The lamps you're not allowed to have. Exploring the Dubai lamps

[TheBlackAdder]

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These fascinating lamps are a result of a collaboration between Philips Lighting and Sheikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum - the ruler of Dubai.

They are designed to be the most efficient available, matching high lumen output with very long life. Once you see the construction and circuitry you'll realise this isn't just marketing spin.

In return for the development Philips gained exclusive rights to manufacture the lamps for a fixed duration, extending from their announcement in 2016. Philips expect to have supplied 10 million of the lamps by the end of 2021.

There is a requirement for new installations to use the new lamp, which has upset some designers and architects, as they are only available in 8 forms. 3W and 2W globes, a 1W candle globe and a 3W MR16 12V downlight version. All four available in either cool daylight or warm white to make up the eight options. This restricts the style of the lamp shape and excludes warmer whites unless coloured by a shade. They're also not dimmable, which contributes greatly to their reliability, but does require a more open minded approach to lighting design.

The range also excludes the GU10 format, which isn't a bad thing as they're probably one of the least reliable lamps due to the use of electronics in a confined space with hot LEDs.

These lamps are currently only available in Dubai. The likelihood of them appearing elsewhere is limited by the fact that they are designed to last a long time, which isn't profitable for the manufacturers. Maybe that'll change over time.

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[hunter]

1. I like the regulator circuit...

... the LED filament bulbs we have can flicker quite a bit because we live near the end of an electrical distribution system that has all sorts of wildly varying loads attached to it, from solar panels to big refrigeration motors. Flickering is also noticable when our neighbors are welding.

These LED filament bulbs are ideally filled with helium as the heat transfer medium, carrying heat from the filaments to the glass surface.

I'm guessing there are many cheaper or counterfeit bulbs that use less efficient gasses. These won't last as long as expected because the filaments run too hot.