Samsung lights up new line of LED bulbs

Will you be buying a handful of LED bulbs with your next TV?

Samsung today announced the availability and pricing of a line of seven consumer LED bulbs some of which have the conventional screw-in bottom. There are spotlights for recessed lighting cans or track lighting, but there is also a bulb-shaped A19 bulb, a "snowcone" style bulb that gives off light in one direction.

"A light bulb is no longer just a light bulb. It's a digital technology made up of LED chips, drivers, and electronics--familiar turf for Samsung," Kevin Dexter, Samsung's senior vice president of home appliances, said in a statement.

Prices start at just under $20 and go up to almost $60 for a bright halogen replacement spot light. Like all LED lights, they are designed to have a life of 30,000 or 40,000 hours, which can be in the range of 20 years depending on usage. Their power consumption is about one-quarter that of incandescent or halogen lights, according to Samsung.

Samsung isn't the only electronics manufacturer getting into LED lighting. Toshiba and Panasonic already make LED lights and Vizio CEO Ken Howe said earlier this year that the company is developing its own line of LED lights at a "Vizio price."

Because they are electronics, LED lighting can be packaged in different ways, such as specialty fixtures that don't have a screw-in connector. But they can also be equipped with networking chips to connect them into a home energy management system.

LED lighting company Lighting Science Group earlier this year demonstrated a network LED that uses Google's Android at Home software, which lets people manage lighting from an Internet connected device, such as a smartphone.

Source for this Article: CNET

By David | 22 November, 2011 | 0 comments
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