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ReadyBright Lights Featured On The NBC TODAY Show

Jan 082013

Yesterday, Rosemary Ellis of Good Housekeeping was on the TODAY Show to reveal 9 of 2013′s most innovative consumer products. And guess what! One of our very own products made the cut!

Out of more than 1,500 different products, Good Housekeeping chose the Mr. Beams ReadyBright Power Outage Lighting System as one of their favorite products.

The ReadyBright System is the very first at home emergency lighting system available. It’s not unlike the emergency lighting systems in commercial buildings – when the power goes out, the lights come on. Good Housekeeping testers used these lights when they lost power back during Hurricane Sandy, and called them “tremendously helpful.”

“We think everybody should have one of these,” said Ellis.

Check out the full video here:

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Getting To Know Light

Light Bulbs No Responses »

Dec 122012

Every so often, we need to go back to the basics. New lighting technology has the potential to simplify our lives, but trying to actually understand it can get complicated. Check out these helpful graphics from Bulbrite’s Lightopedia to learn how to use measurements like CRI, lumen, and Kelvin temperature to find the perfect lights for your home or building…

Watt the Heck is a Lumen?

Contrary to popular belief, watts DON’T measure the brightness of a light bulb. They measure how much energy that light bulb consumes. CFLs and LEDs consume much less energy (watts) than older filament lamps, so they’ll produce more light for every watt they consume.

If you’re still in the incandescent mindset, check out this handy conversion chart showing how many lumens each incandescent light produces:

Image via Lightopedia.com

Continue reading »

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An Enticing New Alternative To Fluorescents, CFLs, and LEDs

Lighting News No Responses »

Dec 072012

PinExt An Enticing New Alternative To Fluorescents, CFLs, and LEDs

No light source is perfect. With every different light source come consumers and critics who dislike it. We complain incandescent lights don’t last long enough. They use too much energy, give off too much heat, and then that heat jacks up our A/C bills.

Fluorescents and CFLs last longer, but some people are bothered by the small amount of UV rays they emit. Sometimes they might flicker or take a while to reach full brightness. If they break, they release harmful mercury into the environment.

Even the LED, the lighting industry’s golden boy, isn’t perfect. It lacks the incandescent’s beautiful, soothing light quality. LEDs are still expensive, and it can be hard as heck to make them with dimming capabilities.

Clearly, we still have work to do. But now, there’s a new light source that might just give these other guys a run for their money.

It’s called FIPEL. Doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue, does it? Well, whatever the name, this new light source could be the answer to the comfortable, efficient light we crave.

An Enticing New Alternative To Fluorescents, CFLs, and LEDs

Image via Ken Bennett, Wake Forest University Photographer

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Rise…And Shine That Blue Short-Wavelength Light

Lighting News No Responses »

Nov 022012

PinExt Rise…And Shine That Blue Short Wavelength Light

LED Mini Guide Lights 300x195 Rise…And Shine That Blue Short Wavelength Light
Kids these days. They haven’t got it easy. According to the Center for Disease Control, almost 70% of school children don’t get their full 8 hours of sleep on most school nights. Whether this is due to heavy workloads, intense extracurriculars, goofing off, or simply having an overactive mind, the resulting problems are the same. Inadequate sleep has been linked to things like depression, behavioral problems, poor academic performance, drug use, and car accidents.

However, a recent study led by Mariana Figueiro and Mark S. Rea of the Lighting Research Center (LRC) at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute may have found an unexpected remedy for stressed, sleep-deprived kids: blue light.

To understand the study, first we need to know a little bit about the human body.

The Cortisol Awakening Response

The hormone cortisol, produced by the adrenal gland, operates on a 24-hour cycle, helping regulate our bodies navigate in and out of sleep. Concentrations of cortisol reach a minimum at bedtime and a peak in the morning. Levels hit their max in the first hour of waking, this is called the Cortisol Awakening Response or CAR.

Experts associate a high CAR with better preparedness for the stresses and challenges of the day.

So how the heck does blue light factor in? Well, we’ve already seen how short-wavelength light can suppress melatonin to keep you awake at night (read more on that here), so it’s not surprising that it has an influence on us in the morning. Continue reading »

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A New Kind of LED: Reinvented With Smartphones in Mind

Lighting News No Responses »

Oct 092012

PinExt A New Kind of LED: Reinvented With Smartphones in Mind

LIFX Control 281x300 A New Kind of LED: Reinvented With Smartphones in Mind

Photo via Kickstarter.com

Remember when clap-on, clap-off lights came out? It was the coolest thing to control the lights without leaving your seat. Well, what if you could control your lights to turn on and off, dim, change colors, and even respond to the beat of your iTunes library, all from the comfort of your favorite easy chair? That would take a lot of clapping.

Phil Bosua, creator of the LIFX smartbulb has decided to spare you the obligation (but not the desire) to thunderously applaud, allowing you to control his revolutionary lamp with your smartphone.

“It’s not like we get up to change the TV channel anymore,” said Bosua, “So why do that with our lights?”

The LIFX smartbulb is a self-contained LED light bulb, so all you need to do to utilize its numerous abilities is screw it into your light socket, and download the free app from iTunes or Google Play.

Installing the LIFX A New Kind of LED: Reinvented With Smartphones in Mind

Photo via Kickstarter.com

Bosua didn’t design this light with merely lethargy in mind – its technological advancements also have the potential to improve your wellbeing. Here are a few things you can do with the LIFX: Continue reading »

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Top Speed Data Transmission Brought To You By Twisted Light

Lighting News 2 Responses »

Sep 272012

PinExt Top Speed Data Transmission Brought To You By Twisted Light

Twisted Light 300x300 Top Speed Data Transmission Brought To You By Twisted Light

Courtesy of Nature Photonics

Wild lighting is no longer just for discotheques and laser tag – it has the potential to revolutionize the way we communicate.

Researchers at the University of Southern California have found that when they combine twisted beams of light, they can transmit data at a startling speed – over 85,000 times faster than standard broadband cable. To put it in perspective, at that speed you could transmit 70 full-length DVDs in a single second.

How does it work? Alan Willner, an electrical engineering professor at USC explained it in the Nature Photonics journal in June, and I’ll explain it now.

Light is just a group of photons that the researchers could direct in infinite ways at very high speeds. The study employed beam-twisting “phase holograms” to coax the beams of light into helical shapes as they spread in free space. Each beam, twisted in a unique way, was encoded with “1” or “0” data bits, making each beam an autonomous data stream – much like different radio channels. Continue reading »

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Do Smartphones Really Use Smart Lighting?

Lighting News 2 Responses »

Sep 252012

PinExt Do Smartphones Really Use Smart Lighting?

Tablet Do Smartphones Really Use Smart Lighting?
It’s the start of a new school year and the iPhone 5 has just splashed down on the scene. That can only mean one thing: we’re all spending more time staring at screens. But who can blame us? At times you have no choice but to stay up late catching up on current events, and when you’re not doing that, who can resist watching the latest episode of The Tonight Show?

In light of this (pun intended) I think a recent study on self-luminous technology led by Mariana Figueiro of the Lighting Research Center (we’ve seen her before) hits especially close to home. Results show that using glowing devices like tablets and smartphones before bed can lead to muddled circadian rhythms.

How Does It Happen?

The bluish, bright light emitted from the screens of our favorite devices comes in short wavelengths, and prolonged exposure to this can decrease melatonin levels in our bodies. Using a tablet or smartphone for more than two hours at a time can suppress melatonin levels by 22%, according to the study.

Melatonin is the hormone that helps regulate circadian rhythm, produced in the pineal gland at night to help the body fall and remain asleep. Wonky levels can cause insomnia, sleep disruption, and even lead to diabetes and obesity. In the most extreme cases, after years of circadian disruption (as seen in night shift workers), subjects have even been more prone to diseases like breast cancer. Continue reading »

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Good Night Moon, Good Night Stars, Good Night Spaceman

Lighting News No Responses »

Aug 062012

PinExt Good Night Moon, Good Night Stars, Good Night Spaceman

iStock 000017978444XSmall 300x198 Good Night Moon, Good Night Stars, Good Night Spaceman New research shows a fresh lighting scheme could help astronauts sleep better, and oh boy, do they need it.

Astronauts are allotted 8.5 hours for sleep out of every 24, but they actually average about 6 hours a night. Their leisure time is prone to occasional disruptions (emergency or docking procedures), plus there’s a new sunrise every 90 minutes, and of course that whole weightlessness thing. On month and even year-long missions (like the speculated 3 year voyage to Mars), it’s pretty darn easy to get frazzled.

When NASA announced they were planning to switch the space station’s outdated fluorescents to LEDs, Dr. George Brainard, a professor of neurology from Thomas Jefferson University, had a few ideas. Not only would the LEDs be more efficient and longer lasing than fluorescents, they could be beneficial for astronaut health. Continue reading »

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