Future of Lighting – Past, Present and Future

The creation of usable artificial light can be considered one of man kind’s greatest achievements because it allowed us to be productive well beyond the time the sun went down. We were no longer bound by the constraints the sun placed upon us. Now we could explore the deepest, darkest recesses of the earth with the ability to see what’s around us. Artificial lighting is an ever evolving technology, so let’s take a look at what brought us here today, and where lighting is going in the future!

Before we talk about the future, let’s look to the past for a little insight into what caused lighting to evolve into what it is today. The creation of artificial light dates back thousands of years when our early ancestors used fire to illuminate the dark world around them. This achievement allowed them to become more productive simply because they were no longer limited by the amount of time between sunrise and sunset. Both industrial revolutions happened in large part because workers could take shifts that went late into the night allowing us, as a whole, to manufacture more. Gas lighting made this possible merely because it permitted factories to illuminate large areas allowing workers to see much better.

The introduction of a reliable incandescent light bulb in 1879 by Thomas Edison took the lighting industry into a new era. Contrary to popular belief, Mr. Edison didn’t invent the incandescent light bulb, but rather improved on the design and developed a system that would replace gas lamps but still utilize the already present gas piping to carry the electricity to the light bulb. He developed the infrastructure that produced and carried electricity to the light bulb, and not much has changed in this process over 100 years later. What has changed is the way in which light is produced and the concern for its overall efficiency.

Today there are 4 main types of light bulbs. They are incandescent, fluorescent, HID(high intensity discharge) and LED(light emitting diode). All of these lamps were developed not because the incandescent light bulb couldn’t put out enough light, but because it couldn’t produce light efficiently enough. An incandescent light bulb gives of nearly 90% of the energy it consumers in the form of heat and only 10% in the form of usable light. The standard measure of light output called a “lumen”, is the measure of energy within the range of frequencies we perceive as light. A standard incandescent light bulb produces 13 to 18 lumens per watt. In comparison, a fluorescent produces 60 to 70 lumens per watt and a Low Pressure Sodium (HID) produces up to 200 lumens per watt but with a very poor light quality. LED’s on the other hand can produce over 200 lumens per watt of high quality, usable light with the current technology. The energy efficiency of each lamp is important, but the lifespan of lamp is also a key factor in its success. Incandescent light bulbs have a lifespan of 750 to 1000 hours. Fluorescents are rated between 6,000 and 15,000 hours, HIDs are around 24,000 hours and some LED’s are claimed to last over 100,000 hours.

Having said all of this, where will lighting go in the foreseeable future? If I were asked this questions, my answer would be towards solid state semi-conductors, or LED’s. Current energy legislation is phasing out incandescent light bulbs, which is ultimately forcing the market towards the other three types. Each type of light bulb has applications that it excels at, but LED’s have begun or have already surpassed incandescents, fluorescents and HIDs in performance for average consumer applications. Once the price of LEDs goes down due to advances in technology they will certainly own the market.

Great light output, long lifespan and lower energy cost aren’t the only things in the future for LEDs. We are in a world where everything we have around us is becoming “Smart”. Our cars, phones and even our microwaves are being manufactured with the ability to connect wirelessly to other devices and can be controlled anywhere around the world. Soon it will be common for someone to get on their phone and turn on all the lights in their house before they get there. Your lights will soon become integrated into your home security system to turn on all the lights in the house whenever a burglar sets off the alarm. We are already seeing this trend come to life. Right now there are products in the market that control the lights in your house much like a programmable thermostat in order to save on energy costs. Simply put, this is the direction lighting is headed in the future.