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GE Enters the Strange-Looking LED Bulb Fray

By Rain Noe - May 9, 2012

in Object Culture

While announcements of new LED bulbs are becoming humdrum, their external designs, pleasingly, are not. We're digging the rampant stylistic differences each manufacturer comes up with as they incorporate crucial cooling elements into the same vaguely bulb-shaped form factor. Initially this yielded Machine-Age-like fins in tight configurations (above), which remind us of old air-cooled motorcycles; Alessi then broke out of this (below) with signature quirkiness, shaping fins and slits to their design whims.

The latest offering comes from GE, and they've eschewed the tight metal fin configuration—though not gone as design-ey as Alessi—with their new Energy Smart A-19 bulb:

The odd-looking configuration isn't for style: Those widely-spaced fins are part of a new technology from a collaborator called Nuventix. The latter company's innovation is "synthetic jet technology," which consists of an air-moving, internal oscillating membrane that serves as an alternative to a fan. Unsurprisingly both companies are mum on exactly how it works, but the end result is that the bulb's shape is permitted to flare outwards more than the competition's, allegedly resulting in a more omnidirectional light.

And the fins themselves, of course, do not impede the light during illumination.

The GE/Nuventix bulb was announced to the press this week, though no firm release date has been named.

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Lighthouse10

12 years ago

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The problem is in perhaps expecting them to look like incandescents.
Already the LEDs have fixed 2700-3000K "warm" color temps - just like regular bulbs.

ALL bulbs have their OWN advantages - NONE safe to use should be banned!

LEDs have adjustable color temp advantages, RGB LED alternative bulb design solutions, and OLED sheet etc exploitable design advantages.

The new motto seems to be:
"Never mind simple regular bulb solution, when a very complex expensive ugly direct replacement will do"!

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Actual Engineering

12 years ago

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Rafael and Guilaurne: You are both stupid. Half the design here is because LEDS don't work the same as an incandescent. While an incandescent has the main heat at the filament, radiating out omnidirectionally, an LED bulb such as these has most of the heat the base. All the fancy fins etc. ARE REQUIRED....otherwise the bulb would overheat at the base of the LEDS and burn out faster. LEDS overall are cooler than incandescents, but they produce heat in a more confined space. The fins are just ways to get rid of this unwanted heat. I love designers but your comments are what happens when ignorant people try to deal with engineering problems.
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Luke

12 years ago

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@ Rafael.
Apart from the Alessi designs I'd say they were all quite utilitarian. Designed to fit within the envelope of a standard ES bulb while keeping the LEDs cool. A hot LED will either burn out or have a significantly shorter lifespan. The yellow phosphor on the Philips is simply there to make the light from a more efficient blue LED a warmer white.
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Guillaume

12 years ago

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I agree I think the bulbs are over designed for what they are.
They need to be far less visually intrusive. No one ever spends time looking at lightbulbs and admiring their shape, we have lampshades for that, as Rafael mentioned. Light bulbs are first and foremost functional objects.

I would venture, to continue on from Rafael's comments, that what is needed is a new archetypal form for LED lights, not an appropriation of the original incandescent's teardrop form.
The teardrop evolved to become the recognisable shape for that technology and for that reason so LEDs require the same. Halogen bulbs are an example of more 'recent' lighting innovation that have their own recognisable form.
This strikes me as a similar problem that there is in the design of electric cars. The constraints of an internal combustion engine and gearbox/drive train no longer exist, therefore the playing field is wide open to establish a new form language in automotive design.
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powers

12 years ago

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Only sixty bucks! Now all we need is for the government to make low power wiring mandatory in all homes by 2020. All they have to do is tax big corporations like GE... Er... wait, so how is all this going to work again? All cynicism aside, I'm pro green tech, and I think LED is a tech that should have been moved to long ago. It's just a crazy world.
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Rafael Morgan

12 years ago

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Frankly guys, I do not know why such companies keep designing such kind of weird lamps, which, in my opinion, are very ugly, if the light bulb is a classic case of "less is more".

Light bulbs are not supposed to draw attention to themselves, they are supposed to look nice, but non intrusive, so they would always work in harmony with complementary lighting fixtures, like lamp shades.

Honestly, all I want is a LED lamp that looks exactly like a classic light bulb. There is a reason why classic light bulbs are so successful; because they are simple, their outline shape is beautiful and they are not visually disruptive.
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