New LEDs Bathe Historic and Mysterious Newport Tower in a Whole New Light

These days, the mysterious and profoundly important historic tower in Newport’s Touro Park is looking even more impressive at night. The former large, energy-hungry lights pointed at the stone tower of uncertain origin dated back to the 1970s. Today, energy-efficient, low-profile LEDs bathe the stones in a new clean and crisp light.

90,000 lumen LED flashlight could illuminate a baseball field

Sometimes you need to shed a little light on whatever you are doing, and other times you need to flood the entire area with light bright enough to cause a vampire to burst into flame. The latter is exactly what you can do with this DIY 1000W flashlight that makes 90,000 lumens of light. The builder doesn't give all the details about how exactly he pulled off this illuminating feat. What he does tell us is that he used ten 100W LED light chips arranged in a row. To help manage the massive heat output that each of those 100W LEDs makes, he attached them all to a big heatsink with thermal grease.

Roads Islamabad to be lit with LEDs

Capital Development Authority (CDA) has decided to illuminate the roads of the Islamabad with Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) and under the plan initially, 2,000 lights will be installed at the major avenues of the city. This was decided during a meeting held at CDA Headquarters on Monday. CDA Chairman Maroof Afzal chaired the meeting while Member Administration and Estate, Amer Ali Ahmed, Member Engineering Shahid Sohail, Director General Electrical and Maintenance and officers of the relevant formations were also present during the meeting.

Strobe LEDs for Ballistics Research Net Metaphase $250K Army Contract

The U.S. Army has awarded Metaphase Technologies Inc. a $250,000 contract to develop and manufacture advanced high-speed LED strobed illumination equipment for ballistics research. The equipment will be used by the Army Test Center and Army Research Lab in Aberdeen, Md. Metaphase's HiSLED high-speed LED system can capture nanosecond strobed snapshots of bullets traveling at speeds exceeding 3000 ft/s (2000 mph).

LIFX Brightens Up Light Bulb Lineup with Color 1000

Looking to create something different with that lighting scheme? There are plenty of smart LED light bulbs that can add a splash of color into just about any room. The latest is the LIFX Color 1000. The Color 1000 is an A19-sized bulb, so it should fit into a lot of the light fixtures you currently have around the house. However, just because it’s more compact doesn’t mean the company has dimmed down the brightness—not even just a little bit. When it comes to LED light bulbs, the Color 1000′s 1,055 lumens make this product a shining standout.

Domijump now offers nighttime LED lights for use on trampolines

Since LEDs were adopted over 30 years ago, they've become an integral part of lighting systems. This is attributed to their cost saving benefits and robust nature. They've been adopted in a number of applications such as in hi-fi systems, car lights, computers and advertising. Recreational and sports trampolines also see an increased need for LED systems. It is important to note that the nighttime LED lights are an integral part of modern trampolines, especially the white and blue LEDs.

SIL Europe speakers describe the path forward for LEDs and SSL

While LED-based lighting has gained a significant foothold around the globe, the industry must move to new forms and technology platforms to realize the full potential of SSL, according to speakers at Strategies in Light Europe. On the first day of the main conference at Strategies in Light (SIL) Europe, co-located at London's ExCel Center with LuxLive, keynote- and plenary-session speakers described the state of the LED and solid-state lighting (SSL) industries and suggested the best routes forward for maximum success with LEDs. The advice included recommendations that lighting manufacturers develop new form factors, invest in connected lighting, and pursue opportunities in melding lighting into the fabric of buildings to improve the experience for users.

These Implantable LEDs Could Block Pain Wirelessly

Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have developed a biocompatible device that could help patients who suffer from chronic pain, according to the MIT Technology Review. The invention is a small, flexible light-emitting diode, or LED, that responds to the brain's neural activity. Researchers used lab mice to show how the device can manipulate parts of the brain that perceive pain. The process involves tweaking the DNA construct of neurons in the brain, which allows them to respond to light.

Smart lighting startup says LEDs could usher in much longer lamp warranties

Connected lighting — also called networked lighting — is getting a lot attention for its potential mega role in the Internet of Things (IoT), and now IoT startup Gooee has posited another reason to make lights intelligent: Users will be able to record exact usage time and lumen levels and thus demand much longer warranties from vendors. A typical warranty today spans five years for a lamp rated at 50,000 hours. But a user might take much longer to tap those 50,000 hours, possibly even 10 or 15 years, noted John Couch, vice president of connected devices at Gooee.

How best to stabilise the output of quantum dot LEDs

Noise is an issue in optical telecommunications. And findings means of controlling noise is key to physicists investigating light-emitting diodes or lasers. Now, an Italo-Iraqi team has worked on a particular type of light source, called the quantum dot light-emitting diode (QDLED). In a study published in EPJ D ("Complex dynamics in Quantum Dot Light Emitting Diodes"), Kais Al Namee from the National Institute of Optics, in Florence, Italy and colleagues, demonstrate that modulating bias current of the QDLED could lead to countering the noise. This, in turn, leads to stabilising such light sources, making them better suited for optical telecommunications.

Cheaper, high performing LEDs with crystalline nanomaterial

A team of Florida State University materials researchers has developed a new type of light-emitting diode, or LED, using an organic-inorganic hybrid that could lead to cheaper, brighter and mass produced lights and displays in the future. Assistant Professor of Physics Hanwei Gao and Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering Biwu Ma are using a class of materials called organometal halide perovskites to build a highly functioning LED. They lay out their findings in the journal Advanced Materials ("Bright Light-Emitting Diodes Based on Organometal Halide Perovskite Nanoplatelets"). 

Could Implantable LEDs Relieve Your Pain?

Chronic pain is often tough to understand, much less treat. But a new flexible, implantable electronic device could illuminate why certain parts of your body hurt. And down the road, the system, which features a wirelessly activated light-emitting diode (LED), might even be able to provide pain relief with the flip of a switch.

The inventor of light-based ‘Li-Fi’ Internet has completed the first working prototype

Back in 2011, during a TED Talk in Scotland, professor Harald Haas introduced a revolutionary idea to the world: what if a wireless Internet system could run on nothing but an LED lightbulb? Back then, this “Li-Fi” concept was just a cool idea, but now, roughly four years later, professor Haas is back with a working prototype. If this invention catches on, all you’ll need is a lightbulb and a solar cell to get online in the not-so-distant future.

Molex Introduces TranscendConnected Lighting System with Cisco Technology

Molex, LLC of Lisle, Illinois, reported that it is working with Cisco and luminaire manufacturing partners to launch the Transcend®Connected Lighting System. The Transcend®Connected Lighting System integrates Cisco Solutions Technology for connected commercial LED lighting. Molex says that the TranscendConnected system uses highly secure network architectures in educational facilities, commercial buildings, healthcare facilities, and warehouses, and manufacturing facilities.

According to Molex, the Transcend Connected Lighting System is an intelligent, low-voltage network that can both power and control LED light fixtures and other devices. The system also offers an array of applications that Molex says enable smart building convergence over IP, feeding multi-sensor data to a central host. The data provides building analytics and can monitor light status, real-time energy consumption, air quality, temperature and humidity control, and more.

Molex noted that its Transcend solutions employ leading edge technology that use standard and proven Power over Ethernet (PoE) applications, such as data and VoIP. The open and scalable Transcend control system supports IEEE802.3x standards. Molex asserts that the low-voltage, centralized PoE infrastructure enables extremely reliable, fully connected, and highly secure system. Molex claims that PoE infrastructure is easy to install, program, integrate, maintain and upgrade, enabling significant cost savings compared to conventional lighting.

State proposing strict standards for LED bulbs, some forms of track lighting

The Sacramento-based California Energy Commission is pondering energy-efficient lighting standards that, if approved, would establish LED bulbs as a statewide staple and consign some forms of track lighting to history’s discard pile. The CEC contends that the proposed standards on LEDs and small-diameter directional lamps could save Californians more than $4 billion in energy costs over 13 years. The agency said the recommended changes also will reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/news/business/article44534283.html#storylink=cpy

Leading Osram investor criticizes new strategy

A leading investor in Osram criticized the German lighting maker's new strategy on Wednesday, saying a planned move into general lighting came out of the blue to shareholders and would dilute profits. Osram announced last week that it would invest a billion euros ($1.1 billion) in a new plant in Malaysia to make chips for LED (light-emitting diode) lights, dashing investor hopes it would focus on profitable niches such as car and street lighting, after selling its traditional lamps and light bulbs business.

CFLs, LEDs And Incandescents, Oh My!

While changing a light bulb is a simple chore, picking the right bulb is more complicated. That's because light bulbs are constantly evolving. The 135-year-old incandescent bulb is more efficient than ever, but new light bulb technologies that use significantly less energy have usurped its authority as the reigning king of bulbs. Since lighting accounts for about 12 percent of the average home's energy usage, it makes sense to choose the most energy-efficient light bulbs.

Charlestown explores converting streetlights to LEDs

The Board of Commissioners is exploring converting the town’s streetlights to LEDs, a move that could eventually save the town approximately $8,000 a year. The board voted to have ESCO Energy Services Company do a free energy audit of the town’s 120 streetlights, which would give the town a better idea of how much it could save from a conversion. The commissioners first started exploring the idea of converting the streetlights in August after hearing a presentation from Jack Hanley of ESCO.

Truce called in battle of LED light bulbs

Fierce price cutting of LED light bulbs has come to an end, at least for the time being. According to market research company Trendforce, the average price of 40W replacement light bulbs rose by 2.8 percent in October to $11.1. The price of 60W bulbs rose 3.5 percent to $15, Trendforce said.

Osram gears up effort to sell lamps division

Osram Licht AG's efforts to carve out its lamps business are picking up steam, as the company said it expects to complete a move by April. Meanwhile, a second suitor has emerged from China as one key industry observer said that a Chinese buyer would be a likely scenario, with over a dozen companies from the country that could be interested. This time MLS, parent company of Forest Lighting, has authorized its chairman to bid for the division, the publicly held company said in a regulatory filing. In July, China's Shanghai Feilo Acoustics made a non-binding offer.

Crystal IS Expands Line of Lattice Matched Commercial UVC LEDs

Crystal IS's newest Optan product is a deep UV LED in a TO-39 package with a flat window. Like the recently introduced Optan ball lens (BL) and surface mount devices (SMD), the high-performance UVC LED is based on native Aluminum Nitride (AlN) substrates, Crystal IS's award winning, proprietary technology. Optan is the only lattice matched commercial UVC LED available today. Optan provides a unique technology platform for increased detection sensitivity, proven to overcome limitations of other UVC LEDs in the market as well as traditional UV lamps including deuterium and xenon flash lamps.
       

Optan Flat Window can be used to monitor processes in industrial manufacturing; clean-in-place operations in the food and beverage processing industry; and in chromatographic processes used in protein purification and pharmaceutical manufacturing. In these processes and industries, UVC LED based sensors have been shown to lower costs, increase productivity and meet regulatory and quality control requirements.

EasyJet to Light Up Crew Uniforms With LEDs, Displays

Flight attendants have been equipped with phones and tablets and mobile payment gadgets, so why not LED lights? In honor of its 20th anniversary, European airline easyJet will be jazzing up the cabin crew's uniforms with LED lights meant to improve communication and passenger safety. Starting in 2016, look for illuminated shoulders and hems to provide additional lighting in the cabin and LEDs sewn into jacket lapels to display details like flight numbers and destinations.

LED Manufacturing Plant Project Report

LEDs are currently catalyzing a revolution in the global lighting industry. Compared to conventional lighting technologies, LEDs are smaller, have a longer operating life and involve a lower cost of ownership. The biggest driver of LEDs, however, is their efficiency – the ratio of the perceived power of light (in lumens) to input power (in watts) exceeds conventional technologies and also contributes to meeting energy efficiency targets.

LEDs first appeared in 1962 and are commonly used for indicator lights (such as power on/off lights) on electronic devices. They also have numerous other applications, this includes electronic signs, clock displays, and flashlights. Driven by factors such as their high efficiency and long shelf life, they have also begun to replace traditional light bulbs in several areas. Some examples include street lights, automobile lights, and various types of decorative lighting. Driven by its numerous advantages over conventional lighting technologies, we expect this market to exhibit exponential growth in the short and medium terms and dominate the global lighting market for years.

IMARC's latest study "LED Manufacturing Plant Project Report: Industry Trends, Manufacturing Process, Machinery, Raw Materials, Cost and Revenue" provides a techno-commercial roadmap for setting up an LED manufacturing plant. The study, which has been done by one of the world's leading research and advisory firms, covers all the requisite aspects of the LED market. This ranges from macro overview of the market to micro details of the industry performance, processing and manufacturing requirements, project cost, project funding, project economics including expected returns on investment, profit margins, etc. This report is a must-read for entrepreneurs, investors, researchers, consultants, business strategists, and all those who have any kind of stake or are planning to foray into the LED industry in any manner

Seoul Viosys partners with Watersprint on UV-LED-based water purifier

Ultraviolet (UV) LED technology continues to make news based on the potential of such LEDs to enable new applications, and sterilization and disinfection are among the brightest possibilities. Now Seoul Viosys said it is supplying the Violeds UV LED technology to Sweden-based Watersprint for use in small water purification systems. The duo will work with the society-focused Yunus Center to deploy the purification technology in Bangladesh, where much of the water used for drinking and cooking is tainted with arsenic.

While UV LED technology is most common today in applications such as printing and curing that use light in the UV-A band, advances in the shorter-wavelength UV-B and -C bands will enable more-affordable portable sterilization systems. We first reported on the sterilization application in an article that covered a UV-centric presentation at Strategies in Light.

Georgia Power LED roadway lighting project underway statewide

Georgia Power announced that roadways across the state will benefit from higher-quality lighting thanks to a new multi-year partnership with local governments. The company, which owns and maintains approximately 400,000 roadway lights for local governments, is in the process of converting thousands of high-pressure sodium (HPS) roadway lights to new energy efficient LEDs. The LED lighting upgrade is available to cities and municipalities upon request.

"LED lighting offers long-term energy savings for our customers that offset the installation cost, as well as the additional value of overall higher light quality and longer life," said Randy Young, director of products and services for Georgia Power. "We're receiving very positive feedback from local governments, as well as residents and drivers, about the improved experience with the LED roadway lights."

The effects of the program are already visible throughout Georgia as the company has installed more than 50,000 LED roadway lights in Atlanta, Abbeville, Conyers, Savannah, Valdosta and elsewhere. 

Honolulu is re-soliciting proposals to change streetlights to LEDs

Mayor Kirk Caldwell’s administration will seek new proposals for a project to convert nearly 52,000 streetlights to light-emitting diode technology in Honolulu. Robert Kroning, city director of design and construction, said the do-over is necessary because negotiations with a contractor ran into a snag — not because of criticism by City Council members, astronomers and environmentalists that the criteria for the original request for proposals were too narrow and would have used an outdated type of LED lamp.

Three Watt Individually Addressable RGB LEDs

While the gold standard for colorful blinky projects are individually controllable RGB LEDs, the usual offerings aren’t really that impressive. Yes, a few hundred Neopixels, WS2812, or other RGB LEDs will sear your retinas, but what if you wanted blinky glowy stuff that is so over the top as to be an affront to whatever creator you believe in? This is it. Ytai Ben-Tsvi created an individually addressable RGB LED called the Pixie that is perfect for all the times when you need something bright, colorful, and want to blind a few people in the process.

How to buy dimmable LED bulbs that won't hum, flicker or buzz

If you're shopping for LEDs, there are many options to choose from -- and dimmer compatibility only complicates matters. Even if you pick the proper color temperature, lumens rating and a desired beam angle, you might run into another snag: dimmers. In many cases, your existing incandescent dimmers won't play nicely with newer LED bulbs. Unlike incandescents, all of which dim indiscriminately, LEDs either dim or they don't.

Heliospectra to Fulfill $229K Order for Greenhouse LEDs

Heliospectra AB has received a major order from a European greenhouse grower for its LightBar V101 LED grow light. The purchase order — Heliospectra's largest in Europe — represents the first sale of the product and is valued at $229,000. Installation of the order is expected in December. The unnamed customer participated in R&D of the product.

What the LED Industry Can Learn From Solar

LEDs are sparking a revolution in the lighting industry -- and for good reason. LEDs have been on a promising trajectory in recent years. We now see them starting to push out traditional technologies in a broad range of sectors, including automotive, streetlights and decorative lighting. In 2010, LEDs represented just 0.3 percent of the lighting industry’s market share. Today, they’ve skyrocketed to approximately 18 percent and are expected to flourish further in coming years. To make better-informed decisions on how to accelerate mass adoption, it makes sense to look at another newcomer in the energy industry: solar power.

UV LEDs High Entry Level Can't Fend Off Hopeful Manufacturers.

Several factors have caused manufacturers to flood emerging blue sea markets, such as China’s soon to be implemented 13th five-year plan; drying up LED subsidies; price wars in lighting industry that have resulted in pricing and selling bulbs per kilogram; and industry restructures which have benefited the expansion of big players already on the market. SMEs in the industry have been treading on thin ice. When the UV LED emerged as a blue sea market in the LED industry, only a few manufacturers were competing in the market sector. Fast forward to present, manufacturers once standing on the sidelines speculating are starting to jump in. In the near future, it is possible that this niche market might be on the same road as blue LEDs and become another hotly contended red sea market..

LEDs make Chennai brighter, corpn power bill slimmer

While TV advertisements are coaxing all and sun dry to buy LED (light emitting diode) lights this Diwali and get slimmer electricity bills to fund fatter celebrations, the Chennai Corporation has been reaping such benefits for some months now. Thanks to the 96,000 newly installed energy-efficient LED streetlights, the corporation has now cut its monthly electricity bill by almost Rs 55 lakh.  Of the total 2,48,467 streetlights across the city, the corporation has so far replaced 96,708 CFL bulbs and old sodium lamps.

Avista to Replace Aging Streetlights with LEDs

Avista Utilities has begun a program of replacing old style street lights in Spokane with new state of the art LED lights, in an effort to cut power consumption. But the new lights have left some customers dazzled by the brightness of the new fixtures. Avista Utilities is planning to change out old style high pressure sodium lights with 28 thousand newer LED lights in their service area, including Spokane, and many other town through the Northwest.

LEDs Are Lighting the Way--and Dropping in Price

Over the last 20 years, the Energy Star certified homes program has worked with builders to construct more than 1.6 million better, more energy efficient, homes. Tried-and-true strategies like air sealing and increased insulation form the core of our program, but we’re always looking for emerging technologies that will raise the bar on efficiency. One technology lighting the way towards more savings and better performance is LEDs. Today, most builders familiar with efficient lighting think CFLs. But the rapid pace of innovation, increased availability, and falling price of LEDs are likely to catch builders’ attention very soon.

Nanoleaf Debuts New HomeKit-Enabled Smarter Kit With Two Light Bulbs and a Hub

Nanoleaf, the company behind a line of designer energy-efficient light bulbs, today announced its latest product, the Nanoleaf Smarter Kit. The Nanoleaf Smarter Kit, which is debuting today on Indiegogo, is the first Nanoleaf product to include HomeKit support. Through HomeKit, iPhone users with the Nanoleaf Smarter Kit will be able to control their lightbulbs with voice commands, turning them on and off and incorporating them into scenes with other HomeKit-enabled products through the accompanying Nanoleaf Smarter iOS app. The kit is also compatible with other connected smart bulbs such as the Philips Hue line.

As technology advances, light bulb choices become more sophisticated

There are plenty of jokes about how many people it takes to change a light bulb. Nowadays, it’s not a matter of hands doing the work – technological advances mean bulbs last 20 years or more – but you will have to understand a whole new vocabulary. For decades, consumers have been used to buying light bulbs based on the number of watts printed on the packaging. Those days are pretty well gone, thanks to a 2007 federal law aimed at moving the country toward greater energy independence and increasing the efficiency of products, including those used to light homes, offices and businesses.

Gooee claims ‘world’s smallest’ sensor for LEDs and the Internet of Things

Smart lighting startup Gooee wants to make the Internet of Things bigger by making it smaller: It has unveiled what it says is the world’s smallest sensor for connected LED lighting. Gooee, based in Santa Clara, CA, co-developed the chip with Danish integrated-circuit design company Delta Microelectronics. The new 5×5-mm photodetector, based on active-pixel-sensor technology, will become part of Gooee’s Full-Stack “platform,” which is a set of hardware, software and data management tools for connecting lighting to the Internet. (To learn more about active pixel sensors, check out an article from our colleagues at Laser Focus World.)

LEDs in Lumenus apparel aren’t just flashy, they could help save lives

According to the latest available stats from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), bicyclists and other pedal-powered vehicles accounted for two percent of traffic crashes in 2013. The number of deaths jumped 19 percent between 2010 and 2013, and 68 percent of those deaths occurred in urban areas. Causes vary, but one reason is that cyclists aren’t as visible, particularly at night. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends wearing reflective clothing and active lighting, but a line of apparel from a new startup, Lumenus, not only incorporates both recommended safety features, it’s also smarter in letting you customize the behavior of those lights for other functions.

Toshiba plans to exit packaged LED business as part of semiconductor business restructuring

Toshiba Corporation has announced a major restructuring of its semiconductor operation including both the LSI (digital IC) and discrete component sectors. The discrete sector includes the white packaged LED business and Toshiba said it would exit the LED business by the end of 2015. The announcement made no mention of any sale or transfer of Toshiba's gallium-nitride-on-silicon (GaN-on-Si) packaged LED technology developments that have been approaching the performance of sapphire-based LEDs and that presumably could have delivered packaged LED cost reductions.

Top LEDs and CFLs for the Dark Days Ahead

Daylight Saving Time has its critics. But for the sleep-deprived, it’s hard to argue with the appeal of gaining an hour of sleep on Sunday, November 1, as Daylight Saving Time ends. Until you remember that for the next few months it will be dark when you wake up, dark before you sit down for dinner, and dark when you walk the dog after you eat. Time to turn on the lights. Lights are on longer in the fall and winter, whether people need more light for reading and cooking or to lift their mood. And while some turn off lights when they leave a room, a walk through my neighborhood tells me otherwise—some homes are lit up, floor to floor. That's a lot of electricity being used, especially considering that the average home has more than 40 light sockets, according to Energy Star.

Aeon Lighting Technology launches ATEX and IECEx explosion-proof LED light

Aeon Lighting Technology (ALT), a high-power LED company in Taiwan, recently introduced an explosion proof LED light, which is compliant to the ATEX & IECEx certification for use in hazardous environments.

So far there are not many LEDs designed specifically for high wattage explosion proof lights on the market. Mr. James Liang, CEO of ALT, explained ”The traditional explosion proof light fixture put light source in an enclosed fixture, but LED requires thermal management to prolong its lifespan, so we construct our lamp body to qualify good explosion proof function, but also good heat dissipation.”