Light bulb jokes are forever

We have a new endangered species in the United States. Don't get too concerned. It doesn't have babies and there still are billions around. It's the light bulb. That is to say, it's our old incandescent light bulb. It's the glass, round thingy with the filament inside. You know, the one you shake to see if it's broken. That's the one that's dying off. Technically, it's called a lamp, by the way. But you call it whatever you want because we won't really need a name for it pretty soon anyway!

LED lights point shoppers in the right direction

Looking for an item in a large department store or mall can be like searching for a needle in a haystack, but that could change thanks to a hybrid location-identification system that uses radio frequency transmitters and overhead LED lights, suggested by a team of researchers from Penn State and Hallym University in South Korea.
LED lights are becoming the norm, said Mohsen Kavehrad, W. L. Weiss Chair Professor of Electrical Engineering and director of the Center for Information and Communications Technology Research at Penn State. The same lights that brighten a room can also provide locational information.
To locate an item in a mall, the system would not need to transfer large amounts of data. Kavehrad and his team envision large stores or malls with overhead LED light fixtures, each assigned with a location code. At the entrance, a computer that is accessible via keyboard or even telephone would contain a database of all the items available. Shortly after a query, the location or locations of the desired item would appear.

West Dundee to switch some traffic lights to LED bulbs

In an effort to go more green, the village will partner with the Illinois Department of Transportation to replace the traffic signals on Routes 31 and 72 from incandescent bulbs to LEDs. IDOT officials said the LED lights will lower energy consumption, reduce maintenance and enhance visibility. West Dundee Village Manager Joe Cavallaro told village board members that battery backup also is included in the program, which will allow traffic signals to operate during temporary short-term power outages.

O2Micro's White LED Control Invention Issued Patent

2Micro International Limited was issued 17 claims under United States patent number 7,948,455 for its White LED apparatus and methodology. This invention regulates white LEDs used in color displays and small handheld devices. It provides high efficiency and at the same time reduced die size. Laszlo Lipcsei, vice president at O2Micro said, "O2Micro continues to enhance white LED technology since it is the preferred light source due to its size, complexity, and cost advantages."
Founded in April 1995, O2Micro develops and markets innovative power management and e-commerce components for the Computer, Consumer, Industrial, and Communications markets. Products include Intelligent Lighting, Battery Management, and Power Management.

Magnalight Announces Release of 150 Watt Hazardous Location LED Tripod Light

Larson Electronics' Magnalight.com announced today the release of a 150 watt LED light for hazardous locations that incorporates a single LED light fixture and versatile tripod mounting for convenient and powerful illumination of work areas. Designed to operate in wet areas and stand up to the rigors of the industrial workspace, the HAL-TP-1x150LED-100 tripod mounted LED light is approved Class 1 Division 2, and is an ideal alternative to hot running and less durable 400 watt metal halide tripod mounted lights.
The HAL-TP-1X150LED-100 Tripod Mounted LED Light from Magnalight.com is designed to provide a powerful alternative to hot running and less durable 400 watt metal halide lights and produces 14,790 lumens of clean white light while using only 400 watts of power. Approved for, Class 1 Division 2 hazardous locations this tripod mounted LED light is suitable for use in wet areas and resists the effects of rust and corrosion with an aluminum lamp housing finished in a bronze powder coat, stainless steel hardware, and a tripod constructed of copper free and corrosion resistant aluminum. This portable LED light tower is extremely versatile and offers a host of features including folding tripod legs and solid rubber wheels for easy tower deployment and placement, three foot to eight foot height adjustment, a fully adjustable light head, 100 feet of SOOW cord for long placement range, and easy tool free disassembly and reassembly for passing the unit through tight entryways. The LED design of the lamp assembly provides cool operation and much greater durability than glass incandescent or metal halide work lamps. As well as greater durability, the LED lamp in this unit offers high efficiency and a total lumen output capable of covering 18,000 square feet of work area with high quality illumination while using less energy than standard lighting. A 50,000 hour LED operational life and 120-277 VAC voltage capability round out this LED lamps' advantages over standard lamps. This LED light tower is constructed of quality materials and uses CREE XLamp XPG to ensure the best LED performance possible. The HAL-TP-1X150LED-100 is ideal for use in marine locations, industrial settings, and anywhere a highly versatile and powerful alternative to fragile and short lived glass lamp based lighting is desired.

Philips completes Indal acquisition

Royal Philips Electronics and Indal have announced that the acquisition of Indal WRTL Exterior Lighting Ltd by Philips has been completed. With this acquisition, the Indal WRTL subsidiary becomes part of the Professional Luminaires business of Philips Lighting. Indal WRTL has been particularly active in LED-based outdoor lighting projects, such as LED street lights in the borough of Sandwell, and linear LED lighting to a road tunnel in London, which we reported on previously. To date, Indal WRTL has nearly 100,000 installations of Stela street lights, which were introduced approximately three years ago. According to the company, these installations have accumulated nearly 500 million operating hours, saving close to 15,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions.

Valparaiso reaping big savings from eco-friendly LED bulbs

Switching to LED lights for its streetlights and traffic signals has been a good investment for Valparaiso. The change in the US town is expected to pay for itself in about four years. After that, the city will continue to save — even after buying a bucket truck and hiring a technician at $50 an hour to maintain the lights, said Don McGinley, director of the city's Project and Facility Management Office. Over the past nine months, McGinley's office has monitored the savings realized by replacing the "cobra-head"-style streetlights with decorative light-emitting diode bulbs, and using LED bulbs in traffic signals.

GlacialLight Releases Brand New LED Flood Light Series

GlacialLight, a sub-division of the experienced technology manufacturer GlacialTech Inc., is pleased to announce a new LED Flood Light Series using Philips Lumileds LED Chips - the GL-FL12, GL-FL30, and GL-FL120.
The GlacialLight Flood Light Series provides a direct indoor and outdoor replacement solution for outdated mercury lamps. With Philips Lumileds LED Chips efficiently converting electricity into light, GlacialLight's Flood Light Series produces natural-looking light for over 30,000 hours. When used for eight hours a day these LED floodlights last for over a decade, lowering maintenance cost.
Shining high quality cool white light while using less energy than traditional lighting, the GL-FL12 (13W), GL-FL30 (27W), and GL-FL120 (110W) are equivalent to 50W, 75W, and 300W mercury lamps, respectively. Not only does this GlacialLight series help to reduce energy consumption, but also with a color temperature of 6000K and a color rendering index of at least 70, people and objects will look more natural in the gentler LED light with no perceptible flickering.
With the environment in mind GlacialLight designed the Flood Light Series to contain no hazardous chemicals, such as mercury, or harmful radiation emissions such as UV or IR, making them more eco-friendly than traditional lighting. The Flood Light Series is also more economically friendly, consuming less power while providing more light, than traditional lighting products.

Sanger installing energy-saving LED streetlights

Big changes are taking place in Sanger this week. The city is installing new city street lights. The project is expected to save the city thousands of dollars each year. The city is part way through the installation. Sanger's mayor said, in the long run, the lights should pay for themselves. The new lights are smaller, brighter, and more efficient. Soon all of Sanger's 475 street lights will be replaced with LEDs.

NXP Demonstrates Solar Street Lighting

NXP Semiconductors N.V. recently announced that it has developed an innovative, sustainable and highly efficient solar-powered street lighting solution, together with Philips Lighting. The groundbreaking Solar Gen2 solution could have a major impact on energy consumption in urban areas at night. By charging street lamps during daylight hours, the new solar-powered solution from Philips Lighting and NXP can supplement the capacity of the conventional electricity grid, saving money and reducing CO2 emissions.
The key to the breakthrough lies in the combination of new High Brightness LEDs and unique patented optics from Philips Lighting, together with NXP's MPT61x range of configurable ICs for Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT), which can deliver 98% power conversion efficiency in solar photovoltaic (PV) cells.
Philips' High Brightness LEDs offer a highly energy-efficient solution, which is superior to any conventional lighting and allows street lamps to be spaced up to 50 meters apart -- much wider than is possible with other solutions. This makes Solar Gen2 the most cost-effective solution per km of road lighting and provides a serious alternative to grid-connected AC systems.
NXP's MPT61x intelligent charge controller family enables Solar Gen2 to transfer the maximum amount of power from the solar panels to the batteries. The MPT61x ICs also ensure that the charging and discharging of the battery happens in a smart way to maximize battery life. In addition, the controllers can dim light levels as needed based on a self-learning intelligence and history log.
Kees van der Klauw, SVP Technology & Development at Philips Lighting, says: "Solar Gen2 is a fantastic example of how several companies have worked together to create an innovative, best-in-class solution. It addresses a real need felt by 1.6 billion people in countries where the electricity grid cannot be relied upon to power street lighting at night. Solar Gen2 provides a cost-effective, reliable, off-grid outdoor lighting solution that can compete with existing on-grid lighting in performance, integral cost and energy consumption, improving the quality of people's lives around the world."

Silicon-based LEDs in two years?

OSRAM Opto Semiconductors has succeeded in manufacturing high-performance silicon-based prototypes of blue and white LEDs. The light-emitting gallium nitride layers of these LED chips are grown on silicon wafers with a diameter of 150mm. Silicon is used to replace sapphire in the chips. According to OSRAM Opto Semiconductors, the pilot LED chips will be tested under practical conditions, with a chance that the first silicon-based LEDs will be on market in two years.

Anomax Invents a Super Energy Efficient 100-watt LED Light Bulb That Uses Only 12 Watts of Power

Anomax says it invented a 100-watt LED bulb that uses only 12W of energy. Compared to today's most energy efficient 100-watt bulb (CFL Compact Florescent Light at 23 watts) Anomax's bulb is 48% more efficient.
Anomax's  energy efficient lights pair their patent pending IPCHS substrate technology (a low cost metal-core board with circuits directly plated on alumina) with off-the-shelf LED diodes. Anomax names this break-through technology LMR for Light Made Right.
H.A. Chan, Director of Anomax, states, "Today's LED bulbs' bottleneck is their extremely low heat transfer (3W/mK) board that overheats the LED diodes and greatly lowers the light output. That's why brighter than 60-watt LED bulbs exist only in R&D labs and are very expensive to produce. The very high thermal transfer (30 W/mK) of IPCHS enables efficient power-to-light conversion, improving energy use by almost 50%."
In comparison, 90W of a 100-watt incandescent bulb is wasted producing heat. A 100-watt CFL uses 23W but contains harmful mercury in fragile glass-tubes that breaks and inevitably introduces mercury into our food chain. A 100-watt LMR bulb uses only 12W, HALF that of a CFL and as an LED based light, LMR is totally Green. At other light-output levels, LMR bulbs consistently use only half the energy of CFLs.

Netherlands grower tour aims to boost LED knowledge

Horticultural energy consultancy GrowSave has organised a trip to the Netherlands this week to acquaint British growers with the use of LEDs in commercial growing, ranging from salad vegetables and herbs to flowers. Among the sites to be visited will be Vreugdenberg in the Westland region, which is developing multi-layer LED-lit systems for young plants, pea shoots and lettuce.

Luminus Demonstrates Latest Advances in LED Projector Technology

Luminus Devices, Inc., developer and manufacturer of high light output Big Chip LEDs, will be demonstrating the latest projector products illuminated by the company's projection chipsets. Invited visitors will get a chance to see a side-by-side demonstration featuring an LED projector with brightness comparable to a traditional lamp-based projector rated at 2200 ANSI lumens. Confirming its focus on higher brightness mainstream projectors targeted to business and education markets, the company will also display a 4000 lm hybrid LED/Laser projector based on its latest Red and Blue LED technology solutions.
In the ultra-portable projectors category, Luminus will demonstrate several projectors rated at performance of up to 500 lm as well as a technology demonstration previewing the next generation of products.
Luminus will be demonstrating these latest technological advances at CES, January 10-13, in room C202, Central Hall at the Las Vegas Convention Center in Las Vegas, NV.

Everett elementary school leads LED revolution

The Everett School District (Washington) flipped the switch on a technology this week that many believe will revolutionize the way we light our schools. James Monroe Elementary is believed to be the first public school to go almost entirely LED. Light emitting diode (LED) fixtures have been around for years. LEDs own the Christmas tree and home decoration markets, but were not considered suitable for reading or lighting large areas.

ZigBee Light Link: LED Lighting Control Standardized

The ZigBee Alliance, a global ecosystem of companies creating wireless solutions for use in energy management, commercial and consumer applications, announced it is developing a new open standard designed for LED lighting control – ZigBee Light Link. This forthcoming standard will help manufacturers develop a variety of lighting and control products, giving resellers and consumers a wide selection of interoperable wirelessly controlled lighting products for the home.
The Alliance is creating a standard that will be as easy to use as a common dimmer switch. Light bulbs, LED fixtures, sensors, timers, remotes and switches built using ZigBee Light Link will not require special devices to coordinate in a home's network. Consumers will be able to easily install and add extra devices to their home lighting network. Like all devices in the ZigBee portfolio, ZigBee Light Link devices can be controlled over the Internet through connected computers, tablets and smart phones. Development of this standard is being steered by industry-leading lighting experts such as GE, Greenwave Reality, OSRAM Sylvania and Philips. "ZigBee Light Link will be the industry-wide solution for the home market," said Jos Bruins, ZigBee Light Link working group chair from Philips. "ZigBee Light Link is being vigorously tested and will provide the simplicity consumers need and the helpful features they've been hoping the industry would develop."Products built using ZigBee Light Link can earn the ZigBee Certified product seal. When completed, this open standard will be one of the industry's first standardized wireless networking solution for interoperable lighting applications between different manufacturers."Having so many lighting industry heavyweights working together to leverage the benefits of ZigBee for ZigBee Light Link will help consumers realize the convenience of standards-based wireless lighting control," said Bob Heile, chairman of the ZigBee Alliance. "ZigBee Light Link will give consumers a simple way to control lighting from anywhere in their home, or even if they're at work or on vacation."

Office LED system simulates clouds passing overhead

Office employees could soon be working under open skies thanks to a ceiling lighting system that imitates clouds passing overhead. Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Engineering (IAO) have developed an LED-based tile system that could improve working conditions by simulating outdoor lighting conditions.