The L Prize

The United States Government's Department of Energy (DOE) is running a contest, named the L Prize, to reward the first organization to design and develop an energy efficient LED bulb. A recent article in the New York Times describes both the contest and the recent submission from lighting giant Philips. The prize for a replacement 60 watt bulb is $10 million dollars and for a replacement reflector flood lamp it's $5 million dollars. The DOE has specific criteria that must be met including light output, energy consumed and bulb lifetime. Philips has submitted 2,000 bulbs for the one year testing cycle. It's great to see a response to the L Prize because the minimum criteria is to produce the same light as a 60 watt tungsten bulb using less than 10 watts of power with a bulb lifetime of 25,000 hours compared to 1,000 hours for a standard household bulb. Over the next few years, we will see a major change to the way we illuminate our night time hours.