Michael Kanellos 06 09 09, 12:49 PM

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TV Tube Light Bulb Guys Get New CEO After Missing Milestones

Vu1, a Seattle-area startup that is working on an energy-efficient bulb that in some ways is technically similar to an old TV tube, has switched CEOs as it tries to gird for the future.

R. Gale Sellers, the company founder, will take over as CEO, replacing David Grieger. It is also looking for $7 million in debt financing. As part of the new job, Sellers will try to focus the company on technological development and managing its technology. Last year, the company said it would try to start seling bulbs by Earth Day, which has come and gone. It does have prototypes.

The company has created an energy-efficient flood light for homes that functions conceptually in the same way as that old TV tube in the basement. The bulb is more energy efficient than a TV, can light a room better than a set, and won't be used to paint images on walls, but the idea is essentially the same. An integrated electron source fires electrons at a phosphor-coated glass. The phosphor then gets excited and emits light.

Although like a TV tube, the architecture – which the company calls electron stimulated luminescence – differs substantially from other conventional or solid-state light sources on the market. "It is not induction lighting. It is not plasma. It is not fluorescent. It is not halogen. It is not LED," said Ron Davis, the chief marketing officer, last year. "It is a combination of three technologies we have merged over the last four and a half years."

You're going to see a lot of new types of bulbs in the coming years. Light consumes 22 percent of the electricity in the U.S. and it is not particularly deployed efficiently. Some of the names to watch: Eden Park Illumination, Lumiette, Luxim, Luminus Devices, Bridgelux, Adura Technologies, HID Laboratories, Metrolight. Oh, and GE and Philips.