January 27, 1880 was a significant day in lighting history. That was the day Thomas Edison received the historic patent for the incandescent light bulb. The patent changed the way we illuminate the world and is listed by the National Archives as one of 100 milestone documents in U.S. history.
Today, exactly 131 years later, we have a historic announcement of our own. We are proud to demonstrate our TrueWhite Light. It’s the brightest, most efficient, LED-based A-lamp that can meet ENERGY STAR® performance requirements for a 60 watt standard LED replacement bulb.
We’re demonstrating that it is possible to make an LED light bulb that delivers the same bright, warm light as a 60-watt incandescent bulb. We want to show the world that this is what LED lighting can and should look like. And we want to help our customers – don’t forget we don’t just make lighting, we manufacture LEDs and modules that we sell to lighting manufacturers – bring bulbs like this to market. See more details about this new light on TrueWhiteLight.com.
Through the use of Cree lighting class XLamp LEDs, Cree TrueWhite™ Technology, a patented Cree remote phosphor technology, and of course, plenty of Research and Development, we are continuing to break barriers in LED performance.
Last week, I got to hang out with the TrueWhite Light in a photography studio. We set up three orange lamps and put a 60-watt incandescent, a 60-watt equivalent CFL (it consumes 15 watts) and the 60-watt equivalent Cree TrueWhite LED bulb (it consumes less than 10 watts).
As soon as the photographer’s assistant plugged in the lights, I was awestruck. Our LED bulb truly looked as beautiful as the incandescent, and certainly better than the CFL. And that’s the way it should be. LED lighting should look as good as the technology it’s replacing.
We understand why so many people are reluctant to let their incandescent bulbs go. Even though they waste energy, they still provide that warm light that many of us love. But Cree is continuing to prove that LED lights can do it too.
That’s why we had a little fun with Thomas Edison this week on Twitter, on our facebook page and in this video:
Don’t get us wrong, we absolutely appreciate what Edison did 131 years ago today. But the time has come to turn off energy-wasting incandescent lights and join the LED lighting revolution.
It’s funny, a hundred years ago Thomas Edison made some predictions in the Miami Metropolis about what the world would be like in 2011. His definitely reached for the stars in his predictions, calling for books that were printed on leaves of nickel and taxicabs made of gold. But he didn’t predict that a new lighting technology would render his incandescent light obsolete.
The incandescent bulb has served us well for many years, Mr. Edison, but thanks, we’ll take it from here.
