Tuesday 29 Oct 2013 @ 13:10
Innovate UK
Innovate UK
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Success Story: Leading light Zeta controls
‘How many companies does it take to change a light bulb?' asks Philip Shadbolt. ‘Answer: one, Zeta Specialist Lighting,' the company he founded in 1989 as a spin-out from Oxford Brookes University.
This small British company has come up with an ingenious idea that revolutionises how we think about light bulbs. With the best cost, performance and technology in the world, it is expected not only to cut carbon emissions but to create jobs and boost the UK economy.
‘Currently most long life bulbs come from China. They are fluorescent, flicker and take a long time to warm up. They also often contain mercury, which is harmful, and produces a quality of light that people don't like,' explains Philip.
Zeta's LED Life Bulb provides instant light, lasts 10 years and does not flicker.
The Life Bulb also has no warm-up time and contains no glass or mercury, so it doesn't need specialised recycling – and it also works well with dimmer switches.
Winning products
‘We are a world first in ultra-efficient lighting that uses only 10W of energy to create the brightness of a 60W bulb – 14% less than the most energy saving bulbs on the market – a winning product that would probably never have come to market without the Technology Strategy Board, added Philip.
‘Designing, developing and soon to be manufacturing the ground-breaking Life Bulb has been possible thanks to winning funding from the Technology Strategy Board and Defra, through the Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI) competition.
This initiative was relaunched by the Technology Strategy board in 2009 as a process offered to public sector partners, such as Government departments.
The Technology Strategy Board works with them to run competitions and the successful businesses receive contracts to research and develop new products and services.
Each business receives finance to develop its ideas and potentially a ‘lead customer,' and the public sector gets more innovative solutions. Contracts provide 100% funding of project costs.
‘If we had tried to do it ourselves, without financial assistance, the light bulbs would cost the same price as others on the market that retail for over £23. In fact, without funding the Life Bulb would probably never have been built. But thanks to the funding we are able to produce them at under £10.
‘The Life Bulb is encased in an aluminium cage to allow air to flow through without over-heating. Scheduled to go into manufacture in February 2014 at Zeta's Bicester plant, it has the potential to achieve significant sales in the UK and substantial exports now that the European Union and many other countries have phased out most incandescent bulbs,' he explained.
Zeta's story began in February 2010, when the Technology Strategy Board and Defra launched a £1.2m competition through the SBRI to stimulate and support development work on ‘ultra-efficient lighting for the domestic environment.'
Businesses of all sizes were invited to compete with proposals that would develop capability to supply high-quality directional and non-directional lighting for the home. The suggestions needed to be exceptionally efficient, while providing a medium-term payback of costs to consumers in real terms.
Click here for the full success story and further information.
Click here for the full success story and further information.
