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Consumer Technology AereLight

Published on October 8th, 2014 | by James Ayre

11

Aerelight Design Release World’s First “Consumer-Ready, Affordable” OLED Lamp

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October 8th, 2014 by  

The world’s first “consumer-ready, affordable” OLED lamp is now available to customers in North America, via the product design studio Aerelight Design.

The rather striking desk lamp utilizes an “advanced OLED light panel” to provide the warm, quite distinct “natural” light that the technology is well known for.

AereLight

The model is currently on sale for $239 — so the price is quite steep for a desk lamp. That said, it is, as of right now, the only product of its kind on the market (and a new technology as well), so the pricing isn’t exactly surprising.

Here’s some background on the technology/business via an email sent to CleanTechnica:

Organic light emitting diode (OLED) is the next-generation of energy-efficient lighting, generating natural light by passing electricity through a thin layer of carbon-based organic dyes. OTI Lumionics started Aerelight Design with an exclusive focus on OLED light to demonstrate that the technology is finally ready for the consumer market. While the technology has been successfully implemented into high-end smartphone displays in the last few years, the launch of the aerelight desk lamp marks the first consumer-ready OLED lamp at an affordable price.


 

“OLED technology has been limited to only high-end smart-phone displays and TVs. OLED has many unique characteristics that make it the ideal light source of the future, but potential growth has been stifled by the high manufacturing cost barrier,” explained Michael G Helander, Co-Founder and President, OTI Lumionics. “For the last few years, we have been working on making OLED technology more accessible to new markets and product applications. The aerelight desk lamp is built to accentuate the unique and ultra-thin profile of OLED lighting, and is the first of many applications of this technology from our team.”

Here’s an overview of some of the key features of the new lamp:

  • OLED Light Panel – Powered by an energy-efficient OLED light panel that uses only a fraction of the energy of traditional light sources, the aerelight desk lamp delivers natural full-spectrum warm light suitable for home or office use.
  • Dimmable – The aerelight desk lamp is suitable for the most demanding tasks, but can also be fully dimmed for more intimate use.
  • Touch Control – Simple to use with no buttons, both power and dimming capabilities for the aerelight desk lamp can be controlled by touching anywhere on the anodized aluminum frame.
  • Wireless Charging – The aerelight desk lamp includes a wireless charging pad integrated into the base to conveniently charge any Qi-compatible mobile devices.
  • Unique Design – Built from a single piece of anodized aluminum that accentuates the ultra-thin form of the OLED light panel, the aerelight desk lamp is available in three finishes – red, silver and black.

“Our hope is that the aerelight desk lamp will inspire people to rethink the possibilities of lighting design by implementing the unique characteristics of OLED technology with a sleek design,” concluded Ray Kwa, the Lead Industrial Designer behind the aerelight lamp.

Those interested can find out more, or pre-order, on the company’s website.

Image Credit: AereLight Design

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About the Author

's background is predominantly in geopolitics and history, but he has an obsessive interest in pretty much everything. After an early life spent in the Imperial Free City of Dortmund, James followed the river Ruhr to Cofbuokheim, where he attended the University of Astnide. And where he also briefly considered entering the coal mining business. He currently writes for a living, on a broad variety of subjects, ranging from science, to politics, to military history, to renewable energy. You can follow his work on Google+.


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  • Simple Indian

    $9 is OK for me, but $239 will eat my months salary and subsequent sustenance.

    I can wait for a table lamp which I have never used my in whole life.

    • Benjamin Nead

      Yes, I’ll wait for the Ikea knock-off at about one tenth the price of this one.
      I’m sure we’ll see an OLED one from them or Target in another year or two.

      I note that “designer” table and floor lamps are always amazingly overpriced and, given that metric, this one isn’t any worse that so many others I’ve seen.
      So, the question I have is not that this particular sleek-looking table lamp is so pricy but why sleek-looking table lamps, in general, regularly fetch such
      exorbitant sums.

  • Vensonata

    Lumens per watt would be useful information. A side by side comparison with top l.e.d. bulbs and/or lamps would also be helpful. These O.l.e.d. have been around a long time now, and still not ready for prime time.

  • Offgridman

    Okay now, several thoughts on this. While it is great for the environmental factor and nice to have a more natural light due to these being organic, the price is just ridiculous, so not anything that is going to be used by the average consumer. Also the limited usage as a small desk lamp, along with the inclusion of the Qi charger, which helps to add to the high price, and only is useful to a minority of customers, will only contribute to limiting their marketability. So just another feel good niche product with a limited market of those that can afford their fancy toys. For a comparison, some LED clip on goose neck style desk/reading lamps purchased 10-11 years ago were less than fifteen dollars and are still providing good service.
    And while here let me add an unsolicited review of the Phillips slim style, soft white light, led bulbs that were introduced here this past spring, and recently became available in our local home building supply store.
    Tried two styles, the 60 watt equivalent that looks like a pinched in incandescent bulb, that radiates light 360° around, was available at 6.99$. And the 65 watt equivalent indoor flood lamp was only a dollar more.
    After just a few weeks of usage it is easy to say that I am very pleased with both of these. Both are dimmable, and the quality of light is very nice compared to the harsh white, or blue tinged appearance that is associated with the older style led lamps and bulbs that have been used. The smaller bulb placed in my reading lamp gives off kind of a slight honey colored glow when compared side by side with traditional LED’s, but when used by itself this is unnoticeable. Just a nice natural light that is great for reading, without the harsh white glare that used to be associated with led lights.
    Same with the flood being used in the kitchen, a good strong source of light, without the harsh overtones. With the added bonus of not making the colors of fruits and vegetables seem to be off from what you expect them to be.
    So if you are looking for the energy and financial benefits of switching to LED’s, but were concerned about the quality or color of the light, the new Phillips bulbs can do this for you at a fairly reasonable price that won’t kill your wallet.

    • Marion Meads

      it is not organic in the same sense as natural organic farming. Organic as in organic chemistry is what this lamp is, carbon-containing molecules, and organic compounds can be made synthetically, even found to be abundant in space without biological interference!

      • Offgridman

        Thanks, but I am aware of what the organic refers to in the oled bulbs. If I understand correctly the big benefit comes when it is time to dispose of or recycle these lamps. In that the oled will be much easier and or cheaper to regain the constituent parts. And if they do end up in a landfill, won’t have the same pollution problems of traditional led lamps. So that is the environmental benefit referred to in my comment. But with a two hundred dollar surcharge to gain this environmental benefit it really doesn’t seem like something that the average consumer would be willing or able to spend.

        • Steven F

          “In that the oled will be much easier and or cheaper to regain the constituent parts.”

          The only way to recycle electronics is the move each component from the PCB by hand. A process that often destroys the part. Often this is only done for high value parts such as microprocessors and memory chips. Furthermore the LEDs and electronic parts are often encased in specialized high temperature epoxies that will not melt, it can only be burned. So the best way to recycle these lamps or any electronis is to incinerate it using specialized pollution control systems leaving a metal oxide rich ash which can be recycled. And use the heat from the incinerator to make power.

          “And if they do end up in a landfill, won’t have the same pollution problems of traditional led lamps.”

          Most of the toxic concerns were related to lead used in the solder. Most countries banned lead solder years ago Now tin, silver, copper solder is used. The rest of the lamp uses glass, epoxy, plastic, copper, gold, silver, tine, iron, aluminum , gallium, and silicon.. None of which are considered toxic.

          So in short OLED have no advantage in terms of recycling, toxicity. Also OLED don’t have a big if any advantage over the conventional gallium nitride LEDs used today to make white light.

          • Offgridman

            Thank you for the information, as I said it was if I understand correctly, which was based on what Samsung was saying a few years ago when they introduced their oled cellphone screens.

    • GCO

      a more natural light due to these being organic

      Wow. Okay, I guess this validates my point above: marketing those as OLED indeed does mislead people into thinking there is some benefit.

      FWIW, our most natural light source, the Sun, and arguably its two closest approximations, halogen/high-temperature incandescent and high-CRI LEDs, are anything but organic…

      • Offgridman

        “a more natural light due to these being organic led’s”
        Which is simply a quote from the original article.
        If you bothered to read my original post you would have seen that I think that the surcharge for these lamps having oled light source is just as ridiculous.

  • GCO

    All right, it looks slick, but I fail to see the advantage of OLED here, if only for marketing.

    Flat regular LED arrays have been around for years (e.g. http://www.cree.com/LED-Components-and-Modules/Landing-pages/CXA – 1.5 to 1.7mm thick) and I’d think that for lighting purposes, those vastly outlast and outperform today’s organics.

    Next, I have doubts about the brightness of this lamp. Bad sign, it’s only given as “up to 1000 lux”.
    No mention of the actual output in lumen, or the area on which this illuminance was measured.
    Quick estimate: it’s meant to be used on a desk or nightstand, so it probably illuminates the equivalent of between 0.1 and 0.3 m^2 (1~3 sq.ft), putting the output at 100 to 300 lumen (roughly a 25W incandescent).

    FWIW, even the smallest, cheapest Cree or Bridgelux LED array would outshine it.

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