Dell laptops to be 100% mercury free by October 2009
Sep 29, 2008 13:37I am amazed how Dell is constantly setting new green standards for this industry. The last time, they set a goal that the Dell US office must be 100% carbon-neutral by end of this year. It achieved this five months ahead of schedule. Now, Dell has a new goal - within 12 months, all new laptops must be 100% mercury-free.
They plan to reach this green target by switching from using cold cathode fluorescent lamp (CCFL) to light-emitting diode (LED).
How Stuff Works explains how Fluorescent Lamps light up your LED display
A fluorescent light is most often a long straight glass tube that produces white light. Inside the glass tube there is a low-pressure mercury vapor. When ionized, mercury vapor emits ultraviolet light.
Human eyes are not sensitive to ultraviolet light (although the human skin is). The inside of a fluorescent light is coated with phosphor. Phosphor is a substance that can accept energy in one form and emit the energy in the form of visible light.
For example, energy from a high-speed electron in a TV tube is absorbed by the phosphors that make up the pixels. The light we see from a fluorescent tube is the light given off by the phosphor coating the inside of the tube. The phosphorfluoresces when energized, hence the name.
Cold-cathode fluorescent lamps (CCFL) are already a step ahead of fluorescent lamps.
The CCFL contain half the mercury of conventional "hot cathode" fluorescents. They have a thinner tube diameter, which allows them to run cooler, and last up to four times as long (a lifespan of 25,000 hours).
This means that the mercury is reduced by 85% over the life of a cold cathode bulb, because a regular CFL would have to be replaced three times during that period.
But Light Emitting Diode (LED) is even better than CCFL because it is smaller, lasts longer, generates very little heat, doesn't waste precious energy to generate heat, and is 100% mercury free.
Dell's U.S. customers can get the first LED lighted laptop as early as this December 15th.
- Latitude E4200,
- Latitude E4300
- Latitude E6400
- Latitude E6400 ATG
- Latitude E6500.
Also shipping with LED back lighting as a standard display:-
By the way, Dell is not the first pc maker to use LED technology.
- Dell Precision™ M2400
- Dell Precision™ M4400
Apple has been shipping Macbook Pros that uses LED backlighting as early as June 2007. Click to see the side-by-side comparison of a Macbook Pro that uses CCFL vs a Macbook Pro that uses LED at Engadget.com.
We can also expect more pc makers to use LED backlighting in the near future as the display makers - Samsung, Sony, TMD, et cetera, have already showcased their displays that uses LED backlighting.
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