LED Lights Offer Mounting Versatility

Waldmann Lighting offers Lumatris LED wide-area flood lights for small-, medium- and large-volume machines. Waldmann Lighting offers Lumatris LED wide-area flood lights for small-, medium- and large-volume machines. The 1.57"-thick lights are available in a variety of lumen packages and requiring a minimal footprint within a machine. The lights feature a rear or side connection with an M12 plug connector for integration or mounting. The luminaires connects directly to 24-V DC without additional components, or to 100 to 240 V via internal power supply.

LEDs may replace magnetism and radiation for neuroimaging

When doctors want to monitor someone's brain activity, they generally use either functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) or positron emission tomography (PET). One subjects the patient to strong magnetic fields, while the other involves radiation exposure. Scientists at Washington University in St. Louis, however, have recently had success using diffuse optical tomography (DOT). Although it may look kind of extreme, it basically just involves shining LEDs into the subject's head.

Cree and Himax: Two High-Growth Stocks To Consider For Your Portfolio

After more than a year when an outperformance rating was given on Cree (CREE), it has turned out to be an overachiever with 112% returns. Cree is a LED lighting company which has always focused on delivering the best performance at the lowest cost. The company has to face tough competition from its peers such as Philips and General Electric, but since Cree is a pure LED lighting company, it has withstood the competition. During the beginning of this year, it was anticipated by many analysts that Cree’s lighting business would suffer due to tough competition from bigger corporations. Moreover, according to analysts, Cree was priced for perfection and there wasn’t much upside left.

IKEA unveils the Death Star-like PS 2014 Pendant Lamp

IKEA has probably never created something as nerdy as this before and they’ve done so unknowingly. While the home furniture big shot claims this lamp is nothing more than a decorative lighting solution called the IKEA PS 2014 Pendant Lamp, we see things differently. For us, this one’s and exploding Death Star that sheds light every time the right strings are pulled, literally. Measuring a diameter of 14 inches, with a cord length of 4 feet and 11 inches, the lamp dims the light manually by changing the shape of the shade. Designer David Wahl states “When the lamp is closed it resembles a ball of fire, with the color of the arms creating an exciting light.” Instead, we think the lamp looks like a glowing Death Star when closed!

Cree gets 200 lm/W from XP package

Cree is claiming 200 lm/W from the latest in its 3.45×3.45mm XP series of lighting LEDs, and has released an update of its XM-L LED, that can now replace a 50W halogen lamp. The 200 lm/W LED has been dubbed XP-L, and delivers up to 1,226 lm at 350mA from its single die – the same die it is using in its 5x5mm XM-L2 lighting LEDs. “XP-L LED enables an immediate performance increase of 50% or more as a drop-in upgrade for lighting designs based on XP-G LEDs,” said the firm.

Shopping for LED bulbs? Take a few tips from some home-testing

Over the past 18 months, I have been home-testing LED light bulbs that are intended to replace the residential lighting that we all knew and loved — the 60-, 75- and 100-watt incandescent bulbs that are no longer manufactured. The good news here, especially for all those homeowners who have not yet embraced the new lighting technology, is that the replacement LEDs, known in the lighting industry as the A19s and A21s, just get better and better. (A19 is the lighting industry’s designation for the shape and size of the iconic 60-, 75- and 100-watt incandescent bulbs. The LED 60- and 75-watt equivalents are the A19 size, while A21 is the designation for the larger 100-watt equivalent LED bulb.)

5 LED Companies With Plenty Of Spark

Since the January 1st ban on incandescent light bulbs went into effect, traditional light bulbs are no longer available, meaning the future for LED is very bright indeed. In fact, the LED light market is anticipated to grow 35.6% percent a year from 2012 to 2016, giving the market a total worth of around $42 billion by 2019. Such exciting numbers prompt immediate analysis and these four companies present excellent ways to gain some exposure.

Contribution of Phosphors in the Expansion of Addressable Markets for LEDs

Phosphors provide greater range of colors. The combination of yellow phosphors with blue LED improves the quality of white light, while high-quality red phosphors provide better color rendering. Existing phosphors can increase the LED efficacy by 100%, while reducing the price by 50-200%. New phosphor materials show promise to do even better. These characteristics of phosphors are helpful to expand markets where LEDs already have a market share, such as general illumination, and also markets where the penetration of LEDs are limited by consumer perception or performance concerns.

Leamington Moving Closer To LED’s

Leamington council is moving forward with a $25,000 project to have its streetlight network mapped out before it looks for companies to bid on installing new LED lights in town. The muncipality’s five year capital plan shows $1.3-million is needed to change over the roughly 2,200 streetlights in Leamington to light emitting diode technology. “We’ll probably do them in phases,” says John Paterson, the Leamington mayor stressing the mapping is a first step before committing funds to new street lighting. “There’s no way we can afford to just dump $1.3-million, we don’t have that kind of cash lying around.”

LED Lamp Project Lights the Way to Flicker-Free Replacement

Jade Sky Technologies ("JST"), a clean-tech start-up manufacturer of LED driver ICs with best-in-class dimming at the best value, announces the recently completed demonstration of the technical and economic feasibility of meeting the flicker and dimming requirements set by the Voluntary California Quality LED Lamp Specification.

JST collaborated with UC Davis's California Lighting Technology Center (CLTC) on a project designed to further the development of replacement lamps that meet or exceed the California Quality specification. The project, supported by Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E), tested the compatibility of "best-in-class" lamps with dimmers found in most homes.

JST incorporated its innovative driver architecture into commercially available lamps then submitted the lamps to CLTC for evaluation. Lab testing and characterization at CLTC confirmed that the samples met or exceeded the California Quality specification, using cost-effective and easily accessible components.

Harrisburg street lights to be converted to LEDs

After campaigning for a brighter future, Harrisburg Mayor Eric Papenfuse plans to make good on a promise to fix the city’s street lights. Dinning al fresco along Harrisburg’s famed Restaurant Row shows Downtown’s shining lights. Often times when people leave 2nd Street and venture away from the bright lights, the city’s shows its dark side – literally. David DeKok, a longtime Shipoke resident, said the lights along the river on Front Street have been out for years.

Impulse Industries' Cranes Ship With Eco-Friendly LEDs

Impulse Industries reports that its Prize Transporter and other crane machines are now equipped with LED lighting. Energy-efficient, long-life LEDs are a standard feature on all of Impulse's cranes. The 42" wide Prize Transporter is the company's flagship model. At the top of its spacious product and play interior are three strips of LEDs, each emitting illumination of different color temperature: warm, neutral or white. LEDs are also used for exterior chase lighting and in service compartments. - See more at: http://www.vendingtimes.com

Streetlights evolving to LEDs

In February 1889, 20 electric-arc lamps brightened Vancouver for the first time. Just a year prior, the city council voted to erect a municipal lighting system. Only nine lights lined Main Street. Later incandescent streetlights replaced the arc lamps. The lights kept spreading and evolving. Now most Clark County streetlights are high-pressure sodium lamps. That’s changing. Streetlight technology continues to evolve. “LEDs are now the leading-edge for street lamps,” said Bill Hibbs, commercial programs manager at Clark Public Utilities. “Their cost is dropping and we’ve had several successful pilots locally that show LED savings and reliability.”

Shedding efficient light on cost savings

The City of Peterborough is testing LED street lights with plans to roll out a city-wide conversion of street lights to the softer LED lights. London has began the process of building a business case to replace it's roughly 35,000 street lights with LEDs. After small scale pilot projects over the past four years, city hall has taken the first steps towards replacing London street lights with energy-saving LEDs. On May 6, city council approved a $90,000 agreement with RealTerm Energy — an LED lighting systems company that has partnerned with the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) on a LED street light upgrade initiative. RealTerm offers data collection, street light photometric design, construction and operation, but it’s the former two London will need before city administration can present a business case for a city-wide replacement project.

Failsafe multichip LED module driver

The operational life of an LED depends upon how effectively the current flowing through it is kept within the specified limits under all possible working conditions. For multi-chip LED modules, the tightly binned LEDs are arranged in strings having multiple LEDs connected in series, parallel, or series-parallel configurations, sharing a common constant current or voltage source, and each LED string is typically driven at a regulated current that is substantially equal among all of the LED strings.

Kuraray Develops Emission-controlling Film for Use in LED Lamps

Kuraray Co., Ltd. has developed a micropatterned film that can be used in such devices as LED lamps, and used to produce a myriad of colors and effects when used in conjunction with conventional point-source LEDs. The film, called LEGENDA, has potential for applications in fields ranging from sophisticated designer lamps to toys and entertainment devices, which often demand particularly eye-catching visual properties.

Philips tweaking LEDs for hydroponic growing

Philips has taken the concept of lighting far beyond the traditional options as it has embraced LEDs. From connected hue bulbs for the consumer to giant sheets of lighting for architects, the company is taking the flexibility and programability offered by LEDs and changing how lighting is used. Much like the internet took the concept of phone calls and augmented that experience until it was so much more, Philips is doing the same with LEDs. The latest example comes from the Green Sense Farms near Chicago. This indoor farm has outfitted a one-million-cubic-foot growing space with fourteen 25-foot-tall growing towers in two climate-controlled rooms for growing crops.

Energize Connecticut Helps Homeowners Select the Proper LED for their Home

Energy-efficient advancements in lighting offer consumers an opportunity to reduce their energy bills. One thing that consumers can do to save energy is to install super-efficient ENERGY STAR LED light bulbs. One LED light bulb can last up to 25 times longer and uses about 80 percent less electricity than an old-fashioned incandescent. There is an LED option for every application in your home, but choosing the proper LED light bulb is much different than selecting an old incandescent or compact fluorescent light (CFL). Most homeowners select bulbs by looking at watts, but with LEDs, the important number to look at is the lumen rating. An LED bulb’s light output is measured in lumens, not watts.

The Power Spurz will let you blaze a trail with LEDs

It’s difficult to find enough hours in the day for everything we want to get accomplished. Working, house upkeep, keeping ourselves fed, and staying in shape are all supposed to be daily occurrences. If you don’t have time to go for a run until nighttime, then you’re going to need to make sure you aren’t hiding in the shadows, or a passing car isn’t going to see you until after injuries have been inflicted.
When exercising or walking around at night, you need to make sure you have some measure of visibility. Bright lights are normally the best method, especially those that can flash or change color. The PowerSpurz are attachments for the back of your shoe that will illuminate bright orange. You can choose to have them on pulse or continuous light. They are weatherproof, which doesn’t come as much of a shock, as one puddle could ruin it otherwise.

Osram LEDsBIKE bicycle lights provide ideal light for every kind of cycling

The three LED bicycle headlights from Osram‑ the LEDsBIKE FX70, FX35 and FX10 ‑ provide the ideal light for every kind of cycling: With a special low-beam function and four brightness levels between 10 and 70 lux, the LEDsBIKE FX70 boasts the most intense illuminance, making it a good partner on long treks, rough trails and dark roads. As in a car, the bicycle front light has a daytime running light for enhanced visibility during the day, and a brightness sensor that automatically activates the light as soon as it gets dark.

Philips & Green Sense Farms usher in new era of indoor farming with LED ‘light recipes’

Royal Philips has partnered with Green Sense Farms (GSF), a Chicago-area commercial grower, to develop one of the largest indoor commercial farms using LED grow lights tailored to their specific crops. This innovative farming model allows them to harvest 20-25 times a year by using ‘light recipes’ optimized for their produce, using 85 percent less energy. The result will be an increase in crop yields and reduced operating costs, while providing consumers with locally grown, fresh vegetables throughout the year.

The United Nations (UN) predicts the world’s population will grow by some 2.5 billion people by 2050, and 80 percent of the world’s population will live in cities. At the same time, 80 percent of the land that is suitable for growing food is already in use. Moreover, extreme weather patterns across the globe have devastated crops, creating higher food prices, and as consumers become more conscious of how their food is produced, it is becoming more difficult for farmers to keep up with urban growth. This is driving innovation of new farming technologies that allow plants to grow without sunlight in indoor environments close to or within cities.

Plants’ sensitivity to light is very different from the human eye, so plants use certain wavelengths of light more efficiently and respond in a different way to different sets of wavelengths. Philips has a keen understanding of this phenomenon having been active in horticultural lighting since 1936, but the advent of LED technology has enabled the fine tuning of tailor-made light recipes optimized to the needs of specific crops. Working with research institutes, universities, growers and partners like Hort Americas, who supported the installation of the GSF project, Philips is able to meet a grower’s unique needs. Also, because LEDs run at cooler temperatures they can be placed closer to the plants and optimally positioned, ensuring complete uniform illumination of the plant.

“Different plant types have different light needs and working with forward thinking growers like GSF, Philips is building up a database of ‘light recipes’ for different plant varieties,” said Udo van Slooten, Director of horticultural lighting at Philips.  “GSF is using vertical hydroponic technology with Philips LED growing lights, enabling them to do what no other grower can do: provide a consistent amount of high quality produce, year round. As the leader in lighting, it is important for us to use lighting in new and innovative ways that better serve the communities in which we live, work, and play.”

GSF has invested millions of dollars to renovate and equip a million cubic foot indoor growing area consisting of fourteen 25 foot tall growing towers in two climate-controlled grow rooms, which use Philips energy-efficient LED solutions tailored to their specific crops. This method also eliminates the need for harmful pesticides, fertilizers or preservatives, resulting in produce that is organically grown and virtually chemical free.

NYSERDA funding for local LED development

NYSERDA is funding projects at three local companies to fund new developments with light-emitting diodes. United Semiconductors in Rensselaer is receiving $100,000 to reduce flicker in LEDs. Vital Vio in Troy will use $300,000 to evaluate its light disinfection and general illumination LEDs.

Sneaky Tokyoflash wood watch tells time with hidden LEDs

You might mistake Tokyoflash's Kisai Night Vision Wood watch for a carved bracelet with no other function than to look like a wood model of a watch. Push a button and hidden LEDs come to life, illuminating the face with the time. The watch doesn't tell time in the usual way. A flashing dash around the outside of the face indicates the hour while the minute numbers are displayed inside. It's a pretty simple system once you get used to it. It also displays the date using the same system.

New Komodo-NV LE Water Blocks Have LEDs

Swiftech has announced a new water block for high-end GPUs, specifically for Nvidia's high-end GPUs. The water block is called the Komodo-NV LE, where NV stands for Nvidia and LE for Luxury Edition. Komodo is the branding that Swiftech uses for graphics water blocks. What sets these water blocks apart from the rest is that they have built-in lighting. LEDs are built-in, and along with various color strips, users can have the blocks light up to either green, red, blue or plain white.

This Lightbulb Guide Will Finally Tell You The Difference Between CFLs, LEDs & Halogens

It's been four months since the ban on incandescent light bulbs officially went into effect, which means that stash you've been hoarding (if you're a fan of incandescents' warm glow like we are) is probably running low. Before you head to the lighting aisle for a replacement (where you're liable to get lost in the sea of CFLs and LEDs) here's everything you need to know, courtesy of Dave Geraci, Product Manager for Technical Consumer Products, Inc.

Cree LED Street Lights Transform California City’s Streets, Cut Energy Use by 65 Percent

Inspired by the successful Los Angeles street lighting upgrade, where many of the city’s 140,000 high-pressure sodium (HPS) street lights were converted to Cree® LED luminaires, San Luis Obispo, Calif. selected Cree, Inc.  CREE +0.07%   to help improve the city’s sustainability efforts. City officials collaborated with Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) to replace more than 2,000 outdated HPS street lights with Cree XSP Series LED street lights , delivering superior light quality while saving on maintenance costs and reducing the city’s annual energy consumption by more than 65 percent.
Featuring Cree’s NanoOptic Precision Delivery Grid optic technology, the Cree XSP Series LED street light delivers better optical control and more uniform, white light than incumbent lighting solutions, making it the ideal replacement for HPS street lights. The installed Cree XSP Series LED street lights are helping to save San Luis Obispo an anticipated usage of 750,000 kilowatt-hours per year and eliminate nearly 395,000 pounds of greenhouse gas annually. According to the city, the LED upgrade will reduce San Luis Obispo’s electricity bill by about two-thirds.

Osram's compact LEDs make it easier to implement design ideas

The low-profile compact mid-power III-nitride based LEDs are suited for injecting light into light guides  The low-profile rectangular shape of the new Synios E4014 from Osram Opto Semiconductors enables the light from this LED to be injected into light guides. This means that a wide range of design ideas can be turned into reality.

In 10 Years, LEDs Will Be the Leading Lamp Type for Outdoor Lighting

A new report from Navigant Research anticipates that light-emitting diodes (LEDs) will be the leading lamp type for outdoor lighting systems in just 10 years. This isn’t a big surprise, given LED prices continue to fall and cities are starting to see that investing in LEDs as part of a networked lighting system can provide multiple advantages. Navigant’s report – Outdoor and Parking Lighting Systems – forecasts that worldwide shipments of luminaires with LED lamps for outdoor and parking applications will grow from 4.1 million annually in 2014 to nearly 14 million in 2023.

Cree About To Brighten The Commercial Office Environment With LED T-8 Replacement

Cree announced the introduction of its linear LED lighting technology to replace the T-8 fluorescent tube. (Note: this author is a current Cree shareholder). While not the first to market, Cree’s technology delivers a 30 percent energy savings, and has the best color rendering index (CRI) in the industry, at 90. It also has nearly universal T-8 compatibility and is approved by the DesignLights Consortium (DLC).  DLC administers a list of qualified products list that often facilitate utility rebates.

New ideas in lighting get closer to market

Ever since government regulations began phasing out the traditional light bulb in 2012, the once-simple visit to the lighting aisle has become an exercise in navigating a dizzying array of choices and terminologies, especially for new kinds of compact fluorescents and LEDs. Now, those choices are about to become even more complicated. Two startup companies are poised to begin selling bulbs that use entirely different technologies — one borrowed from heavy industry and the other from old-fashioned televisions — but meet the new energy standards. Whether they can capture customers who remain stubbornly wedded to incandescent light is anybody’s guess. But that both have come this far is an indication of how unsettled the consumer lighting market remains, despite years of promotion for the new energy-saving options.

Advisories and recalls: IKEA children's lamps

The retailer last week expanded a recall first made in December, expanding it to roughly 30 million lamps sold worldwide. This recall involves IKEA children's wall-mounted lamps sold in various style names, shapes and colors. The lamps have a cord, about 7 to 8 feet long with either a switch on the cord or a switch located on the lamp. About 3.5 million of the lamps have been sold in the U.S.

New Orleans to spend $14.7 million converting old streetlights to LEDs

The City Council has approved a plan to use $14.7 million from Entergy New Orleans to convert old streetlights into energy-efficient LED units on the east bank of Orleans Parish. The money cannot be used in Algiers because Entergy New Orleans does not operate there. People who live in that neighborhood get their power from Entergy Louisiana. The measure — basically the same idea that Mayor Mitch Landrieu proposed in presenting his 2014 budget last fall — received the council’s unanimous support last week

Nail salon UV lamps: Are they safe?

A typical salon manicure involves drying freshly painted nails under a lamp that emits ultraviolet-A (UV-A) rays -- a spectrum of light long linked to skin cancers. But a new study suggests that the average visit to a nail salon carries little carcinogenic potential. "Considering the low UV-A energy exposure in an average manicure visit, multiple visits would be required to reach the threshold for potential DNA damage" that might spur cancer, wrote a team reporting their findings April 30 in JAMA Dermatology. In the study, researchers led by Dr. Lyndsay Shipp of the department of dermatology at Georgia Regents University, in Augusta, say that prior studies into the use of UV-emitting nail polish drying lamps have not had sufficient rigor to come to any reliable conclusions.

Flat LED gets Energy Star certification, now qualifies for rebates in most states

So far, most other LEDs have stayed pretty close to the rounded shape of a traditional incandescent lightbulb. This creates a challenge because, while LEDs produce a lot less heat than incandescents, they are also a lot less heat-resistant, so a way to efficiently dissipate heat was needed. This usually meant metal heatsinks that added a lot of weight and cost to LED lightbulbs, but Philips thought out-of-the-box and came up with a flat-shaped LED bulb that basically increases the surface area for heat to dissipate while keeping individual LEDs (see below) away from each other. This genius move means that you don't need a metal heatsink, which brings costs down...

Energy Saving Solutions’ Guaranteed for Life Forever LED Lights to Modernize Historic Crescent Hotel and Spa

Energy Saving Solutions USA, the creators of the LED with a lifetime guarantee, announced that through its authorized LED dealer Dan Timbrook, the company will be installing its guaranteed for life, energy-efficient Forever LED Lights within the interior of another Jack Moyer-owned historic hotel in Eureka Springs, Arkansas – the Crescent Hotel and Spa. Like the Basin Park Hotel, these state-of-the-art LED lights will enable Mr. Moyer to reduce the Crescent Hotel’s carbon footprint, energy usage and electricity costs, while improving lighting quality for hotel employees and guests.
Offered exclusively through Energy Savings Solutions and its authorized national dealer organization, Forever LED Lights™ are the only LEDs on the market protected by a lifetime guarantee exclusively administered by McCusker & Company and backed by Service USA, world class warranty and service providers out of Dallas, Texas.
Forever LED Lights, post installation, will save the hotel 69% on interior lighting costs, equaling roughly $158,000 over the lifetime of the lights. The Crescent Hotel and Spa was built in 1886 is located in downtown Eureka Springs’ Historic District, a popular tourist destination known for its rich history and Victorian-style manors.

Cree adds floodlights to its LED lineup

Cree, the upstart LED lighting manufacturer headquartered in North Carolina, is again expanding its portfolio of bargain LED bulbs. The company's latest offering is a new line of 90-watt replacement PAR38 bulbs designed with spot, flood, and outdoor lighting applications in mind. The new LEDs will offer two beam angle options, output 1,500 lumens from 18 watts of power usage, and retail for $24.97 at Home Depot.

LED Program Helps Poultry Farmers Cut Costs

Hill has raised roaster and broiler chickens on her Lewes, Del., farm since 1979. She is now using LEDs in two of her poultry houses and watched lower lighting costs boost her bottom line. “It’s definitely worth the electrical savings,” said Hill, whose first experience with LEDs began with a controlled test she conducted for Delaware Electric Cooperative in 2012—a program the co-op will expand this year.
During the pilot test, the co-op installed separate meters for lighting in two of Hill’s poultry houses. LED bulbs were installed in fixtures in one, while incandescent bulbs were used in the other. Each house typically needs between 15 and 24 hours of illumination during a growth cycle.

LED technology being used in ceilings, carpets

LEDs no longer are just light bulbs. They’re now starting to appear as a built-in feature for ceilings – an advance predicted 50 years ago by science fiction writer Isaac Asimov. These tiny light-emitting diodes, often touted as the ultra-efficient replacement for old-fashioned incandescents, are being integrated into clothes, carpets and ceilings the same way that some solar panels have been tucked into rooftop shingles. The OneSpace luminous ceiling, by lighting company Philips, makes its debut at the Light + Building trade fair in Frankfurt, Germany. It uses LEDs packed tightly in a mesh, combined with textile, to create an ultra-thin, sound-absorbing panel that offers homogeneous light with no exterior fixtures.

LED Lighting: Have You Made the Switch?

The city finds itself at odds with Duke Energy again — this time about streetlights. The city would like to start using street lamps powered by light-emitting diode, commonly called LED, as a way to save money. LED bulbs use 50 percent to 60 percent less energy than traditional lamps and provide better-quality light, Greensboro Transportation Director Adam Fischer said. Using LED bulbs should reduce the city’s $3.3 million annual streetlight bill.