greenrightnow.com » Lighting

LED lights debut at Air and Space Museum

BKessler — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 17:04:09 +0000

Green Right Now Reports

Cree’s LED lights will get to show they’re ready for premium uses at a new exhibit at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum in Washington D.C.

Cree, a North Carolina LED manufacturer, will be installing LR24 recessed LED lights at the “Moving Beyond Earth” exhibit at the museum.

The exhibit lights will demonstrate that Cree’s LEDs can replace “high intensity” work lights, are suitable for gallery displays, and still save energy costs, according to a Cree news release.

The Moving Beyond Earth exhibit reviews the history of space flight from the United States and includes a 12-foot tall space shuttle model, parts of the Hubble Space Telescope, and a model of the Ares launch vehicle. The exhibit has 20-foot high ceilings and 5,000 square feet of space and requires stable temperature and humidity levels to protect the historical artifacts, so the LED lights must provide bright but non-heating light.

In addition to producing a bright, even light, the LEDs are lighter weight than the conventional lights they replace, creating less strain on the ceiling. (Something museum goers probably never thought about before.) The lights also save 80 percent of the energy costs of the mercury vapor lights they replace, according to a Cree analysis.

The Air and Space Museum is located on the mall in D.C. The affiliated Udvar Hazy Center is located in suburban D.C., and houses additional space craft and planes, such as the Enola Gay, donated to the museum.

Renaissance Lighting to show new LED light

Laura May — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 18:54:00 +0000

From Green Right Now Reports:

Lighting and energy experts have been scratching their heads for sometime over how to make LED lighting as effective and pleasant as CFLs, because LEDs are even more energy efficient than CFLs.

Renaissance Lighting, based in Herndon, Va., appears to be inching forward in this effort. The company will be showcasing its new, all white solid-state LED downlight fixtures at the LIGHTFAIR International 2009 at the Javits Center in New York City. The new fixtures are brighter than ever and have two and half times greater efficacy.

The new white downlights are available in a full range of light color temperatures and use Constructice Occlustion technology, which produces a uniform, glare-free and efficient output. LED lighting provides an alternative to energy-efficient CFL bulbs, which contain small amounts of mercury.

“In less than a year Renaissance Lighting’s products have made significant gains in breadth, value, price, efficiency, output and overall performance,” said Barry Weinbaum, CEO, in a statement. Technology in the LED lights is still evolving. These lights are available for commercial projects, but not yet available for every day home use.

The LIGHTFAIR International, is a three-day lighting industry trade show and confrence.

Philips Betting On LED Lights

John DeFore — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 13:24:08 +0000

By John DeFore

An item in the New York Times last week served as a good wrap-up of recent developments on the LED front, finding places (beyond traffic lights) where light emitting diodes are getting a toehold as replacements for less energy-efficient lights.

But does it, in newspaper terms, “bury the lead”? Readers who have been led in recent years to think of compact fluorescents as the next phase for common household lighting — and to think of LEDs as specialty items — might perk up at a quote thrown in near the end of the article. There, Kaj den Daas, chairman and C.E.O. of light bulb giant Philips Lighting, declares “we are not spending one dollar on research and development for compact fluorescents.”

Really!? Are CFLs dead before they’re fully accepted — old news while green prophets are still hailing them as one of the main eco-friendly steps every household should take?

While not every expert shares this opinion — the paper cites a Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute scholar who thinks much of the LED talk “is hype” — others appear to feel that the color-spectrum issues and mercury content of today’s CFL will be enough of a road block to let the still very expensive LED catch up. We confirmed this with Philips, whose Felicia Spagnoli (a communications manager in the solid-state lighting division) says “in the past two years alone Philips has spent $4.2 billion on lighting-related acquisitions, all intended to bolster competency in LED lighting” — and that dollar amount doesn’t include staff and resources that have been moved from work on conventional lamps to LED projects.

Spagnoli reports that, despite the well publicized downturn in housing, “Philips Lighting grew 19%” in the second quarter of this year compared to the same period last year, a result the company attributes mainly to LED growth. Furthermore, the company is looking forward to introducing new products to the United States, like the changeable Living Colors fixture (a “mood lamp,” to hear some describe it), that are already available elsewhere.

Most important, she notes that the Department of Energy is helping fund a Philips replacement for 60-watt incandescent bulbs. “With an ultimate performance target of 80 lumens per watt, the fully realized lamp would meet or exceed the efficacy of a majority of conventional light sources.”

Yes: When that bulb arrives, it will cost more than a traditional monofilament — but the company clearly believes it can explain the long-term financial and ecological benefits well enough to sell rings around those curly fluorescents.