Sulfur Lighting No Longer on Track

Ten years ago we covered sulfur lighting, then a new light source that offered promise for high efficacy (about 100 lumens per watt), good color rendition (CRI of 80), highly concentrated light (130,000 lumens from a light source the size of a golf ball) lending itself to light-tube distribution, very long lamp life, and avoidance of mercury (which is used in fluorescent and HID lighting)—see EBN Vol. 4, No. 4. Fusion Lighting, Inc., had just installed high-visibility prototypes at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) headquarters (at the Forrestal Building) and the National Air and Space Museum, both in Washington, D.C., and was moving ahead full-steam with product development. As an indication of the promise, at the Forrestal Building DOE replaced 240 175-watt mercury-vapor HID lamps with a 240' long (73 m) 10"-diameter (250 mm) light tube powered by two sulfur lamps, one at each end; this system produced four times as much light at one-third the cost, compared to the lights it replaced. Indeed, the technology looked extremely promising.
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