Warm White Fixture Emits 700 Lumens using 13 Watts of Household Power
15/2/06
DURHAM, N.C., Feb. 16 /PRNewswire/ -- LED Lighting Fixtures, Inc. (LLF)
today announced performance results from its most recent recessed can fixture.
The fixture was tested by an independent lab as providing 700 lumens of white
light at a color temperature of 2900 Kelvin, with a color rendering index
(CRI) of 93. Total power supplied to the fixture from a residential voltage,
AC power source was 13 watts. The fixture efficiency equaled approximately 54
lumens per watt of warm white light.
Tony van de Ven, LLFs Managing Director, stated, "Our latest development
breaks the final performance barrier required to move LEDs into general
illumination applications. We now envision recessed can fixtures that will
use only 6 watts to produce the same amount of warm white light as those
utilizing 65 watt incandescent bulbs. LED technology is ready to be deployed
in these applications today."
LLF will begin manufacturing the new light fixtures by the end of this
year. Consumers may begin to see this remarkable new technology in commercial
and residential construction. Yet, the new products are designed to look like
traditional lighting fixtures, so the user will not likely notice a
difference. LLF will use its core technology to build on its product line.
LLF's Chief Technology Officer, Gerry Negley said, "LEDs have historically
been inefficient in the warm white spectrum. Our proprietary system delivers
the efficacy and light quality required for general lighting." LLF takes
great care in insuring that its measurements give a true representation of
fixture performance. The company goes one step further in using certified,
independent third party verification of its numbers. Negley added, "The LED
industry has a great deal to learn about general lighting systems. We've
witnessed a number of significant disparities in the industry between
published data and actual performance. True performance measurements must be
taken at steady state conditions after achieving thermal quilibrium. Total
power consumption should be stated from the AC wall-plug thereby looking at
the overall system performance ncluding all optical (lenses) and electrical
(driver) losses. Consumers need to know that they can rely on published
performance figures."
The company used CSA International's Atlanta Lighting Laboratory to
conduct the product measurement. CSA International is accredited by the
Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) as a Nationally
Recognized Testing Laboratory (NRTL).
About LED Lighting Fixtures, Inc.
LED Lighting Fixtures, Inc. (LLF) is a privately held company
headquartered in the Research Triangle area of NC. Its mission is to
accelerate the adoption and evolution of light-emitting diodes (LEDs) into
high volume general lighting applications so that consumers can realize lower
energy and maintenance costs. LED lighting is significant in that it should
provide decades of lifetime under normal operation, requiring a fraction of
the power required for traditional lighting solutions. The company's founders
are Gerry Negley, Antony van de Ven, Thomas Coleman and Neal Hunter. This
group averages over 20 years of experience in all aspects of LED materials,
devices, components and systems.
Sources: http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/02-16-2006/0004283639&EDATE=
City works to replace traditional stoplight bulbs with LED bulbs
Chad Lawhorn
Sunday, January 22, 2006
Sometimes helping the environment is as simple as changing a lightbulb. The problem is, it’s a $90 lightbulb.
The city’s traffic light program is teaching city officials a thing or two about the balancing act of energy conservation. The city is about 60 percent complete with a project to replace standard light bulbs used in traffic lights through the city with special LED bulbs.
The LED bulbs use about one-sixth the electricity of a standard bulb and last about two years longer. But each red light the city replaces costs $90 compared to about one dollar for a traditional bulb.
Chuck Soules, the city’s director of public works, said the bulbs paid for themselves in reduced electricity costs during the five-year life of the bulbs. But the city hasn’t jumped into the program all at once. Instead the city is replacing the bulbs in phases. Soules estimated that it could be another two to three years before all the traditional bulbs are replaced.
Soules said upfront cost was the main reason. The city has about 80 intersections with traffic signals. It is not uncommon for some of the larger intersections to have 40 bulbs.
The city will cut the electric bills at an intersection by more than half with the use of LED bulbs. All the red lights, which burn the longest in the city, have been replaced, and overall about 60 percent of all the lights are replaced.
Photo by Mike Yoder
The city will cut the electric bills at an intersection by more than half with the use of LED bulbs. All the red lights, which burn the longest in the city, have been replaced, and overall about 60 percent of all the lights are replaced.
“You start to add that up, and it is a lot of money to spend on lightbulbs in a year,” Soules said.
Other areas the city continues to evaluate for potential energy savings include:
• Indoor lighting. The numbers are different, but the scenario is the same for lights used inside City Hall and other city buildings.
• Building standards. The city has informally agreed to build any new library project to standards approved by the U.S. Green Building Council. It’s not known yet how much the standards may add to the cost of the project. But city commissioners have not adopted the policy for all its buildings, and did not use the standards when designing two multimillion-dollar fire stations currently under construction. Mayor Boog Highberger, though, said city officials did direct the architect to be mindful of energy efficiency in the buildings’ designs.
source:http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2006/jan/22/city_works_replace_traditional_stoplight_bulbs_led/?city_local
N.C. startup building a better light bulb
ANNE KRISHNAN
1 Feb. 06
RALEIGH, N.C. - For nearly 20 years, Neal Hunter developed light-producing devices at Durham's Cree. He has spent the past five years building a 600-acre neighborhood.
Now he's combining those experiences to illuminate his latest venture, which aims to revolutionize home lighting.
Last week, the company introduced its first product, a light fixture that provides at least as much light as a 60-watt incandescent bulb but uses less than one-third the power.
The energy savings comes from the components that create the light. Instead of one regular light bulb, the fixture is illuminated with tiny devices called light-emitting diodes, or LEDs. The devices produce light without wasting energy as heat. And unlike light bulbs, LEDs can go years - decades even - without burning out.
"The light bulb has been around for 100 years, it's a great invention and a great light source ... but after 100 years, you'd think we'd make some progress from the efficiency standpoint," Hunter said.
While fluorescent bulbs are more efficient, there's growing concern about the toxicity of the mercury inside them, he said.
And with a product that's both efficient and nontoxic, the company called LED Lighting Fixtures is going after the $40 billion worldwide lighting market in a big way.
Hunter, 43, walked away last spring from Cree, the semiconductor company he helped found in 1987.
After seven years as CEO and 10 years as chairman, he wanted to pursue other business opportunities that intrigued him. He had no plans to get back into technology, he said Thursday.
But it wasn't long before several former Cree engineers approached him about adding his business savvy to their LED lighting business. The group knew it could solve the engineering issues involved in making lighting fixtures, but they needed someone to sell the product.
"It's unique to find technicians who are really good business people," said LLF co-founder Thomas Coleman.
Hunter believes absolutely in the company's products and its ability to deliver them.
"There are a lot of one or two-person shops that are playing around with LED lighting," Hunter said. "We're not playing around. This is serious business, and we want to take it on to the global level."
Hunter expects to be manufacturing and selling LLF's first product by the end of this year. The first place consumers are likely to see them is in new homes. LLF initially plans to market its products to national commercial and residential builders or independently owned light and electrical distributors.
Later, the company will go after the consumer market at retailers such as Lowe's and Home Depot.
"It's going to be very competitive," Hunter said. "That's why you have to rely on your innovation and your speed."
LLF will be going up against major companies such as Philips and Osram, but there are opportunities for small, agile startups using LEDs, said Bob Steele, director of opto-electronics for Strategies Unlimited, a California company that tracks the LED business.
Hunter's learning that firsthand. A couple of weeks ago, he scouted the International Builders Show in Orlando, Fla., chatting up the major lighting companies about their plans for LEDs. One conversation in particular stuck out.
"He said, 'Every time those guys come in, they can't prove to us that LEDs are going to do what they say they're going to do,' " Hunter said. "I don't think they believe or understand that LEDs are ready - or are going to be ready in the next three to five years."
And while LED lighting research is growing quickly in some quarters, there aren't many companies focusing on illuminating homes, Steele said.
"The market is so new at this point that a lot of different approaches may be tried," he said. "It's kind of a new world in lighting."
LLF may eventually invent chandeliers and other large lighting fixtures under its Forever Fixture brand, but right now it's going for something that's popular and reasonably easy to mass-produce. The company's first product combines LEDs with a simple translucent cover. Builders or homeowners would install the fixtures into the ceiling of kitchens and other rooms.
LLF estimates the market for traditional fixtures like its prototype was about $30 million in 2005, up from $24 million in 2003. When the company founders tagged along on a recent tour of homes, they counted 120 recessed lights in one house.
"It's a high-volume, known-entity product," Hunter said.
Forever Fixtures will be priced to be competitive with the total installation costs of traditional fixtures, he said. While the product itself will be more expensive, builders won't have to worry about compensating for excess heat, which can drive the actual cost of a $10 fixture up to $100, he estimated.
And even if Forever Fixtures products are slightly more expensive, they're also more convenient, Hunter said. With an average use of six hours a day, chief technology officer Gerry Negley estimates the LEDs will last for 20 years. That means homeowners won't be climbing ladders to replace light bulbs, a real selling point with consumers, Hunter said.
"People will pay for that," he said. And they won't have to take any aesthetic chances. It's hard to tell the LED and traditional products apart when they're placed side by side.
LLF will stay ahead of the competition by persistently advancing its products, an area where the major players fall short, Hunter said.
The company already has filed for five patents on technology developed in Negley's 1,000-square-foot basement in Hillsborough. But only so much intellectual property can come out of a basement, Hunter said.
The company will announce a headquarters location in a few weeks. LLF has narrowed the possibilities to two sites - one in Durham and one in Wake County. With two founders in Hong Kong, there's an office there, too.
While Hunter is well-known in the LED industry for his success with Cree, which experienced explosive growth under his leadership, he'll have to rebuild his reputation in the lighting industry, Steele said. Still, Hunter seems to have the skills for success, Steele said.
"It's a new and emerging market," he said. "If you have the business smarts and the marketing smarts, there's certainly a good chance of making that happen."
Source: http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/business/13760318.htm
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