The Future . . . interesting.

BillESC

Well-Known Member
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
 
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.
 
Needless to say, we can expect a lot of bright inventions in the near future. :)

I'll take lame puns for 800, Alex. Haha.
 
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
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
Beam technology already exists for LEDs.

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This fixture uses 24 watts of power.
 
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!
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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.
 
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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.

Problems with the HIR series and believe me I would go with it if I had a chance.... as with the 600w and 800w PAR 64 lamps that were a great concept and are no longer availble. The HIR series isn't going anywhere or cost effective. The HIR series unfortunately might go away also.

First problem with going HIR in even if it's more efficient and even brighter is it's an un-standardard lamp. Unless you buy that lamp in starting your inventory, you have to either scrap all other lamps you have to go with it, or phase it in by way of really difficult way of phasing in the more efficient and bright lamps will be.

Believe me, I would love to attempt this but it's not possible.

Also another problem is that these lamps are clear and not frosted in version. You get a much better wash of light with frosted RSC (R-7s) lamps than with clear ones. Had there been a frosted say FHM or FDN version in that wattage I will have been more likely to attempt it.

I seriously looked towards the HIR versions of these lamps, would love to go with them in them being better but in not being frosted and too little too late in not being cost effective to switch to, didn't go with them. I don't even stock them for resale. The manufacturers of the fixtures don't specify them as lamps for their fixtures thus customers don't ask for them. Given I'm not on the sales staff for the fixtures if I can help it, I also can't steer primary buys of lamps going into fixtures towards the new lamps. Given both fixture manufacturer and lamp manufacturer have not done their job in educating the general sales person into energy efficient lamps that would do the job better, sales of such lamps to other than those who know their lamps follows. Lack of sales also than follows lamp sales in price...

On the dichroic coating of FFT/HIR type lamps or even DYS lamps verses doing the coating on say a HPL lamp... believe me the manufacturers have tried and might in the near future have mastered and TBA be coming out with such solutions. Problem for now is lamp globe size and type, this much less filament grid and other problems in handling the heat they have now but not being able to handle the added heat of the IR reflected back into the filament. Add to this, the HPL lamp is a 15 year old design of a lamp ETC still holds the pattent to and is fairly resistant to changes on. Can't even add a internal reflector to this lamp in getting 15 to 20% more output by way of this pattent. This given the more complex filament grid on a HPL over FLK allows a internal reflector to be inserted as another problem. Lamp filaments are complex things, I remember on the HPR lamp a certain difficulty mentioned in doing so on a HX-600 based FLK lamp as opposed to doing so on a GLC verses HPL more complex lamp. This given a few years later it was admitted that it was a wee goof to do the reflector for the HPR on the FLK base lamp over that of the GLC. Lack of sales on the HPR lamp also no doubt means there will even if more efficient, mean no long life HPR, this much less more efficient GLC internal reflector lamp. At some point, you can develop a more efficient lamp and as with the HIR series of lamp, unless people buy them, they are a wasted effort.

None the less, the concept of a dichroic coated lamp is out there, as with the at times in talking to the vendors "liquid filled" dichroic coated reflector lamp seems to scare the beJesus out of manufacturer vendor reps.... Consider that -80 atmosphere at room temperature once filled with a liquid that's say some argon/iodine/xenon/bromine supplemented but in liquid form. Than add a internal reflector that in many ways compensates for the hole cut in the reflector, and do a dichroic coating to the lamp's globe that sends the IR back to the filament so as to heat the lamp's filament instead of being wasted as heat. Just imagine the size and wattage of such a lamp, this much less a lamp with that small a filament which could strobe easily due to size. This and a filament that if liquid cooled would tend to while it might take a bit longer to get to color temperature, once it's there react to dimming in fighting amber shift longer.... this all in say a total package of say a 300w lamp equaling a 575w HPL/FLK series lamp equaling a 1,000w halogen lamp equaling say a 1.5K incandescent lamp in really broad terms.

All beyond the LED HPL lamp. Constant meetings with say Osram and Phillips reps with them attempting to show how blindingly bright their LEDs are would at leat by them infer that at some point, a LED lamp will be efficient enough as a single source of light, efficient enough to run a S-4 fixture. Not there yet but just five years ago LED lighting was half the intensity as what's out today. Your S-4 fixtures some day might just have a LED upgrade kit and I'm fairly certain that manufacturers are working on just that. More a question with them on when ETC will loose the pattent to the lamp for their fixtures in further development than when the filament used in their fixtures becomes generally available in design to other fixtures not paying to use their lamp.

Worlds of output and concept out there at the moment in lamps for the future.

Heck, out of my fixture modification area, I just turned four perfectly good Mole Richadson 5Kw Fresnels into tripple baby Pixel Pup LED mounting fixtures. (Photo below.) Each Fresnel had it's gizzards ripped out so as to mount the PAR 36 sized LED's into them which would light the Fresnel lens internally with a color instead of using a scroller and the rated wattage or a sub wattage as I have also done in the past. Such 5K fixtures are now props for some tour as similar to other tours I have done so with in say a 10K Mole light mounting a tripple PAR 56 LED. LED's are the wave of the future in a race to see what becomes more cost effecitive and efficient. A past tour did all LED lighting, another tour did all LED upgrade kits to their arc source moving lights. Nothing yet this year in a symbeosis of all by way of what is the wave of the future but a whole lot of both on the other hand. Incandescent, arc and LED amongst other types of light. It's a painting pallet and huge efficiency thing. Back five years ago, even moving lights were only 80% efficient in CRI, now they are in the 90 to 95% range amongst other better output and lamp life efficiencies.

None the less as prop lights, you will note that at an angle to the fixture there is at least two different sources to the lamp. There is three sources in fact but two are seen in hot spot. This is in three LED fixtures that are in spot position and pointed towards the center of the lens. Best I could do in simulating a point source of light and still it's not a point source of light. Three individual PAR 36 sized LED's don't make one filament lamp inside a fixture. This nor does three Pixel Pups equal the output of a 5Kw DPY lamp.

Stuff's coming on the market for lamps. The CDM type G-12 based lamps for both architectural and show arc source lamps in the 30 to 150w range and in lots of color temperatures are but one type of lamp that's getting towards ideal. Lots of other stuff out there.
 

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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.

Seems to me I remember working at some point in a quote for Chicago's John Hancock building with a similar energy savings option if not LED option. Been a few years, don't remember.

Have no fears, in spite of me not for the most part not doing LED's by job classification in buying/stockign lamps, the Leko and other fixtures are going to take at least as long as it will take me to some day retire to finally drain out of types in filament lamp that need upgrade to point source other type.

Count the amount of even today's most efficient LED lamps it takes to make say in a PAR 56 sized Colemar LED PAR can that puts out about as much wattage as a 300w PAR 56 wash light. We are not talking about a 500w PAR 56 lamp, nor especially a spot or narrow spot, we are talking about wash. LED's have a way to go in intensity - and they are getting there, but after that still have a world to go in point source of light concept by way of reflector assembly.

Probably like six years ago some company came into the shop in giving a demo to their new wash light fixture. I saw it and was thinking that while this thing might work on a small stage to say replace a 300w lamp and possibly stretching it to a 500w lamp, as a cyc light it was not nearly bright enough to do a 1Kw lamp.

More modern LED lights are getting close but still have to have a bunch of LED lamps to get the same intensity of a single filament. The single filament once reflected about doubles the light output. This much less allows for the concept of pattern projection. Can't do a pattern if you have somewhere over like 27 individual sources of light 1/4" apart.

Until such a time that the filament of say a LED Leko has say a 9.5x11 mm area in light source, and the filament of a halogen lamp might by that time get smaller, you won't get a good pattern projector, much less efficient reflecion source of light out of a LED source.

It's coming no doubt once the LED becomes a sort of LED arc source HMI lamp combination in also being liquid or sold material filled... But not here yet in getting there.

A few years ago I was a part to the forget if it was Mac 300 or Mac 250 swap to LED fixture that happened for the tour. Huge amounts of Mac fixtures swapped out to LED concept. Worked huge in being great for the tour. Worked really well and turned out to be cost effective. This only for a 250w lamp however. Most tours have 1,200w lamps on them however. The LED upgrade for a 250w lamp in keeping optics small enough can't do a 1,200w lamp, this much less in doing a 4.5Kw Big Light lamp.

Every year the LED lamp becomes brighter and more efficient. Worlds of improvements and concepts in how to do such things up and coming. There yet or in the near future... I don't think ETC will be doing a LED S-4 in the coming years that will have the intensity of a 750w lamp at least. By the time such a thing is ready, the S-4 will be as valuable to high profile productions as the 360Q

my opinion of course.
 
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Sorry to kill off a lively conversation, below is the interior of a perfectly good 5Kw Fresnel that got changed to LED. For a Fresnel, the light output was wasted. Such a thing was more prop than fixture. Given this happens frequently, I'm not sure about how I feel abut this.
 

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