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i-Pix LED Luminaires Light Up London Fashion Week
SSLighting Design News Staff
October 22, 2009...The London Fashion Week included a British Fashion Council (BFC) tent at Somerset House which was the venue for BFC's event during the second week of September. Up to 8 shows were put on at various venues each day, all of which needed to look fabulous and unique.
Nick Gray's design company Renegade was asked to light several venues for London Fashion Week (LFW) ,adding an injection of fresh new style in the visuals department to celebrate the 25th anniversary of LFW. Production company Bacchus contracted Renegade to work at the BFC tent.
The tent was lower than it has been previously, and black throughout for the first time, creating a more intimate and very slick tailored vibe. Gray's lighting rig was designed to dovetail and blend incongruously in with the venue. The 'spine' truss above the 45 metre long white runway was tucked unobtrusively up into the apex of the roof and perfectly followed the contours of the tent.
Nine BB7s were attached to the sides of the spine truss were to cast a gentle glow on the audience for the walk-in states. Their flower-like shape made them an ideal fit for the aesthetics and vibe of the auditorium - whether on or off. Gray noted that the quality of the light output was exactly the right texture for the effect he wanted. iPix News Release,
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Philips Lumileds Publishes Lumen Maintenance--LM-80--Test Report Online
LIGHTimes News Staff
October 22, 2009...Philips Lumileds contends that it is the first power LED manufacturer to publicly publish LM-80 test report data. The company reportedly made the data available for everyone but specifically for use by luminaire manufacturers evaluating the merits of using different LEDs in their solid-state lighting solutions. The company boasts that the data clearly demonstrates that lumen maintenance performance of its white LEDs exceeds Energy Star requirements by a wide margin. Additionally the company says it has documented lumen maintenance performance under various conditions. The test report is posted on the company’s web site www.philipslumileds.com.
Philips Lumileds says its LM-80 test reports adhere to and are published in accordance with the Illuminating Engineering Society (IES) LM-80-08 standard.
Philips Lumileds News Release,
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Cree Releases XLamp MX-6 LED, A Lighting-Class PLCC LED
LIGHTimes News Staff
October 22, 2009...Cree has announced the commercial availability of its new XLamp MX-6, a lighting-class PLCC LED.
Cree says that the MX-6 LED offers the performance and reliability that customers expect from Cree XLamp LEDs with enhanced light uniformity and low power consumption. The XLamp MX-6 LED reportedly offers up to 130 lumens for cool white and 107 lumens for warm white at 350 mA. Cree boasts that the XLamp MX-6 LED can reduce luminaire and lamp manufacturing costs through an increased shelf life with reduced moisture sensitivity, and the smallest warm white bins in the industry, enhancing LED-to-LED color consistency.
“We are impressed with the Cree XLamp MX-6 LED,” said Sunny Tsai, CEO of TESS, an innovative LED light bulb manufacturer. “The LED’s performance is striking, and Cree’s small bins make it easy for us to deliver a consistent product for our customers.”
“With the addition of the XLamp MX-6 LED, we now have the most diverse family of lighting-class LEDs in the industry,” said Paul Thieken, Cree marketing director, LED components. “The XLamp MX-6 LED can provide better design options for indoor applications, including under-cabinet, retail displays, LED light bulbs and fluorescent replacements.”
Company News Release
Seven Additional Renaissance Lighting LED Lighting Fixtures Awarded Energy Star Qualification
SSLighting Design News Staff
October 20, 2009...Renaissance Lighting reports that the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has awarded the Energy Star qualification to seven more of its newest 4-inch all-white solid-state LED downlight fixtures. Earlier this month, 11 of the company`s all-white 7-inch downlights became the first to receive the Energy Star qualification. Renaissance Lighting boasts that with this announcement, it now has the most Energy Star qualified solid-state downlight models available in the industry. The Energy Star qualification was designed to help customers identify the most energy efficient products on the market. Renaissance Lighting says it has continued to achieve increased lighting efficiencies in terms of both light output and lower energy consumption. The company says that Energy Star award for its all-white downlights is further validation of its ability to create breakthrough proprietary technologies and luminaire designs.Company News Release SSL Design PageTwo members login for more. Guests can view membership details.
Philips and AECOM illuminate Natural History Museum with LED ColorReach
SSLighting Design News Staff
October 20, 2009...AECOM and Royal Philips Electronics and have designed a truly unique LED lighting solution for London’s world famous Natural History Museum.
Philips ColorReach™ Powercore technology replaced the aging floodlight system. The Color Reach offers flexibility and what the company says is unprecedented light output of LED exterior floodlighting for signature façades today. The Color Reach also reportedly provides light projection of up to 500 feet.
The grand entrance and rounded arch of one of Britain’s most striking examples of Romanesque architecture impresses all visitors. Named after the architect who designed it, The Waterhouse Building’s rounded arches and grand entrance takes inspiration from the natural beauty of Fingal’s Cave in Scotland.
The Lightng designers with AECOM Lighting felt that the magnificence of the structure at night was not being optimized by the existing lighting solution. The existing solution used inefficient metal halide floodlights. The designers realized that switching to an LED alternative would significantly lower annual running costs while bringing out the aesthetic quality of the building.
Royal Philips Electronics News Release
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DOE Publishes Summary of Solid State Lighting Manufacturing Workshops
SSLighting Design News Staff
October 20, 2009...The U.S. Department of Energy has published its summary report from from the 2009 DOE Solid-State Lighting (SSL) Manufacturing Workshops, held April 21–22 in Fairfax, Virginia, and June 24–25 in Vancouver, Washington. The DOE reports that more than 350 total participants including: chip makers, fixture and component manufacturers, and others, joined the department at its workshops to discuss issues related to materials, equipment, and other factors that influence SSL product quality and cost. The Fairfax workshop attendees identified key obstacles and made recommendations to achieve lower-cost, higher-quality SSL products. The DOE used this input to develop a “strawman” roadmap for review at the Vancouver workshop. The DOE contends that the final version of the roadmap reviewed and revised during the Vancouver workshop, represents industry consensus on the expected evolution of SSL manufacturing. The DOE says that the workshops are part of its first steps in the launch of a new DOE SSL research and development (R&D) manufacturing initiative to enhance product consistency and quality and to accelerate cost reductions through manufacturing improvements. DOE News Release
SSL Design Summit Highlighting Prominent Lighting Industry Speakers
LIGHTimes/SSL Design Staff
October 15, 2009...The Solid State Lighting Design Summit, slated for Nov 3-4 for the New York/New Jersey region, and then Dec 1-2 for the Los Angeles area, announced today key additions to its 2009 NY/NJ agenda lineup, Avriham Mor, a partner at Lightswitch Architectural and Margaret Newman, Chief of Staff of the New York City Department of Transportation. Mor has recently completed a series of new and retrofit LED lighting projects, including Chicago's new Wit hotel, and the 55 E. Munroe building. Newman is overseeing current evaluation programs in New York City aimed at eventual deployment of LED-based solutions for street and pedestrian lighting across the city of 10 million people. According to the conference organizers, the additions are all designed to align with the "quality-only" theme of the 2009 event, in which not just speakers, but any companies or products that will receive audience exposure are thoroughly vetted to assure that the quality commitment is apparent and that performance matches claims.
Jeffrey I. L. Miller, principal of Pivotal Lighting Design, and president of the International Association of Lighting Designers (IALD) added, "I was co-chair of the inaugural Summit in 2008, and liked what I saw coming together. I have re-joined the team as co-chair for the new Los Angeles event simply because I don't see anywhere else where this kind of information and education has been available this broadly to lighting decision makers. Whether one comes from the design, architecture or facilities side of things, solid state lighting represents a new world, and no one at the decision maker level can afford to be caught behind this curve."
"The 2008 SSL Design Summit set the precedent as the first-of-its-kind networking conference dedicated exclusively to bring together lighting and sustainability decision makers with LED lighting manufacturers and technology providers," commented Tom Griffiths, conference organizer and publisher of Solid State Lighting Design Online. "For 2009, we've recognized the value to lighting decision makers to have someone provide not just the education in 'how to', but actual vetting, so that products they see or hear about are among the top tier and could reasonably be assumed to deliver success in their projects." (NY/NJ event details at the embedded links, or visit www.SSLsummit.com for series information).
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Commentary & Perspectives...
It's an investment, not an LED lightbulb sale!
Guest Editorial - Nik Nicolakis, Greenlight Initiative
October 20, 2009...Our guest editorial this week from Nikitas Nicolakis, president of New York-based Greenlight Initiative, submits a strong case that a new approach to the sales process is needed when it comes to LED lighting solutions. A full talk on this topic, aimed at decision makers and LED luminaire manufacturers alike, is on the agenda for the SSL Design Summit NY/NJ coming up Nov 3-4 at the Hyatt Regency, Jersey City... (www.SSLsummit.com).
Early on in the SSL market, there was a lot of semantic confusion between the new "semiconductor" lighting crowd and the "standard" lighting crowd. The same words had different meanings for each, and although everyone was speaking the same language, an inter-industry pocket translator would have been quite useful. A lot of that has resolved itself, but there is another "communication gap" left that is blocking market penetration for quality SSL products that are ready today, and this one exists on the much coveted end-user side of the fence.
There really is an abundance of good information for any lighting decision maker who is looking for information regarding SSL luminaires and technology, so for much of the time, it is more a question of whether a lighting decision maker is equipped to ask the proper questions regarding their purchase. Let's see... LM-79? Check... LM-80? Check... Who makes those LED chips? Check... Is there a good warranty? Check... Is the driver or transformer covered under the warranty? Check... How much is it? Ch... This is where things start to get sticky.
Once contact has been established, and the market full of over-hyped and under-performing SSL products are filtered out, the executive decision makers like the CEO, CFO, or the B.O.D., are easy to please. They speak the language of numbers-in and numbers-out, seeing the world in wonderful colors like black and red. They speak of all the great things that have been missing from our lives as of late; CASHFLOW! RETURN ON INVESTMENT! INTERNAL RATE OF RETURN! SAVINGS TURNED TO PROFIT! CAP RATES! OPERATIONAL EXPENSE REDUCTION! They make the best audience, and 100% of the time they welcome the operating expense-saving ideas that are presented... pilots ensue... numbers are checked and rechecked... and deals are agreed to! That was easy (sort of).
Then comes volume-implementation time. Some of the "get it done" people are now brought into the loop at a more detailed level, and what seemed to be the "key factors in making a lighting retrofit decision" is viewed and digested a bit differently at that lower level of the corporate chain. Let's face the facts; you need to speak a different language to audiences below the executive level. When the same scenario above applies to the non-executive decision makers, such as many of the "facilities guys" their response is simple: "There is no way I am paying $90 for a light bulb! You people are out of your minds!" What's going on? Generally, facilities personnel think in a shorter time scale. They are trained to make sure everything works, and they are buying MRO products correctly and at great prices. Often their very employment depends on making and presenting the right decisions to further up the chain, which in itself has become a daunting and quite political undertaking.
There is no doubt they are tasked with tremendous responsibility. When scouring the country for the pockets of "end user demand" in the SSL market, you meet very knowledgeable, professional and hard working facilities personnel that want to do good work for their employer. They have heard of all the great things that SSL can do for their facility and want to get in on the action. You can show them where it makes sense, and above all else, you should them where it does not. You can do a lighting audit and map out pilot areas and discuss forward motion. Then comes the part they aren't really trained for: You provide them with an investment grade ROI that confuses many of them. Those kinds of investments aren't 30% more for "commercial grade". They are 3 to 5 times more for a whole new approach. They get sticker shock... tunnel vision ensues... they zeroed in on price, and are told from up above that LED lighting is a good answer, so the only thing they can think to try is to find a lower priced "energy saving" alternative!
Sometimes, the alternative is an incumbent technology like fluorescent or HID, but very often it is a lower quality SSL product. They WILL find the SSL solution, but they will find it cheaper, and the market is willing to oblige by offering them a "junk grade" investment at 1/2 or 1/3 the price! While lower initial cost is a key factor that should always be part of the decision process, does that mean it is okay to make a fiscally irresponsible long term decision based on short term good intentions? I think not.
While "less initial cost" can translate into a "better initial business case", the long term financial implications are disturbing. Most of the industry insiders (OK, some... say, at least about 20%) can tell an end user that more than 80% of the SSL products available today may not survive or put out enough light to meet the ROI period that was presented. And while the incumbent lighting technologies make a great initial case, the ongoing costs for material, maintenance, recycling, additional HVAC, and energy cost just do not make sense when something better is available now. Unfortunately, that temporary ignorance prevails, and much of the revenue in the SSL general white lighting market is generated with low quality SSL product.
As one small saving grace, the junk SSL doesn't go into to the specification sales market, where the channels are long and fat. Very little solid state lighting of any kind goes in there, since it is difficult to even specify the SSL product for an opportunity that may or may not happen 9 months or a year from now... things move too fast in the technology; what is spec'd today is likely not even going to be available tomorrow. There is also little current success for SSL at the distributor level. After their normal margins of +/-15-35% are added, the business case to the end user dries up. ESCO's take large risks and the margins to match, but there is almost never the room for a reasonable ROI with LED-based lighting when an ESCO can to make +/-30-40% with incumbent T8's and T5's.
Much of existing sales channel in the lighting industry as well as the electronics and semiconductor industries are simply not structured at this point to accommodate quality LED lighting solutions for general lighting market. To get into this "sweet-spot", a leaner, more direct approach is required in order to see market penetration. You need to engage the key facilities people differently. You need to help them understand the language that the executive level decision makers are speaking (Rosetta Stone has not made DVD's for this yet, I checked!). The facilities-level personnel are an intelligent group, and if you approach them with the respect that they deserve they will be open to make the right decision.
So let's review: More direct approach needed in order to get keep the business case intact? -Certainly. Will the retrofit market be where the big wins happen for SSL in the next few years?-Absolutely. Will we need to approach facilities and maintenance personnel to make this happen? -Definitely. Will they be convinced that there is long term value in SSL over the incumbents?--Sometimes, but generally it is not one of the requirements of the position and unless we guide them into being the heroes and involve the executive team in the process, large volumes of quality SSL retrofits are unlikely to happen. Concerning SSL for general lighting, there are valid and vetted (some by CFO's of fortune 1000 companies) situations that exist today where Internal Rates of Return (IRR) have reached in the hundreds of percentage points. Those of us (manufacturers and their sales channel partners alike) on the quality side of the coin can consistently present SSL-based, application-specific ROI's around and under 3 years, and in some cases under 1 year (yes 1...) without even counting rebates or incentives.
Real ROI models now show improved cashflow (a great deal) and reduced expenses on many levels. These facts and figures are important somewhere around 100% of the time at the executive level; classic tools for which decisions are made and budgets are built. And given the economic climate of late, these returns are simply nonexistent in a bank, real estate, or passive investments. Quality, proven SSL technology with data to back up the claims should be swallowing the retrofit market whole right now, but much to the chagrin of manufacturers who made the right choices (and of course their investors) it is not. While the case for well-engineered SSL products is now clear, and in many cases a no-brainer, the incumbents are easier to sell with better margins for the existing sales channel. Or they stumble up on "cheap" SSL products that try to claim "the same business case, only better, with the lower price presenting seemingly easier decision for the facilities manger working on a tight budget. Although the trend is changing, the execs are typically not the ones making facility-wide lighting retrofit decisions, and reaching them will be key.
Execs say, "Sure, our company would love to see an IRR of 167%! Prove that it can happen, and the keys to our million square foot castle are yours!" Facilities folks say, "There is NO WAY I am paying $90 for a light bulb". Unless you can bring both parties together while making a case for quality SSL, the gap will remain and quality manufacturers will watch their forecasts keep pushing out quarter to quarter for the next few years.
Nikitas Nicolakis is President of New York-based Greenlight Initiative. He can be reached at nikita@lednyc.com or +1 718/784-4440.
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