New "Electrodeless Lamps" Illuminate Both Banks of Yangxi River

Recently, dozens of new streetlights have been successively installed along both banks of the Yangxi River in Huangtan Town, Ninghai County. These bright streetlights are unique — they are fourth-generation LBT electrodeless energy-saving lamps, a new electric light source jointly developed by Ninghai private enterprise "Botong Lighting" and Fudan University.

"After the electrodeless lamps replaced the old mercury lamps, the power dropped from 250 watts to 85 watts, saving 60% of electricity consumption, with a longer service life and lower maintenance costs," said a person in charge of the Electric Management Station of Huangtan Town. This is the first time that Ninghai has produced and put electrodeless lamps into use.

The "electrodeless lamp" utilizes electromagnetic field induction to excite the inert gas inside the bulb to generate ultraviolet light, which strikes the trichromatic phosphor powder inside the glass bulb to produce light. It is a cold light source with a design service life of over 60,000 hours, 5 times longer than traditional light sources. Compared with LED lamps, which are also fourth-generation electric light sources, the "electrodeless lamp" offers advantages such as high luminous efficacy, low light decay, and instant start-up, making it more suitable for replacing traditional light sources for public lighting purposes.

"In the field of electrodeless lamps, there are currently no industry standards in China, and we are all in the exploratory phase." According to Mr. Yu, Vice General Manager of Botong Lighting, they began negotiations in April last year with the Department of Light Sources and Illuminating Engineering at Fudan University, which holds the relevant patents, and signed a contract in November to carry out technical cooperation to jointly develop "electrodeless lamps." "The price bottleneck that previously restricted the application of electrodeless lamps has been eliminated due to the substantial reduction in production material costs, which has also laid the foundation for our cooperation," said Mr. Yu. "Fudan University has established an industry-university-research base at our company, and the electrodeless lamp is one of the outcomes."

It is reported that in 2010, Huangtan Town invested more than 600,000 yuan to replace and newly install 72 energy-saving street lights of different types, with the power-saving rate of the street lights expected to reach 50%. From this year onwards, main-road street lights in the town area and various villages will also be successively installed with energy-saving lighting, including new-type electrodeless lamps.

(Responsible Editor: zl)