Jake Dyson light – now available in Australia

When you grow up as the son of James Dyson it’s in your genes to pick up a pencil and sketch, but to turn that sketching into engineering innovation the likes of which James Dyson has over his career is a whole other thing.

I met Jake Dyson this week, and having met his father James in the past let me tell you the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree in that family.  Jake is passionate about his design, his innovation and quite simply he may be the most passionate person on the planet when it comes to lighting.

Listen to the full interview below, or in this week’s episode of Your Tech Life.

What Jake worked out what that lighting design in our offices and homes hadn’t changed with the introduction of LED lights, and at the same time LED lights are being produced without any thought going into their longevity and consistency.

You can walk down a corridor lit by multiple LED downlight and you’ll find some are different colours to others because over time the heat from the LED actually burns and cracks the tiny little yellow cover over the actual semi-conductor that creates the light.  Complex stuff that I’ve dumb down deluxe, but trust me, LEDs might seem amazing as downlights but often the compromises in place to make them work aren’t that great.

So, Jake and his team bought a bunch of laptops on eBay, they pulled them apart to work out how the semiconductors in computers were cooled – and they found a heat pipe.  Originally used on Satellites, this brilliant bit of metal is actually a sealed pipe.  Inside it – a single drop of water and a vacuum.  That’s right there’s no air, and just a single drop of water.

What happens when you place that near heat is that it quickly transfers the heat along the pipe dissipating the heat from the source.

In the case of LED lights this keeps the light cool while funnelling the heat away.

And with that, Jake Dyson Light was created.

The consumer product using this technology is the CSYS – the CSYS uses a 3-axis gliding arm to position the lamp where you want it, and at the end of that arm are tiny LEDs which position the light perfectly below.

This is not just a lamp, it’s rethinking the lamp.  The CSYS name and design comes from the 3-axis drawing board used by designers and architects and the idea that a light should simply point clearly and brightly at the place it is required is a simple but game changing one.

Why do we light our whole lounge room when we really just need a light over our shoulder on the book we want to read?

I’ll stop you right there and tell you that much like the other innovative products from Dyson – there’s a price to pay for the design, research, development and high-quality construction of these products.  The CSYS desk light is an $850 product. The Floor light is $1,200.  And for a clamp version $850.

Once you get past that, you can consider the impressive concept that this is.

At home, right now it’s a luxury, no doubt.  But leaving Jake this week made me wonder just why each light in our rooms at home was there.  Why do we have a big light in the middle of every room?  Why not just have lights in those areas where they are needed – this alone would change the design and energy use of any home, but perhaps it is in commercial spaces where Jake might have the most impact in the years ahead.

His office downlight is something special.  A single (HUGE) LED provides a vast amount of light, and the cooling system is built into the overall design.  This light could be hung above a board room table and provide light for the whole space.  Likewise for workstations in an open office.

When I asked Jake about the obvious first issue for any corporate fit-out consideration – cost, he was upbeat.  Turns out that because this single light can replace many many flouro style installations today there are genuine up front and life of the area cost benefits.

A very interesting space, one that you’d have to agree has basically not seen any change in a very very long time.

Expect to hear and see more from Jake Dyson light in the years ahead.