When the four winners of this year’s DOE L-Prize Concept Phase were announced, Don Peifer was listening on his phone while walking his dogs Kitsu and Fiona. He thought he’d heard “Smash the Bulb”. As the protagonist in Queen’s “Sleeping on the Sidewalk” states, “What you sayin’, are you playin’? Surely you don’t mean me?” Don felt the same way.
But, it was him, and his tiny little start up, Smash the Bulb, had earned the $20,000 prize money. Don had some skepticism with his submittal, as he felt that only the ‘bigs’ were going to win this L-Prize. He explained, “Frankly, I had a reason to think that, because the requirements for the Concept Phase were so extensive, and they covered so much area, such as in controls or load-shedding. All those extra elements were a little bit disconcerting. It was one of the reasons I thought it was a pipe dream.”
Don’s submittal is a uniquely designed indirect luminaire with specific optics to achieve excellent uniformity while minimizing to almost zero optical losses. To accomplish this lofty goal, Don teamed up with Bridgelux since he was looking for a company who had holistic solutions, from LEDs to drivers to control modules.
Don utilized 3D printing in his design process to develop a unique form factor with emphasis on the importance of the indirect component and the capabilities to have a separate and equally optically efficient downlight portion. He stated that he 3D prints like crazy, and it has always been a part of his process in building luminaires. He starts with CAD, but sometimes when the prototype is made, it looks significantly different than in CAD. Occasionally, the aspect ratios will be wrong or too cumbersome. Lean manufacturing was part of his catalyst for creating this product for the L-Prize. He stated, “I wanted to eliminate all these extra components that people put in. And part of that was I just wanted to wrestle the costs to the ground.”
He went on to say, “It is kind of a lonely endeavor. My ideas push the boundaries to constantly innovate and to look at what we have and to reject it and find a better way to deconstruct the project.” He mused, “I wonder how you can make that better. I wonder how you can change it.”
As Don said, “When you are working in a vacuum like that, you don’t get a lot of feedback.” He appreciates that the L-Prize is an affirmation that he is doing the right thing. He explained, “I started Smash the Bulb in 2011, just as a holding company for consulting work.” He added, “Getting the feedback from the Secretary of Energy about liking the name was a relief, too, because I had a lot of pushback regarding the name.”
A couple of days after the announcement, you would think Don would still be on cloud 9 about the L-Prize, but that is not the case. He explained, “I’ve had monumental things like this happen in the past: a Division 1A track and field scholarship, designing lighting for Annie Leibovitz, raising venture capital, getting Apple retail business…it wears off pretty quick and sets off the search for the next opportunity. I’m focused on the next L-Prize prototype round and the public launch of STB.”
As famed designer Karl Lagerfeld, borrowing from Elbert Hubbard, always opined, “If you want something done, give it to a busy person. A busy person knows how to get things done.”