Fraunhofer Institute LED light panels mimic the sky

Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute have brought the sky indoors with a lighting solution for offices that makes a sky effect on the ceiling. It is made of LED lights which mimic natural lighting conditions, including passing clouds and different shades of blue and gray. The lights are 20-inch by 20-inch tiles, each with 288 LEDs and diffuser films. The LEDs are colored red, blue, green, and white, making them able to produce more than 16 million hues.

Recycling Center to Take Fluorescents from Non-Residents

The El Cerrito City Council gave a green light to accepting fluorescent light bulbs and tubes, for a fee, from people who don't live in El Cerrito or one of the other West Contra Costa cities that already pay a solid waste fee. Fluorescent light bulbs and tubes can be friendly to the environment by requiring less electricity than other light fixtures, but they can be far more hazardous if they break and release toxic mercury.

LED Tube Light Trend Report: The High Performance LED Tube

The High Performance LED tube has the capacity to fundamentally change the commercial American energy landscape. An LED tube can typically reduce the electricity by 50% or more over an incumbent T12 or T8 fluorescent tube. However, “high performance” is the key since industry professionals, like electrical contractor, have had reservations about the cost-benefit ratio, longevity, and the overall quality assurance of LED tubes. The reservations have stemmed from the “new” factor, engineering viability, and observations that the vast majority of mass-market LED tube lights are imported from China.

LEDwiser Wants to Change Your Light Bulb (to LEDs)

Can a small, self-funded LED lighting startup out-innovate the massive lighting incumbents and VC-funded lighting firms? LEDwiser is a ten-person startup in San Jose, California that believes it builds a better LED light bulb. We just spoke with the CEO and management of the firm. The firm's technologists asked themselves how they might change the design concept of the LED light bulb and started by looking at the Bill of Materials (BOM) and breaking down the cost structure. Here's LEDwiser's take on the breakdown of its LED bulb:

Make Any Lamp Cordless for Under $20

Most lamps come with short cords that not only ugly up your office, but don't always reach the wall without an equally ugly extension cord. Save yourself the mess by making your lamp cordless. Weblog View Along the Way explains how to turn any lamp into a cordless light source, by replacing the light bulb with a string of low-power LEDs and running them off a 9V battery. It's a pretty cheap project, with the parts coming in under $20, and it only requires a bit of soldering to get it done. Of course, you could always buy a cordless LED lamp too, but if you have a lamp you particularly like, this will work with just about anything. Hit the link to see a full step-by-step guide.

Lighting designer uses LEDs to conjure up magic

Michael Sestak does more than light up a room. The lighting designer transforms space with artful use of LEDs and other energy-efficient breakthroughs. He has helped many clients see their homes or businesses in a whole different way. "You want to make it magic," Sestak said. "You don't want to see the wires or the glare of bulbs. Lighting is supposed to illuminate space. It's all about placement. That affects what you see and how you see it." And with LEDs, there are a lot more options on where lights can go.

LED Fixture Prices Fall 24% in Two Years

The psychology of utility rebates can have a similar impact in the corporate market. Traditional lighting upgrades are not glamorous and often take 12 to 24 months to make the corporate budget cycle. How corporate managers react to “free” utility money for more visible LED projects is worth considering. Does it drive behavior, budgeting and faster investment decision making?

Eureka: 9 Stunning Lightbulb Designs

Without light, we'd spend 10-12 hours a day unable to function (by modern standards at least). And sure, we've always had fire and candles, but it wasn't until the advent of electricity, and then the lightbulb, that man conquered the dark once and for all. That's we went and dug up nine of our favorite bulb designs past and present. And we're not talking bulbs in the generic sense. We mean honest-to-goodness, spherically-shaped, filament-packing, glass objects. Ready? Good. Let's go.

Magnalight Adds Compact Hazardous Location LED Light with High Output and Low Voltage Operation

Larson Electronics' Magnalight.com has announced the addition of the HAL-33W-TC-LV LED Light for Hazardous Location Areas to its comprehensive line of explosion proof lighting solutions for industrial and commercial operations. Built to operate on low voltage and provide high output from a compact fixture design, this rugged LED light is an ideal alternative to bulky and hot running HID light fixtures.

Dartmouth plant recycling light bulbs

A light bulb recycling plant is up and running in Dartmouth. Dan-X Recycling, which is located in Burnside Park, has been using the machine since late June. The $300,000 to $400,000 processing facility was manufactured in England. “We’ve been in operation six weeks,” company president Dave Hall said Tuesday. “We’ve processed close to 275,000 lamps so far.”

Zhongtian Lighting Introduces 2W LED Bulb Light

Recently, Zhongtian Lighting introduced the new products–2W LED Bulb Light [ZT-G45E27-122A]. LED bulb light is a new energy-saving light which can be an alternative to traditional incandescent bulb. LED bulb lights are far superior to traditional lighting products in these aspects of lighting principle, energy saving and environmental protection. At present, LED bulbs are gradually replacing the incandescent and CFL bulbs. Compared with the incandescent lamps, the high power LED lamps can save 85% – 90% energy. For instance, the 3W and 5W LED bulbs can replace 20W and 40W incandescent bulbs, and their lamp holder is E14, E22, E26 and E27 respectively.

Desk Lamp is For the Snake-Lover in You

So long as you're not Indiana Jones, you might be able to appreciate a little serpentine inspiration in your workspace. These Trask desktop lamps can fill that niche for you, and keep your space well lit at the same time. Made by MIO, these lamps come in chartruse, silver, or white and boast 6 different points of articulation. Each segment is made primary out of laser-cut, powder-coated steel and has its own LED strip.

LED Price for Backlight Application Slides in 3Q12

According to LEDinside, the LED research division of TrendForce, despite the rush orders during 2Q12 which kept LED chip and package makers’ utilization rates high, the 3Q12 outlook for LED backlight market turns murky due to the European debt crisis and the weak demand in China. No demand surge is in sight due to the weakened market confidence and the conservative attitude of LED companies. Whether or not brand vendors will cut orders in 3Q12 depends on the sales of end-market products.

The Secret Of Liquid-Cooled LED Bulbs

Trumpeted as the “best kept secret in the LED market”, SWITCH Lighting’s CEO Tracy Bilbrough has revealed details about the company’s core technology - the LQD Cooling System - for the first time at the LED Show in Las Vegas. The LQD Cooling System is a method of keeping LED light bulbs cool using a liquid silicone coolant. The central nervous system of a LQD Cooling System combines of two proprietary components: a coolant made of liquid silicone and an efficient and reliable driver.
Liquid silicone is no stranger to thermal-management applications from cooling large machinery to being an ingredient in select food and cosmetic products. Reported as being a completely safe, food-grade product, liquid silicone is electrically non-conductive, non-toxic, non-staining, and does not degrade LEDs. Pairing the coolant and drivers, this system works in synchronization to cool the LEDs in the bulb as well as all integral components.

White LEDs printed on paper

PhD student at Linköping University in Sweden, Gul Amin has demonstrated in his doctoral thesis that white LEDs, made from zinc oxide and a conducting polymer, can be manufactured directly on paper. It is possible to print them on wallpaper, for instance. The active components are nanorods of zinc oxide on a thin layer of polydiethylflourene (PFO), a conducting polymer. The paper has first been coated with a thin, water-repellent, protective and leveling layer of cyclotene, a resin

Cree Raises Industry Standard with New 170 Lumen-Per-Watt Prototype LED Light Bulb

Less than one year after showcasing the 152 lumens-per-watt concept LED bulb, Cree, Inc. delivers a new performance benchmark with the 170 lumens-per-watt (LPW) prototype LED light bulb. The innovations behind the high-performance 170 LPW LED bulb are enabling significantly higher efficacy and lower cost for Cree's luminaire portfolio and demonstrate Cree's continued commitment to accelerate the adoption of LED lighting by addressing initial cost and payback - key barriers to widespread LED lighting adoption.
LED lighting at this level of performance is only made possible by advancements across all elements of the LED lighting system - lighting-class LEDs, optics, drivers and thermal management. LEDs based on Cree's innovative SC(3) Technology Platform enable this industry-leading R&D lighting result. The SC(3) Technology Platform is built upon Cree's advanced silicon carbide technology and features advancements in the LED chip architecture and phosphor.
Third party testing by independent lab OnSpeX confirmed that Cree's new 170 lumen-per-watt prototype LED bulb delivered more than 1250 lumens and consumes only 7.3 watts. The bulb uses Cree(R) TrueWhite(R) Technology to deliver a CRI of 90+. As an efficiency comparison, a traditional 75-Watt incandescent light bulb produces 1100 lumens, which is only 14.6 lumens per watt.

LEDs cut city energy costs by 35%

The LED lights Shawano put up last year have reduced the city's energy costs by about 35 percent, according to the Public Works Department. The city replaced 593 of its 980 high-sodium light fixtures with LED lights that provide similar coverage but do not use as much energy. The city's cost for street lighting in June was $1,779.17. If the lights had not been replaced, the cost would have been $2,755.88, Public Works Director Rick Stautz said.

First Official UK Distributor Opens for Hydro Grow

North Wales is about to have its first reseller of genuine Hydro Grow LED Grow Lights, as GreenLights.org.uk has reached a distribution agreement with leading manufacturer Hydro Grow.
When asked about their decision to work with Hydro Grow, Paul Krasnowski, owner of GreenLights.org.uk stated "It wasn’t a hard decision if were honest. I don’t think there is an LED Grow Light company or reseller out there that would not want to work with Hydro Grow. We respect what Hydro Grow has done for the LED Grow Light world, as they have paved the way for the rest of us with their expert research and quality products."
Greenlights.org.uk is registered with Companies House in the UK as a high-quality reseller of LED Grow Lights. Their own product offerings include the BudBabe and BudMaster LED Grow Lights, featuring high output 3W LEDs from Bridgelux, EpiLED, and EPLED. Owner Paul Krasnowski commented "Here at Greenlights we are focused on only selling the best quality and best yielding led grow lights available in the world. Now with the addition of Hydro Grow Penetrator X2-Pro our catalog is finally complete."       
The new Penetrator X2 LED Grow Lights are claimed to be the most powerful horticultural grow light in the world, backed by the industry's only 3D PAR output charts comparing them to the market standard HPS. Hydro Grow also owns two world records for the highest yielding single auto flower plants ever recorded, providing further testament to their claims. Recent testing published by Hydro Grow shows their most powerful light the 336X-PRO, delivering more PAR output at 60" than the 1000W HPS at 36". The amazing part is that the 336X-PRO consumes less than half the power.