Energy Saving with LED Fluorescent Lights

There are millions of general service fluorescent tubes in the market place today, until recently these were considered the most energy efficient lighting solution available. The downside to this for of lighting is that each tube contains a small amount of mercury vapour, a toxic heavy metal. This can provide not just a health risk when the tubes are broken, but can also accumulate in landfills before entering the water table or causing further pollution.

Fluorescent lamps use electricity to excite mercury vapour inside the glass tube and always require a ballast to regulate the flow of power through the lamp. A starter is in the circuit to heat the contact ends of the tube that ionizes the mercury vapour creating UV light. The inside of the tube is coated with a phosphor material that glows when exposed to the UV light produced by the mercury inside the fluorescent tube.

Recent developments in SMD (Surface Mount Diode) LED technology have now meant that LED based fluorescent tubes are now a reality. LEDs are a more efficient form of lighting product consisting of small chips of conductive material that release light when a current is applied to them. They contain no filaments and can produce up to 25 times more light per watt than conventional light bulbs.

LEDs require far less energy in their manufacture than fluorescent tubes, and only 3% of the energy they will consume over their life expectancy is consumed in their manufacture, and they are also produced from non toxic materials. The tubes are made from polycarbonate, a material that is more robust and durable than glass, so accidents will not require special cleanup procedures.

While LED technology is more expensive than existing fluorescents at face value, they will last up to 10 times as long, while consuming 65% less energy. In most general purpose lighting applications they additional cost of the LED technology will more than pay for itself within the first 18 months.

The only drawback is the tighter beam angle of the LEDs, while some tubes are manufactured from a polycarbonate light diffusing material, others have a narrow focus which may not be suitable for replacing existing tubes. Many fluorescent fixtures are designed with reflectors that help to distribute the light from the tubes evenly in their intended environment. This is a problem similar to what was faced when compact fluorescents began replacing incandescent light bulbs, this is a problem that will soon be overcome and allow faster adoption of this emerging lighting technology.

The Advantages of LED Lights

As we all know that the future of energy efficient lighting is LED. Not only are LED’s environmentally friendly, the light represents a true white light. A recent press release printed in the Village News on ways to cut energy expenditures missed the mark completely.

Although it is true that CFL bulbs do save energy, they also contain mercury, which is a hazardous material, and these bulbs cannot be disposed of easily. If the bulb is broken, there is a huge problem because the mercury is disbursed throughout the area.

The future in lighting is the use of LED (light emitting diodes) lamps.

First, the operational life of current white LED lamps approaches 100,000 hours. The key strength of LED lighting is reduced power consumption approaching 80 percent efficiency, compared to an incandescent lamp, which operates at about 20 percent efficiency. LED lamps are now available on the Internet and at Wal-Mart.

If, in fact, a bulb burns out in your lifetime, it can be disposed of easily and if broken there is no contamination.

I would urge all Village News readers to learn about LEDs and stop purchasing the dangerous CFL mercury contained lamps.

The folks responsible for traffic lights have started replacing the red, yellow and green lamps with LEDs; you can distinguish the LED lamp because the light is made up of clusters of round LEDs which make up the light.

I recently purchased a GE PAR 30 long neck LED lamp at Wal-Mart to try in my kitchen ceiling. I am very pleased and it only draws 10 watts of power, compared to the 65 watt incandescent bulb that the LED replaced.

Comparing Xenon Lights and LED Light

An updated study has been published by Limited, developer of thin-form supercapacitors that compare flash solutions for camera phones — xenon, standard LEDs powered by a battery, and high-current LEDs powered by a supercapacitor using the company’s BriteFlash(TM) power architecture. The study tested each solution’s ability to deliver the light energy needed to take digital-still-camera-quality pictures in low-light conditions, and also compared shutter requirements, ease of design-in, safety and size.

The original report from October 2006 compared light power and energy using 1.3 to 3.2-megapixel camera phones. The new report includes data from 5-megapixel camera phones released in the last year, and also considers advancements in camera sensors, xenon flash units, high-power white LEDs (WLEDS) and LED flash drivers.

Tests again showed that the LED BriteFlash approach delivers more light energy than most xenon flashes in a thin form factor suitable for slim camera phones and digital cameras.

Clear pictures in dim environments require sufficient light energy — the total amount of light received by each pixel in the camera sensor — during image-capture time. “People often wrongly assume that light power, which is the brightness or intensity of the flash, is the key because it’s what draws our attention, but it’s really the light energy that counts,” said Pierre Mars, CAP-XX vice president of applications engineering.

To calculate light energy, one would multiply light power (in lux) by the duration of the flash exposure (in seconds): Light power (lux) x flash exposure time (sec) = light energy (lux.sec). Ten to fifteen lux.sec of light energy is ideal for high-resolution pictures:

–  Xenon flash tubes driven by electrolytic storage capacitors deliver
higher light power, but over a very short flash exposure.
–  High-current LEDs driven by a supercapacitor deliver lower light
power, but over a longer flash exposure to generate more light energy.

Flash solutions tested:

–  Xenon: SonyEricsson K800, LG KU990, Nokia N82 and Samsung G800, all
with 5-megapixel cameras but with varying size electrolytic storage
capacitors.
–  Standard battery-powered LEDs: Nokia N73 (3.2-megapixel) and N96 (5-
megapixel)
–  Supercapacitor-powered LEDs: To demonstrate the BriteFlash approach,
CAP-XX used a small, thin (20mm x 18mm x 3.8mm thick), dual-cell
supercapacitor to drive a two-LED array of Philips LUXEON® PWM4s at 2A
each or 4A total during the flash pulse.

Fascinating New Generation OLEDs

With their minuscule energy consumption and 20-year life expectancy, LED light bulbs have grabbed the consumer’s imagination.

But an even newer technology is intriguing the world’s lighting designers: OLEDs, or organic light-emitting diodes, create long-lasting, highly efficient illumination in a wide range of colors, just like their inorganic LED cousins. But unlike LEDs, which provide points of light like standard incandescent bulbs, OLEDs create uniform, diffuse light across ultrathin sheets of material that eventually can even be made to be flexible.

Ingo Maurer, who has designed chandeliers of shattered plates and light bulbs with bird wings, is using 10 OLED panels in a table lamp in the shape of a tree. The first of its kind, it sells for about $10,000.

He is thinking of other uses. “If you make a wall divider with OLED panels, it can be extremely decorative. I would combine it with point light sources,” he said.

Other designers have thought about putting them in ceiling tiles or in Venetian blinds, so that after dusk a room looks as if sunshine is still streaming in.

Today, OLEDs are used in a few cellphones, like the Impression from Samsung, and for small, expensive, ultrathin TVs from Sony and soon from LG. (Sony’s only OLED television, with an 11-inch screen, costs $2,500.) OLED displays produce a high-resolution picture with wider viewing angles than LCD screens.

In 2008, seven million of the one billion cellphones sold worldwide used OLED screens, according to Jennifer Colegrove, a DisplaySearch analyst. She predicts that next year, that number will jump more than sevenfold, to 50 million phones.

But OLED lighting may be the most promising market. Within a year, manufacturers expect to sell the first OLED sheets that one day will illuminate large residential and commercial spaces. Eventually they will be as energy efficient and long-lasting as LED bulbs, they say.

Because of the diffuse, even light that OLEDs emit, they will supplement, rather than replace, other energy-efficient technologies, like LED, compact fluorescent and advanced incandescent bulbs that create light from a single small point.

Its use may be limited at first, designers say, and not just because of its high price. “OLED lighting is even and monotonous,” said Mr. Maurer, a lighting designer with studios in Munich and New York. “It has no drama; it misses the spiritual side.”

“OLED lighting is almost unreal,” said Hannes Koch, a founder of rAndom International in London, a product design firm. “It will change the quality of light in public and private spaces.”

Mr. Koch’s firm was recently commissioned by Philips to create a prototype wall of OLED light, whose sections light up in response to movement.

Because OLED panels could be flexible, lighting companies are imagining sheets of lighting material wrapped around columns. (General Electric created an OLED-wrapped Christmas tree as an experiment.) OLED can also be incorporated into glass windows; nearly transparent when the light is off, the glass would become opaque when illuminated.

Because OLED panels are just 0.07 of an inch thick and give off virtually no heat when lighted, one day architects will no longer need to leave space in ceilings for deep lighting fixtures, just as homeowners do not need a deep armoire for their television now that flat-panel TVs are common.

The new technology is being developed by major lighting companies like G.E., Konica Minolta, Osram Sylvania, Philips and Universal Display.

“We’re putting significant financial resources into OLED development,” said Dieter Bertram, general manager for Philips’s OLED lighting group. Philips recently stepped up its investment in this area with the world’s first production line for OLED lighting, in Aachen, Germany.

Universal Display, a company started 15 years ago that develops and licenses OLED technologies, has received about $10 million in government grants over the last five years for OLED development, said Joel Chaddock, a technical project manager for solid state lighting in the Energy Department.

Armstrong World Industries and the Energy Department collaborated with Universal Display to develop thin ceiling tiles that are cool to the touch while producing pleasing white light that can be dimmed like standard incandescent bulbs. With a recently awarded $1.65 million government contract, Universal is now creating sheetlike undercabinet lights.

“The government’s role is to keep the focus on energy efficiency,” Mr. Chaddock said. “Without government input, people would settle for the neater aspects of the technology.”

G.E. is developing a roll-to-roll manufacturing process, similar to the way photo film and food packaging are created; it expects to offer OLED lighting sheets as early as the end of next year.

“We think that a flexible product is the way to go,” said Anil Duggal, head of G.E.’s 30-person OLED development team. OLED is one of G.E.’s top research priorities; the company is spending more than half its research and development budget for lighting on OLED.

Exploiting the flexible nature of OLED technology, Universal Display has developed prototype displays for the United States military, including a pen with a built-in screen that can roll in and out of the barrel.

The company has also supplied the Air Force with a flexible, wearable tablet that includes GPS technology and video conferencing capabilities.

As production increases and the price inevitably drops, OLED will eventually find wider use, its proponents believe, in cars, homes and businesses.

“I want to get the price down to $6 for an OLED device that gives off the same amount of light as a standard 60-watt bulb,” said Mr. Duggal of G.E. “Then, we’ll be competitive.”

LED Lights Show Great Promise

As we all know that LED technology shows great promise in lighting the way for Tech to a more economic and environmentally-friendly direction.

Facilities faculty has completed several lighting renovations already on campus, including converting all the lighting in the Tennenbaum Auditorium to LED lamps. This project alone reduced electricity consumption by 39.2%, and light per square foot more than doubled. They also installed LED can lights on the second floor of the Price Gilbert Library.

“We are currently working on several projects in the IBB building to convert high ceiling fixtures to LED and will eventually expand this to other buildings. The architecture building is next on the list,” said Sanford Fong, Facilities department Electrical Engineer I.

Heat, output and energy usage are the greatest factors in LEDs’ benefits. Since the lights do not rely on a filament, they don’t burn out as quickly and less of the energy emitted is heat (very beneficial for stage work, which is often under extremely hot rows of lights). Since less energy is emitted as heat, it does not require as much energy to produce the light, saving money.

Thanks to a recent cost drop in semiconductor material, they are now a viable option for widespread use. This has opened a window for mass-emplacement of LEDs, like in department stores.

Walmart is pursuing improvements to energy and cost savings by installing LED lighting in their refrigerated cases. The new fixtures and dimming capabilities could net 66% in energy savings. If 500 Wal-mart stores were to use these, it would reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 35 million pounds and save the company $2.6 million per year. The lights could add over three years to the refrigerated cases’ lighting lifetime.

LED lighting can also be applied to large parking lot lights, medium hallway and stairwell lights and small classroom lights. They can last over 50,000 hours (over five years) and the lower power consumption with equal or greater luminosity than conventional lighting could save big money for Tech.

“LEDs save a great deal over incandescent lamps. For example, the can light we are installing in the Petit building is a 12-Watt fixture comparable to an 80-Watt incandescent in lighting output,” Fong said. Such a fixture could save 85% in energy.

Facilities will soon procure a street light test unit to evaluate more demanding applications on campus like streetlights, emergency lights and shop lights. Thanks to the higher power output and longevity, any light fixture that is on a great deal of time or is too hard to reach is a good candidate for an LED application.

Indoor lighting sees a change for the better as well. The pervasive use of fluorescent lighting in classrooms has garnered criticism for eye strain and headaches from the (though too fast to notice) lights’ high-frequency flickering; however, LED lighting is flicker-free. Fluorescent lamps are also less efficient, less longevous, and less environmentally friendly (they contain mercury). In this sense, changing the lights may actually directly improve student and faculty health and performance.

Tech has been a leading institution in LED technology. In 2002, ECE professor Russell Dupuis earned the highest national honor in science, the National Medal of Technology, for his work in developing and commercializing LEDs in applications like traffic lights and automotive lighting.

Novel LED Key Light

Do you have the trouble that always finding keys at home? The LED Key Light from Lexon stands out among a host of other keychain LED lights that resemble pigs, chickens, laser pointers and whatnot by looking like… a key.

Available in green, red or purple, the LED light is powered by a pair of CR1220 button batteries and the case can be easily opened without using tools for quick battery changes on the go.

The outer case is made from soft rubber – just squeeze once and the mini LED in the key’s nose end comes on; squeeze again and it turns off. The key light comes with a ring-type clip which allows for the addition of actual keys, or facilitates attachment to purses, rucksacks, belt loops and so on.

Using the LED Key Light, you will never find your keys everywhere.

Long-life Panasonic’s LED Lightbulb

How often do you change lightbulbs? Every few months, maybe? It is found that the early generation led light bulbs are pretty weak. Well, when Panasonic’s new LED bulbs hit shelves, change that time frame from months to decades.

Yes, these insanely efficient bulbs keep shining and shining, providing the brightness of a traditional 60-watt bulb. Of course, they won’t be cheap, with pricing set at about $40 a bulb in Japan when they hit stores in October. But seeing as they cost a mere $2 to run per year in energy costs and last 19 years, that seems like a good deal in the long run.