Subscribe | UPI Odd Newsletter Subscribe SEEING THE LIGHT Seeking a way to ease ebbing eyesight and escalating energy bills, Michael Siminovitch saw the light and created the Berkeley Lamp. The Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory maverick and his Lighting Systems Research Group came up with an innovative high-performance alternative to overhead illumination in office spaces, hotels and homes that is designed to save energy -- an average of 60 percent, early pilot trials show -- while maximizing lighting quality and visibility. Advertisement Sporting specially designed optics, the multi-purpose, two-in-one table lamp provides both a task light and an "uplight" with adjustable brightness for lighting up a room to the user's specifications -- whether it be for reading a book, writing a letter or working on the computer. A flick of a switch regulates the light intensity and the direction and strength of either lamp to suit one's ends without wasting energy. "Widespread use of this lighting system in offices and homes could greatly reduce the current power problems we have in California while increasing the quality of the lighting environment," said Siminovitch, who poured four years of research and development into the project. "To our knowledge, nothing currently available in the office, hospitality or residential marketplace has both the high-performance lighting quality characteristics and energy efficiency of this new lamp." Advertisement Developed with funding from the U.S. Department of Energy and the California Energy Commission's Public Interest Energy Research program, the two-lamp fluorescent system at full power matches the output of a 300-watt halogen lamp plus a 150-watt incandescent lamp -- while using only a quarter of the energy, field tests are indicating. The Berkeley Lamp combines two horizontal compact fluorescents that are independently controllable and fully dimmable. The major drawback for wide acceptance is the price -- $180 for the table mode. While the fixture is more expensive than a halogen torchiere, it should pay for itself in two years or less in savings on replacement bulbs -- halogens last less than 18 months, compared to seven years for CFLs -- and electricity -- about 2,000 kilowatt-hours in that time, its innovators said. Currently, the lamp is available only in bulk, for facilities such as hotels and offices.
