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SSL Promises Brighter but Not Necessarily Greener Future, Sandia Researchers Say
SSLDesign News Staff
August 24, 2010...While solid state lighting may have a lower cost of ownership and use less electricity, this does not necessarily translate to less electrical usage around the world, according to a paper published in the Journal of Physics D.
Proponents of solid-state light-emitting devices (LEDs) have predicted that using LEDs would lower electrical usage worldwide, not only “greenly” decreasing the need for new power plants but even permitting some to be decommissioned.
However, researchers from Sandia National Laboratories argue that people may just use more light if it is made less costly.
“Presented with the availability of cheaper light, humans may use more of it, as has happened over recent centuries with remarkable consistency following other lighting innovations,” said Sandia lead researcher Jeff Tsao. “That is, rather than functioning as an instrument of decreased energy use, LEDs may be instead the next step in increasing human productivity and quality of life.”
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Cree Introduces XLamp MX-3 LED
LIGHTimes News Staff
August 24, 2010...Cree of Durham, North Carolina USA, announced the commercial availability of the new 100+ lumen lighting-class PLCC XLamp MX-3 LED. The MX-3 boasts Cree's lighting-class performance and enhanced light uniformity and LED-to-LED color consistency. The cool white (6500K) version of the MX-3 delivers luminous flux of up to 122 lm at 350 mA, and the warm white (3500K) offers up to 100 lm at 350 mA. The MX-3 shares a common footprint with Cree's XLamp MX-6 LED. Cree says that the MX-3 is ideal for LED bulbs, retail display lighting, and high-flux distributed illumination such as cove lighting and wall washing.
"The XLamp MX-3 is designed for customers who demand lighting-class performance across their entire product line," said Paul Thieken, Cree director of marketing, LED components. "With the industry's tightest color consistency and uniform angular chromaticity, Cree continues to set performance standards for longevity and consistency."
Cree says that its XLamp MX-3 LEDs are available in sample quantities immediately, and they are available in production quantities with standard lead times.
MSi Lighting Helps Las Vegas Retailer Save Money
SSLDesign News Staff
August 24, 2010...RC Willey, a furniture retailer in Summerlin, Nevada on the western edge of Las Vegas with a 50,000 square-foot showroom decided to replace all of its halogen spotlights.
After doing the math, the company decided to replace the inefficient halogen bulbs with super efficient MSi LED lighting. All of the showroom's 4500 90-watt halogen spotlights were replaced with 10-watt iPAR LED lights. The conversion was a simple matter of unscrewing the old lights and screwing in the new ones. However, the results were immediate and dramatic.
MSi points out that unlike hot burning halogen lights, the efficient LED lights produce very little heat. In fact, within hours of instillation store employees noticed a drop in the showroom's temperature. RC Willey management was able to raise the air conditioner thermostat settings by four degrees. This results in an annual savings of $90,000 in cooling costs alone.
“Many retailers are a little concerned about the initial investment of converting to LED lighting,” said Bruce Johnson, MSi managing partner. “But if they take the time to run the numbers, they’ll see that switching over produces a great return on their investment.”
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Cree Brings LED Lighting to Home Depot
SSLDesign News Staff
August 19, 2010...The Home Depot customers can now purchase an LED luminaire with LED technology from USA-based LED product company, Cree. In a development anticipated in the industry for some time, Cree will make its six-inch LED-downlights available at the home improvement superstore, Home Depot. While numerous other companies have begun offering LED-based bulbs at retailers, this may be the first time that an LED-based downlight is offered to general consumers at a popular retail chain.
Cree's EcoSmart LED Downlight retails for less than $50. The EcoSmart LED Downlight is available now via homedepot.com. Home Depot hopes to make the LED downlights available in nearly 2,000 The Home Depot retail stores in fall 2010.
Cree notes that its EcoSmart LED Downlight was designed to exceed stringent Energy Star criteria. It consumes just 10.5 watts, which is approximately 85-percent less energy than a comparable incandescent and 50-percent less energy than a fluorescent.
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Cleveland City Council Open to Bids for LED Street Light Project and Manufacturing Plant in City
August 19, 2010...LED-based street lights are being adopted by municipal governments around the world as an economical alternative for lighting city streets.
The city of Cleveland, Ohio is uniquely offering an exclusive 10-year contract to supply LED-based street and traffic lights in return for opening a local manufacturing plant that employs city residents.
The city's mayor, Frank Jackson, previously attempted to make a deal with a China-based company for the exclusive contract in exchange for opening a manufacturing plant. However, the city council required that there be a competitive bidding process for the contract.
The person who served as the go-between with the Chinese company was apparently part owner of the Chinese company's North American operations.
On Wednesday, the city council approved the contract and opened the contract up for competitive bids.
The vote was reportedly 12-7. Opponents of the project contract were reportedly fearful that the contract locked the city into a deal that would be too long amid the rapidly evolving LED technology, according to Cleveland's news radio website, WTAM.com.
Mayor Jackson indicated in the article that he hoped the Chinese company would still consider working with the city.
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Commentary & Perspectives...
LED Lighting Summit Buzz: Walking the walk with decision makers
Tom Griffiths - Publisher
August 26, 2010...It's interesting when you arrange something like the LED lighting-focused SSL Summit to see who's really ready to walk the walk, rather than just talking the talk. Here you have an conference that's bringing in real facilities-oriented decision makers that should represent somewhere between 200 and 300 million square feet of commercially managed property in NYC, and that demands the "product visible" companies to meet some basic quality criteria. Suddenly more than a few of the hundreds of manufacturers that you see at the big lighting shows, and in the news, seem to have cold feet. Time to walk the walk.
That's not to say that if a company isn't there that you should assume there's an issue. There are plenty of great companies that are simply looking at where the bodies have to be, and when, and not able to fit it in all into the schedule. "Attend the board meeting or go to the Summit... hmmm. I'll just blow off my investors, they'll understand," says the CEO (not). There are also more than a few startups that simply have $XXX per month to travel on, and those sales calls are already scheduled. Hey, we all have budgets, and the discipline to live with them is one key to success. There are also the ones who haven't heard about it (consciously). We have more than one industry friend who are avid readers, must have the banners in their faces at least weekly, and that reply with, "Oh shoot... I didn't notice the dates. Is that coming up in just a few weeks?" The sign-up typically follows the next day or two, as soon as they have the flights.
There will also be plenty of attending manufacturers that are bringing quality to the market, but didn't choose to be in the sponsor's showcase or didn't get in early enough to have a talk. Lack of product on display is not a measure of whether they have a worthwhile product or not. Those are decisions to be made about promotion and exposure. We all have our opinions on where and how it's best to invest, and we'd all do things differently with an unlimited budget, but no one in their right mind would ever give marketing an unlimited budget. (Insert your favorite political diatribe on government spending programs here for illustration...)
The companies that we find interesting are those big talkers that stormed Lightfair with their "wide range of products" and "great performance", who are suddenly confronted with the possibility of facing actual high-level customers. "We're not quite ready to be there yet." Interesting. If they could get through to the decision makers at all, they'd be qualifying with just the right words such as, "Looks good for availability this fall," when it could be rightly restated as, "If everything went smoother than ever has happened, we can make one available to the labs for testing to see if it comes close to matching what we put on our preliminary spec sheet." I guess that means, "Would look good for availability...". What I suspect they're hoping is that the only thing that will stick is the company name so they can get through again "when they're ready" and start things rolling for real. Good luck with that. Again, don't assume this is condemnation of anyone with a schedule slip versus expectations. If you don't plan aggressively, you won't achieve aggressively, and quite frankly, the only way you know you've gotten to the edge is to slip a bit and catch your balance. Ask anyone in motorsports. You need to go to the edge to find out where the edge is. The talent is in learning to hang on that edge without blowing out of the corner. That's why many, many entrepreneurs have a failure in their past. It's how they learned to do it right (and faster) this time.
So who will you find there? Winners. Not the only winners, but a good representation of companies that are offering competent solutions. All have made mistakes, I am sure, with some of those mistakes being visible and others having escaped the light of day. That decision making audience will also be made up of winners, whether they are designers, consultants or engineers, or personally managing a few million square feet (let's see... 2M sqft x $50/sqft rent makes a tidy little $100M business they're running with an equivalent market cap of a quarter to a half billion). Winners will also be there in lower key ways, even if their product isn't yet to the point they want to shine the kind of spotlight on it that others might. They're winners because they're working to engage with other winners.
Special thanks to our 2010 Summit NY and Series supporters, including diamond sponsors Lithonia Lighting and LEDnovation. Platinum sponsors include Wiedenbach Brown, Greenlight Initiative, Toshiba, Graftech and Array Lighting. This year's showcase participants also so far include Gold sponsors CRS, Cree, and Philips Lumileds.
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Don't miss the SSL Summit Series, kicking off September 14-15 in New York City, conveniently located on Manhattan in the financial district. It's all about quality, so if you are a luminaire manufacturer that would like to connect with some of the top lighting decision makers in the area, you won't find a more efficient two days during this year. Any luminaire manufacturer receiving product visibility is being vetted for basic quality criteria, but if your company doesn't quite have those LM-79 reports and datasheets all matched up yet, fear not. You're absolutely welcome to attend for the top-level networking and "how to get it done" discussions that can make it even more critical that you find your way there. Visit www.SSLsummit.com for series details, or jump directly the NY overview here.
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