Refocus design challenges to move LED lighting forward

At the recent 2013 Solid-State Lighting (SSL) Manufacturing R&D Workshop organized by the US Department of Energy (DOE), I called upon the DOE to sponsor R&D competitions with the intent of discovering new sustainable materials and fabrication methods. Innovations in sustainable design...

At the recent 2013 Solid-State Lighting (SSL) Manufacturing R&D Workshop organized by the US Department of Energy (DOE), I called upon the DOE to sponsor R&D competitions with the intent of discovering new sustainable materials and fabrication methods. Innovations in sustainable design may lead the lighting industry to achieve radical cost reductions not possible with our current technology paradigms.

I proposed two possible R+D challenges similar in spirit to the L Prize program. The first challenge is to design a complete luminaire — from electrons to photons — to meet a stringent life-cycle analysis such as the Cradle-to-Cradle Certification program. Such an “L Prize LifeCycle” award would stimulate entrants to reduce toxicity, design for end-of-life repurposing, and to reduce supply chain complexity. The second challenge is to generate the most lumen output from the least mass, normalized against output, efficacy, and other performance requirements. Such an “L Prize FeatherWeight” award would dare entrants to reduce material consumption, fixture size and complexity, and secondary transport and handling costs.

Notice that all the benefits listed above from these sustainable R&D challenges lead to cost savings. The notion that sustainable design can lead to significant cost reductions is counterintuitive for many, because most manufacturers tasked with greening their products usually start with their existing product lines, which are rooted in decades of decidedly non-sustainable design, materials, and assembly methods. This situation has only become worse with the transition to digital lighting products. LED lighting has been piggy-backing on the technical paradigms of the consumer electronics industry, such as FR4 printed circuit boards and surface-mount technology (SMT) assembly. This synergy leads to a scale and style of manufacturing better suited for producing cheap audio players than for supplying the robust and messy needs of building construction sites.

Moreover, this reliance on the consumer electronics industry has unfortunately sent large percentages of SSL manufacturing straight to Asia. Stimulating local manufacturing, especially in support of the construction industry, should be straightforward. Anybody who’s been on a construction site knows that fragile electronics with 16-week global lead times are exactly the opposite of what construction managers need from their suppliers.

While the lighting industry has spent the last decade coming to grips with the disruptions caused by LED lighting, the architecture and construction industries have experienced their own disruptions. Building information modeling, parametric design, digital fabrication, and aggressive environmental certification programs have shifted building construction to a heavily mass-customized approach with the use of more bio-friendly materials. The current paradigm of PCB-based LED electronics seems a poor long-term fit with these macro industry trends, which leads to the question: Is the lighting industry developing the technologies needed to support these advances in the construction fields?

Competitions like the proposed “LifeCycle” or “FeatherWeight” challenges will broaden the perspectives of the modern lighting industry and perhaps introduce radical new methods of fabricating lighting systems — methods that may not fit neatly on current technology development roadmaps. Such R&D challenges may also open innovation in the lighting industry to secondary partners — such as raw-goods manufacturers, equipment suppliers, university research programs — partners who are not directly capable of meeting a narrowly-defined end goal such as manufacturing a more efficient A-lamp.

With its long-term vision and patience, the DOE should continue to drive the lighting industry — even acknowledging all the amazing advances we’re currently enjoying — by challenging the status quo with smartly abstracted goals of sustainability to stimulate manufacturers and research organizations to explore dramatically different technical paradigms. The results may lead to unexpected but critically important advances in how we conceive of lamps, luminaires, and systems.

Refocus design challenges to move LED lighting forward

Why LED Retrofits Are The "Trojan Horse" Of The Internet of Things

Falling LED prices are driving up adoption rates of LED lamps, which in turn will drive up the adoption of lighting controls. The semiconductor nature of LEDs makes them inherently controllable, with better dimmability, easy integration of controls with drivers, and instantaneous setup. In fact,...

LED-Street-Lighting-System

One of the most compelling data points I’ve come across in my usual year-end deluge is this one from Navigant Research: over the next seven years, annual sales for occupancy sensors, photosensors and lighting network gear related to LED lighting applications will grow from $1.1 billion in 2013 to $2.7 billion by 2020.

Certainly, that’s an appreciable growth rate, but if you think about the foundation that those sensors will create not just for more efficient commercial lighting but for many other “smart” applications, things get even more exciting.

Here’s what Navigant has to say in the executive summary for its report, “Intelligent Lighting Controls for Commercial Buildings”:

“Falling LED prices are driving up adoption rates of LED lamps, which in turn will drive up the adoption of lighting controls. The semiconductor nature of LEDs makes them inherently controllable, with better dimmability, easy integration of controls with drivers, and instantaneous setup. In fact, many LED lamps are being sold with built-in controllability, whether or not there are plans to make use of the control.”

Each new LED fixture can, in essence, become the node on an intelligent controls network. Yes, these networks are really good at turning off the lights when people aren’t around or dimming them when it’s bright, saving electricity. But those sensors are also harvesting other useful data about temperature, occupancy and their surroundings that could have all sorts of other applications.

Consider, for example, a smart LED lighting retrofit on a city street. Aside from the benefits that the municipal government could receive from lower electricity consumption and reduced maintenance expenses, that network could also support new revenue-generating services such as smart parking, by being able to sense which spots are open and sending that information to a mobile app in real time. Add some cameras, and your town can issue parking tickets more efficiently.

In a commercial building, LED lighting networks can help with security applications, letting people when someone has entered a room, or they could help with simple administrative functions, such as managing conference room attendance or keeping track of which department uses certain areas and resources.

You know those mobile marketing applications that retailers get all excited about? The ones that can deliver promotion or offers to prospective customers as they enter or move about a store, based on the GPS signal provided by their mobile phone? One of the easiest places to install the in-store sensors is within the lights shining above and all around those visitors. Another potentially huge application would be keeping tabs on food expiration dates, to minimize spoilage.

“You start to catalyze light, and then ultimately it is the infrastructure. We are the most prolific application in the Internet of things,” said Brad Bullington, CEO of Bridgelux, an 11-year-old company that has raised about $250 million in venture capital to develop its ideas.

One thing that makes Bridgelux interesting is its manufacturing partnership with Toshiba, which will help commercialize its solid state lighting more quickly. The estimated energy savings from its technology is about 65% over traditional technologies.

“The cost of LEDs and solid state lighting in general has come down faster than it would in a normal competitive environment. Prices have been accelerated by maybe three years,” he said. “That has helped global adoption creep up over 10%.” (The fastest growing market is Asia, followed by the Europe; with the United States lagging, according to Bullington.)

Both Bullington and the CEO of another smart LED company, Sensity Systems (formerly Xeralux), call LED lighting the “Trojan Horse” of the smart this-and-that movement. “What really is important is the network, the applications that are making use of the information being collected,” Hugh Martin, chairman and CEO of Sensity, told me in June 2013. “It is extremely important that we have a launch vehicle, lighting, be we are focused on the development of a Big Data infrastructure in the cloud, so that people can develop other applications.”

Sensity can name more than 200 customers that are buying into this idea, including the likes of healthcare company Kaiser Permanente, tech powerhouse Hewlett-Packard and real estate management company Shorenstein.

The latter, for example, testing smart LEDs in its parking lots as a means of reducing its power bills and introducing better surveillance systems. Another customer, the country of El Salvador, is installing the technology throughout the entire country: aside from the lighting, it is looking at national security applications, and solutions for better import and export controls.

To be sure, there will be privacy concerns with many of these applications, especially considering the ongoing fallout over the extent to which governments should or should not collect information. This is another case whether the technology is evolving faster than the policy around it.

What’s more, the LED lighting solution sales cycle still is pretty long. Bridgelux’s Bullington notes that any organization considering this technology has to look at the long-term picture, including energy costs, in order to justify a retrofit. And prices for the cheapest industrial and commercial lighting option, linear fluorescent lighting, are still so cheap that it will take a long time to displace it.

“In regions with a history of significant energy efficiency programs, linear fluorescents have clearly been established as the baseline replacement technology for high-bay lighting, accounting for a 78 – 80% market share,” according to a 2012 American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) white paper about lighting programs across the United States.

But if you look beyond strictly the lighting applications, the case for retrofits becomes even more profound. That’s why companies like Bridgelux have grown more than 546% over the last four years. (Although it’s private, that’s the estimated growth rates according to the recent Deloitte Technology Fast 500.)

Aside from Bridgelux and Sensity, here are four other companies I’ll be watching in 2014. (They certainly aren’t the only ones participating in smart lighting applications, but they are among the most active.)

Daintree Networks – Founded in 2003, the company provides wireless mesh networks and controls for various smart building applications. Its customers include commercial office building, automated factories and parking structures. Aside from lighting, Daintree has an extensive profile in managing heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) loads.

Echelon – I’ve actually been following this company for close to 20 years, when I used to cover emerging technology for an IT trade publication. These days, Echelon (like GE) is targeting industrial Internet of Things opportunities. Its energy controls are used in places like Oslo, Norway, where it was part of a 65,000-streetlight retrofit.

Sensus – This is a great example of why it’s important to look beyond lighting. You actually hear a lot more about how Sensus is adding with smart water applications. But it’s also participating in lighting overhauls: one example comes from Chattanooga, Tenn., where its technology is being used to roll out new municipal lights. “Existing utility deployments of FlexNet can accommodate outdoor lighting control with minor configuration,” the company notes.

Silver Spring Networks – The company’s IPv6 networking platform already connects more than 17 million devices. Next year, it will be part of a smart streetlight installation (along with Citelum) that will transform more than 20,000 lights in Copenhagen, Denmark; a similar project in Paris will help the city cut energy costs by 30% over the next decade. The technology is also being used for electric vehicle charging networks and connected carbon-dioxide sensors.

Why LED Retrofits Are The "Trojan Horse" Of The Internet of Things

Everlight Lighting Revenue to Surpass Backlighting in 2014

Everlight’s lighting revenue is anticipated to surpass backlighting for the first time, due to market growth in 2014 LED lighting.

Everlight-Electronics-logo

Taiwan based LED package manufacturer Everlight had successful lighting revenue growth in 2013 due to gradually maturing LED lighting applications. Although, 4Q is typically a slack season for the LED industry, the company’s revenue this quarter were 30 percent higher than 4Q last year making up 25 percent of the company’s overall revenue, similar to the revenue proportion from backlighting. Everlight’s lighting revenue is anticipated to surpass backlighting for the first time, due to market growth in 2014 LED lighting.

The company’s lighting revenue for 2013 was fed by residential, commercial, and industrial lighting. Government street light projects were one of the main contributors for the company’s revenue growth this year. The company supplied around 10,000 street lights to five major cities in Taiwan which largely affected the company’s revenue performance in the second half of the year. The cities will see a clear benefit by saving NT $1,345 (US $45) a year for every street lamp replaced with LEDs, said Robert Yeh, Chairman for Everlight.

Yeh remains optimistic about the lighting application market development in 2014. Everlight merged with German based luminaire manufacture WOFI in 2013 and expanded distribution channels in the Chinese market. The company plans to continue building distribution channels in general in 2013. Light revenue currently makes up 25 percent of the company’s revenue, similar to backlight revenue proportions, and is estimated to surpass backlight revenue for the first time in 2014, said Yeh.

Everlight Lighting Revenue to Surpass Backlighting in 2014

Smart Lighting Controllers and Sensor Annual Market Revenue to Reach US$ 2.7 billion by 2020

According to a recent report from Navigant Research, worldwide revenue from occupancy sensors, photosensors, and lighting network control gear will grow from US$ 1.1 billion annually in 2013 to nearly US$ 2.7 billion by 2020.

Smart Lighting Controllers and Sensor Annual Market Revenue to Reach US$ 2.7 billion by 2020

As falling prices for LED lighting systems drive up adoption rates of LED lamps in the coming years, the adoption of intelligent lighting controls is also expected to accelerate. Intelligent lighting controls, including occupancy sensors, photosensors, and networked controls, offer building owners and managers the same central monitoring and management capabilities for lighting systems that they are accustomed to having for their heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems. According to a recent report from Navigant Research, worldwide revenue from occupancy sensors, photosensors, and lighting network control gear will grow from US$ 1.1 billion annually in 2013 to nearly US$ 2.7 billion by 2020.

“The market for lighting controls in commercial buildings has expanded and transformed dramatically in recent years, as creative ways to visualize lighting usage and new strategies to manage lighting energy consumption proliferate,” said Jesse Foote, Research Analyst, Navigant Research. “Pure-play startup companies are leading this wave of innovation, but the large, traditional lighting companies have begun offering a range of intelligent lighting control products, as well.”

Helping to drive this transformation are increasingly stringent building codes, which have begun requiring controls for more and more applications. In both the United States and Europe, new regulations will set a high bar for overall lighting energy reduction, according to the report. These reductions will require the adoption of occupancy sensors, photosensors, and other intelligent lighting technologies.

The report, “Intelligent Lighting Controls for Commercial Buildings”, analyzes the global market for lighting controls for commercial buildings, including both new construction and retrofits. Sensors, ballasts, drivers, switches, relays, controllers, and communications technologies are examined, with a specific focus on networked lighting controls. The report details the market drivers for these technologies, as well as barriers to adoption, and includes profiles of select industry players. Market forecasts for unit shipments and revenue for each type of equipment, segmented by region and building type, extend through 2020. Forecasts are also broken out for control equipment in buildings with networked lighting controls, as well as for wireless lighting controls and LED drivers. An Executive Summary of the report is available for free download on the Navigant Research website.

Smart Lighting Controllers and Sensor Annual Market Revenue to Reach US$ 2.7 billion by 2020

Research shows LED Grow lights have healthy impact on vegetables & herbs

UT research shows LED lights have healthy impact on vegetables, herbs. LED lights come in all colors, blue and red are the most important to plant growth. The LED lights also emit less heat.

LED lights are becoming more popular, transforming the streets of Gatlinburg and decorating Christmas trees across the country, but researchers at the University of Tennessee discovered the technology has positive impacts on herbs and vegetables.

LED stands for light emitting diodes, and are known to be cost effective and energy efficient.

research-shows-LED-lights-have-healthy-impact-on-vegetables-herbs

Research shows LED lights have healthy impact on vegetables & herbs

Gatlinburg uses cost effective and energy efficient LED lights(Photo: WBIR)

Back in 2008, Gatlinburg switched to LED lights, with 3 million bulbs illuminating the city for 120 winter days at the cost of what the city used to pay for just three days of electricity.

While they’re eye-catching, Dean Kopsell, a professor with U.T.’s Plant Sciences Department, said LED lighting can also be healthy.

“We found out that they can really dramatically increase plant physiology, increase mineral nutrient levels, and also increase antioxidant levels, which are very important for us in the diet,” said Kopsell.

Kopsell said plants only need a small percentage of sunlight rays, but under LED lighting, researchers can intensify the light plants do need, saving them energy. He said while LED lights come in all colors, blue and red are the most important to plant growth.

Research shows LED lights have healthy impact on vegetables & herbs

Blue and red LED panel(Photo: WBIR)

“We’re looking at the important impacts of red and blue but more importantly we’re adjusting the ratios of red and blue,” said Kopsell. “So on a normal day, we’re taking the percent blue that would normally be in sunlight, and we’re increasing that by three or four fold, and we’re really improving the nutritional and mineral and antioxidant levels in the crops. ”

Kopsell and Dr. Carl Sams studied the impacts on herbs and specialty vegetables, like kale. He said the already healthy crop produced even higher levels of nutrients, like calcium, potassium, iron, and even anti-cancer components.

The LED lights also emit less heat, especially compared to high pressure sodium lamps found in greenhouses, which are usually 1,000 watts each.

“You can see they’ve got a yellow tint, because they have yellow light in them. They’re hot and can wilt the tops of the plants closest to the light,” said Kopsell. “But you don’t have that detrimental heat impact under blue and red LEDs.”

Kopsell said the research could have a future impact on metropolitan areas, giving growers an indoor option.

“Right now, this idea of using urban farming, or vertical farming, going into urban areas and trying to create plant production systems in warehouses and buildings is really important and really starting to pickup in a lot of the major metropolitan cities,” said Kopsell. “But it’s going to be really hard to use high pressure sodium light in those areas just because of the heat buildup. ”

Kopsell said LED lighting could be supplement to greenhouse growing.

“Most of the people I’ve been talking to across the country, they want to be able to grow plants inside,” said Kopsell. “We’re going to be able to grow crops in urban areas or in arid land areas where we wouldn’t be able to grow them outside due to soil conditions or temperature conditions. ”

Kopsell said LED technology is still expensive. The panels U.T. is using cost $700 each, but were engineered for the research.

Research shows LED Grow lights have healthy impact on vegetables & herbs

United States will ban 40w and 60w incandescent bulbs since 2014 and encourages LED lights

U.S. bulb factories will stop producing best-selling 40-watt and 60-watt incandescent bulbs from 2014. People can replace fluorescent lamp to halogen, compact fluorescent light bulb, LED lights and energy efficient incandescent.

US-ban-40w-60w-incandescent-bulbs-encourage-LED-lights

U.S. bulb factories will stop producing best-selling 40-watt and 60-watt incandescent bulbs from 2014. According to this prohibition adopted in 2007, US eliminated incandescent bulbs more than 100 watt since 2012, and discontinued 75 watts and 100 watts incandescent lamps since 2013. This controversial law designed to promote energy-saving compact fluorescent lamps, LED light bulbs and other energy efficiency lighting.

People can replace fluorescent lamp to halogen, compact fluorescent light bulb, LED lights and energy efficient incandescent, experts pointed out that efficient incandescent approximately cost $ 1.5 each, although far more than the traditional incandescent $ 0.5, but it with doubled life, the energy consumption is also reduced by 28%.

This legislation is signed by former President George W. Bush in 2007, this provision is intended to solve the issue of old-fashioned incandescent with low energy efficiency; according to the EPA’s data, only one-tenth of the power consumed is converted into light by this bulb, the rest of the energy is wasted as heat.

However, this ban may make dissatisfaction to the people who are facing daily necessities price hike.

United States will ban 40w and 60w incandescent bulbs since 2014 and encourages LED lights

Philips SlimStyle LED bulb drops the heat sink, looks like it’s from the future

Philips-slimstyle-LED-bulb-3
For a few months now there have been rumors about something interesting coming from Philips’ lighting department. This new product was said to be LED-based, affordable — under $10 — and interesting. We didn’t know just how interesting but Philips had practically go...

Philips-slimstyle-LED-bulb-3

For a few months now there have been rumors about something interesting coming from Philips’ lighting department. This new product was said to be LED-based, affordable — under $10 — and interesting. We didn’t know just how interesting but Philips had practically gone on record stating that the company would have a sub-$10 LED bulb before 2013 was over. Today the curtain was pulled back and the SlimStyle was revealed.

The SlimStyle is a 60W-equivalent LED bulb that produces 800 lumens and operates at 10.5W (76 lumens-per-watt). In many ways it’s a standard consumer LED bulb: it’s rated for 25,000 hours of life, it’s dimmable, it has an omnidirectional light pattern, and it has a CRI (color accuracy) rating of 80. All this means that Energy Star certification isn’t just possible… it’s pending. But after a single glance at the SlimStyle you’ll know that it’s not just another LED bulb. In fact, the term “bulb” isn’t exactly appropriate…

SlimStyle

Philips-slimstyle-LED-bulb-1

When looked at straight on, the SlimStyle appears to be bulb-shaped, but that’s actually only true in 2D. When turned, it’s clear that the lamp is flat on both sides and has a ring running around its outside which serves as a light guide. The design is unlike anything else found in the LED market today but not only because of its unique aesthetics, it’s also missing a part found on every one of its competitors: a metal heatsink.

Basically, LEDs don’t like to get hot — the heat decreases lifetime and brightness (I’ve spent a lot of time explaining that) so a metal heatsink is used to disperse heat, moving it away from the sensitive LEDs. With the SlimStyle Philips was able to move to an all-plastic body and still keep the LEDs cool enough to promise a 25,000 hour lifetime. And, in doing so, the company was able to move to this cool new design. Best of all: not only does the flat design help conduct heat away from the LEDs, says Philips, it also helps cut down on costs.

Unfortunately we don’t know the price yet. Philips has told us that the SlimStyle will be available through HomeDepot.com as of January 2, 2014. So the company’s sub-$10 LED bulb won’t quite make it into 2013. That is, of course, assuming that it is under $10.

The January 2nd release date isn’t just important because it’s soon, it’s also the start of 2014 which means that EISA (the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007) will have officially phased out 60W and 40W incandescent bulbs. At that point 60W-equivalent LED offerings won’t just be the best option available, they’ll be much closer to being the only game in town.

SlimStyle LED

Philips-slimstyle-LED-bulb-2

I’ve been testing the SlimStyle for some time now and I have to say that I’m pretty impressed. The bulb is impressively engineered, extremely light, very compact, and it just plain looks cool. The light quality is fine, well into what I would consider the acceptable range for the home. In fact I’ve been using the SlimStyle in my living room without a shade, just to get a feel for it.

Philips’ early spec sheet didn’t note the color temperature, but it looks to be about 3000K to me, but it’s 2700K, and the lighting pattern is omnidirectional enough to suit my purposes.

As you can probably tell, I haven’t been overly analytical with this lamp just yet — I haven’t even taken it apart. I’ve spent my time simply using it, testing how this strange-looking bulb adapts to normal situations. You probably won’t be shocked to learn that it does its job, just like any quality LED bulb should. I haven’t found that it gets terribly hot or that it’s lost any brightness, so it seems like Philips was truly able to pull off the heat sink-free design.

Before SlimStyle goes on sale on January 2nd we should have more details on pricing and how Philips was able to deliver a LED lamp that offers solid performance, a great design, and — very possibly — a highly competitive price.

Now read: Philips LED carpet turns floors into incredibly helpful dynamic signage

Philips SlimStyle LED bulb drops the heat sink, looks like it’s from the future