<Electricity Savings><Overall Savings><Safety><How They work><Beauty>

Foreverbright™ lights won’t burn out or break for twenty years!

These patent pending light strings look similar to conventional miniature lights, but the similarities stop there. As their name implies, Foreverbright™ lights are rated for up to 200,000 hours of use - or almost 23 years.

Electricity Savings
Foreverbright™ lights achieve high brightness with only a small fraction of energy. Instead of consuming about 50 Watts per string of 100 (conventional mini-lights), Foreverbright™ lights use only a few Watts of power. The 80-90% savings in electricity quickly adds up. Each string can save dollars per month, as the following chart shows:



For example, if five light strings are used 8 hours a day, and the electricity rate is only 8 cents (national average), Foreverbright™ lights will save 5 dollars every month. Go back up

Overall Savings
Foreverbright™ lights may initially cost slightly more than conventional lights but they more than pay for themselves within a single season. With typical seasonal usage, and assuming that conventional lights are replaced every 2 years, the following dollar savings chart results:



For example, with 5 light strings, and again only the national average rate for electricity (8 cents), Foreverbright™ lights save $150 in five seasons! Go back up

Safety
Foreverbright™ lights are unbreakable, constructed of solid flameproof epoxy plastic. They also operate much cooler than conventional lights, making them safer to use either indoors or out. Patent pending circuitry allows them to be plugged directly into a household power outlet (120 VAC), without bulky transformers or other heat producing components. They can be used interchangeably with conventional lights.

With all of these features, customers won't have to ever throw Foreverbright™ light strings away. In fact, because they use so little power, customers will most likely continue to find more and more uses for additional light strings over time. Go back up

How They Work
Foreverbright™ lights use Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs), now considered "the greatest invention in lighting since Edison's light bulb in 1879." LEDs are rapidly replacing light bulbs in a variety of high reliability applications, including traffic lights, brake lights, and emergency exit signs.

LEDs are constructed from tiny solid-state chips similar to those used in computers. These chips directly convert electricity to light without the use of a filament or glass bulb. Instead, the chips are encapsulated in solid plastic that can be made into a variety of shapes and sizes. Basic differences between conventional light bulbs and LEDs are shown as follows:



Since LEDs have no filament, there is nothing to burn out and no need for a breakable bulb. Without the burning filament, very little heat is produced.

The principle behind LEDs, while complicated, can be made easy to understand. An LED is a special type of diode and is similar to a transistor. Diodes and transistors are "solid state" devices that are made from semiconductors such as silicon. The semiconductor is made to contain two types of special impurities. The first type of impurity, called "N" for negative, is a material with an excess of electrons. The other type of impurity, called "P" for positive, has a deficiency of electrons in "holes." These two kinds of impurities are dispersed into the semiconductor at different regions, so that a "P-N junction," or active layer, is created at the border.

Semiconductors do not freely conduct electricity like materials such as copper but, instead, they can be made to conduct electricity under certain conditions. For diodes and transistors, this amounts to connecting electric power across the junction to make the "P" side more positive and the "N" side more negative. When this happens, electricity flows freely across the "P-N junction" and the electrons fill up the holes. The laws of physics describe the energy between electrons and holes, and show that this energy is a fixed amount, depending on the materials. LEDs differ from ordinary diodes in that the "P" and "N" materials take this energy and convert it to photons, or light. Since the energy involved is a fixed amount, the light that results has only a single wavelength, or color. Using different materials for the "P" and "N" impurities enables the light to be manufactured in different colors.

The first LEDs were introduced by General Electric in 1962. These LEDs came only in red, the lowest energy of all visible light colors. In the 1970s, yellow and green were introduced, along with intermediate colors such as orange. But back then the materials used were inefficient - very little light was produced for each Watt of electric power used. Conventional light bulbs are also very inefficient, yielding at best only about 6% of their electric power used in the form of light. The rest of this power turns into heat, as one finds out quickly when touching a lighted bulb. Over the years, LED efficiency, brightness, and lowered cost have exploded in parallel with computer components. Today, LED power efficiency surpasses that of a fluorescent and is increasing, with 75% efficiency on the horizon. This growth in LED efficency is shown in the following figure, where yellow and orange are similar to red:



Costs have plummeted such that bright red, yellow, green and intermediate colors are now pennies apiece. With the introduction of blue in the 1990s, LEDs now come in a full palette of colors, including pure white. Blue and white are presently too expensive for most applications, costing dimes instead of pennies each, but this should change within a few years.

LEDs have also evolved to last much longer. Today, LED lifetimes are not specified by a time to burnout because it simply takes too long to measure. Instead, LED lifetime is specified at time when a barely noticeable loss of light occurs. This lifetime is about 100,000 hours, or more than eleven years of time. If the LED is off for any portion of time, then this lifetime increases. Conventional light bulbs are typically rated at about 1000-2000 hours or so before they burn out. But even this rating assumes that the light bulbs are not turned off and on, and that they are not jarred in any fashion. Anyone familiar with Christmas light strings is experienced with burnout.

Foreverbright™ lights are built with patent pending circuitry to maximize efficiency of their LEDs. This revolutionary design concept eliminates the use of traditional components that add to cost and generate heat. While details are proprietary, in essence the circuitry allows the LEDs to flash on and off with AC power. Like a television set, the flashing occurs sixty times per second and is invisible to the eye. By flashing the LEDs on and off this way, the circuit can be made at least twice as efficient as is possible with traditional LED circuitry. In addition, the overall LED lifetime is more than twice as long, since the LEDs are off more than half of the time. Unlike conventional light bulbs, particularly fluorescent bulbs, switching LEDs off and on does not affect their longevity. The result is a cheaper, safer, and longer lasting product with less power consumption than could otherwise be designed. Lifetime is predicted to be over twenty years of continuous use, and much longer if just used seasonally.
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Beautiful Design
At first glance, the flameproof bulbs in Foreverbright™ lights look like bright conventional miniature light bulbs. A closer examination, however, reveals that Foreverbright™ lights have slightly different shape. This shape has facets that create a unique shimmering effect, with different light levels when viewed at certain angles. The result is striking, particularly as the lights shimmer in the breeze outdoors or one walks around the tree or other object being lighted indoors.

This latest development in decorative lighting technology promises to change the way people decorate their homes, businesses, and even towns for many years to come. Less power consumption, longer product life, and durability without the hazards of excess heat build-up should make the holiday season brighter, safer, and ecologically more sound.