dcsimg

Aerelight - the trendiest desk lamp on Earth

By: Matt Grocoff , Contributing Writer
In: Technology, Green Renovations

Abraham Lincoln read books in his log cabin by candle light. And today the quest continues to find the perfect task lamp. Galloping from the digital hillsides comes the next big thing in lighting: the Organic Light Emitting Diode (OLED). We've seen OLEDs in TVs, computers, and cell phones but the cost barrier has prevented manufacturers from bringing them affordably to our desktop lamps. If you consider a $250 lamp affordable, then Aereljght is about to rock your world.

oled panel
OLED panel

Aerelight is the world's first consumer-ready OLED desk lamp. An OLED is a thin organic film that illuminates when excited by an electric current. While the lamp is excited by electricity, you'll be excited by the Aereljght's wireless induction charger built into its base for charging your cell phone, it's low energy use and it's amazing brightness.

Why are OLED's exciting?

aerelight lamp

OLEDs are exceptionally bright and use vanishingly little energy. The Aereljght provides double the brightness of a typical office environment, yet is capable of dimming to very low levels. At full brightness this OLED uses only 7 Watts.

Wireless charging

Aerelight phone charger

There's a wireless charger built into the base of the Aereljght. You can simply set your cell phone on the lamp base and it will charge without having to be plugged in. It will work with any phone that comes with Qi wireless charging built in. For phones without wireless charging, ChargeSpot offers a $10 - $15 receiver patch you can add to your phone's battery.

Touch controls

The controls work much like the touch pad on your cell phone. You simple touch the base for on or off and touch and hold to dim.

Light color/warmth

I'm very pumped about Aereljght and the future of OLEDs. My only beef is with the color temperature. Color temperature is the warmth or coolness of the light. Higher color temperature tends to be more blue and it's great for daytime applications. Lower color temperatures are more yellow and give that nice warm glow typical of an incandescent.

An incandescent bulb has a color temperature of 2700k. The Aereljght has a color temperature of 2900k. This is good, but not great for night time use. As an office or other task lamp 2900k is a fine temperature. For night use you want to be at 2700k or less (warmer).

What I'd love to see is an OLED that not only dims brightness, but can also change color temperature to mimic the color of the sun as the light changes throughout the day.

Read my post about how the wrong color temperature can mess you up.

All photos credit to Aerelight. Check out their website for pre-orders.

Share/Save/Bookmark