Posts Tagged ‘conservation’

Power Factor, THD, Energy and Power Savings – Revisited

Posted: January 9, 2012 in Energy, General Commentary
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So, you have this great new LED, generated a wonderful 130 lumens per watt. Life is good. Is this representative of real energy savings? What about Power Factor and its impact on the demand it places on the energy grid? What’s up with THD and what does it mean? Do either of these detract from the energy savings of new technologies using electronic power supplies? (more…)

GE and Philips Focus on LEDs

Posted: December 2, 2008 in General SSL Commentary
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The following two quotes say more than I can (gathered from recent news releases and related blogs).

From Philips:

“We are not spending one dollar on research and development for compact fluorescents,” said Kaj den Daas, chairman and chief executive of Philips Lighting. Instead, the bulk of its R.& D. budget, which is 5.2 percent of the company’s global lighting revenue, is for L.E.D. research.

From General Electric:

GE spokesman David Schuellerman replied that “GE Consumer & Industrial and GE Global Research have suspended the development of the high-efficiency incandescent lamp (HEI) to place greater focus and investment on what we believe will be the ultimate in energy efficient lighting — light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs).”

For anyone in the lighting and energy industry, (more…)

What Went Wrong With the CFL?

Posted: December 1, 2008 in General SSL Commentary
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Anyone in the business of SSL has either considered the fate of the CFL lamp, or used it as a whipping boy for marketing efforts. Why can’t this lamp catch a break? Is there anything we can learn from this product in deploying solid-state technology?

cfl-small

This is a residential lamp, rarely used in the commercial sector.

To truly put this in perspective, let’s separate reality from conventional wisdom.

First, the compact fluorescent lamp has been a huge success in the commercial market, where plug-in lamps are used with external electronic ballasts. These small lamps fill 90% of the decorative wall sconces, bowls, and surface ceiling luminaires, and over 50% of the recessed downlights in commercial, institutional, industrial, retail, and health care facilities around the country. The incandescent lamp was kicked to the curb for being an energy and maintenance resource consumer. Plug-in style CFL lamps range from 7 watts to 120 watts, in configurations that include twin tube, triple tube, and quad tube configurations. They are seen in 2,700k, 3,000k, 3,500k, and occasionally 4,100k. While there are many that are dimmed, most operate on simple switches or automatic controls. The hospitality market has adopted this lamp in new products, in combination with the screw-base retrofit lamp to eliminate incandescent table, downlight, accent and wall sconce lighting.

The residential market is another animal altogether. (more…)

Opportunities in the Lighting Universe for True Masters

Posted: November 21, 2008 in General SSL Commentary
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fireiceSome wonder why I am such an enthusiast for lighting in general. That’s easy – Lighting is COOL! As an artist at heart, lighting is appealing, as it shapes the visual experience of observers as much as an oil painting hung over a couch. Lighting is both ethereal (it exists, yet is untouchable), and mechanical (requires hardware to manipulate and generate illumination). There is nothing else in the universe of human endeavor that blends art and science in this way. If this were all just about illumination of space to enable and excite human vision, there is enough meat here for anyone to enjoy a lifelong pursuit of it. But, this no longer the case. (more…)