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Los Angeles Begins Deployment on Street Light Light Program Expected to Save $10M Annually - Beta's LEDway (Updated) |
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Albeo Solid-State Lighting Now Available Through Grainger
September 24, 2009...Albeo Technologies, a maker of a wide range of LED lighting fixtures, reports that
its customers will now be able to purchase its award winning C-Series solid-state lighting systems through Grainger. Grainger will offer Albeo's C-Series High-Bay, Linear, and GarageLED, Talea under cabinet-LED, plus T8LED Troffer and T8LED Conversion Kit lighting systems. The products will be available through Grainger's national branch network and the grainger.com website, and will also be featured in the company's 2010 catalog.
Albeo notes that W.W. Grainger, Inc. is a broad line supplier of facilities maintenance products serving businesses and institutions in the United States, Canada, Mexico, India, China and Panama. It has an integrated network including more than 600 branches, 18 distribution centers and multiple Web sites.
"The demand for green building and green maintenance, repair, operations products is growing quickly, so the Grainger Albeo partnership is well positioned to succeed," said Neil Cannon, EVP of Business Development, Albeo Technologies. "Albeo's SSL products deliver energy savings, maintenance savings, eliminate mercury bulb recycling, and lower cooling loads enabling Grainger's customers to cut operating costs and offset the growing cost of energy."
"Our customers are telling us they're looking for help making their facilities more sustainable and energy efficient," said Fred Costello, Grainger's Vice President, Product Management. "Albeo's LED lighting systems are an excellent example of the types of products businesses and institutions can employ to do business in an environmentally responsible manner, while also taking cost out of their operations."
Albeo Technologies News Release
Renaissance Lighting’s LED Lighting Technology Wins Energy Star Qualification
SSLDesign News Staff
September 22, 2009...Renaissance Lighting, a maker of LED-based downlight fixtures, reports the U.S. Departement of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency has awarded the Energy Star Qualification for 11 of its newest all-white solid state LED downlight fixtures. The Energy Star qualification is designed to help customers identify the most energy efficient products on the market. Renaissance Lighting, continues to excel in creating energy-efficient, ultra long-life solid-state luminaires with increased lighting efficiencies in terms of both light output and lower energy consumption. The company says that the Energy Star award for its all-white downlights is further validation of its continuing breakthroughs in technology and luminaire designs. Renaissance Lighting News Release, SSL Design PageTwo members login for more. Guests can view membership details.
Integrated Electrical Services (IES) and Visible Light Solar Technologies Form Strategic Alliance to Provide Solar LED Lighting Solutions More Widely
SSLDesign News Staff
September 22, 2009...Visible Light Solar Technologies, a solar and LED lighting technology innovator, today has formed a strategic alliance with the company it says is the nation's second largest electrical contractor, Integrated Electrical Services. The strategic alliance for national installation and maintenance of its solar/LED and LED lighting solutions to businesses, municipalities and educational facilities. As part of the agreement, Visible Light Solar will utilize IES's vast network of professional electricians and technicians to help customers dramatically reduce their lighting energy expenses, maintenance costs and carbon footprint.
The strategic alliance apparently scales up Visible Light Solar's ability to consult on lighting projects and install its solar-powered luminaires.
Visible Light Solar Technologies,
SSL Design PageTwo members login for more. Guests can view membership details.
CRS Electronics Reduces Humber College Energy Consumption With New LED Lighting
SSLDesign News Staff
September 22, 2009...CRS Electronics Inc. of Welland, Ontario, Canada announced that
Humber College ("Humber") has replaced 1,050 of their existing halogen 50 watt bulbs with CRS's 6 watt LED MR16 lights. CRS boasts that its new LED replacement lamps are expected to reduce Humber's energy consumption from 2,625,000 kWh to 315,000 kWh over the life of the bulbs and generate a 88% reduction in electrical demand and electrical consumption.
"Making the decision to switch to a greener product was easy. During testing it was clear that CRS's MR16 outperformed the competition," said David Griffin, Operations and Maintenance Manager at Humber College, "With CRS's innovative lights we will reduce operating costs by $525,000 over the estimated 9 year life of the bulbs in addition to doing our part to reduce our carbon foot print. We also eliminated sending approximately 3,000 halogen bulbs per year to the landfill."
"The diversity of our product applications is confirmed by Humber College's decision to install our MR16 product," said Scott Riesebosch, President of CRS Electronics, "The market opportunity in universities, colleges and other institutions for this kind of energy savings has barely scratched the surface. We have the ability to diminish energy consumption in almost every setting with our out-of-the-box products and our custom made contract manufacturing solutions." CRS Electronics News Release
Philips Earns the Energy Star for eW Downlight Powercore
SSLDesign News Staff
September 17, 2009...Philips Color Kinetics reports having earned an Energy Star label for its eW Downlight Powercore.
Philips also introduced the eW Cove QLX Powercore, a white LED light for everyday applications.
The LED light has a 65° beam angle, and comes in 2700 K and 4000K versions.
Philips points out that it has met the strict requirements of the U.S. Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency.
According to the company, to meet Energy Star qualifications for both residential and commercial applications, LED fixtures need to use 75 percent less energy and last 35 times longer than comparable incandescent light fixtures, while providing exceptional color quality. The eW Downlight Powercore, a low-profile LED downlight, reportedly surpasses these measures consuming 80 percent less energy and lasting 40 times longer than incandescent alternatives. Company News Release,
SSL Design PageTwo members login for more. Guests can view membership details.
Cree Again Lighting for Tomorrow Grand Prize Winner
SSLDesign News Staff
September 17, 2009...Cree reports that its its LR6-DR1000 was awarded the coveted Grand Prize of the Lighting for Tomorrow--– Solid State Lighting Competition.
Cree received the award at an award ceremony of the the American Lighting Association (ALA) Conference this week.
Department of Energy (represented by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory) and the Consortium of Energy Efficiency, a panel of 11 judges from various areas of the lighting industry, evaluated the entries based on color appearance, color rendering, efficiency, innovation and other criteria.
Cree's LR6-DR1000 is a 1000 lumen six-inch downlight won the grandprize. The company says it expects to have the commercial release of the product early next year. reportedly Targeted for commercial release early next year. According to the company, the LR6-DR1000 is designed to operate off an input power of less than 13 Watts, delivering an efficacy in excess of 77 lumens per Watt.
The Cree LRP-38, a PAR38 bulb, and the LR6-HE (high-efficiency) were also recognized with Special Focus Awards for technical innovation and high efficiency, respectively.
Cree's LRP-38 bulb featuring Cree TrueWhite technology, won the technical innovation award. Cree contends that it can deliver the vibrant color of halogen or ceramic metal halide with high efficacy. The company points out that it is ideal for applications including fresh food displays, furniture stores, retail environments and museums.
Gary Trott, vice president of market development, Cree LED Lighting stated,
“Over the past three years, every Cree LED Lighting product has won a Lighting for Tomorrow award.”
Cree News Release
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Commentary & Perspectives...
Some of what it will take to succeed as an LED lighting manufacturer
Tom Griffiths - Publisher
September 22, 2009...Being in the solid state lighting industry news business has advantages... all the latest and greatest come flying directly at you without having to spend a lot of time tracking it down. From there, when done properly, those solid state lighting industry announcements, press releases, and rumors are vetted for rationality, some quick investigation into the history or context is made, a clarification or two happens, and then it's a news story. Hopefully, we're doing that competently for you, and if not, let us know.
There are also disadvantages. An obvious one is that no one vets the stories for us, which means the deluge of information includes not just the good (which seems rare some days), but the bad and the ugly as well. We also get to experience the range of company interactions that demonstrate a well thought out strategy and professionalism at one end, or rank amateurism at the other. Again, there is more of the latter than the former, unfortunately. Which does dish back one advantage that is kind of scary... our interaction doesn't have hundreds of thousands of project dollars on the line, with success dependent upon whether the company knows what it is doing, or not.
Our view isn't so much "from the inside" but rather "from a different perspective that includes some less often visible elements". So we thought it appropriate to share our take on some of the elements that our 25 years in the technology and consumer-related sales and marketing fields suggest are required for a company to succeed. While some of these items may be gates, for which failure to pass will yield failure in the market, others can fairly be seen on a continuum, where more is better, but less isn't fatal.
Topping the list of gating items is technical competence. A company either has it, or it doesn't, and if it doesn't, market forces will soon wash the company away into history. This is the part where we find out if the product does what it says it does, if what it says it does is useful, and if it will keep on doing it for more than 1000 hours. Is there a bit of technical incompetence running around in the market? Oh, yes. Mostly with regard to being able to build a luminaire or "replacement lamp" the same way every time, and being able to accurately sample and test something that represents precisely how the next ones off the production line will perform. It doesn't matter if it's luminous output or color shift from batch to batch, or over time, but being able to design something that is manufacturable, reliable and long lived takes competence with both design and manufacturing practices. When a company has technical competence, especially if garnered from the electronics industry, they might assume that's the key, rather than a gate. When that happens, we get into the second success ingredient that a company may miss, and that, is...
A fully encompassing plan, along with the knowledge and experience to get it done. Don't mistake this for "some kind of plan" or even "an ambitious plan". While, "Our plan is to provide more than 70 lumens per watt to in a downlight product for commercial site applications." may sound good, there needs to be more to the story. How will it be marketed? Through reps, or distribution, both, or direct? If you're going direct, how do you plan to bring prospects to the website? If you're going through reps and distribution, how are you going to manage the margins and markup required for the lighting industry? This isn't the electronic industry's 20-30% for distribution and 6-10% for reps, you know. Who do you have that has lighting channel experience, and if you don't have anyone, where are you going to get the expertise? I was able to invest a little time on the phone recently with Luminus Devices' new President & CEO, Keith Ward. He was at the 100-day mark of his tenure, and acknowledged that, "There is still a lot to know." As he pointed out, "Luminus was born with great technology and a technology-centric view. While that was fun, a customer-centric view was needed for the long term." While they are bringing great "big-chip" technology to the table, and to some eyes, bending the DOE's roadmap a bit more sharply up than expected, the rise of the flat screen TVs ushered in the demise of the projection TV which was Luminus' bread and butter (as well as the showcase of their technical competence, which, when teamed as it is with Nichia's materials talent, is considerable). A quick re-focus to more diversified applications, including the customer-centric lighting market was needed. As Keith put it, "We didn't have enough lighting people leading the lighting division, which is why we sought out Peter Weller. Between he and I, we counted up 55 years in the lighting space," which suggests they can, and likely have, formulated a plan.
The plan also needs to include the money to get it done. From the money side, we're seeing a number of companies that birthed themselves assuming venture funding would be available when they needed to move from prototypes to some type of production. Unfortunately, they didn't plan on a credit and financing squeeze, and had no contingency plan for how they would bootstrap the company if venture funding didn't pan out. Oops. Now they've got a product that shows competence, some pilot units that have proved themselves, but no resources to supply samples to their eager reps or prospects, and not much capability to produce a product if they got anything besides a paid in advance order with a 90-day lead time. Didn't they think to pre-arrange something with a components distributor, including terms that let the money flow out just slightly later than when it will flow in? Or if 25-day receivable terms, and 30-day payable terms aren't doable, would arranging a line of credit when they launched kind of made sense? Maybe the issues aren't this basic all the time, but we see them often enough to suspect it's not uncommon for the newer lighting market entries riding the solid state lighting wave.
What about communications capabilities? We're obviously communications folks, and particularly sensitive (or critical) in this area. There is an old axiom that basically says you need to act to change the way you think, not vice versa. If you want to think like the LED lighting success you want to be, whether you're now a small company or a part of a large one, you need to communicate fully and professionally, both to your customers and the world at large. Does that mean paying big bucks for a "full service" PR firm? I tend to think not, as so far, most of the full service PR firms seem to plant themselves firmly in the middle of the information we need, creating delays and only relaying part of the story when we need the full one, right now. They aren't all that way, but what you really need is someone who can suggest a communications plan, add an understandable message, and that knows how to get that message exposed. The "one man band" is often very skilled at this, if they bring industry experience to the table. Find someone to help you communicate a message to the media and, more broadly, to the web. "We'll select someone to help us once we figure out our PR plan," is right up there with, "We'll consult with our doctor after we diagnose ourselves and set up our own surgery schedule," in its backwardness.
Successful companies are going to avoid arrogance, either at the factory or in their sales channels. This is an important one for a number of "established lighting companies" that are beginning to churn out some pretty decent LED products, but by no means limited to just that group. Sometimes it manifests because of technical arrogance... "We're semiconductor system gurus and no what it takes to design the best solid state lighting, and if you can't see that, you're stupid." Yep, we've gotten that attitude more than once. For those coming more from the lighting side, the trouble attitude is often more, "We're XYZ and everything we produce is good. If you can't handle our 60% markup don't even bother to ask for the data sheet... and if you do ask for a data sheet, don't plan to bug us with questions as that will just prove your ignorance." Seems obvious that won't win friends and influence people, but we're getting the stories coming our way that tell us it's happening.
Successful companies associate themselves with what serves the industry.
Every company has to make their own decisions where to invest for visibility,
whether it is with advertising, conferences, exhibitions or other "community"
activities, and in doing so, they need to consider what serves the industry.
An example is in the specification processes. Last I checked, you don't get
appointed to committees, you volunteer for them. When a standard setting body
asks for feedback, do you take the time to provide it? The US Department of
Energy just announced the 3rd draft of the Integral LED Lamp Criteria which
covers the majority of what you would consider to be LED-based replacement lamps
that screw or plug into sockets that incandescent and fluorescent currently
occupy (ref cover
letter and draft
criteria). The cover letter lets us know that 26 industry stakeholders offered
comments on draft 1, and 13 offered comments on draft 2. What's a stakeholder?
Oh, just every LED, driver, optic, module and replacement lamp manufacturer,
as well as every distributor, retailer and energy efficiency/utility organization
out there. Even if there were only 26 suggesting tweaks, shouldn't there be
several hundred comments saying "looks good to us". Another example
is industry events. We're big proponents of saying "no" to the "conference
puppy mills" as we call them, where non-industry affiliated organizations
come in to create an event that takes for them, and doesn't give back to the
industry. We're also big proponents of saying "yes" to events that
make it a priority to further the industry. Does that mean being the lead sponsor?
Not necessarily. But at least being there as an attendee to listen, and share
your take on the needs and responsibilities of the industry is what we see the
successful companies doing, even before they've "made it". Be around,
be visible, be involved, and let's get this thing right!
Don't miss the 2009 SSL Design Summit series, NY/NJ Nov 1-2, LA Dec 3-4, where lighting decision makers and luminaire manufacturers come together to get it right. Visit www.SSLsummit.com for details.
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