs Could Light Homes In Less Than Three Years

January 10, 2008

LEDs lights are very efficient, but because of their structure, much of the light in standard LEDs becomes trapped, reducing the brightness of the light. Because of this, LEDs are only useful for “task lighting” in the home — as floor lamps and desk lamps. Now researchers believe they have found a way of introducing [...]

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Solar Trees May Light Up Europe

December 23, 2007

This is a great innovation — the streets of Europe could soon be lit by "solar trees". These self-contained streetlights could save cities energy and money too. Unlike regular streetlights, they do not require costly underground wiring to install, and they are immune to blackouts. Designed by Ross Lovegrove, the lights have 10 solar panels [...]

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Wind-Up and Solar-Powered Lanterns

December 2, 2007

Here are some lanterns that can be charged via the sun or via human power. Freeplay’s Indigo is a well-designed, rugged lantern. It’s one of those products that, when you hold it, feels extremely solid. This lantern shines with a cluster of seven bright LED bulbs. It won’t brighten a room, but at full power, [...]

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LED Christmas Lights

November 29, 2007

LED Christmas lights are efficient — they use 90% less energy than incandescent bulbs. They are also brighter, less prone to breaking, and cool to the touch.
Less optimal is the fact that almost all Christmas lights are made in China using questionable labor practices, and then transported half way around the world.
You can find LED [...]

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Nightclub Illuminated With 100% LED Light

November 6, 2007

The Barcode nightclub was built in a disused brick Victorian railway arch in Vauxhall, south London. The entire nightclub is illuminated using only LED lights, and the sound system is also energy efficient. The architect, Woods Bagot claims that the system consumes “less electricity than the power used to boil a kettle”. If they could [...]

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Solar-Powered LED Road Signs

May 29, 2007

The Canadian company Carmanah has introduced some new solar-powered LED road signs. The lights are completely self-contained and require no external wiring. The signs can often pay for themselves in a couple of years, due to the amount of energy they save.

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Ultra-Bright Solar LED Spotlight

June 20, 2006

This durable spotlight comes with its own solar panel, and uses 16 LEDs to produce light. It can run for 12 hours on a single charge. It has a weathertight anodized aluminum housing, and impact-resistant hand-soldered circuitry. The result is a solar light that will perform year after year (many solar lights are meant to [...]

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LED-Flex: An Efficient Substitute For Neon

March 20, 2006

How many times have you seen a broken or flickering neon light? Durability is not one neon’s strengths. But now a new product, LED-Flex, has been introduced as a substitute for neon. The producer, Mule Lighting, has managed to make the flexible LEDs have the appearance and brightness of neon. The biggest advantage of this [...]

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Lexon Dolmen LED Light

December 26, 2005

This efficient LED Light was created by designers Marco Pulga and Luca Artioli for Lexon of France. It runs on only 4 AA batteries. The lamp is 5″ square in size. The intensity of the light can be adjusted, and you can also set the light to turn off after period of time. Available for [...]

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Smart LED Candle Light

December 26, 2005

We featured some LED candles from Phillips previously but these lamps are available for only $9.95. The LEDs inside this lamp simulate a real candle. It’s powered by three rechargeable or regular AAA batteries. Available from CB2. Found via Better Living Through Design.

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LED Lights: Efficient Indoor Growing

December 18, 2005

LED grow lights are a good choice if you are interested in growing indoors without a lot of hassle. Traditional grow lights generate a lot of heat and use large amounts of electricity, which raises your monthly electric bill by noticeable amounts. These LED grow lights stay cool, and use only a minuscule amount of [...]

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20 LED Portable Spotlight

December 12, 2005

Not bad! Good marks on efficiency and portability. This spotlight has 20 LEDs on a rotating head. It runs up to 200 hours continuously on 3 D-size batteries.You can also plug it into a 12V DC lighter socket if you wish. It’s available from Amazon for $29.97

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Minimalist LED Headlamp For Kids

December 8, 2005

This is a nice children’s headlamp for about $18. We like it because it uses three bright, energy-efficient LEDs. So the batteries will last hundreds of hours. It has three settings: high, low and flash. Available at Amazon.
See also this similar headlamp from Amazon.

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Chameleon Lamps from Philips

November 16, 2005

Hold something in front of these lamps, and the lamp shade will change to the color of the object. There’s a standard light bulb inside, surrounded by a ring of LEDs which project the color onto the shade. These lamps will be released sometime next year by Philips. We also featured Philip’s interactive bulbs in [...]

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Aeonic LED Lamp

November 10, 2005
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Philips’ New “Simplicity” LED Bulbs

November 6, 2005

The new LED light bulbs from Philips will change color and brightness with one touch, squeeze, or turn. They are also energy efficient and last 10-20 years. Good work. Expect to see these in coming months or years. More photos here.
These LED bulb designs are part of the Philips Sense & Simplicty design project, which [...]

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Flare Innovation: PowerFlare with LEDs

August 2, 2005

Invented by a police officer, PowerFlares are LED replacements for convetional flares. They have the advantage of not emitting toxic fumes or polluting the the ground. They also tend to cause fires, such as the one seen here.
PowerFlares emit light in all directions, and can be seen for miles at night. Each unit is about [...]

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Portable, Motion-Detecting LED Lights

June 25, 2005

Portable, motion-detecting LED lights are an efficient way to light rooms at night for a few minutes. This portable light from Maxxima, turns on when you enter a room in the dark (similar to motion-detecting outdoor lights), then turns off after 30 seconds of non-motion.
It runs on four AA batteries (we suggest using NIMH rechargeables), [...]

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