The Future . . . interesting.

[BillESC]

Color Kinetics Projects 75% of Commercial Lighting to be LED-based by 2030

As people around the U.S. prepare to recognize Earth Day on April 22, Color Kinetics Incorporated has emphasized the role that new lighting technology will play in mitigating energy strain, projecting that at least 75% of commercial lighting in the U.S. will be produced by energy-efficient LED sources by 2030.

LEDs already deliver four times the efficiency of traditional incandescent and halogen light sources, while rapidly gaining ground on fluorescent and offering numerous benefits above and beyond all three, the company says.

The role of lighting as a chief energy drain and contributor to global warming has garnered international attention in recent weeks, including news of industry initiatives, incentives and even proposed legislation to ban inefficient incandescent sources. The Earth Day Network, official organizers of the annual event, proclaimed 2007 "the beginning of the end of the inefficient incandescent."

Though public attention has centered on the impact of replacing incandescent sources with compact fluorescent (CFL) in residential lighting, with the new prediction Color Kinetics is emphasizing the need to tackle inefficiencies in commercial lighting - which is accountable for much higher energy consumption overall than lighting in homes.

"With millions of lights burning nearly 24x7 in office buildings, hospitals, shopping malls, hotels and public places, it's no wonder that commercial buildings account for 51% of total energy consumption for lighting in the U.S. vs. 27% for residential," said Bill Sims, president and CEO, Color Kinetics. "This presents us with an enormous opportunity to leverage smart technologies, like LED lighting, to put a real dent in energy inefficiencies and in turn reduce the amount of emissions being pumped into our atmosphere."

Color Kinetics sees LED technology as the future of energy-efficient lighting, first for commercial spaces and eventually for residential applications as well. Performance trends suggest that LEDs have the ability to ultimately leapfrog other efficient light sources, such as fluorescent, given their longer source life, durability, non-toxic materials, lack of radiated heat and UV, higher quality of light output and flexibility to accommodate wide-ranging fixtures and form factors. Moreover, as inherently digital devices, LEDs produce light that can be intelligently controlled to dynamically customize environments, from restaurants and casinos to retail shops, homes and even automobiles.

Color Kinetics' intelligent LED lighting technology is already at work in over 15,000 installations worldwide, spanning every state in America and six of seven continents. The company's lighting systems have successfully displaced conventional sources in a number of applications where LEDs already win in terms of cost efficiency and visual impact. For example:

• LAX Gateway at Los Angeles International Airport replaced metal halide with an LED system, anticipating 75% less energy consumption.
• Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas replaced metal halide with an LED system, cutting annual energy costs from $18,000 to $1,900.
• The British Airways London Eye replaced fluorescent with an LED system, eliminating former maintenance costs and requirements while gaining the ability to produce color light and programmable effects.
• Bostonian shoe stores in the U.S. replaced fluorescent with an LED system, mitigating the need for frequent and costly lamp replacement, while also gaining the ability to easily adjust from "warm" to "cool" white light in its display shelves.
• Boathouse Row in Philadelphia replaced incandescent with an LED system, saving approximately $57,000 in annual operating costs due to reduced maintenance and energy consumption.

"The notion that LEDs are still relegated to flash lights, tail lights and electronic gadgets is a misconception. We can point to major landmarks, towers, bridges - even the world's largest spherical building - that are illuminated by our LED systems today," said Sims. "Color Kinetics was established for the very purpose of supplanting less-efficient light sources with a new form of intelligent lighting based on LEDs. We're not simply responding to a timely trend. We've spent ten years solely focused on making LED sources viable as the right long-term solution."

Color Kinetics participates in several government and industry initiatives related to energy conservation. As a member of the Next Generation Lighting Industry Alliance, the company is helping to develop a technology roadmap for the U.S. Department of Energy (DoE), as well as Energy Star criteria for LED lighting. In 2006 the company was awarded a $1.7 million grant by the DoE to develop LED-based replacement lamps for 60W incandescent light sources that, with a four-fold increase in efficacy to 80-lumens per watt, would meet or exceed the efficacy of nearly all conventional light sources.

Reflecting the company's leadership role, Color Kinetics' VP of innovation, Kevin Dowling, will make his sixth appearance as a featured presenter at the DoE's Solid-State Lighting Workshop in California on April 23. At this meeting of technical, legislative and academic minds, energy efficiency and speeding the pervasive use of LEDs for illumination will be a major topic of discussion.

"We applaud any initiative, whether public or private sector, that brings attention to the need for energy-efficient lighting. Though adoption may be aided by government regulations, business consortiums, financial incentives, grass roots movements or other influencers, we believe that LEDs will ultimately win in the market based on their merits as a superior technology, as has been the case with so many disruptive technological innovations in the past," Sims concluded.

www.colorkinetics.com

[gafftaper]

I saw that article and found it really interesting... But what fascinated me was the contrast between that and the article below from the February PLSN. It sounds to me like there is going to be quite a battle ahead over the next 20 years.

Proposed Bulb Ban Causes Chain Reaction
Written by Richard Cadena
February 26, 2007
LAS VEGAS — In a flurry of activity apparently triggered by an attempt to legislate incandescent bulbs out of California, several other states and at least two other countries have followed suit. And now one lighting manufacturer has unveiled plans to produce a more efficient incandescent lamp, which could alter the planned legislation. On January 30th of this year, California Assemblyman Lloyd Levine introduced the “How Many Legislators Does it Take to Change a Light Bulb Act” that would ban the sale of incandescent bulbs in California by the year 2012. Levine stated that incandescent bulbs are “incredibly inefficient, converting only about five percent of the energy they receive into light. Energy-efficient bulbs are easy to use, require less energy to do the same job, cut greenhouse gas emissions, and save consumers money.” The act was formally introduced to the California State Legislature on February 22.

Meanwhile, the Consumer and Industrial Lighting division of General Electric announced that they are working on advancements in incandescent technology that could increase their energy efficiency of that of a compact fluorescent lamp (CFL). The new lamps are dubbed “high efficiency incandescent” (HEI™) lamps, and they derive their energy efficiency from new materials being developed by GE’s Lighting division, headquartered in Cleveland, OH, and GE’s Global Research Center, headquartered in Niskayuna, NY. The target for these bulbs at initial production is to be nearly twice as efficient, at 30 lumens-per-watt, as current incandescent bulbs. Ultimately the high efficiency lamp (HEI) technology is expected to be about four times as efficient as current incandescent bulbs and comparable to CFL bulbs. According to a press release from GE, the announcement was made “in conjunction with its decision to support legislation in the EU, the US, and in other areas that would accelerate the introduction of all types of high efficiency lighting products as part of the global effort to promote energy security and reduce emission of greenhouse gases.”

In related news, a new patent application for an incandescent lamp “incorporating extended high-reflectivity IR coating” was made public recently. U.S. Patent Application 20060226777, filed on October 12, 2006 by David Cunningham, describes an incandescent lamp that has a luminous efficacy of as high as 80 lumens per watt, which is similar to that of a CFL. The concept behind the lamp is essentially to deposit highly reflective coatings on the glass envelope that reflect almost all of the infrared (heat) that is generated by the filament back to the source and allowing only the visible light to exit the envelope. The reflected heat effectively reduces the amount of electrical energy required to produce the same amount of visible light. Cunningham is the inventor of the optical system in the Source Four, one of the most popular and successful theatrical lighting products to date.

Other attempts to improve the efficiency of the incandescent lamp have been ongoing by the Department of Energy at Sandia National Laboratories. The photonic lattice is a tungsten filament fabricated with an internal crystal lattice designed to “tune” the electrical energy of the lamp and turn it into visible light. The lattices are produced by a process called microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), which is similar to that employed by Texas Instruments to produce the digital mirror devices (DMDs) used in DLP projection. The technology is expected to raise the efficiency of incandescent lamps from five percent to about sixty percent.

After Levine announced his proposal, Australia’s Minister for the Environment and Water Resources Malcolm Turnbull MP announced that the Australian Government plans to phase out “inefficient” light bulbs over the next three years. There is also a similar proposal under consideration in the Ontario province of Canada, New Jersey, and Connecticut.

[BillESC]

Needless to say, we can expect a lot of bright inventions in the near future.

[Foxinabox10]

Originally Posted by BillESC

Needless to say, we can expect a lot of bright inventions in the near future.

I'll take lame puns for 800, Alex. Haha.

[soundop]

and the noble prize for the lamest pun of the year goes to.... envolope please......will be right back after this comercial break with the winner.... mountin dew, what really keeps a crew together......And the winner is drum roll.... .BILLESC come on down.


this is what ido when im bored

[gafftaper]

It really will be interesting to see which technology "wins". Clearly LED's have HUGE potential in theater but I wonder how well the average civilian user will like the color temperatures in their home. I suppose they could turn down the LED color temperature to what we are used to at home.

On the other hand, if the incandescent technology is as close as the manufacturers are suggesting the contest may be over before it starts. If it's just a matter of some changes to the existing technology and we can buy a super efficient bulb to screw in our existing fixtures at home, we have a winner.

AND I liked the pun Bill.

[fosstech]

I know GE has something similar going with their HIR series of halogen lamps. Take for instance the FFT and FCM, both 1kW halogen T3 lamps very commonly used in cyclights. They both put out around 27,000 lumens. GE makes the FFT/HIR and FCM/HIR, which have an infrared coating on the inside of the quartz envelope that reflects much of the infrared energy back onto the filament. They both are 660w, and put out the same amount of light and have a slightly higher color temperature as their 1kW normal quartz cousins. This saves on energy, dimmers (you can use 3 on a 20A dimmer as opposed to 2 with the 1kW lamps), and gel as there is less infrared energy burning them up. The downside is they cost a considerable amount more, more than double the cost in the case of the FFT.

It would really be something if this technology could be employed in the HPL...the S4 would have even more output with an even cooler beam.

It also beats me why they didn't take the slight output hit and make them 600w so one could fit four on a dimmer.

If this technology becomes the standard in the future, lighting systems would cost less because the need for 20A dimmers and the associated 12ga wiring would be reduced or eliminated. If the amount of light out of a hypothetical 375w infrared coated HPL was the same as a normal 575w HPL, four units could be used on a 15A dimmer with 14ga wiring, presenting a considerable installation cost savings.

[SteveB]

I'm guessing that incandescent lamps of all types will be non-existent in the industry in 20 years or so.

I think that even with current rendition issues with LED's, they still have a lot of potential and I'm betting some biggie like ETC or Genlyte will be developing ellipsoidal units using LED's. It may well not look like an S4, maybe something like a Selecon with the 90 degree lamp base, perhaps as a flat panel of high efficiency, multi color LEDs, with a condenser lens to get the beam where it needs to be, or something in that direction.

In any case, the lack of oil will be driving the electrical industry to be more efficient and lighting is one of the biggest users.

FWIW, there was also an article in the NY Times this past week (which I cannot retrieve) about Phillips Lighting and Color Kinetics competing to re-light the Empire State Building in NYC with LED fixtures. Instead of taking 6 electricians, 6 hrs. with ea. and every filter set changeout, it'll be a push of a button as well as a huge savings in electrical power costs.

Steve B.

[BillESC]

Beam technology already exists for LEDs.



This fixture uses 24 watts of power.

[soundlight]

Well, I personally like the Vue III over the Vue II. And the Vue I is just too small. The beam angle is also a bit narrow on the Vue I. Yup, I'm keeping up on Chauvet's new schtuff!

That's the Vue III. What BillESC posted is the Vue II. They're both cool new DJ toys. The Vue I is a not as cool DJ toy.