Electron Stimulated Luminescence - new bulbs

These bulbs produce 40 lumens per watt, compared to 7-24 for incandescent, 12-36 for halogen, 44-80 for CFL, and 30-60 for LED. Although CFL and LED are more efficient, LED light bulbs are still ridiculously expensive and not exactly easy to find suppliers of non-sucky bulbs, and CFLs can't really be dimmed and have mercury. This new ESL bulb however is at the low end of CFL efficiency, yet:

• no mercury
• balanced light quality (less harsh than CFL or LED)
• instant on, unlike CFL's warmup period.
• dimmable. Although there are some dimmable CFLs (i have read they suck), and LED's can be through circuitry tricks. 
• Not susceptible to heat, where CFLs and LEDs lose efficiency in heat.
• 6000 hour life. incandescent is at most 1000, and CFLs claim up to 10,000, yea right...
• non-toxic, so home recyclable, unlike CFL.
• apparently MUCH cleaner to manufacture, since LEDs produce a lot of waste in the manufacturing process.

I gotta say, if this all is true, sign me up. I want dimmable bulbs that don't eat watts. They are expected to be released first quarter of 2009, and will cost about $14 per bulb. I am sure that price will come down rapidly once people catch on.

The one thing that annoyed me reading through the marketing hype was the "brand new technology" claims. It's only new in a bulb, but not in general, since after all it is basically the same principle as a CRT TV/monitor. Electrons excite phosphors, which then emit light, if I understood correctly. That's a tv tube.

They do seem to understand the market need however, since they will initially be targeting the bulb sizes that are typically used in recessed lighting, such as kitchens and living rooms, which are places you want to dim the lights, and have avoided putting in CFLs probably.

I would be really curious to test these out and will be keeping an eye on them.