Electrical Marketing's LiveWire

The folks in East Cleveland are getting creative with lamp designs, trying to find a way around consumers’ resistance to the quirks of compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs). GE Lighting (NYSE: GE) is rolling out a “customer-inspired” light bulb that combines halogen and compact fluorescent light sources in a bulb shaped like a traditional incandescent. The GE Energy Smart Soft White and Reveal hybrid halogen-CFL bulbs will show up on the lighting aisles of mass retail, hardware and big box stores nationwide in the weeks leading up to Earth Day 2011, April 22.

GE says its engineers figured out a way to nestle an instantly bright halogen capsule inside the swirl of a compact fluorescent light bulb. The halogen element comes on instantly and turns off once the CFL comes to full brightness, thus preserving the energy efficiency of the bulb. All the workings of the bulb are contained in an incandescent-shaped glass bulb.

“It looks like an incandescent in size and shape but it’s really three bulbs in one,” observes Kristin Gibbs, general manager of consumer marketing, GE Lighting. “The instant brightness factor makes our new hybrid halogen-CFL more versatile than other CFLs. It’s an optimal choice for use in hallways, stairways, kitchens, bathrooms and anywhere immediate brightness is essential. Simply flip that light switch and it’s at your service—immediately.”

These new GE CFLs offer eight times the life of incandescent bulbs (8,000 hours vs. 1,000 hours). They’re starting with 15- and 20-watt soft white (2700 Kelvin) and Reveal (2500 Kelvin) lamps that can replace standard 60- and 75-watt incandescent bulbs “or other CFLs that don’t offer a satisfactory quality of light or instant brightness.” They also have reduced mercury content.

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Okay, so my wife and I welcomed the garage-door repairman at 7 sharp this morning. We had called him out because the garage door opener had been intermittently stopping at random points and refusing to close. The problem was worst in the depth of winter.

From our description of the problem, he suspected a broken solder on the circuit board, which would be a $150 replacement plus the service call. When he flipped down the cover to look inside, he noticed the 26W (100W equivalent) compact fluorescent lamp.

“Hey, you know, you probably should use a regular light-bulb, because sometimes these can cause problems,” he said. So we grabbed an incandescent from inside the house and swapped them out. After that, the garage door opened and closed, opened and closed, with no hint of a problem. Yes, it was a $65 service call to tell us to replace a light-bulb that hadn’t visibly failed.

Now, if I had thought about it, I might have figured it out on my own. I know some CFLs, especially older ones, have problems in cold weather, and I know an electronic ballast approaching failure can interfere with other electronics.

But the question this raises is, once the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 provisions eliminating incandescent lamps take effect, will I have to deal with Sid the Part-Time Pimp to buy bulbs for my opener on the black market? What other options are out there for this sort of application?

Siemens AG, Munich, Germany, said it plans to publicly list its lighting subsidiary Osram GmbH in the fall of 2011. The parent company intends to retain a minority stake in Osram, in which it will remain a long-term anchor shareholder.

“With the IPO, we want to give Osram complete entrepreneurial freedom to comprehensively further develop its leading competitive position in a lighting market being swept by technological changes,” said Siemens President and CEO Peter Löscher. Siemens also wants to participate in future growth in the market for new lighting technologies.

For the IPO, Wolfgang Dehen, currently a member of Siemens’ managing board and CEO of its Energy Sector, has been appointed to head the Osram executive board, effective April 1, 2011. Following the transformation of Osram into a publicly listed company, he will serve as its president and CEO, said Siemens in its news release. Martin Goetzeler has resigned his position as CEO of Osram’s executive board, and will become chief operating officer of Osram on April 1. Klaus Patzak, currently chief accounting officer and controller of Siemens AG, is to be the CFO of Osram.

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The blades and a rotor fell off of a wind turbine in North Dakota on March 14, according to this Business Week report. Inspectors say malfunctioning bolts were the problem.
And on Feb. 8 a lighting fixture fell from the ceiling in the heavily traveled Central Artery Tunnel in Boston’s Big Dig project. No one was injured by the lighting fixture, but the incident brought back sad memories of the motorist who was killed in 2006 in one of Boston’s new Big Dig tunnels when several 4,600-pound concrete panels fell from the ceiling, crushing her car.
No one is certain yet why the 8-foot long, 110-pound lighting fixture fell, but the early speculation is that one or more of the brackets attaching the fixture to the tunnel wall got corroded by salt air, moisture and de-icing solutions. NuArt Lighting, Fullerton, Calif., is the manufacturer of the fixture. A March 16 report at www.boston.com said 95% of the 23,000 lighting fixtures in the Big Dug tunnels inspected by that time were safe. All fixtures will be inspected.

Well here’s a new one. Siemens is introducing an “innovative gaming platform” called Plantville to showcase its industrial and infrastructure products. The game apparently simulates the experience of being a plant manager. Players are faced with the challenge of maintaining the operation of their plant while trying to improve the productivity, efficiency, sustainability and overall health of their facility. Players can choose a bottling plant, a vitamin plant or a plant that builds trains.

“Throughout the game, players will be able to interact with Pete the Plant Manager, whose plant has just won the ‘Plant of the Year’ award. Pete shares his best practices throughout the game to help players achieve outstanding results in plant performance. He will use webisodes, the Plantville Cafe, Puzzlers, and Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter accounts to dialogue with gamers, provide hints to playing the game, and host a leader board for contestants.”

I can’t decide whether this is silly or brilliant in some way I don’t understand. Then again, I’m not a good judge of this sort of thing. I used to make fun of my wife for playing Cafe World…then she opened a real coffee shop.

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