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LED Luminaires from Delta Obstruction Lighting Provides Light for Milad Tower in Tehran
SSLDesign News Staff
July 28, 2009...After 9 years of construction, the Milad Tower complex in Tehran is fast becoming an Iranian source of national pride. Delta Obstruction Lighting (DOL) is reportedly playing a key role in making that possible. At 435m the Milad Tower is reportedly the fourth tallest tower in the world behind the CN Tower in Toronto, the Ostankino Tower in Moscow, and the Oriental Pearl Tower in Shanghai.
The Milad project is a reflection and celebration of Iranian culture. Only Iranian companies were commissioned for construction, and only sourcing materials found locally in Iran could be used.
Indeed, the word ‘Milad’ means ‘birth’ in Persian. The project has certainly been a labour of love for the contractors. The reportedly worked hard to ensure the central tower and its surrounding components are of outstanding build quality.
Like any large structure, the tower is a major obstruction to aircraft. The Tower is close to Tehran’s Imam Khomeini International Airport, and it was therefore imperative that it be fitted with an aircraft warning system that not only met International Civil Aviation Regulations but exceeded them.
Having searched high and low within Iran, the project’s chief contractor ‘Datis Sameneh’ eventually resigned itself to sourcing a system from outside the country. It put the contract out to tender in January 2008. After hearing about its impressive work on other high profile jobs in the Middle East, Delta Obstruction lighting was awarded the contract to design, manufacture and supervise the installation of an aircraft warning system in July 2008. Delta Obstruction Lighting News Release,
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Robe DigitalSpot 7000 DTs Project Onto Dome Ceiling at Casino de Vilamoura
SSLDesign News Staff
July 28, 2009...The Casino de Vilamoura in Portugal's Algarve region has recently undergone complete refurbishment. The refurbishment included the installation of a spectacular projection feature in its entranceway, created with 8 Robe DigitalSpot 7000 DTs.
Vilamoura's resident engineer Joel Pais and entertainment technical director Jorge Sousa created the projection onto a fabulous domed ceiling to produce a real 'WOW factor' for guests entering the high profile venue.
Robe's Portuguese distributor, NAN supplied the DigitalSpots for the project. The was co-ordinated by technical specialist Luis Vidigal.
The DigitalSpot 7000 DT fixture was chosen as the most flexible option, and also because of its two onboard LED modules. Each of these modules consists of forty-eight Luxeon Rebel RGBW LEDs that produce an extremely bright light output across the full color spectrum. Robe says that the luminaires are ideal for adding color washing effects onto black & white content. Company News Release
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Forward Electronics Receives NT$4 Billion LED Street Lamp Orders from China
July 28, 2009...Foward Electronics, an LED chip packaging firm based in Taiwan, has received orders for a total of 400,000 LED street lamps from the local government of Fujian, according to a Digitimes article. The value of the street lamps is as much as NT$4 billion (US$122 million), according to the company. The company indicated that the contracts will include one order for 100,000 LED street lamps through cooperation with parent company the Tatung Group and another order for 300,000 LED street lamps through cooperation with Taiwan-based LED solutions provider Laster Tech. The company says it will begin production of the LED street lamps at its factory in Wujiang, eastern China, in October 2009. Epistar of Taiwan will reportedly supply the AC LED chips. Forward reportedly has a packaging capacity of 70,000-75,000 AC LED chips a month.
The National Theatre Saves Big with Energy Conservation Efforts
July 28, 2009...London's National Theatre reports that it has met its goal of cutting energy consumption by 20 percent compared to 2006. The theatre hopes to reduce its energy consumption by 25 percent by December of 2009, according to an article in This is London.
The savings amoun to a total of £100,000. This amount is apparently equivalent to the cost of a new show in the Cottesloe, the smallest of the National's three stages. The theatre's energy saving success has reportedly prompted consideration of a bigger long-term energy conservation plan.
Architecture company Haworth Tompkins created a masterplan including environmental measures worth £10million. Haworth Tompkins says these measures will transform the theatre over the next two to three decades.
They include the National using excess heat on site to generate hot water in a system known as combined heat and power, or CHP. The system would cost £1million but would pay for itself within four years.
Thus far, the savings have been made with the help of technology such as movement detectors to trigger lighting in the lavatories. The detectors switch the light off when no one is there. The National also stopped a tradition of switching on certain stage lights three hours before curtain-up because they would not work without time to warm up. Haworth Tompkins found that modern LED-based stage lights were far more reliable.
The theatre has also replaced halogen and tungsten lights with LEDs, partly thanks to a £500,000 deal with Philips. LED luminaires are expensive but last a long time and use relatively little power.
Last month, the National Theatre was awarded a silver medal from Mayor Boris Johnson for the Green500 competition.
North Carolina Town Going Green
SSLDesign News Staff
July 23, 2009...The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (a Native American tribe) chose an LED lighting solution from Philips Lumec to light their downtown streetscapes.
In doing so, they clearly place this town of 14,500 residents, located on the South end of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, in the vanguard of communities choosing environmentally responsible LED lighting technologies.
The choice of Philips Lumec's LifeLED light engine is true to their long standing Native American tradition of sustainability. The LifeLED is a highly efficient and award winning LED light engine, invented, designed, and produced by Philips Lumec. Philips Lumec News Release,
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LightWild Lighting Illuminates Prairie Band Casino & Resort in Kansas
SSLDesign News Staff
July 23, 2009...LightWild of Overland Park, Kansas USA, has reportedly completed the LED lighting for Prairie Band Casino & Resort, in Mayetta, Kansas. The Casino and Resort is owned and operated by the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation (a Native American tribe), which is approximately 85 miles from Kansas City.
H2B architects, inc. designed a fresh new image for the Casino and resort that would appeal to guests of all ages. The designers faced a challenge of creating a space that was not overwhelming to the gaming floor, but would serve as a focal point across the entire casino area.
The designers employed 52 of LightWild's Project Linear LED fixtures with red and color controllable RGB LEDs in various lengths to illuminate glass panels behind the bar and from the bar counter to the floor. LightWild News Release
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Commentary & Perspectives...
Thoughts from the DOE Market Introduction Conference - LED Lighting Manufacturers Have What They Need - Part II
Tom Griffiths - Publisher
July 30, 2009...In Part I of this report, we concluded that the SSL Market Introduction Workshop put on by the US Department of Energy pretty much took away any excuses an solid state lighting luminaire manufacturer might throw out concerning why they might produce an inferior product. While all the i's may not all be dotted or all the t's may not be crossed in the standards world, there is plenty to sink one's teeth into to tell if a product is "making the grade" or not.
After the day 2 kickoff session with Mark McClear of Cree posing the question, "When will the specs reflect what we can clearly see with our eyes?", things moved into a few practical tools and an impressive show and tell to give the manufacturers some things to think about. Ron Steen of Xicato offered a look at the challenge of correlated color temperatures and how different two colors of "the same" correlated color temperature (CCT) can actually appear. MacAdam ellipses (ref. Wikipedia if you're not familiar) applied to the standard 1931 CIE chromaticity diagram, describe a portion of the color gamut that are "just noticeable" to the trained observe as different from one of 25 reference colors. The basic plot is that when it is inscribed on the same CIE diagram, the "line of constant color temperature" generally extends beyond the space that would fall within the "just (barely) noticeable" Macadam ellipse. Expanding the relative size of the ellipse allows one to describe how discernible or not a color difference may be. In the demonstration, Ron showed some examples around the 3000°K CCT. The first was 3004°K vs. 3025°K, which equated to a 7-step Macadam ellipse (working from the notes here, so if I missed and am corrected, it will get a mention in the next editorial). Same 3000K "on the label" and yet you wouldn't think the manufacturer had even tried for a similar color, much less the same. A 4-step spread was a massive improvement, but if I were a customer, I would tend towards dissatisfaction with the color match, if those were two PAR-30s next to each other shining onto the same white wall. A single step, in this case 3013K vs 3018K, felt like a slight difference, but it was effectively a match. While it suggests that a manufacturer would be able to hit the single step target with some diligence, it did raise the question of what happens between manufacturers in a "mix and match" situation if one chose 3005 plus or minus 5, and another chose 3020 plus or minus 5. They would look substantially different in color, despite the box saying "3000K".
From there, it was a step up the food chain to the commercial/retail level as the audience heard from Tom Harold with mega-commercial-industrial supply-house WW Grainger, and from Bill Hamilton, the electrical merchandising VP at The Home Depot. Grainger is a strong proponent of the Lighting Facts Quality Advocates pledge, requiring any potential suppliers to also "take the pledge", as well as to employ the Lighting Facts label on their product. The Home Depot (THD), which claims the distinction of being the single largest lightbulb seller in the world, suggested that the move from novelty to wide adoption would hinge upon education. Interestingly, Hamilton suggested that everyone, especially THD associates, wanted to learn about new things, so the challenge was not in generating interest, but in translating the benefits, and the "real" (meaning "all encompassing") costs of light, in ways that were simple to understand. Accompanying Hamilton was the lighting merchandising director (THE person that buys the most light bulbs in the world...), which presented the golden opportunity to ask what "the strike-point price" would be for an A19 or PAR30 LED-based replacement that would set of mass adoption. I asked... and they answered (sorry, you should have been there...). Okay, okay, but only since the DOE's Jim Brodrick already mentioned it in the latest edition of his "Postings". "We're not sure, yet, but it comes from the multiples of savings and opportunity." We'd have all preferred a number, but that was a cool answer nonetheless (you have to stare at the words a while to get it).
Carnegie-Mellon University (CMU) is doing some good work to put numbers to the total life-cycle energy costs wrapped up in an LED luminaire. As we heard in Deanna Matthews update, their approach intends to account for every energy input, from mining and refining materials, through component and LED fabrication, on to operating consumption and ending with disposal/recycling energy. (Side note kudos to Renaissance Lighting, who just announced a full-luminaire end of life recycling program. I ran into Rob McCulley, their VP of Sales, in the Dallas-Ft. Worth airport, on my way home from the conference. He gave me the quick briefing while he used his super-double executive platinum status to grab an upgrade, while I was merely trying to standby with my long-expired gold card, in hopes of avoiding the 3+ hour delay my later 36-minute flight was promising. According to Rob, they can recycle "everything but the plastic sleeves on the wiring". It's nice to see a company committing to "the big picture" in what is supposed to be a very "green" industry.)
Anyway, while having to substitute some SWAGs (scientific wild-ass guesses) into the holes in the preliminary data, the results are encouraging. Basically, when we get to 150 lumens/watt out of the fixture, operating efficacy is equal to the total manufacturing energy, and both should continue to decrease over time. Compared to the life-cycle energy of CFL incumbents, a low-grade 30 lumen/watt LED luminaire comes out ahead of the 3 CFLs it would replace in a normal operating lifetime. CMU is having a challenge getting some of the numbers around the LED substrate, epi, fabrication and chip packaging levels, which is understandable since some of that data may point indirectly to yields at the various stages of manufacturing, one of the most sensitive subjects in the competitive landscape. LIGHTimes readers who might be able to help contribute to the greater good from their position inside the LED supply chain are encouraged to drop me a line so I can put you in touch with Deanna.
Continue to Part III, which shares some recent case studies and provides at least one informed answer to the question, "Where does an LED light bulb need to be priced to replace the CFL?"
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