subject: Designers Not Giving Up on Incandescent Light Bulbs [print this page] There are nearly endless ways to approach development and design of light bulbs. Research focus is almost always centered on energy and luminal efficiency, but there are those few who stick to design concerns. A Korean designer named Joonhuyn Kim has been hard at work devising new designs for old nearly-obsolete incandescent light bulbs, and one design in particular has promise: the flat light bulb.
Kim's flat incandescent light bulb design has no bearing on lumen count or energy efficiency, but it does confront another type of efficiency: transit and storage. No one really thinks about it, but all light bulbs must make the journey from factory to store, and store to home or business. The way these flat light bulbs are designed allows them to be stacked neatly atop one another. In addition, these light bulbs are far less prone to breaking than traditional incandescents. It is impossible for them to roll off of something like old incandescents; even in the unlikely event of a fall, the thicker and more robust glass would likely remain intact.
It may be too late for such a design innovation. The 2007 legislation banning incandescent light bulbs in 2012 is fast approaching, and could very well include these light bulbs if they were to be available for purchase. On the other hand, there are a great deal of consumers who are looking to hoard incandescent light bulbs as quickly as possible, so this redesigned incandescent could fly off the shelves.
Perhaps this type of design research should be applied to energy efficient lighting technologies like compact fluorescent light bulbs and LED light bulbs. Design is more important than most people realize, as it is simply ingested and taken for granted. A person could be influenced by design without even realizing it. That's probably one of the reasons Joonhuyn Kim persists in attempting new designs for arguably doomed technology.
Designers Not Giving Up on Incandescent Light Bulbs
