In his recent blog post, “Energy Star CFLs superior to incandescent bulbs”, John Dodge highlighted energy savings achieved by replacing conventional bulbs with compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) in his home. I, too, am a CFL believer. A few months after moving into my apartment in Quincy, MA, I replaced every bulb with a CFL and realized a savings on my electricity bill of roughly 20%. Last year, I even gave CFLs to my family and friends for Christmas!
CFLs render incandescent bulbs completely obsolete for residential illumination just as fluorescent technology killed off incandescent lighting in commercial buildings in the 20th Century. So, imagine my surprise when I saw a short note entitled “The Next Incandescent” in Energy and Power Management magazine.
In a new twist on a 125-year-old technology, General Electric is working on new incandescent materials that will lead to high-efficiency incandescent (HEI) lamps. These new bulbs have potential to be as efficient as CFLs, provide the same light intensity and color quality as conventional bulbs, and feature “instant-on” capability (eliminating the time delay associated with turning on CLFs). In addition, a recent GE press release on HEI technology promises these news bulbs will cost less than CFLs.
There is no word yet on when HEIs might hit the market. So, CFLs remain today’s choice for energy efficient residential illumination. However, we may soon be thanking Mr. Edison once again for commercializing the incandescent light bulb.
New disc magnet motors fit into the design trend of stepping up to closed loop performance while maintaining the cost advantage of stepper motor technology.
At the Design News webinar on June 27, learn all about aluminum extrusion: designing the right shape so it costs the least, is simplest to manufacture, and best fits the application's structural requirements.
A new battery design, which replaces lithium with abundant and low-cost elemental sulfur, is still in its nascent stages but shows real promise for giving batteries more energy potential.
The push to achieving more intelligent, integrated manufacturing is putting a strong focus on networking and connectivity as key enabling technologies.
From Dell / Intel® New Paradigms in Design Work Scott Hamilton, vertical market strategist for Dell Precision workstations, 5/2/2013 5
Early in my career, I worked as a draftsman and remember the days of drawing on vellum with numbered pencils and Mylar with plastic lead. This was a fun experience in the sense that I ...
I've been using workstations for more than 10 years and love finding ways to get more performance from my system. With demanding professional applications that require more power each ...
A lasting memory from my first job as an engineer in an auto assembly plant is standing on hard concrete at six in the morning, vending-machine coffee clutched in hand, listening to ...
For industrial control applications, or even a simple assembly line, that machine can go almost 24/7 without a break. But what happens when the task is a little more complex? That’s where the “smart” machine would come in. The smart machine is one that has some simple (or complex in some cases) processing capability to be able to adapt to changing conditions. Such machines are suited for a host of applications, including automotive, aerospace, defense, medical, computers and electronics, telecommunications, consumer goods, and so on. This radio show will show what’s possible with smart machines, and what tradeoffs need to be made to implement such a solution.
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