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Philips Provides 300 Solar LED Lights for Households in Rwanda
SSLDesign News Staff
June 8, 2010...Royal Philips Electronics (Philips) of Amsterdam, the Netherlands has donated 300 solar LED lights to Rwanda on the United Nations World Environment Day.
Philips representatives are currently travelling on a 2-month roadshow across Africa to raise awareness for the opportunities of new solar-powered LED lighting.
“We are proud to be partnering with the United Nations’ for the World Environment Programme. As part of Philips’ broader drive to improve people’s lives, Philips is committed to making affordable, high-quality, energy efficient lighting available to areas where it is most needed. Solar powered lighting solutions can make a true difference for the people in Rwanda” said Mr. DP Smedema, CEO Philips Lighting Africa.
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LedEngin Introduces Range of Multi-Color and White LED Emitters and Family of Lenses
SSLDesign News Staff
June 8, 2010...LEDEngin has introduced a range of 15W, 4 die and 40W, 12 die emitters, RGB, RGBA, RGB-White, and white with color temperatures from 2700K to 6500K. The 15W, 4die devices measure 7mm x 7mm. The 40W, 12 die emitters measure 9mm x 9mm.
The company boasts that its high quality, CTE-matched materials and unique patented packaging technologies are chosen to optimize light output and minimize stresses resulting in color point stability and lumen maintenance well beyond industry standards. The device has a thermal resistance of 1.8° and 0.7° C/W respectively. According to LEDEngin, this low thermal resistance allows what it says is the high power density from a small, high flux density light source.
Additionally, the emitter's robust packaging reportedly allows the LEDs to meet JEDEC Level 1 Moisture Sensitivity Levels for unlimited product floor life. Also, the product design allows its use in outdoor applications with high ambient temperatures and high humidity.
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The Climate Group and Jet Li One Foundation Launch Solar LED project in Chengu Province Villages in China
SSLDesign News Staff
June 4, 2010...Two years ago China's Sichuan Province was devastated by an earthquake which killed thousands. On the second anniversary of that deadly earthquake, The Climate Group and the Jet Li One Foundation initiated a program, which is part of the 1000 Village Solar LED Project. The new initiative in Ping’an village of Pengzhou County in Chengdu, the capital city of Sichuan. will install 155 solar LED streetlights in 20 rural Chengdu villages whose buildings and streets were ravaged by the recent earthquake.
The 1000 Village Solar LED Project is a global social lighting program that aims to develop practical operational models, environmental policies, and technical solutions to facilitate the wide diffusion of solar power LED lighting in rural areas where outdoor lighting is lacking. Ultimately the 1000 Village Solar LED Project aims to set up 1000 solar LED village demonstration pilots, initially throughout China. The project will use a collaborative approach that partners local governments, technical supporters and other concerned organizations with The Climate Group and its donors. More than 10,000 rural residents in 20 villages will benefit from the Chnengdu initiative.
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Excelpoint to Distribute Seoul Semiconductor Products in Asian Market
LIGHTimes News Staff
June 4, 2010...Excelpoint has agreed to supply Seoul Semiconductor's products to the Asian market, including China and India
Excelpoint Technology Ltd. is Singapore-based a electronics distributor. According to the agreement, Excelpoint will represent the products of Seoul Semiconductor, including the ultra-small high-efficiency LED products and Seoul Semiconuntries iductor's AC-driven LED, Acriche. Excelpoint is expected to increase Seoul Semiconductor's presence in Asia
Yi Sang Min, Vice President of Sales and Marketing Department, stated that he is “extremely impressed by the competitive advantage, strong business foundation, specialist lighting design and environmentally friendly systems of Excelpoint."
With regard to this agreement, Albert Phuay, Chairman and Group CEO of Excelpoint said, “the technological capabilities and strong market position of Seoul Semiconductor as well as the vast array of excellent products including Acriche (AC LED) work exceedingly well with Excelpoint’s blueprint for the solid state lighting business”, also adding “the company will make every effort to promote and support Seoul Semiconductor’s products."
Seoul Semiconductor expects that its LED products will speed the adoption of electronic products such as TV BLU and LED products for the general lighting market in Asia.
LEDon Provides LED Retrofit Lamps at Cost Price for Municipality of Langenegg, Germany
SSLDesign News Staff
June 4, 2010...LEDon Lamp GmbH, a wholly owned subsidiary of Zumtobel Lighting, has provided a total of 520 LED retrofit lamps at cost price for the municipality of Langenegg. According to LEDon, its retrofit LED lamp only needs 6 watt, is dimmable, and replaces the classic 40 watt incandescent lamp. It saves up to 30 percent of energy costs compared to CFLs, and compared to incandescent lamps it saves up to 85 percent. It is therefore a more than environmentally friendly alternative.
Since the middle of April, the company has offered what it is calling the e5 Energy Box worth 60 Euros for free for people from Lan-genegg. People can picked the e5 Energy Box up at the town hall. It contains one LEDon LED lamp, a CFL energy-saving lamp, a switchable plug, an ammeter and a questionnaire.
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Commentary & Perspectives...
LED Lighting is a Consultative Process...
Tom Griffiths - Publisher
June 10, 2010...One of the things that the LED lighting industry gets knocked for is "not having the standards in place" to make it easy on the lighting decision makers. First, that's simply not true, but a standards roundup can easily set you up for a full day of reading. More importantly, it appears that the perception is that solid state lighting should somehow be easier to implement that other lighting is. After all, electronics make things simpler, don't they?
It's a common misconception, or probably better, "selective memory condition", that technology makes things simpler. That's kind of like saying, "water is never dangerous", or for that matter, "water is often dangerous". Your choice. If you pick one, you're wrong, since it all depends on what kind it is, and what you're doing with it. As an insulator while you're working on power lines, it's kind of dangerous. In a water gun that kids are shooting each other with, not dangerous. Whatever we pick, can be taken to any extreme to prove or disprove the supposition, so please no letters from chemists to remind us that ultra-pure water is actually a pretty good insulator, or from safety freaks who can only envision the SuperSoaker Mk. XXLIV 400 psi model in the hands of 4 year-olds. In the middle 80% of the circumstances, common sense prevails in comparing the application with the risks.
Technology quite often makes things faster, or more efficient. An spreadsheet on my computer is a much faster way to add up columns, then sum then across, and find the percentage growth, but building the spreadsheet wasn't simpler than operating a calculator and pencil. Some level of specialized knowledge was needed. Once we know it, it can be simpler, but it's not automatic. You still have to figure out where to enable "auto set" on the clock for your DVD player (which is why many DVD players don't display the time, I suspect... the legacy of the flashing 12:00 on the VCR needed to be left behind to achieve true customer satisfaction). And technology does often make things simpler, but mostly from the maintenance stand point. Cars last longer and need fewer components for a tune-up. A refrigerator defrosts itself magically at 2am (there's actually a little heating element in ours that melts and evaporates what it's melting). Well-designed and constructed LED lights get installed, run for a decade, and then get replaced. Better technology and simpler maintenance don't necessarily imply easier installation, and definitely does not make for simpler selection. The more complex the technology, in fact, the more difficult the selection process may be, and the more likely you will need to tap your, or someone else's, expertise to make a good decision.
LED lighting is that way. Solid state doesn't mean simpler. I contend it does mean "better and more reliable" (when done correctly). So how does a facility lighting decision maker, for instance, figure out the correct answer? From the pure lighting aspect, they can rely on the same engineering approach that has worked for many decades. The concepts of beam angle and center beam candlepower, and foot-candles a the target, and light loss factors apply just as they always have. In fact, those metrics probably matter even more when you're looking at the increased acquisition costs of those "higher tech" LED-based lights. Precision matters. If you're used to winging it, you might be leaving a lot of money on the table that a lighting designer or other qualified lighting expert may have enabled you to save. "Too much light" takes on a increased significance when the cost per lumen is many times more than it was for the previous approaches.
More significant are the decision factors that are totally new in the lighting equation. Whose LEDs are inside. If you want them to stay the same color as they started, it kind of matters, since it's not a simple swap out. Whose drivers are inside. A bad ballast could be swapped out, but not so with bad drivers, especially when they may not manifest their inferiority until well past the warranty period. A 5-year payback isn't a payback if you only get a 4-year life from the product. How does the product look? Have shadowing effects been handled? Will it work with your dimmers or other controls, beyond just "theoretically"? All of those will be answers that come from experience, and most likely, the facilities expert or architect won't have that expertise yet.
So who does have those answers when it comes to LED lighting? Some lighting designers and some lighting consultants have the right kind of experience, and they're working to catch up (that's why they come to the SSL Summit series... NY agenda just updated!). Some solutions providers/sales organization, as well as some rep organizations, do have the answers, and you can tell which simply by asking how many different solid state lighting products, other than the lines they carry, they have evaluated and tested first hand. If it hasn't been at least double or triple the number the solutions provider is working with, they probably are short on necessary experience in separating the good and the OK, from the bad.
Finally, every quality manufacturer has the expertise, although they may or may not be active with the customers to apply it, if they have a well-trained rep/sales force that they have delegated it to. You also may run into the good manufacturers being less responsive than you might like, especially if you're working in the onesy-twosy mode. Just because a product is in volume production, don't take that to mean "in commodity supply". Some very sharp manufacturers are necessarily filtering whom they work with, as their solution is limited in the number of "cost effective" applications by the current performance and cost curves that the industry is handing them. A call for "can I buy a couple to try" might not be returned if you don't have the volume, or aren't providing the information that helps them to be sure your application meets their standards for success. Others may need to know that they will be able to actually "partner" with the user to assure a cost-effective retrofit and sensible deployment plan, since the last thing they want to see is a stack of luminaires returned because "they didn't work right" when they are working exactly as specified. For most applications out there now, adopting solid state lighting needs to be a consultative process to assure that the expected payback will really be achieved. There will be a number of segments that will move commodity at the point that simple price/performance surpasses the incumbents, but that will be a long while, yet. Even then, the more consultative suppliers will likely turn out to have ultimately more cost effective solutions because they will see that those solutions are correctly applied. The best answer for the business case to be real now is to not be small, and to tap real expertise.
To find industry quality, you might need to look to the one executive-level conference that demands it, SSL Design's 2010/2011 SSL Summit Series, September 14-15 in New York, and January 19-20, 2011 in Los Angeles. Speakers, showcase participants and even sponsors are vetted for their ability to show lighting decision makers quality LED lighting solutions, or to enable those solutions with quality componentry. Attendees will find not just choices, but the relationships that will bring success to their projects.
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