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ETC Enters LED Lighting Market
SSLDesign News Staff
February 20, 2009...Entertainment Technology Controls (ETC) announced its acquisition of the Selador product line from Selador co-founders Rob Gerlach and Novella Smith. "We didn't want to make a 'me too' RGB or RGBA product that didn't provide the kind of significant innovation in lighting we strive for," said ETC CEO Fred Foster. "With its exclusive x7 Color System™, the Selador product line produces a far superior quality of color and light to anything that we had seen before in LEDs."
As ETC Marketing Manager David Lincecum explained that the company was immediately impressed by the innovative Selador products and by the people behind them. ETC News Release,
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PIDA Predicts Global LED Street Lamp Shipments to More Than Triple in 2009
February 19, 2009...Taiwan's Photonics Industry & Technology Development Association (PIDA) predicts that the number of units of global shipments of LED street lamps are estimated to grow 224% to 1.46 million units in 2009, according to a recent Digitimes article. The total revenue from the increased number of LED street lamps ordered worldwide will double instead of tripling to US$816 million, a rise of about 99 percent according to Taiwan's Photonics Industry & Technology Development Association (PIDA). This means that the price charged for LED street lamps will go down somewhat in 2009. In 2008, global LED street lamp shipments were 450,000 units with total value of US$410 million. The article pointed out that this was short of previous PIDA predictions of 460,000 units with total value of US$755 million. PIDA estimates that the global shipment value for LED street lamp will further increase to US$1.41 billion in 2010, US$2.3 billion in 2011, and US$3.17 billion in 2012.
Avago Technologies Introduces Small High-Power Packaged LED
LIGHTimes Staff
February 19, 2009...Avago Technologies has introduced a 1-Watt, miniature LED that it says features robust package design, wide viewing angle, and extended operating life. The entire small outline package measures 5mm x 4mm and is 1.85 mm thick. The company notes that the ASMT-Jx1x is capable of being driven at 350 mA to provide high flux output performance. The company says that the reliable LED with a wide viewing angle has moisture sensitivity level-one (MSL 1) capability, According to the company, the competitively priced LED is ideal for applications portable lighting appliances, street lighting, architectural facade lighting, retail display lighting, backlighting and specialty lighting applications. Company News Release, SSL Design PageTwo members login for more. Guests can view membership details.
Seoul Semiconductor’s Acriche Decorates Business Center in Saint Petersburg, Russia
SSLDesign News Staff
February 13, 2009...Seoul Semiconductor's CEO Chung Hoon Lee, announced on Wednesday February 11, 2009 that a project to replace outdoor lightings of a Senator business center in Saint Petersburg, Russia, with exclusive solid state light, Acriche, has been completed by Vitrulux Oy, a Russian lighting expert company.
The historic Senator business center is located in St. Petersburg, the second largest city of Russia. Recently, the building has been transformed with 3,000 of Seoul Semiconductor’s Acriche.
According to Senator’s spokesman, Acriche was said to be excellent in control of light features and viewing angle compared to conventional fluorescent lights. Also, he said that while the lifespan of existing fluorescent lightings was less than 10,000 hrs, Acriche lighting fixtures could be operated for over 30,000 hrs. He noted that the lifetime could steeply cut maintenance costs. He also noted that while the existing T5 type of fluorescent lightings consumed 36W, just Acriche lighting fixtures did 20W with 45 percent of energy savings. Seoul Semiconductor News Release,
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Orvis Outlet Store Installs LED Lighting Throughout
SSLDesign News Staff
February 13, 2009...One location of of the Orvis sporting goods store is showcasing the benefits of LED lighting for non-profit, Efficiency Vermont. At an outlet store Orvis, has reportedly switched its lighting to LEDs. According to the company, the change that took place six months ago has saved the company about 8,365 kilowatt hours per month. According to the Communications and Conservation Manager of Orvis, James Hathaway, this translates to decreasing the stores carbon dioxide emissions by 8,365 pounds per month, according to an article in the Manchester Journal. SSL Design PageTwo members login for more. Guests can view membership details.
Cooper Lighting's Halo LED Receives Energy Star Approval
February 13, 2009...Cooper Lighting's Halo LED recessed downlight is reportedly the first to receive the Energy Star rating for solid state lighting (SSL). Cooper Lighting points out that the Energy Star SSL standard provides assurances of performance, lifetime, color, and efficacy in lumens per watt. So far no other downlights have met the stringent and somewhat controversial requirements to meet the Energy Star SSL standards. This however is likely to change soon. Philips Lumileds recently put a tool for comparing test results to the Energy Star SSL standard. While this was not the likely method that Cooper lighting used to help verify its downlight, It will likely help others. It still requires independent testing, but analyzing the results just got easier with Philips Lumileds free online resource.
Thermal Models for Osram LEDs Online
LIGHTimes Staff
February 12, 2009...Osram Opto Semiconductors has announced that it is making its thermal models for computing different LED designs available online. The thermal models for the first time will be available for download. In addition to electrical, mechanical and optical data, a compact model for Flotherm software is now permanently available at www.Osram-os.com/thermal-files for calculating thermal behavior. Company News Release, SSL Design PageTwo members login for more. Guests can view membership details.
Renaissance Lighting Launches RGB Downlight with Color Management System
SSLDesign News Staff
February 5, 2009...Renaissance Lighting has introduced architectural grade RGB LED downlights with its Rhapsody Color Management System. The company boasts that its RGB downlight is the most efficient and most powerful on the market. According to the Herdon, Virginia-based company, its Rhapsody Color Management systems is a unique technology for the creation of intelligent, state-of-the-art lighting effects for these new downlight fixtures. Renaissance Lighting says its product launch is augmented by the launch of what it says is the first square-aperture RGB downlight. The company touts the improved efficiency and increased flexibility of its 4-inch and 7-inch fixtures. Also, Renaissance says that the fixtures have increased overall light output. Company News Release, SSL Design PageTwo members login for more. Guests can view membership details.
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Commentary & Perspectives...
Report Pt. II: US DOE's 2009 Solid State Lighting Workshop
Guest Editorial - Shawn Keeney, LED Transformations
February 20, 2009...Our guest editorial is a conclusions of a two-part report on the recent US Department of Energy "Transformations in Lighting", held this year in San Francisco, February 3rd through 5th. You can read part one here.
The second day of the workshop began with a panel on the theme of “defining quality SSL products.” Speakers included James Brodrick, the DOE’s SSL Program Manager, Richard Karney, DOE’s Energy Star Program Manager, Mia Paget of Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, and Fred Welsh of Radcliffe Advisors.
Mr. Karney gave a presentation on the latest developments in the Energy Star program. As of the date of the conference there have been only three products which have completed qualification, although several more are in the queue. Certified products include Cooper’s “Halo Downlight” and Kichler’s “Design Pro” under-cabinet system and Kichler’s “Rail light” system. Mr. Karney mentioned reasons that have inhibited more products from getting certified sooner include the delay in getting LM-80 finalized and glitches in the online submittal process.
Next, Ms. Paget gave us an update on CALiPER test results. This round included some side-by-side testing of luminaires using LED, halogen, and CFL sources. In general, the LEDs showed better efficacy than halogen and similar efficiency to CFL, but the overall light output is still lower than either source. Also noteworthy was a side-by-side comparison of a bollard using either LEDs or metal halide which showed considerably better efficiency and lumen output. Her data also showed that while there is a trend towards improved efficiency in the SSL products, there is actually a widening gap between the highest and lowest performing products, which indicates that there are still a number of products on the market with less than satisfactory performance.
Mr. Welsh spoke about the SSL Quality Advocates program along with the "Lighting Facts" Label. The objective of the voluntary program is to provide consumers with accurate information on SSL products. For a manufacturer to put the label on their product, they must obtain an LM-79 test report from a certified test lab. The label, which is somewhat reminiscent of the USDA nutrition facts label, lists the light output, power consumption, efficacy, CRI, and color temperature. What is notably missing is any information regarding how long the product is expected to last, which is something found on almost all light bulb packages.
Finally, Mr. Brodrick presented an update on the L Prize competition, a government-sponsored program which offers multimillion dollar prizes to anyone who can develop a 90 lm/W A-lamp replacement or 123 lm/W PAR38 replacement. While this may seem like a tantalizing pursuit for the independent inventor working out of his garage, the odds are that the prize will be claimed by one of the large companies already having a vested interest in the lighting industry. This is mainly because in addition to the stringent technical requirements, 2000 “prototypes” must be supplied upfront for qualification testing. Furthermore, entrants must demonstrate that they are capable of producing the winning design in quantities of 250,000 or more in the first year and meet a cost target of $8 within 3 years. Also, worth noting, is that the product must use LED chips produced in the US. Full details on the requirements are available on the L Prize website.
The next sessions were dedicated to presentations on Significant DOE R&D Projects. Special recognition was given to several individuals for their achievements, and each person was given an opportunity to give a presentation on their work. I will not go into great detail on each topic, as most of them were highly technical. Some of the noteworthy topics included improving green emitters at 555 nm, optimizing RGB OLEDs for maximum efficiency and color quality, improving performance of blue and white OLEDs, and improving phosphor systems for warm white LEDs.
The remainder of the time on day 2 as well as a good portion of day 3 (over 5 hours total) was dedicated to breakout sessions where attendees were split into groups (3 LED and 1 OLED) to discuss future R&D priorities. Theoretically it's supposed to provide the DOE with a group consensus of where they should be funneling the pot of grant money. In other words, should more money be put into core research, or should it be shifted towards solving product development issues? As usual though, I don't think there was really much of a consensus since everyone has their own interests and agenda. Even in areas such as thermal management and driver electronics reliability, there was agreement that it was important, but no resolution as to how spending government money will fix the problems (what else is new?).
Day three began with a very informative presentation from Avraham Mor, a lighting designer with Lightswitch Architectural in Chicago, about “What Architects and Designers Want from SSL.” A couple of his criticisms included products not being designed with easy replacement in mind as well as receiving inaccurate and misleading information from manufacturers. As an example, he used a specific project involving a cove lighting application in a new hotel. Some of the problems he faced were the need to install large numbers of drivers and junction boxes, unreasonable payment requirements, vendors not being able to understand architectural plans, 0-10V dimming too complicated and costly, needing LM-79 reports, luminaire binning and end-of-life policies, and finally, trying to get samples to evaluate. I think this offered a valuable insight into the current state of the SSL industry: there are too many products out there that do not take the end user into consideration! Even a well-designed product that is too costly or difficult to use, or lacking in customer service support, will not be successful.
The last highlight of the conference was the announcement of the 2008 Lighting for Tomorrow competition winners. The recipients included Jeff Dross of Kichler Lighting for the “Design Pro” Under-cabinet System, Tim O’Sullivan of Cree LED Lighting Solutions for the LR4 Down light, and Frank Shum of Luximo for the Cylindrium Desk/Task Light. More information on the winning designs and the runners-up is available on the Lighting for Tomorrow website.
All in all the conference was useful and informative. It gave us a broad picture of the current state of SSL and reminded us that while there have been a number of significant breakthroughs and achievements, we still have a long road ahead until there is widespread of adoption of the technology. It will be several years before we see an LED bulb in every socket. While the DOE will continue to provide a leadership role, it will ultimately be the commercial, industrial and residential end users of the products who will need to "see it with their own eyes", and will determine the pace of adoption.
Shawn Keeney is Vice President of LED Transformations LLC. and can be reached via email at skeeney@ledtransformations.com. Bringing to the table 30 years of experience in electronics, illumination, optics, thermal management and manufacturing, LED Transformations provides its solid state lighting clients with support for luminaire and lighting project design, development and deployment as well as education and training in LED fundamentals.
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