New lighting fixtures to increase energy efficiency of science building

After an energy audit within the Center for Natural Sciences at Ithaca College, the Office of Energy Management and Sustainability plans to upgrade some lighting fixtures and controls within the building to improve its energy efficiency. Greg Lischke, director of energy management and sustainability, discussed these plans with a small crowd of faculty and staff members at an information session Sept. 12. Lischke and Kailash Viswanathan, vice president of operations at GreenerU Inc., an engineering consultant company for college campuses, briefly went over the results from the CNS energy audit during Summer 2018 and outlined the college’s plan for improving the building’s sustainability. The professors and staff in attendance raised questions throughout the presentation concerning their respective research projects and the effects the lighting may have on them.

Amerlux Moves Beyond LEDs With Avista 7-Pin Option

Amerlux announced the launch of a hi-tech, electrical receptacle for its Avista light engine that will turn humble light posts into the bold underpinnings of a smart city.

Amerlux's 7-pin option, used in conjunction with its Avista pedestrian light engine, can transform any lamp post into a wireless communication device that can connect to larger municipal networks. Reminiscent of when phones became "smarter" with apps, Amerlux is designing products that leverage existing circuit boards in LEDs to become compatible with a variety of sensors that drastically change the utility of lighting.

The Avista light engine is available in three options: standard without an electrical socket, 3-pin with a NEMA twist-lock electrical receptacle and the 7-pin with a NEMA socket and "extra" pins that add dimming capabilities and access to a world of cutting-edge sensors.

New Stadium/Arena Lighting Enhances Fan Experience

One of the newest trends that fans attending sports arenas and stadiums are noticing are new LED lighting systems that make the game look incredible. That switch from antiquated metal-halide lights to LED technology began in 2012 when a young upstart company, Ephesus Lighting installed the first LED sports lighting system at the Onondaga County War Memorial AHL hockey arena in Syracuse, New York. Less than four years later, that same company’s lights illuminated Super Bowl XLIX at University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona.

280nm UV-C LEDs boast a 10,000-hour lifetime

RayVio is now volume shipping its 280nm XD mid-power and XR high-power UV-C LEDs, both proven with a 10,000 hour benchmark for lifetime reliability in medical-grade solutions. The XD and XR Series are available as standard 3535 emitters or mounted on star boards for easy test development and product integration, now in-stock at Digi-Key. Both have a nominal drive current of 100mA and can be over or under driven to optimize for power or lifetime.

Ushio America Introduces Line of Outdoor LED Architectural Lighting Fixtures

Ushio America, Inc. introduces a new line of DLC qualified outdoor architectural LED lighting fixtures including traditional and slim wall packs, slim area lights, canopy mount fixtures, and wall mount security lights.

These new outdoor LED fixtures are DLC qualified making them eligible for most utility rebates nationwide and are available in popular wattages, color temperatures, and come with Ushio’s premium 5-year warranty.

Ushio has been supplying lamps and light sources to the U.S. lighting market for over 50 years. As a manufacturer of specialty lighting fixtures and systems, this new fixture line marks the company’s entry into the growing LED architectural outdoor lighting market.

Town of North Hempstead continues LED light quest

The Town of North Hempstead installed 80 new light emitting diode bulbs along Hillside Avenue in New Hyde Park, town officials announced recently, in a move aimed to save money and boost safety. The new LED high-pressure sodium streetlight fixtures, which run from Denton Avenue to the New York City border on Hillside Avenue, replace older incandescent 250-watt fixtures, ranging between 30 and 40 years old, with 110 watt ones that have a light temperature of 4000K.

Larson Electronics LLC Releases Hazardous Area Low Profile Red LED Light

Larson Electronics LLC, has announced the release of a new hazardous area red LED light that is U.S./Canada ETL listed Class 1 Division 2 Groups A, B, C and D, ideal for paint spray booths, clean rooms and other locations where accumulated paint and finish residues may be present.

The HAL-LI-48-2L-LED-RED-1227 fixture is a - foot-long, 2 lamp, Class 1 Division 2 Groups A, B, C and D hazardous area red LED light that features two, 12-watt high powered red LED lamps. Each lamp consists of three separate 4-watt LED strips and produces 435 - 870 total lumens for the entire two-lamp fixture. The lamp housing contains a highly reflective insert to increase light output efficiency and the lamps are held in place by spring loaded sockets and protected by a 90° hinged glass door with a 3/16” tempered glass lens.

This hazardous area LED light has a low -profile design and troffer lay-in mounting, which mounts the fixture flush to the surface, eliminating the potential for residue to accumulate around the it. This is particularly important in clean room and paint spray rooms where dust and other debris must be extremely minimal.

Koogeek Smart LED Wifi Alexa Siri Enabled

There are so many affordable smart home devices available on the market that it has become very hard to find the best. I have come across smart power plugs and other smart devices that have been extremely tedious to configure. The Wifi connected Koogeek Smart LED bulb has a pleasure to set up. Within a minute the Koogeek smart bulb was connected to my iPhone and ready to be controlled via the app or my Alexa. Even Siri understands me on my Apple Watch and switches the Kookgeek bulb on and off on command. The reason why the Koogeek LED Bulb is so easy to configure is Apple's HomeKit. After downloading the Koogeek app, you just add a new device by scanning the HomeKit code with the iPhone camera on the manual or blub and you are all set.

Takoma Park looks to new LED lights to save money, energy

Takoma Park’s nighttime streets could soon be lit with hundreds of LED streetlights, saving the city thousands of dollars in energy costs. But some residents, fearing that the Maryland suburb’s streets will be awash with the glare of an operating room, are urging the city to hold back on the move. Right now, Takoma Park’s leafy streets are illuminated by a motley assortment of lights — mostly high-pressure sodium, with their familiar orange hue, but also mercury vapor lights and traditional incandescents (photo: Farragutful).

LED lamps are great for the environment, but bad for our health

Flicker can be bad for your health. Even if it is so fast that you can’t see it and are unaware of it, it can cause headaches and eyestrain and interfere with the control of eye movements. Most lamps flicker between bright and dim but the flicker from LEDs changes almost instantly between bright and black.This means that sometimes people can see a trail of the same image of a lamp repeated one after the other, every time their eyes move across it. This pattern is particularly noticeable with the LED tail lights of cars, but it can sometimes be seen with LED room lights.

LEDs power India’s drive for household energy-efficiency

India‘s population of over 1.3 billion makes it the second largest nation in the world, so reducing the country’s greenhouse gas emissions is a sizeable challenge. As part of its commitments under the UN Framework on the Convention on Climate Change, India plans to reduce its carbon footprint by 33-35 per cent from its 2005 levels by 2030. And with the energy sector responsible for over 70 per cent of the nation’s emissions, energy efficiency is crucial to the Government of India’s green ambitions. Today, these ambitions are a step closer to reality, with the Asian Development Bank, UN Environment and partners combining forces on the Creating and Sustaining Markets for Energy Efficiency project, a Global Environment Facility-supported initiative to catalyze new markets for energy-efficient products, such as LED light bulbs.

Budweiser Distributing Switches to LED

Effective lighting in warehouse and office spaces is key to the safety and comfort of workers no matter the job they perform, but the high cost to operate traditional lighting can eat into a company’s profits. Budweiser Distributing, which operates a 140,000 square-foot facility in east Amarillo, has taken advantage of an Xcel Energy LED lighting rebate program that actually improved the facility’s lighting while significantly reducing monthly electricity costs. “We are dropping our electric bill by almost a third of what it was this time last year,” said Steve Williams, operations manager for Budweiser. “The lighting has also improved the efficiencies and accuracy of the warehouse, proving to be a savings in lost sales due to misloads.”

Lighting a Photo Shoot with 100 Mini LED Lights

Meriden schools will install less-costly LED lighting

The school district is partnering with Eversource Energy to install new LED lighting at the city’s middle and elementary schools. The new lights are projected to save the district about $187,000 annually in electricity and maintenance costs, helping to offset the project’s $909,000 cost to the Board of Education. “It’s going to cost money in a sense that there’s a charge on the bill, but we’re going to save in electric costs,” Assistant Superintendent for Technology and Operations Mike Grove told the City Council’s Finance Committee last month.

Our street lighting doesn’t need to be this bad

Most streets are either too bright or too dark. Streets and roads without street lighting account for nearly a third of all the fatal crashes at night. When street lights are too bright they can cause light pollution, something that delays the maturity of crops, aggravates astronomers, and disorients wildlife like sea turtle hatchlings, which can wander inland instead of toward the sea, where they end up dying after being run over by cars or eaten by predators. Exposure to high amounts of artificial light at night has also been linked to disruptions in people’s sleep health.

We need light sources that can be dimmed or controlled intelligently. LED lamps have this “adaptive lighting” capability and, as a bonus, are up to 50 percent more efficient than traditional sodium vapor lamps.

Osram’s latest infrared LED identifies what’s in your food

And now, something for spies, kings, vegans, allergy sufferers, or just good old calorie counters and cholesterol watchers: Osram has unveiled an infrared (IR) LED chip that enables smartphones to analyze the food you are about to eat or buy, helping you avoid everything from poisoning to letting traces of meat cross your lips. Osram’s Oslon Black Flat SFH 4776 uses spectroscopy to identify the contents of foodstuff. End users would scan items at the supermarket, the cafeteria line, at home, or wherever to gain dietary confidence.

Visalia's street lighting project nears completion

Tulare County is lighting up the way for energy efficiency across the state...and street. Southern California Edison workers are nearly done installing LED lamps at 5,500 company-owned poles in Visalia, giving the company the largest, latest milestone in a massive regional infrastructure-improvement project. In total, nearly 6,100 lights in Visalia will be part of the project. In economic terms, SCE said the new fixtures will mean an estimated $25,000 in savings annually.

Warm light bulbs vs cool light bulbs: Which should you buy?

When replacing light bulbs around your home, you may not put a ton of thought into which bulbs you buy beyond wattage. More specifically, you may overlook the color temperature of the bulbs -- or maybe you pick one color over the other because you prefer it. The fact of the matter is, the color of the lights you install matters. Different colors have different functions and you should be paying attention to where you install those colors.

In a back-to-the-future move, GE’s Current offers fluorescent tubes, bulbs, LEDs

When GE’s Current division quietly announced price rises on LED and on “traditional lighting products” last week, it wasn’t the increases per se that were so notable. Rather, it was the company that made them: Current, or to use its full corporate name, Current, powered by GE. The announcement, first reported by the Edison Report website, reaffirms that GE has scaled back Current’s initial overarching mission from what was to have been a multifaceted energy services and data company, into one that looks as concerned with selling LED luminaires, fluorescent tubes, and even incandescent lightbulbs as it does with gathering data and monitoring and controlling energy consumption

84% of millennials don’t know how to change a lightbulb

How many millennials does it take to change a lightbulb? Well, according to new research you will need a few, because the odds are they won’t even know how to do it. A staggering 84% of 18 to 24 year olds have admitted they do not know how to change a lightbulb. Young people were polled by website Airtasker on skills for ‘technology and career growth’ but flopped badly on traditional household tasks.

LEDs could be harmful to health – the EU halogen ban will make it worse

The European Union recently announced a ban on halogen light bulbs, to persuade the public to switch to LED lamps. It’s unlikely to raise many eyebrows. There are, after all, lots of different lamps on the market. LEDs are low-voltage devices and the light they give depends on the circuitry hidden in the lamp itself, which changes the alternating current to provide the low voltage the LED needs. Some electronic circuitry is insufficient to reduce the variation in the supply voltage and this process can generate flicker.

$20M street-light project to focus on electric infrastructure then LEDs

Grand Rapids officials want to break the city's upcoming street light improvement project into two phases -- underground first, above ground later -- in an attempt to potentially save money. The first phase, estimated to cost $8.6 million, would include replacing the city's outdated underground electric infrastructure, which staff says is vulnerable to failures and electrical hazards. In turn, the project would put off replacing the more than 18,000 street lights with new LED lights until after the city commission has a better understanding of how best to replace the lights, and who best to contract with to do so.

378 streetlights in Ann Arbor being converted to energy-saving LEDs

Ann Arbor and DTE Energy are taking steps to convert another 378 streetlights to energy-saving LEDs. The City Council voted 9-0 this week to approve $65,354 for the city's share of the cost to convert some more of the mercury vapor streetlights in the city that are owned and maintained by DTE. City officials say the investment should pay for itself in about a year and a half, as the city will reap the financial benefits associated with lower energy consumption from more efficient lights.

Seoul Semiconductor Sues Big-Box TV Retailer for Infringement of 15 LED Patents in U.S. Court

Seoul Semiconductor (046890.KQ) has filed a patent infringement lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, together with its affiliate, Seoul Viosys Co., Ltd. (collectively “Seoul”), against Fry’s Electronics (“Fry’s”), a retail company of consumer electronics. The patent litigation concerns Fry’s sales of various LED television products.

Fry’s is one of the largest big-box retailer of consumer electronics in the United States. It has 17 mega-stores in California and 14,000 employees. Fry’s currently offers more than 300 LED television models featuring twenty-five different global TV brands.

n its complaint, Seoul asserts that certain LED TV products in Fry’s stores infringe 15 of Seoul’s LED patents that relate to manufacturing processes for LED backlight units. Seoul’s patented technologies cover LED TV backlight unit structures, LED backlight lenses for providing uniform illumination of LED lights, UCD technology for high color gamut displays, LED packaging, LED chip fabrication, and LED epitaxy. These are significant technologies to improve the color, brightness, and duration time of all LCD light sources such as smartphones, laptops, tablet PCs and monitors as well as TVs.

Thinfilm-powered NFC marketing campaign has positive impact for Kilchoman

Kilchoman Distillery has reported a 6.5 percent engagement rate among consumers from its recent Thinfilm-powered NFC mobile marketing campaign, leading it to more deeply integrate the technology into its packaging. Kilchoman, an award-winning producer of single-malt Scotch whisky, was revealed as a Thinfilm customer in November 2017 and deployed its NFC mobile marketing technology soon thereafter. For the initial campaign, Kilchoman replaced conventional neck-tag booklets with Thinfilm’s NFC-powered interactive neck-tags on bottles of its Machir Bay and Sanaig whiskies. The tags, each of which contained a uniquely identifiable NFC chip and fully integrated with Thinfilm's CNECT cloud platform, created a digital touchpoint that transformed each bottle into an individual marketing channel.

Want a smart home? Start with your lights

Arguably the easiest way to upgrade your lighting is with smart bulbs. You can swap out the existing CFL or LED bulbs in your lamps and lighting fixtures with a Philips Hue, Lifx Mini, Eufy Lumos LED or many other models. These smart bulbs allow you to control your lights with your phone or through Alexa or Google Assistant. Plus, you can schedule them to turn on at any time and dim them at will, even if you don't have a dimmer switch. If you have a lot of lamps or recessed lighting, smart bulbs can quickly become expensive. The solution? Smart light switches.

Zumtobel Supplies LED lighting for Vaduz Active Energy Building

In the lush green hills of the Alpine Rhine Valley the Vaduz Active Energy Building creates a singular dark form. The Active Energy Building is a research project that falkeis2architects developed. The architects shaped the building with experimental design principles. As part of the design goal of making the building energy self-sufficient the architects chose to incorporate a very efficient LED lighting solution from German firm Zumtobel.Uniquely the building features wing modules that are forever active and help heat and cool the building depending on the outside temperature. Following an international design competition, the high-tech project owner Dr Peter Marxer, awarded the architectural planning assignment to the Viennese office of Anton Falkeis and Cornelia Falkeis-Senn. The goal was to develop an energy-efficient residential complex that is both self-sufficient and also produces surplus energy for the national electrical grid.

Halogen lighting heads into the sunset while LEDs are on the rise

From Sept. 1 this year, almost all halogen lighting will be phased out to make way for more efficient and cost-effective solutions. This is the last of a number of European Union (EU) Eco-Design measures, which were first put into place in 2009 to bring the industry closer to meeting targets set out under the energy strategy for 2020. The incandescent light bulb has existed for over 130 years; however, about 90% of the energy it produces is in the form of heat as opposed to light, making it hugely inefficient. That translates into 75% more energy used than LED alternatives. Therefore, the switch from incandescent to LED is a vital business decision, and in light of the impending halogen phase-out across the EU, it demands immediate attention.

LED Lights a Hidden Hazard on Boats?

The U.S. Coast Guard has issued a Marine Safety Alert on a risk that many of us never even knew existed. LED lights, popular with recreational boaters, may be causing reception problems with VHF radio and Automatic Identification Systems (AIS). The Coast Guard says it has received reports from crews, ship owners and inspectors about interference when they're in the vicinity of LED lighting, including navigation lights, search and floodlights, interior and exterior lights, and decorative lights. The LED lamps were found to cause radio frequency interference that poses a threat to safe communication, like calls for help. In an example given by the Coast Guard, "the maritime rescue coordination center in one port was unable to contact a ship involved in a traffic separation scheme incident by VHF radio.

JESCO Multi-Mount Linear LEDs

Archilinear from JESCO Lighting Group is a series of linear LEDs that brings a new approach to energy-efficient, high-performance pendant, wall-mount, and recessed lighting. Archilinear (Direct or Indirect), Archilinear DI (Direct/Indirect), and Archilinear RC (Recessed) deliver high lumen output, non-glare energy-saving ambient/accent lighting with no hotspots for a broad range of interior applications. These include general and executive corporate and professional offices; libraries, schools, and universities; discriminating retail and hospitality; hospitals, clinics, laboratories, and physician offices; product showrooms; themed venues; and museums and galleries.

Report Looks at Drivers in Industrial Lighting Spending

Spending for industrial lighting products will see slowing growth momentum in spending in the coming years although replacements of incandescent lights will continue to boost the demand, says a report by procurement market intelligence firm SpendEdge, based in London.

The report, “Global Industrial Lighting Category - Procurement Market Intelligence Report,” says buyers can achieve reduced upfront costs on new industrial lighting products by choosing cost-effective industrial lighting solutions.

The report’s authors expect several factors to play key roles in influencing spending on industrial lighting. Among them are replacement of incandescent lights with energy-efficient LED lights, demand for energy-efficient and safer industrial lighting sources in hazardous locations.

Sanan Optoelectronics to install micro LED equipment

China-based Sanan Optoelectronics will set up its first micro LED epitaxial wafer and chip production line in first-quarter 2019, according to industry sources. Meanwhile China-based Foshan Nationstar Optoelectronics has begun small-volume shipments of mini LED backlighting devices used in 75-inch LCD TVs and 27- and 32-inch gaming LCD monitors, the sources said. Sanan has already developed micro LEDs of 20-micron in diameter, the sources said, adding the production line to be coinstructed will allow the company to make make 4-micron LEDs and 10-micron LED flip-chips.

New Fluence COO Looks Forward to Helping Greenhouse Growers Transition to LEDs

The Controlled Environment Lighting Laboratory (CELL) at Michigan State University (MSU) has a horticultural lighting system installed across multiple growing areas that is arguably the most complex and capable such solid-state lighting (SSL) system in the world. Osram Innovations and Osram Opto Semiconductors partnered to develop the enhanced version of the Osram Phytofy system, stretching the spectral flexibility with seven dedicated LED channels. The system equips the MSU horticultural department with broad flexibility to test light recipes and to experiment with changing the look and taste/smell of cultivars. Runkle and his team of researchers are using the LED system on a variety of cultivars including leafy greens. The work seeks to improve yield and productivity along with exploring the potential of impacting the essential oils in plants.

Time to Rethink High Bay Fixtures — Think LED

Not long ago, warehouses, manufacturing plants, retail operations and even gymnasiums had few options when it came to specifying lighting for their high bay fixtures. The choice was to either install HID or fluorescent. That’s no longer the case as LEDs now provide more lumens per watt to reach an economic value that makes them a highly attractive alternative. With LED system efficiencies exceeding 130 lumens per watt, LED is 3.5 times more efficient than HID and 2.5 times more efficient than fluorescent T8 or T5 fixtures, which results in a rapid return on investment.  Since an LED only uses 25 - 30 percent of the energy of the fixtures being replaced in retrofit situations, there is an opportunity to add more fixtures to the existing lighting system in order to enhance visibility without incurring additional energy costs when switching light sources.

LEDs became energy-efficient and colourful, thanks to Wolfgang Schnick

Normally, LEDs can be either energy-efficient or have a better colour rendering. These two requirements, both of which one would of course always like to fulfill, have always been mutually exclusive. That is, until Professor Dr. Wolfgang Schnick of the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München found ways to solve this problem. That’s exactly why he has been awarded the Liebig commemorative medal. “The award is a great honor for our – one can almost say – life’s work”, Schnick says. “And for the work of many doctoral students, who are naturally all very enthusiastic about coming out in public.”

Big bulb manufacturers conspiring with Department of Energy and Trump to slow the LED revolution

By 2020 every light bulb is supposed to put out 45 lumens per watt. It's a Bush-era regulation that the current government wants to roll back. Incandescent bulbs are an endangered species, so threatened with extinction that artists are mounting them like exhibits in a museum. So of course, the Trump administration is stepping in to slow the LED revolution. When President George W. Bush brought in energy standards for light bulbs in 2007, nobody quite knew what would replace incandescent bulbs. LEDs couldn’t do it yet, so we all got those terrible compact fluorescents. But the legislation promoted innovation and LEDs took over the world with breathtaking speed. It has truly been a revolution, which we followed in real time on TreeHugger.

Everlight expects invisible LEDs, automotive applications and mini LEDs to drive growth

LED packaging service provider Everlight Electronics expects invisible LED devices, automotive applications and mini LED devices to be the main sources of business growth in the future, according to the company. With three factories in Taiwan and two in China, Everlight's monthly packaging capacity totals six billion LED chips currently. Its factory in central Taiwan is dedicated to making automotive applications, with monthly packaging capacity to be expanded to 200 million chips by year-end 2018.

Halogen lightbulb ban: When does it start and why are they being banned?

Halogen lightbulbs are soon to become obsolete in the UK following a ban made by the European Union. Retailers will no longer be allowed to stock halogen lightbulbs and will have to replace them with other types of bulbs that are more energy efficient. Companies will be allowed to sell their remaining stock of halogen lightbulbs until they run out. However, they won’t be permitted to buy any more once the ban officially begins. The EU first began phasing out incandescent lightbulbs in 2009.

Street lighting, road signs being converted to LED in Washtenaw County

Intersection street lights and lighted road-name signs are being switched to energy-efficient LED bulbs in Washtenaw County. The county plans to have the $35,000 project done in six to eight months across 30 intersections, swapping out 120 bulbs. The county aims to reduce as much energy and expense as possible, Jeff Young, signals engineer, said. Each LED costs $197 but is expected to last about 11 years. Current bulbs have to be replaced at least once a year, he said.