Optronic Laboratories : Light Measurement Experts

July 28, 2010…The U.S. Federal Trade Commission’s new rules on lighting labels have been finalized. (Ref: Coverage). The goal of the new rules is to make the comparison of different lighting technologies easier for consumers. The labels include the number of lumens output of the light source, the estimated lifetime of the light source in hours, the estimated cost per year based upon a certain number of hours use per day with a specified electric rate. CFL bulbs must have a information stating that the bulb contains small amounts of mercury.

The Commission is seeking additional comments on wether it should establish standards for watt equivalence claims. The FTC received a recommendation that the labels be applied to all screw-based bulbs. However, the commission decided that this would need further consideration.

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SSLDesign News Staff

July 23, 2010…The Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 will change what the United States uses for general lighting. The law, put into effect by then President Bush, plans a phase out of incandescent bulbs. Such a phase out can only be effective if the public knows about it. For this reason, the U.S. Department of Energy has announced plans for a new consumer education initiative that will be timed to the upcoming changes in light bulb regulation. According to the DOE, the initiative will provide greater awareness of the overall benefits of the legislative changes and new, “greener” technologies, such as LEDs and CFLs.

At an SSL Market Workshop that the DOE put on in Philadephia, representatives from GE, Philips, Cree, and Osram Sylvania, as well as major retailers including The Home Depot, Costco Wholesale and Grainger were on hand. The DOE notes that these partners are already set to work on the DOE’s consumer education initiative. Additionally the DOE expects other partners to join in the effort.

Courtesy LighTimes

July 9, 2010…Bringing together property/facility decision makers, designers, luminaire manufacturers and enabling technology providers, the 2010-2011 SSL Summit series, hosted by Solid State Lighting Design, has taken a strong stance in its approach to help boost a “quality only” message inside the LED lighting industry. The East coast edition is slated for September 14-15 in New York City, with the West coast follow-on happening January 19-20, 2011 in the Los Angeles area. For 2010-2011, the SSL Summit is sticking firm to a commitment to require participating companies that would receive product-level visibility, to meet some basic quality vetting criteria. According to conference co-chair, Chris Brown, CEO of the national lighting solutions provider Wiedenbach Brown, “Whether a company is considering involvement as a speaker, sponsor or Summit showcase participant, we’re looking for them to meet some very basic criteria for their participation. While the Summit is not requiring the highest efficacy or perfect product, it’s clear that the players are substantially narrowed when you put basic hurdles in place, such as being able to show that independent LM-79 test data matches what they put out on their data sheet, that they are appropriately representing certifications, and that they bring a decent reputation with them.“

The SSL Summit puts forward a solid agenda designed to engage to the participants in the key issues and successful approaches visible in the LED lighting industry today. Avraham Mor, IALD, LEED AP, MIES and Partner with Lightswitch Architectural added, “Beyond the strong networking I’ve seen from my previous SSL Summit experience, one of the reasons I was willing to participate as a co-chair for this year’s Summit is the ‘quality required’ message that it carries. When considering what LED lighting has to offer, lighting decision makers quickly run head-on into a bewildering array of offerings. The Summit doesn’t claim that a participating company’s product is perfect, but it does stand behind the vetting to assure that engaging with that manufacturer to understand their offering is worth the decision maker’s time.” The Summit is receiving industry backing from a host of recognized companies, with the list so far including diamond sponsors Lithonia Lighting and LEDnovation. Platinum sponsors include GrafTech, Toshiba, Greenlight Initiative and Wiedenbach Brown, and are joined by CRS Electronics and NYECC at supporting levels. Highlighted speakers for New York include Margaret Newman, Chief of Staff of the NY City Department of Transportation, and David Bomke, Executive Director of the NY Energy Consumers Council. Visit www.SSLsummit.com from series information, or here to see the current New York SSL Summit line-up.

Courtesy LighTimes

June 29, 2010…The Department of Energy (DOE), National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL), on behalf of the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energys (EEREs) Building Technologies (BT) Program, is seeking applications for the second round of applied research in the Solid-State Lighting (SSL) US Manufacturing Program. The DOE’s objective for the manufacturing program is to achieve cost reduction of solid-state lighting for general illumination through improvements in manufacturing equipment, processes, or techniques.

The DOE says it expects that success of the program will lead to a more rapid adoption/installation of high-quality SSL products resulting in a significant reduction of energy use and a corresponding reduction of environmental pollutants. A secondary objective of the project is to maintain and further establish the manufacturing and technology base within the U.S. solid state lighting such as LEDs and OLEDs. Information about round 2 of the DOE SSL Manufacturing program is available at: Fedconnect.net under search for funding opportunites. (Reference Number DE-FOA-0000334).

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SSLDesign News Staff

USA - According to a report from NanoMarkets (www.nanomarkets.net) revenues from touch-screen displays are expected to grow from $2.2 billion ($US) in 2010 to $3.4 billion in 2014.  The growing demand for touch-screen technologies in mobile and personal computing will create new opportunities for suppliers of conductive coatings, substrates and sensors in addition to the display firms themselves.

By 2014, NanoMarkets projects that revenues from in-pixel technologies are expected to reach almost $500 million in revenues.  NanoMarkets’ new report also identifies an interesting and possibly disruptive trend is taking hold in the touch display market.

Mainstream display makers have begun to develop their own “in-pixel” technologies as an alternative to the current industry practice in which third-party suppliers add a touch sensor subsystem on top of an LCD display and then sell to OEMs.  The net effect is that mid-size touch screen manufacturers instead of supplying companies such as LG, Samsung and Sony may wind up competing against them.

NanoMarkets’ report says that the fastest growing touch screen technologies will be traditional infrared and optical technology, both of which are based on infrared sensors and LEDs.  These technologies are used in digital signage and computer monitors, which are rapidly expanding addressable markets for touch technology.  By 2014 the market for traditional IR and optical touch technologies will be approximately $490 million in revenues.

NanoMarkets expects that transparent conductor materials sold into the touch-screen display market will reach revenues of $280 million by 2014.  However, by then only 64 percent of these revenues will be accounted for by expensive ITO-based materials as opposed to 92 percent today.

Courtesy DisplayBank Plus

June 25, 2010…The U.S. Department of Energy has issued results of its GATEWAY demonstration of LED-based Parking Lot Lighting at T.J. Maxx in Manchester, New Hampshire The project involved replacing a total of 28 [22- 400W (nominal) high-pressure sodium and 6- 400W metal halide] luminaires manufactured by Spaulding with 25 LED luminaires manufactured by BetaLED. The T.J. Maxx is the main tenant in the parking lot of the demonstration. In the GATEWAY demonstration each LED luminaire had an array of 120 LEDs. The luminaire was controlled by an integral occupancy sensor that connects to a driver varies its operation between “high” and “low” light output settings.

According to the study conducted by the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, the BetaLED product achieved an estimated payback in this installation of about 3 years because of high electricity ($0.14/kWh) and maintenance costs incurred by the conventional products at this location. Using the lower national average electric rate of $0.104/kWh and more typical maintenance rates results in a payback slightly more than 5 years. The report says that much of the 58 percent energy savings supporting these payback calculations is attributable to the 47% reduction in average light levels for the “high” output setting

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SSLDesign News Staff

June 22, 2010…The Federal Trade Commission announced that starting in mid-2011 consumers shopping for light bulbs will notice new labeling on packaging. The new labeling will be designed to help customers choose among the different types of bulbs on the market including: traditional incandescent bulbs, and newer high-efficiency compact fluorescent (CFL), and light-emitting diode (LED) bulbs.

The FTC says that the new front-of-package labels will emphasize lumens to be the measure of brightness, not watts. This will obviously be new to some consumers. To help consumers understand the savings potential an estimated cost of electricity per year of use will also be included in the label. A diagram with number line with the color temperature is designed to help consumers comprehend correlated color temperature. The higher the color temperature in degrees Kelvin, the cooler the light appearance. The label will also include the life expectancy in years of life based on three hours of use per night.

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SSLDesign News Staff

June 15, 2010…The National Institute of Standards and Technology has issued a paper outlining the methodology for a proposed standard to replace the commonly used Color Rendering Index (CRI). Critics of the CRI measurement are quick to point out its limitations and the history of the measurement as a way to compare fluorescent lighting.

The NIST notes that CRI is a 40-year-old measurement that has issues when used to evaluate white LED lighting. The NIST’s technical committee TC 1-62 concluded that the CRI score does not correlate well with the visual evaluation in many cases. Some of these cases include instances of color saturation and color shift that can change the color discrimination ability and visual clarity of a given light. In such cases a high CRI may not actually mean good light quality.

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LIGHTimes News Staff