With the release of Baby Plumen 001, a shrunken version of its award-winning Plumen light bulb, Hulger is making a clear statement that the humble fluorescent light bulb isn't ready for the trash just yet.
Shrunken down to 158 x 74 x 70 mm (6.2 x 2.9 x 2.8 in) the Baby Plumen puts the range nearer more comfortable lightbulb territory, so that the bulb can be used in combination with shades and fittings. The original Plumen 001 was billed more as a complete light fitting in itself.
"The Baby Plumen 001 works like any other high quality low energy bulb, saving you 80 percent on your energy bills and lasting 8 times longer than a standard incandescent bulb," claims Hulger, as if all energy-saving lightbulbs are the same.
As for performance, Hulger puts it this way:
"It is a 9w bulb, which is the equivalent of a 40W incandescent (so 435 lumen)."
Rather than an absolute statement of lumen output, the 435 lumens may be a ballpark figure based on the assumed 9-W fluorescent equivalency to a 40-W incandescent lightbulb. Obtaining precise lumen output information can be a big ask for smaller manufacturers.
If on the money, this would give the Baby Plumen 001 an efficacy of about 48 lumens/W, which falls short of the best LED light bulbs of recent years, such as Switch Lighting's with its performance of 100 lumens/W.
Still, the Baby Plumen is not the high-powered workhorse that a 100-W-equivalent LED lightbulb is intended to be. A 9-W power consumption is small by any yardstick, and lumen count is less of a deal when it comes to the sort of mood lighting to which the Baby Plumen is best suited.
Its lifetime of 8,000 hours may also fall short of LED technology, but it's by no means unhealthy.
The Baby Plumen was developed with input from designer Samuel Wilkinson, and will be launched in a 220-V version in Europe later this month, priced at £18.95 and €28.95 (US$37). A 120-V version for the USA will launch later this year.
Source: Hulger, via The Guardian
