Self-dimming light bulb coming to Saskatchewan

REGINA – Light bulb technology has advanced leaps and bounds in the last decade.

Now, University of Toronto graduates are taking their highly efficient light bulb to the next level to reduce energy consumption.

“By dimming down your lights, you can actually save a lot of energy. The problem is most switches out there are non-dimmable,” said co-founder Gimmy Chu.

Chu is one of three students that invented ‘the world’s most efficient light bulb’ a few years ago.

Their latest invention, the Nanoleaf Bloom, dims without having to install a dimmer switch.

“You would have to turn off the circuit breaker, you would have to unscrew your existing switch, and deal with a lot of complicated wiring,” Chu said. “With our Nanoleaf bloom you just screw in our product and you’re good to go.”

By dimming the light to 50 per cent brightness, the Bloom uses just a quarter of the electricity.

“When you use it at the dimmest setting, which is what we call night mode, it only uses half a watt, which is about 11 cents a year,” Chu said.

Until now, the high efficiency bulbs have only been available online, but that’s about to change.

Goodheart Electric Ltd. In Kindersley, Saskatchewan will be the first store in all of Canada to carry Nanoleaf products when their shipment comes in at the end of the month.

Already, display models in the store’s showroom have customers talking.

“I always get comments about the shape and the light intensity. What it’s doing for the amount of power it’s using,” said owner Sheldon Goodheart.

Right now, he’s selling the Bloom bulbs on his website for $42.99: “It’s not the cheapest thing on the market, but you get what you pay for, with anything.”

In this case, that means substantial energy savings.

“A typical LED lightbulb that you see in the store will be about 70-80 lumens per watt. Our lightbulbs range from 110-150 lumens per watt,” Chu said. The higher the lumens the watt, the more efficient a bulb is.

Another benefit of investing in the more expensive bulb is the life span. The average LED bulb lasts 22.5 years.

“27.4 years or 30,000 hours is what they’re (Nanoleaf Bloom) rated at, it depends on their usage. But that’s based on three hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year,” said John Moran, the bulb’s Western Canadian distributor.

At Luminesque Lighting, LED bulbs have recently become a popular choice for customers looking to upgrade their lighting.

“LED sales are definitely up. Based on being newer, people like newer technology, more efficient technologies,” said sales associate Tiffanie Langman. “The price of LEDs have come down significantly over the last few years. They’re much more affordable than they used to be.”