Technology

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Incandescent  

Emerald Planet continues to bring high quality products to the market. We search for the more technically advanced products and asses them thoroughly before adding them to our offering. The more technologically advanced a product is can certainly contribute to the environmental impact that product will have.

Technological advances are the main way of improving the efficiency of a product. IF we look at the passage of light generation over the last century it is clear to see how technology has advanced.

Electric incandescent lamps are one of the most inefficient light sources in the Australian market today. These first appeared back in 1802 and had very short lives and low energy conversion. It is estimated that there are up to 500 million incandescent light globes in Australia.
 
Halogen Bulb  

In the 1880's more effort was placed on the gasses surrounding the filaments and the first halogen as we know it today was patented. The halogens are a much more energy efficient light source than a standard Incandescent lamp and employ a filament recycling method to maintain the brightness of the bulbs for twice as long as an incandescent globe. Unfortunately the majority of halogens fitted in houses today are 12Volt dc and require the use of a transformer which negates any energy savings gained.

The 1890's also saw the development of the first fluorescent type of lamp. This was a great leap forward in efficiency but was also a lot more complicated to light and make.
 
 In the late 1970's the compact fluorescentlamp (CFL) was designed. Given the huge impact the CFL would have had on existing industry the project was shelved by its designers and did not see mass production until the 1990's. The CFL currently delivers an energy efficiency that is 600-700% greater than an incandescent lamp. The lifetime of a CFL is much greater on average than that of an incandescent lamp.
 
LED Traffic Lights   LED's were first introduced in 1962. They have been used in electrical devices since this time for many different purposes. In the late 1990's Shuji Nakamura developed the first blue LED's of a sufficient brightness to be considered for lighting. The energy efficiency of the LED is almost double that of a CFL and given their directional light output they are much better suited to the majority of lighting applications. LED's are currently being used in commercial and domestic applications in many forms. It appears that currently the only thing holding back the LED is the same thing that held back the CFL, the infrastructure of industry dedicated to inferior light sources.
 
While technology is to blame for the climate crisis we currently face it is also the way forward out of the mess. By looking to more energy efficient ways of doing things and adopting these we are doing our part to reduce our impact on the planet.