Wisdom Forum

In less than 12 months they have captivated thousands on TikTok and have grown to attract a following of more than 182,000 people who admire their designs - with one video reaching close to 5 million users.  
  
The company is Lexington, Kentucky-based Big Ass Fans, best known for its eponymous industrial ceiling fans, and the maker of the luxurious Haiku line of smart, app-enabled residential ceiling fans. Earlier this year, the company rolled out a new "uplight" accessory for Deep recessed downlight those Haiku models that casts decorative light up onto the ceiling. Then, when the pandemic hit, the company thought back to 2011, when it teamed with an architecture firm to equip a hospital in Rwanda with ceiling fans to help improve the efficacy of wall-mounted UV sanitizers used to kill pathogens like tuberculosis.  
  
There have been LED spotlights and smaller lights for years, but now people can buy LED bulbs that give out as much light as a 60-watt incandescent and are designed for use just about anywhere. And rather than purchase them online or in a specialty store, they will be available at Home Depot, Lowes, and no doubt other familiar retail outlets next year.  
  
The amount of light the A19 gives off--429 lumens--is just not enough for my small home office, for example. But here's where I'm on the fence. It seemed to work better in an old architect desk lamp, but it felt a tad dim from a single fixture on the ceiling.  
  
It was your classic light bulb moment: What if that uplight was a UV sanitizer, with the ceiling fan pulling air up into its disinfection zone? With a head start on the legwork, the company scrambled to action.  
  
Unlike CFLs, there's no mercury, the light is instant, and turning lights on and off shouldn't degrade their useful life, according to manufacturers. LED lighting has got a lot going for it. The lights can be far more efficient than other types of lights, and the bulbs are supposed to last for tens of thousands of hours--enough to last 20 or 30 years depending on usage.  
  
Pricing hasn't been set yet, but Gibler projects that the 60-watt equivalent will cost about $35. (That's one reason why businesses, in the near term, are a more likely customer for LEDs since they are more apt to consider the total cost of ownership.) The savings over time will be compelling enough for some consumers, but that's still a lot of money for a single light bulb.  
  
The tests will be similar to before -- but this time, they'll be testing for efficacy against the virus that causes COVID-19, not a man-made stand-in.  Last week, Big Ass Fans began a new round of tests with Innovative Bioanalysis, a certified safety research laboratory in California. We'll know soon if the company's math checks out.  
  
Compelling claims "Seamlessly integrated atop the fan, Haiku's UVC fixture directs invisible light upward, killing up to 99.9% of viruses, bacteria, mold, and other harmful airborne agents that pass through the disinfection zone," the company promises. "Haiku's powerful air mixing improves circulation within the space, bringing more pathogens into the disinfection zone and halting the spread of disease."  
  
But at this point, I'm awfully close to ditching CFLs for the latest in lighting technology: LEDs. I more or less ditched incandescent bulbs for more-efficient compact fluorescents in my house years ago.  
  
Thomas Edison wouldn't recognize most of the products in the EcoSmart line; they are cone-shaped bulbs with fins that act as heat sinks, and they have flat tops where the light source goes. These are spotlights, great for casting a beam of light from above your kitchen counter or perhaps for an outdoor flood light.  
  
And LEDs for everyday use are pricey and unlikely to be stocked in your neighborhood hardware store. The other knock (or feature, depending on your usage) on LEDs has been that they direct light. The downside of LEDs, feature-wise, has always been the light color; the blueish light LEDs have traditionally had feels cold, particularly compared with the warm glow from incandescent and halogen bulbs. That makes them great for spotlights but not good for a desk lamp.  
  
The race: Lumens per watt per dollar   
I installed the 40-watt equivalent, branded the EcoSmart A19 by Home Depot, and a couple of others around my house a few weeks ago and they've fit in nicely. And they sip juice: the A19 is rated at 8.6 watts but it used just 6 watts when I tested it with my power meter. An Energy Star-qualified CFL would use 9 to 13 watts for similar output. The first thing you notice is that the light is white, not yellow like my CFLs.  
  
The best part is that the prices are coming down. The 40-watt equivalent general light bulb from Lighting Science Group, which is dimmable, costs just under $20. You can buy it online now and in Home Depot stores later this month, along with the LEDs from other manufacturers, including a ceiling down light from Cree.  
  
"Mid-March, all of a sudden, it's kind of, wait a minute, we're already working on an uplight," says Big Ass Fans spokesperson Alex Risen. "And yeah, we put about four months of additional research and engineering to make sure that we're doing this the right way, but we were already 90% there.