This Interactive Lamp Is a Rain Cloud You’ll Want Over Your Head 5 days ago

Normally, having a rain cloud over your head isn’t such a good thing. But if it’s an indoor rain cloud that lights up and plays music — sign me (and every stoner, hipster and interior design buff in the world) up! Designer Richard Clarkson creates clouds — not real clouds, but interactive audiovisual fixtures — that bring thunderstorms inside your home. Clarkson’s fluffy “Cloud” lamp is affixed with lights, motion sensors, microphones and a powerful speaker system that simulates thunder and lightning.

Energy-Efficient Elation LED Lighting For Parkview Baptist Church

Parkview Baptist Church in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, is an active and growing church that reaches out to its local community through a number of activities and ministries. Throughout their mission, they maintain an eye on the future while also keeping a focus on savings in their daily operations. The church recently sought to update their main sanctuary’s lighting system to energy-efficient LED lights, both house lights and stage lighting, and chose an Elation package of low power consumption LED fixtures.

LEDs shine in bedding plant production study

Growers of annual bedding plant seedlings or plugs work to produce compact, fully rooted transplants with a large stem diameter and high root dry mass—qualities that make seedlings less susceptible to damage during shipping and transplant. To achieve these desirable qualities, greenhouse growers in northern latitudes must rely on supplemental lighting from high-pressure sodium lamps during winter months. A new study shows that light-emitting diodes (LEDs) can give greenhouse growers other lighting options that produce favorable results. 

Rubik’s Cube Lamp Can Actually Be Played with

Back in 2009 we saw a concept for a Rubik’s Cube lamp that can be made to change the color of its light by moving its faces around. The recently released official Rubik’s Cube lamp shines only white light, but you can actually rotate its faces and solve it if you want. “And that’s a big if,” said a billion forgotten Rubik’s Cubes stashed in drawers and attics all over the world.

LEDs will slash energy use for lighting by 95%

Efficient LED lights are appearing more and more in homes, businesses and industry. Today, LEDs (Light Emitting Diodes) use about 85% less electricity than a conventional lighting source such as an incandescent bulb. They may soon use even less. This is a significant reduction. Around 19% of the world’s electricity demand is used for lighting; compared to just 3% goes to smelting aluminium – although in Australia we only use about 12% of our electricity for lighting and 8% for smelting aluminium.

Light bulb still working 70 years on

A Second World War air raid shelter buried for more than 70 years has been discovered at a primary school by a pupil - and it was so well preserved the light bulb was still working. Youngster Harvey Cotton, ten, had been taking part in a school activity when he saw a block of concrete at the back of what used to be an orchard in the school grounds.

French start-up intros interactive LED case for Android phones

CodLight has presented the cPulse, an LED-lit case designed to work with Android smartphones. The French start-up is currently seeking funding for the project on Kickstarter, where one of the first cases can be pre-ordered for $89. Compatible with any Android 4.4 KitKat smartphone, the cPulse aims to make LED lighting creative, social and of course mobile. Its panel of LEDs can be used to display notifications and to create unique lighting ambiances.

Slimmer LED Luminaire Lighting Launched By Dialight

Dialight has launched a slimmer LED linear luminaire. This smaller and lighter luminaire is easier to install. It also provides 7,000 lumens at 106 lumens per watt and can last over 100,000 hours. About 75% of all lighting energy is used by commercial and industrial lights. When combined with outdoor lighting, commercial and industrial lights costs about $20 billion a year in the US.

Newton replaces 8,406 streetlights with LEDs

Over the next three months, Newton will replace each of it’s 8,406 streetlights with new light emitting diode, or LED, fixtures. City officials say the replacement will save the city $3 million in energy costs over the next 20 years while reducing the city’s carbon footprint. Mayor Setti Warren said this initiative takes the city’s focus on public safety and sustainability to the next level.

City converting outdated fixtures to energy-efficient LEDs

City officials say Sterling Heights will save approximately $22,538 per year by converting 206 lighting fixtures in three subdivisions to LED technology. "This conversion process yields significant energy and environmental savings because the old technology - mercury vapor and high-pressure sodium fixtures - contain mercury, use significantly more energy and require more frequent replacement than LEDs," said City Development Manager Denice Gerstenberg. According to Gerstenberg, Sterling Heights currently has an inventory of approximately 2,500 mercury vapor and high-pressure sodium fixtures in need of conversion.

Semi-Coherent Emissions: LEDs with your meatballs?

EIC ELECTRONIC CHINA is to become a leading Sino-Canadian manufacturer and exporter of high power LED (light emitting diode) luminaires for the public, industrial, commercial and residential lighting. EIC specializes in researching and producing high power LED lights, mainly LED street lights, LED high bay lights and LED flood lights, and right now EIC is gradually to extend its products range to commercial lights, such as LED tube lights, down lights and bulbs. We are dedicated to supplying quality green lights for better life, we take advantage of every chance to exceed customers' expectations, and many unparalleled factors make EIC as their first option.

Salisbury to start lighting streets with LED

The City of Salisbury Engineering Department has begun a pilot program of converting select street lights from Metal Halide to LED, a test that should help save money and be more environmentally friendly. The nine lights chosen for this project are in the 200 block of West Liberty and one light on North Church Street. These specific lights were chosen because they are all on one meter which allows the Engineering Department to monitor energy usage.

LEDs Outshine Traditional Bulbs in Power-Starved North Korea

North Koreans are rushing to purchase China-made light-emitting diode (LED) bulbs to light their homes, despite high costs, because of their comparative efficiency over incandescent bulbs—a crucial advantage in their power-starved reclusive nation. While LED bulbs can cost more than three times that of normal incandescent bulbs, residents are willing to bear the higher price because they can operate normally on low voltage, sources recently told RFA’s Korean Service. Electricity flow to North Korean households is limited by the country’s heavily strained power grid.

Thermally stable white LEDs

White light-emitting-diodes (WLEDs) perform well in many settings where solid-state light fittings with long lifetime, low power consumption, and high efficiency are required. However, high-power WLEDs suffer from high heat flux during operation. Improvements in chip structure and fabrication have solved the problem of heat degradation of chip materials, and now the challenge of high-power WLEDs is the reliability of their packaging

Powerhouse Racine: Cree LEDs cutting electricity demand

Cutting this country’s energy consumption would be almost as easy as flipping a light switch, if you ask Cree. Just switch all lights to LEDs. “Most people don’t realize that almost 20 percent of our country’s energy consumption comes from lighting,” said Mike Watson, Cree’s vice president of product strategy. And that can be cut by 50 percent or more by changing to light-emitting diode illumination, he said.

Streamlined Lasers Enable Lower-Cost Instruments than LEDs

A comprehensive analysis reveals that lasers provide both superior performance and lower total cost in comparison with LEDs for life sciences instrumentation. Biotech instrumentation manufacturers are currently developing products that feature increased miniaturization and lower costs per use, in part to support worldwide trends in health care. For instruments based on fluorescence, this has opened a debate as to whether the laser or the LED represents the best choice for a light source. The superior performance of lasers is well known, but it may not be obvious that lasers nearly always also represent a lower-cost option.

Smart LED light bulbs leak wi-fi passwords

Security experts have demonstrated how easy it is to hack network-enabled LED light bulbs. Context Security released details about how it was able to hack into the wi-fi network of one brand of network-enabled bulb, and control the lights remotely. The LIFX light bulb, which is available to buy in the UK, has network connectivity to let people turn it on and off with their smartphones. The firm behind the bulbs has since fixed the vulnerability.

Satechi Flexible LED Desk Lamp

It’s a little too early to start thinking about back to school, but here’s what I want you to do. Tell your parents, “Hey, it’s never to early to start thinking about back to school.” Tell them you want the Satechi Flexible LED Desk Lamp. “It’ll make it easier to study when [roommate] is trying to sleep, and you want me to study, don’t you?” They’ll buy it for you now, forget about the cost later, then be willing to buy you even more stuff when back to school shopping actually commences.

Residents exchange light bulbs to save money

Close to 800 households were represented at the Great Bulb Exchange at Home Depot on June 21 as residents took the opportunity to receive two, free dimmable 60-watt equivalent LED light bulbs in return for two old incandescent bulbs that they turned in. The exchange, hosted by Energize Connecticut in conjunction with The United Illuminating Company’s Clean Energy Communities program, resulting in the giveaway of nearly 1600 LED bulbs. According to organizers, this translates to residents saving more than $241 over the lifetime of each LED for a total savings for the townspeople of $383,285.

These LED smart lights are tracking your moves

While more people and places are switching to energy-saving LED light bulbs, a California company has found a way to turn them into smart networks that can collect and feed data. However, the new technological opportunities are also raising privacy concerns, reports CBS News' Bill Whitaker.
For example, should you find yourself in terminal "B" at Newark airport, look up. Those aren't just new lights. They're smart lights -- a sophisticated array of LED fixtures with built-in sensors and cameras connected over a wireless network. They monitor security and the flow of foot traffic.

LG seeks leading role in PLS market

LG Electroincs said Thursday that it set up a 90-lamp plasma lighting system (PLS) in the stadium of San Lorenzo, the Argentine professional sports club. PLS is a new concept of lighting that utilizes the principle of light emission through microwaves which results in continuous emissions of bright light. It is similar to sunlight and is one of the most efficient light sources without a high amount of heat. So it is ideal for sports arenas.

New LED-farm capable of harvesting 1.5 times more vegetable unveiled in Japan

A farm capable of harvesting 1.5 times more vegetables using a new state-of-the-art light-emitting diode system than one utilizing traditional fluorescent lighting was unveiled in Miyagi Prefecture, Japan. The vegetable factory, one of the world’s largest, is capable of producing 10,000 heads of lettuce a day, according to the operator- Mirai. The new technology requires 40 percent less electricity compared with regular fluorescent lighting.

LED lighting to comprise nearly 94% of street lighting sales by 2023

The market share of LEDs in street lighting worldwide will grow from 53.3% in 2014 to 93.8% in 2023, as falling prices for LED street lights are spurring a global transition from older lamp technologies to newer, more efficient, and more controllable LEDs, according to Navigant Research’s report ‘Smart Street Lighting: LEDs, Communications Equipment, and Network Management Software for Roadway and Highway Lighting: Global Market Analysis and Forecasts’. The whiter light of LED street lights offers city residents improved nighttime visibility, while the greater energy efficiency and longevity offer city managers cost savings from reductions in both energy consumption and maintenance costs.

Will Cree Acquire Philips' Soon-To-Be Spun-Off LED Business?

Last week, the world’s largest lighting producer Philips announced its plan to spin-off its Lumileds LED lighting unit and automotive lighting segment into a separate company by early 2015. Philips believes that after significantly improving the performance of Lumileds over the last few years, and establishing strong intellectual property, the business can further grow, attract more customers and increase scale as a standalone company by increasing sales to customers who currently view Philips as a rival. Philips plans to spin-off the manufacturing side of the LED business, and will keep the higher margin integrated systems and services as part of its business.

Old materials are leading to new innovations for LED lighting

Once again it’s good old silicon — the basis for computer chips, cheap solar panels and even next-gen materials like thermoelectrics — that’s leading to some of the most promising innovations for the future of lighting tech: LEDs. Over the past couple of years, companies making light-emitting diodes for lighting using silicon wafers have begun to commercialize these efforts, leading to more and more of these cheaper, efficient LEDs out there.

Stuntmen in LED Suits Made This Impossible Parkour Run a Reality

The advent of CGI has allowed us to realize things on-screen we never thought would be possible—from living, breathing dinosaurs, to giant transforming robots. But it's become so over-used that over-the-top practical effects now draw the biggest wows from audiences, like Lexus' use of countless LED-suit clad stuntmen to create one unbelievable parkour run across Kuala Lumpur.

China Tech Innovator With 200 Patents For LEDs Gains $80 Million More To Break Through

A lot of people are skeptical about China’s potential for technology innovation. But one Chinese company I wrote about in my book Silicon Dragon in 2008, and have been tracking since then, has certainly been setting some new standards in cleantech — and ability to raise venture investment. LatticePower Corp., which grew out of research by physics professor Jiang Fengyi at his Nanchang University lab in China, claims to be the first company to commercially develop high-quality, reliable and affordable LED lighting — a major step in a goal of replacing conventional light bulbs and fixtures with energy-savings LED lights.

Make your own: Hardback Reading Light

The Hardback Reading Light is a straight forward project that will take a few hours and about $25 in materials. The pages of the book are replaced with a light box lined with LEDs. They're powered through a plug in the spine and a switch in the corner turns it off when the cover is closed. It can be dimmed mechanically by simply closing or opening the cover different amounts.

Long-lasting LEDs include winners from Walmart

In Consumer Reports latest lightbulb tests a $50 Switch LED performed about the same as a $10 LED from Walmart, and both were impressive enough to make the list of recommended lightbulbs.  The Great Value 60W Soft White A19 Dimmable LED is $10 and replaces a 60-watt incandescent. This LED casts a bright, warm yellow light and is supposed to last 25,000 hours. That’s about 23 years if the bulb is on 3 hours a day. It was very good at casting light evenly in all directions.

Soraa hopes innovative bulb promises a bright future

Ask Soraa executive Sudhir Chopra what’s so different about the California company’s LED lights, and he’ll hand you a thin cardboard tube. Inside the tube is a lens that breaks down light into its individual colors. Aim it toward an ordinary fluorescent light, and the image you see is an array of colors separated by narrow black bars. Those black bars represent portions of the light spectrum that aren’t reproduced by the fluorescent lights.

Energy Saving Solutions' Guaranteed for Life Forever LED Lights to Illuminate Another Makai Corporation-Owned Restaurant

Energy Saving Solutions USA ("ESS" or the "Company"), the creators of the LED with a lifetime guarantee, is implementing procedures for installation of its Forever LED Lights within the interior and exterior of another Makai Corporation-owned restaurant– Tavern 95 Bar & Grill. Recently opened, Tavern 95 Bar & Grill is Lake Havasu's Southside food and cocktail destination known for their remarkable lake views, reasonable prices and gourmet burgers.

Like the Barley Brothers, Javelina Cantina and Shugrues, these state-of-the-art LED lights will enable Makai Corporation to reduce Tavern 95's carbon footprint, energy usage and electricity costs, while improving lighting quality for restaurant employees and customers. Forever LED Lights, post installation, will save owners 87% on interior and exterior lighting costs, equaling roughly $261,700 over the lifetime of the lights.

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.

What's the 'wow' factor in current, future lighting?

Light Emitting Diodes — they're the real wow! LEDs are high energy efficient semiconductor devises that emit visible light of a certain color; an accelerating transition to LED-based lighting has been changing the dynamics of luminaries design on a global scale. LEDs are already commonplace in products we buy and in the spaces we live, work and play. They provide uniform distribution of a much brighter light, high efficiency, improved flexibility and long-lasting maintenance-free operation — an easy three times the energy efficiency of 60-watt incandescent bulbs and three times the life expectancy. Today's energy audits can provide advanced information as to the energy levels one can save.

Improve your LED notifications on Android

Since the days of Ericsson, I’ve always loved having little a flashing LED to tell me when something important is sitting on my phone, awaiting my attention. Of course, as our phones have become more advanced, so have the types of notifications we receive, and now a flashing LED could mean something as important as a text from my love, or as trivial as a retweet. There is a way, however, to inject some control into the way that your LED reacts to notifications – including its colour, and the pattern of the flash – and it comes to us in the form of the app Light Flow.

Do You Think That You Could Cut Your Energy Bills by a Third?

Switching providers might be the easiest way to save money. If you have the option to do so, check out various rates offered by other service providers. If you can switch, and it will save you money, do so. It usually takes several weeks for the switch to take effect. In the meantime, you can start prepping the house for other changes like switching out the lights to energy-saving CFLs or LEDs and changing the temperature on the refrigerator so that it’s at the minimal setting necessary to keep food chilled.

GE Announces Link Connected LED

GE unveiled Link, a new and affordable connected LED bulb that lets consumers remotely control their home lighting from anywhere in the world and sync with other connected devices. Enabled by the new Wink app, Link eliminates the need for expensive add-ons typically associated with connected devices, making it an easy and cost-effective way for consumers to light up their smart homes.

Starting below $15, the Link connected LED will be available for pre-order starting Monday, June 30, at www.homedepot.com. Consumers can find Link in The Home Depot stores beginning this fall.

Link provides the same high-quality lighting, energy efficiency and long life that consumers expect from the GE brand and is available in three popular lighting applications:

◾60-watt replacement soft white (2700K) LED bulb, or A19 shape, commonly used for general lighting in table and floor lamps.
◾Indoor soft white (2700K) floodlight LED, or BR30 shape, installed as downlighting found in dining room, living room or other entertainment spaces.
◾Indoor/outdoor-rated bright white (3000K) spotlight LED, or PAR 38, used for outdoor security or spotlight.

Initial education of the benefits to a smart home will be key for driving adoption.

How new luminescence could give us LED light like the sun

A team of German scientists has come up with a new luminescent material for LED bulbs. The phosphor improves energy efficiency and makes this artificial light almost as natural as the sun.  Wolfgang Schnick knows a thing or two about light quality. Not only has the German chemist researched luminescent materials since 2001 - but shopping expeditions with his wife have taught him first-hand the difference between good and bad light.

GaN LEDs: Sputtering Cuts Costs on Larger Displays

A team of University of Tokyo researchers in Japan has developed a technology for creating GaN LEDs on glass substrate, which could not only cut manufacturing costs but also help to develop OLED light panels. The researchers use a sputtering method to transcribe the GaN LEDs onto the glass substrate. The team has not yet measured luminous efficiency or external quantum efficiency for any single color but is currently testing the efficiency of the internal quantum at low temperatures.