Gimmy Chu, Tom Rodinger, and Christian Yan have simple goals - they want to inspire people to adopt energy efficient products. Their method to achieve this goal is to create simple products that can be used by anyone. The Nanoleaf Bloom is an extension of last year's Nanoleaf bulb. The Nanoleaf Bloom incorporates a dimmer switch into 'the world's most energy efficient lightbulb'.
The bulb is brightness controlled using a standard light switch. Turning the switch on starts the glowing process, while the bulb is energizing you flick the switch off, then on to lock in your desired brightness. This allows users to select their brightness and by extension how much of the available 10W that the bulb will use.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/nanoleaf/nanoleaf-bloom-the-first-bulb-that-dims-without-a
The bulbs are estimated to last 30,000 hours, or three hours a day for 27.4 years. In that time it's estimated that you would use thirty 75W standard bulbs or four 20W CFL bulbs. The energy cost could be up to $300 per bulb - these estimates use a price of $0.14 per kilowatt-hour. Nanoleaf Bloom can also operate in night mode, giving five percent of its brightness and costing only $0.07 per year to operate.
Nanoleaf Bloom uses the standard E26 / E27 screw base and is also available in bayonet base. The body is built from printed circuitboard and is 77 millimeters at diameter at its largest point. Thirty three LEDs provide omni-directional light to the user. Bloom differs from the previous Nanolight product due to the proprietary chip that controls the brightness of the bulb.
Reading the Risk section of the Kickstarter campaign shows that the company has compiled a large list of lessons learned from the Nanolight project and is maturing into a large scale production company. The full production facility, quality control and shipping logistics are all addressed as possible issues.
The Bloom and the Nanolight before it are incredible inventions. Just watching the Kickstarter campaign video and seeing the body first cut out of printed circuitboard, then folded into the shape of a bulb is amazing.
At $40 the Bloom is an expensive light bulb but that hasn't stopped the Kickstarter campaign from blasting past its $30,000 fundraising goal. The funding period ends on September 12, 2014 and bulbs are expected to begin shipping in December.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/nanoleaf/nanoleaf-bloom-the-first-bulb-that-dims-without-a