Stage A Thunderstorm In Your Living Room With This Weird Lamp

People see things in clouds. We seem predisposed to find meaning in things, especially those things we can’t quite grasp or wholly experience. Clouds fit the bill: They’re neither sufficiently material nor close enough for us to really engage with. Unless, of course, you have them in your living room. Designer Richard Clarkson’s Cloud Lamp adds to the atmosphere at home. A heap of down fluff impregnated with a battery of electrical wires, the lamp gives you your very own cumulonimbus cloud. Not only does it approximate the gust-like shape that hovers in stormy skies, but it also produces a phantasmagoric play of lights--call it lightning design.

What's inside the Walmart 60W-replacement LED bulb?

Walmart made news recently with its announcement of a sub-$10 Great Value house-branded 60W-equivalent dimmable LED replacement bulb. As the nation's leading retailer whose name is synonymous with low prices, Walmart is one of the first places consumers look for household products like lightbulbs. So how does its new lamp perform, and what design decisions were made? The bulb was reportedly designed and manufactured by Chinese lamp vendor TCP.

NYC Is Replacing Its 250,000 Street Lights with LEDs

In recent years, we've watched with wonder as boring old yellow halogen car headlights have been replaced with futuristic, Tron-like LEDs. Now, that transition is about to take place on the city scale, as New York City prepares to replace its street lamps—all 250,000 of them—with LEDs. Mayor Bloomberg announced the massive project on Thursday, pointing out straight away that the shift to LEDs would save the city $6 million in energy costs and $8 million in maintenance—that's $14 million total, math whizzes—every year.

Nokero has sold 1 million solar light bulbs to developing countries

A video of the band Linkin Park — rocking in the glow of dozens of Nokero solar lights — plays as Nokero founder Steve Katsaros sips champagne. "Waiting for a light that never comes," Katsaros sings along with the band. The patent lawyer-turned-inventor is celebrating. His 3-year-old Nokero just landed its biggest order for 275,000 of his low-cost solar-powered light bulbs in Indonesia, pushing his total sales to more than 1 million. He has an African government negotiating for 400,000 of his lights. Nokero has a new chief operating officer with years of experience developing business opportunities in Africa. A high-profile CEO is about to join the ranks. And Linkin Park is cheering his invention.

Solid Apollo LED Offers a New, Wide Range of Lighting Control Systems

Solid Apollo LED has expanded its line of LED controllers to meet the needs of architects, designers, artist and homeowners by creating a beautiful range of dimmers, RGB and DMX Control Systems. The North Seattle Company is known for tackling unique lighting situations from home lighting to architectural and custom lighting projects, while supplying users with a variety of options for their unique lighting environment.
LED lights can be used anywhere, from new accent lighting in a single room, to building a home or upgrading an entire business. Having full control over LED lights can take a home or business to the next level of bright, efficient lighting. Solid Apollo is proud to introduce three distinct models; the Glide Dimmer, Micro Wireless Dimmer, and In-Wall DMX RGB-W controller which greatly improve LED lighting control.
Solid Apollo’s newest LED dimmer is the sophisticated and easy-to-use Glide LED Dimmer which can be used in a variety of environments including homes for under cabinet and full room accent lights. It features an all-black finish for high-end environments and smart one-touch functionality with subtle “fade-in” capability. Additionally, Solid Apollo LED’s Glide dimmer features 30 full feet of control and memory functionality, meaning controlling your LED lights has never been easier.
For those situations where LED lights need to be dimmed in a discrete and minimalist style, Solid Apollo’s new Micro Wireless LED Dimmer is the perfect solution. Its compact design (1.25” wide) packs a powerful dimming punch, with 0-100% dimming and ultra-smooth fading built in. With the Micro Wireless dimmer from Solid Apollo, you can control the brightness of any 12-36V LED lighting fixture while being able to hide your wireless dimmer discretely.
DMX lighting is a powerful technology for full control of RGB LED lights. To bridge the gap between advanced lighting systems Solid Apollo has created the perfect solution for full control of any DMX lighting fixture with the ease of RGB-W Color Changing lighting. The In-Wall DMX RGB-W Controller is a fully functional RGB-W controller for creating colors and effects through a DMX enabled lighting fixture such as a wall-washer.
Manuel Barquin, President of Solid Apollo LED, specifically designed this product as a straight-forward way of controlling high-end DMX lighting fixtures. “The In-Wall DMX RGB-W Controller is the perfect solution for controlling DMX enabled LED lights without a complicated system, but still taking full advantage of RGB-W LED Lighting.”
This new controller has the capability to control an additional white channel in addition to the standard RGB, meaning increased color range and effects. Standard control on the beautiful touch-pad interface includes brightness, 16 million color selection, program speed, color saving, and white temperature control.
These three LED controllers highlight just a small portion of what is possible with LED Lighting, which can open up a vast world of bright light and colorful displays for any home or business. To view a full line of LED Lighting controllers and LED lighting possibilities, please visit solidapollo.com.

Toss traditional lightbulbs and save with CFLs, LEDs

Old-school lightbulbs are becoming history as tests show energy-saving bulbs are better than ever.
With many homes using about 50 lightbulbs, the cost of traditional incandescent bulbs is a good reason to make the switch. "Incandescent bulbs are really only cheap if you never turn them on,” said Celia Kuperszmid Lehrman of Consumer Reports. “They cost about $8 a year to power, and that's compared with only $1.70 for an LED or CFL."

New 300 Watt LED Street Light from Larson Electronics Produces over 25,000 Lumens

Industrial lighting specialists Larson Electronics have released a new LED street light designed to provide better performance and reliability than standard HPS designs. The RWL-LED-80 300 Watt Street Light is built to provide high performance in an easy to install design and is an ideal alternative to fragile and costly to run HPS fixtures.
The Larson Electronics RWL-LED-80 300 watt LED street light is designed to provide a cost effective alternative to standard HPS lamps that offers improved performance and reliability. This LED street light is designed to act as a direct replacement for cobra style standard 600 watt HPS street lights while providing enhanced performance and longevity. This powerful LED street light features a die cast aluminum housing, rugged polyester coating, and 80 high performance LEDs protected by a shatterproof lens producing 25,250 lumens of light output. This assembly is weatherproof and designed to stand up to wet and corrosive conditions for high reliability under demanding conditions. This fixture is rated at 100,000 hours of operations, three times as much as standard HPS systems, and offers more cost effective operation through reduced maintenance costs, fewer lamp replacements, and lower energy consumption. This system is also designed with a die cast latch providing tool free access to the internals, an integral bubble level, and an adjustable mounting coupling that accepts mounting shafts 1 ¼ to 2 inches in diameter. This high power LED light is multi-voltage and available in 120-277 VAC, 347 VAC, and 480 VAC configurations. This high performance street light is ideal for industrial complexes, military installations, campuses, warehouse lots, and anywhere operators would like to improve the performance of existing lighting systems while reducing the costs associated with illuminating their grounds.

Philips renews the street lighting system of Buenos Aires with LED technology

Royal Philips, the global leader in lighting, has been selected by the government of the city of Buenos Aires to renew its street lighting system with LED technology. Philips will replace the majority of the 125,000 existing street lights with new LED luminaires within a 3-year term. Philips was awarded the contract as a result of a public bidding process. 
Philips’ LED-based lighting will enable energy savings of over 50% for the city, a significant reduction in CO2 emissions every year, and offers a lifetime that is five times longer than conventional lighting. This will significantly reduce the environmental impact of the lighting system and reduce maintenance costs for the city of Buenos Aires.
“With the rapid growth in population and the expansion of urban areas, the world needs better and more efficient light. The arrival of innovative LED lighting has brought about a radical change in the industry. In addition to enabling energy savings, it provides our customers with unique, flexible, sustainable, and integrated lighting solutions which were not even envisioned only a few years ago,” stated Gustavo Verna, CEO of Philips Argentina.
The white light of LED lighting enables better facial recognition and adequate color perception, not only by the human eye, but also by security cameras, strengthening crime prevention. The improved visibility and security through Philips’ LED lighting will enable people to enjoy public spaces in Buenos Aires.
Another important benefit of LED lighting is the ability to be remotely controlled. In addition to the replacement of street luminaires, Philips has developed a tailor-made solution for the City of Buenos Aires based on its CityTouch Tele-management platform. The system enables monitoring of each light point in the network on an individual basis, allowing the optimal operation of each luminaire and programming of potential replacements or future maintenance tasks. The system also provides the possibility to switch off or dim lighting levels, depending on specific requirements, thus dramatically reducing energy consumption.

Cree adds dim-to-warm option in LMH2 LED module family

The LMH2 product line allows SSL makers to deliver a broad range of lumen packages in the same luminaire housing and now offer products that dim from 2700K to 1800K to mimic halogen incandescent performance. Cree has announced what the company calls Sunset Dimming in its LMH2 LED module family. The new module line dims from a 2700K CCT at full brightness to 1800K at 1% of full range, and maintains a 90 CRI over the bulk of that range. The new dimming capability provides luminaire makers with even more options that they can offer using the same basic fixture design

In Cuba, murky light thrown by energy-saving bulbs

In 2005, the government decided to switch out incandescent bulbs for energy-saving ones. The process really got underway nationwide in 2006 -- officially named "Year of the Energy Revolution in Cuba" -- a title that appeared on the masthead of the Communist Party daily Granma. People were asked to turn in their regular light bulbs -- only those that were still good, please -- and were given energy-saving bulbs as a replacement with the grass root Committees for the Defense of the Revolution duly noting who turned in how many bulbs.

Price of budget-friendly LEDs to drop further with Energy Star certification

The nostalgia-hating LED evangelists over at Durham, N.C.-based Cree aren’t just skilled at murdering chocolate Easter bunnies with incandescents and convincing the public to share icky photographs of dismally lit rooms — the company has proven itself to be also quite skilled at making the price of high-quality consumer LED bulbs drop and, in effect, became all the more appealing to sticker price-sensitive folks looking to shave some serious cash off their monthly electric bills (the folks who, while interested in making the switch to LED lighting, may have recoiled in horror at this).

 

RAB Lighting Inc. Introduces the LED Bollard Luminaire

RAB Lighting Inc. introduces the LED Bollard. The seriously heavy duty RAB LED bollards and matching architectural wall sconces will stand up to almost anything. The LED Bollard luminaire is designed for sturdiness with its patent pending base mount and durable, vandal-resistant polycarbonate lens. Precision-engineered optics deliver maximum downward lighting without glare. Four leveling screws are included to make it easy to fine tune mounting adjustments on uneven surfaces. There is also a retrofit adapter available so you can replace existing bollards with LED.
This architectural quality LED Bollard has a clean, elegant design which is available in round or square, and bronze or white finishes. Available in 12, 18 and 24 Watt which allows for 180°, 270° and 360° lighting pattern options, this fixture can illuminate a variety pathways.
The distinctive styling of ground mounted bollards is also available as an architectural sconce for continuity of design.
100,000+ hour LED lifespan based on IES LM-80 results and TM-21 calculations, dramatically reduces maintenance and re-lamping costs. At 10 hours average daily use, RAB LEDs are rated to last 27 years.
Get more savings with utility rebates. DLC pending for round bollards in 24W, 18W and 12W, and square bollards in 12W.
Like all RAB LED fixtures, RAB LED bollards come with RAB’s No Compromise Five-year Warranty. We warrant light output, color stability, driver performance and paint finish put into simple terms that are easy to understand. Simple, comprehensive and valuable, the RAB LED Warranty ensures that your investment is protected.

MODERN FORMS Unveils Polar LED Luminaire featuring State of the Art LED Technology

The sleek design of Polar from MODERN FORMS epitomizes the use of modern materials with state of the art LED technology to create a refined urban luminaire. The luminaire features crisp edges of mitered glass and is optimally engineered with a maximum amount of LEDs for a wide range of bath lighting and functional illumination in luxury hotel corridors and other spaces.
The damp location listed Polar LED sconce, which is crafted to mount vertically or horizontally, is available in 26- and 40-inch lengths and can be dimmed beautifully with an electronic low voltage dimmer, making this the ideal solution for many fine residential and commercial bath lighting applications.
The low profile of the Polar makes it the perfect modern solution for complying with ADA standards within the most stringent hospitality and medical facility applications. 
Utilizing proprietary energy efficient LED technology, all MODERN FORMS luminaires feature LED modules engineered to deliver superlative consistent light quality, lumen output and a high color rendering index (CRI).  State of the art components, including replaceable LED modules and drivers, are manufactured in miniature sizes to create a multitude of new possible designs.

Light bulb buying guide

When Congress passed the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (EISA), the incandescent bulb's days officially became numbered. The law mandated strict new energy standards for lighting designed to kick-start a new era of greener, longer-lasting, more cost-efficient light bulbs -- and this meant kicking outdated, inefficient bulbs to the curb. The rising standards have already rendered 100- and 75-watt incandescents obsolete, and on January 1, 2014, their 60- and 40-watt cousins will meet the same fate. Like it or not, the arrival of this new era means that replacing your lights will never be quite the same. With all of the new options out there (not to mention the disappearance of some important old ones), finding the perfect bulb can seem pretty daunting

BPW encourages business owners to switch to LED lighting at luncheon

The electric bill for the average commercial or industrial business is about 40 percent lighting. For warehouse and distribution centers, that number rises to 75 percent, said Justin Lamb, vice president of the Michigan Solid State Lighting Association, at a Holland Board of Public Works luncheon designed to provide information about better lighting options. Public Act 295 says power companies need to encourage their customers to reduce their energy consumption. Tuesday, the BPW reached out to some its larger customers.

Cree Extends Leadership with Higher Performance XLamp XP-G2 LEDs

Cree, Inc. sets a new industry benchmark with higher performance XLamp XP-G2 LEDs. The latest innovation boasts a seven percent increase in brightness compared to the already industry-leading XP-G2 family. The new LEDs provide lighting manufacturers with an unprecedented combination of light output, efficacy and outstanding reliability, while delivering an immediate boost in performance.
XP-G2 LEDs are used in a wide variety of applications, including street and area lighting, PAR replacement lamps and high-performance flashlights. The new XP-G2 LEDs now deliver up to 142 lumens per watt at 350 mA, 85°C or 155 lumens per watt at 350 mA, 25°C in warm white (3000K), enabling lighting manufacturers to use fewer LEDs to achieve the same brightness at a lower system cost or increase performance levels using the same LED count and power.
Cree is also announcing the availability of 6,000 hours of LM-80 long-term testing data for the XP-G2 LED. This LM-80 data provides TM-21 reported L85 lifetimes greater than 36,000 hours, translating to a remarkable 15 percent light loss after four years, even at the maximum current of 1500 mA. In addition, the XP-G2's predecessor, the XLamp XP-G LED, now has more than 12,000 hours of LM-80 data available. All XP-G data sets provide TM-21 reported L95 lifetimes greater than 70,000 hours, or eight years, reflecting the excellent long-term reliability of the XLamp XP package.

Automobile lighting: From lanterns to LEDs

From lanterns to light diodes--this, in a nutshell describes the course of development in automotive lighting over the past 100 years. What originally served a functional purpose has long since evolved into a matter of design. Every vehicle, no matter its value, can be give a unique appearance thanks to characteristic lighting, and LEDs, compact light diodes, open up a world of new design possibilities.

A new spin on old washing machine parts

When it comes to taking something old and making it new again, taking the less complicated route often yields the most dramatic results. Take, for instance, the work of Dutch-born, Helsinki-based product designer/photographer Willem Heeffer. His new collection of “clean conscience” Drum Lamps are still very much old washing machine drums — no amount of overwrought upcycling magic can completely obscure that fact. Instead of distorting and concealing his source material to make it completely unrecognizable, Heeffer simply employs powder coating with a matching fabric braided electricity cable and voila — a washing machine drum lamp is born.

LED Lighting Comes in to the Cold

After years of promise, the technology and costs for light-emitting diodes, also known as solid state lighting, have reached the point where they are almost standard equipment on new cold cases, and offer a compelling rationale for retrofits. The attractiveness of merchandise under LED lighting makes it a strong choice for supermarket retailers.

End Markets Change the Supply Chain: LEDs

In the past several years, the light emitting diodes (LED) industry experienced the type of rapid growth in end user demand that significantly impacts supply chains. Market research firm Strategies Unlimited sized the 2012 worldwide market for LED components at $13.7 billion, with expected growth to $15 billion in 2017. The market for LEDs expanded very rapidly due to environmental and energy concerns about conventional lighting, and the attractiveness of LEDs' lower energy consumption, no mercury content, and longer product lifespan. As a result, LEDs are making major inroads into sectors such as general illumination, mobile devices, displays, traffic signals, and automotive.

How LEDs Are Changing Design

Piercingly bright yet implausibly small, light-emitting diodes—or LEDs, to use their somewhat catchier nickname—are having an outsize influence on interior design. These energy-efficient light sources, which require a fraction of the electricity of incandescent and even the much-loathed compact-fluorescent bulbs, aren't just giving stressed-out environmentalists reason for optimism. They're also freeing designers to reinvent lamps—and light itself—in ways that once seemed impossible.

Omnidirectional LED Lamp features ENERGY STAR rating

Available in standard medium or GU24 base, 15 W Omnidirectional A19 LED Lamp offers screw-in installation to retrofit existing table and floor lamps, ceiling fixtures, sconces, and pendants in residential and commercial applications. Bulb comes in 2,700 K and ENERGY-STAR-rated 3,000 K color temperatures with up to 1,100 lm. Incorporating multi-layered smooth and tapered heatsink, lamp replicates incandescent bulb's 300° beam angle and is dimmable down to 10%.