"Battle-Blimp"

[Technoid]

Originally posted by Wombat
I had a professor that was deep into diode research. He had some interesting ideas. One of the nifty ones is that LEDs last so long, that you'll probably start seeing them built <I>into</I> houses, just as electrical wiring and plumbing have incorporated themselves over time.

That be cool

Instead of having lamps in the ceeling, the ceeling is a lamp made up of leds (okay, not tightly packed but lots of them anyway)

[Dr Mordrid]

Cooler yet: LED's plus light-pipes (fiberoptics) to direct the beams.

Dr. Mordrid

[Wulfman]

Originally posted by Dr Mordrid
Cooler yet: LED's plus light-pipes (fiberoptics) to direct the beams.

Dr. Mordrid

there are people out there who propagate a central light source for the house with fibreoptics-distribution around the house. in addition (to save energy) moving mirrors should collect sunlight for use during the day, feeded into the same fibreoptics. useful especially for skyscrapers or the like with lots of window-less rooms.

mfg
wulfman

[GNEP]

And those same light pipes connected to a parabolic dish + reflector receiving sunlight during the day (for rooms with no large window-access to the outside) is another "wouldn't it be cool" idea I'd like to see. Unless of course LEDs can match exactly the sprectrum of light we get on a nice sunny day (which they can't yet I am guessing?)

[Dr Mordrid]

The sun has a yellow star with a color temperature of 5,500 degrees Kelvin. A candle runs about 1,900 Kelvin, an incandescent lamp about 2,800 Kelvin and a flood lamp runs about 3,200 Kelvin. A photo strobe runs about 6,000 Kelvin. A bright sky is about 11,000 Kelvin.

The LED's in my flashlights run 9,600 Kelvin, or about the color temperature of the white giant star Vega and a bit less than a bright skys 11,000 Kelvin. Because of this the color of the light given off by these LED's appears very white and the colors illuminated by it very natural.

Dr. Mordrid

[GNEP]

Cool... I think

[GT98]

How much for that LED Flashlight Doc? sounds interesting

[Jon P. Inghram]

They're not too difficult to make yourself, I converted a mini Maglite (the 2 AA version) to use the crappy 5mm white LED Radio Shack sells. Runs a long time on three N cells, and will never burn out.

[az]

Wulfman: The chips for flourescent lights you spoke of are called "Elektronische Vorschaltgeräte" or EVGs. You can find them on eBay used for little money (for the long T12 flourescent tubes).

Yes, I know this is an old thread

AZ

[DGhost]

Originally posted by Dr Mordrid

Yes, LED's are bright enough. You should see the beam on the pocket LED flashlight I recently purchased (1 LED w/a very white 9600k color temperature powered by 2 3 volt Li Ion batteries). My wife looked into it and saw spots for an hour. After testing it for a bit we bought a full sized one (2 D cells) with multiple LED's for the house emergency kit due to the long battery life when lit (~15-20x that of an incandescent bulb). You can even select between 2 and 4 lit LED's to extend the battery life. Another one we saw had 8 LED's

Dr. Mordrid

these have been *very* popular in military circles as of recent. they are incredibly well suited to the field because of not only the reasons you listed, but also the fact they are damn near indestructable and can provide an abudance of light when you need it. in the earlier days of OIF you used to be able to spot Inova MicroLight's clipped on almost everyones collar or body armor/loadbearing vest. the 4+ LED flashlights were starting to become a popular alternative to the SureFire taclights that had Xenon bulbs and were supposed to be mounted to our weapons. for personal flashlights people still preferred the 2xAA maglights because they can be mounted on a weapon, slid into the loops on the Interceptor Body Armor, are easy as hell to get your hands on for cheap and are damn near disposable.

personally, i have one of those Inova MicroLight's on my keychain. for a single LED and 2x 3v batteries in a small form factor, it is easily as bright as most 2xAA flashlights. the only downside is you cannot focus the light so it does not do well for illuminating distances. it has been submerged entirely in liquid multiple times, stepped on, crushed, etc etc and it has not failed. great little things.

[gt40]

actually, you can get replacement LED's for all the popular automotive filament bulbs (other than headlights) - I recently purchased a whack of them to replace the standard dash lights in the mini-wedge base style for only $1.80 cndn each.
much more pleasing to the eye, and brighter.

[KvHagedorn]

Originally posted by Dr Mordrid
The sun has a yellow star with a color temperature of 5,500 degrees Kelvin. A candle runs about 1,900 Kelvin, an incandescent lamp about 2,800 Kelvin and a flood lamp runs about 3,200 Kelvin. A photo strobe runs about 6,000 Kelvin. A bright sky is about 11,000 Kelvin.

The LED's in my flashlights run 9,600 Kelvin, or about the color temperature of the white giant star Vega and a bit less than a bright skys 11,000 Kelvin. Because of this the color of the light given off by these LED's appears very white and the colors illuminated by it very natural.

Dr. Mordrid

How could an Earthling perceive colors lit by Vega to be more natural than colors lit by our own Sun? 6500k was chosen as the standard color temperature for video monitors because that is the temperature of daylight in the northern hemisphere. To my eyes, 6500K looks more natural than 10,000 when setting up a monitor. 10,000 just looks too blue.

To each his own, but I remember seeing an article online about an apartment lit entirely with LEDs.. just seemed like a purplish, unnatural, ghostly light to me. I would rather have my home lit by lights of a cooler temperature.. it feels much less stressful to me. I don't care for rooms to be lit with flourescent lighting either.

[KvHagedorn]

Here are some color graphs used to come up with 6500K as the most neutral temp for color balance.

http://www16.big.or.jp/~a3design/lab/Color/icc/displyRGB.html

[Greebe]

http://www.ledmuseum.org/

[Greebe]

Homes could easily be illuminated with a proper color spectrum today. If you look past the short term costs they pay for themselves... especially if you know where to buy. Was getting some super bright white (~8000mcd T1 3/4) for $0.50 each

These aren't as bright as they come tho,.. those are costly (low production) but have output of some 25watts or so