Life Alternate » LED Lighting

Ikea to stop selling Incandescent Bulbs

Wispa — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 10:58:20 +0000

Incandescent Light bulbs are becoming so last century. With many countries already introducing bans on their sale retail stores are leading the change.

The Giant Retail chain Ikea has started to phase out the sale of incandescent light bulbs in the USA. One cause of this is the Energy Independence Act of 2007 which will stop the sale of incandescent light bulbs which comes in to effect in 2012.

Already many consumers have become aware of the newer Compact Fluorescent Lights and ideally the long lasting Light Emitting Diode and have switched to the energy saving technologies. Many of those consumers are not even aware that the Act is in place and the ban will exist.

For those still living in the dark ages, 2012 will see you forced to change and forced to save money!

These new bulbs, CFL and LED, consume 20 percent of the energy needed to power an incandescent. This therefore means you will save 80 cents in every dollar you currently pay for lighting.

Ikea are one of the giants anticipating the change and no only sell energy saving light bulbs. Along with new innovated lighting designs that were not possible with old style lighting.

Incandescent are very wasteful, while producing the same amount of light as LED’s, they used more energy and this is normally turned to heat. This actually inhibits their use unlike the LED which practically produced no heat. The end result is much more innovation in lighting design and I am sure Ikea will be at the forefront.

Light Emitting Diodes in Demand

Wispa — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 07:38:31 +0000

Light Emitting diodes are becoming a victim of their own popularity. The demand for the LEDs have exploded and demand is reaching the current manufacturing capacity.

LED have until recently been used in an indicator capacity. The elder people among us may remember those red led digits used in the early generation calculators or space age watches. With the introduction of different colors their use had become wide spread as indicators in such things Hi-Fi equipment and as Power indicators. The LEDs low energy use made them ideal in this capacity. The drive was on for LEDs that can produce more ranges of light and particularly white light.

Overcoming this hurdle has opened the market for LED Televisions and as LED Lighting as replacements for illumination in the home. Last year (2009) the demand was for 63 billion units and with a manufacturing capacity of just 75 billion the world supply is going to be like gold.

It is clear to see why the demand is skyrocketing. The advantages of using LEDs for lighting are too good not to take advantage off. The most obvious is the power consumption when compared to incandescent lighting. Replacing an old bulb with a Light Emitting Diode bulb could reduce the the energy used by a factor of 4. Instead of needing 60 watts of energy you are now just using around 15 watts. Remember you pay for every watt used so that can be quite a saving on your energy bill.

The advantages just don’t stop with reduced energy consumption. The wasted energy in the form of heat produced by incandescent lighting is massively reduced and this opens up areas of design and use that were not available before. Lights can be dimmed or used on lower power settings without causing a change in the color of light emitted.

LED Lights do not flash like other lights. For most people this is not a problem but for many this may cause unwanted medical side effects most notably being headaches.

Just for the energy savings you can see why the demand is there and unless the manufacturing supply increases the LED for lighting might be a rare device. There is no doubt manufacturing will increase so there is no need to run out and stock up on spares. (Given the LEDs advantage of long life is might be a while before you need to change a bulb)

Next year the consumption will no doubt be much higher than 63 billion and this only enforces the advantages that this new form of lighting can bring to consumers.

Osram Sylvania Joins LED Lighting

Wispa — Tue, 18 May 2010 05:54:14 +0000

Another big name has joined in the race for the LED Lighting market. Osram is scheduled to release a 60 watt equivalent LED Bulb later this year.

There is an increasing choice on the market for the consumer for replacement LED Lighting as more brand names switch over development and production to the efficient LED. These fantastic little devices use just 20% of the energy as the incandescent light bulb. In other words you can run five LED Lamps and still use the same amount of electrical energy as one 60 watt incandescent.

The Life Span is massively increased also,. From having to replace a bulb every 2,000 hours on average you’ll have to wait 25,000 hours now. Instead of lasting just under a year, these LED`s could have you waiting 11 years till it fails on average use . And we all know bulbs usually blow when we need them most.

These are expensive outlays compared to the cheaper traditional bulbs and a hefty US$50 to US$100 might dissuade a lot of potential buyers. But like all new developments the initial price dramatically drops with competition and streamlining of production. With Osram joining the race should make the price drop to affordable levels for all.

Lighting units, especially in the home, had to be designed with a user serviceability factor, that is changing the bulb. This does put a constraint on the styles we use but that is not the case any longer. LED Light bulbs currently are designed to fit in as replacements in our current lamps and lights meaning they do come in a certain bulb like style that is familiar. As these can last over 10 years the consumer does not really need to replace the bulb. This will be a boom for designers and for us. The range of cheap lighting devices will vastly increase. How about flat plates that hang on your wall and light your room. Lamps no longer need to dissipate the wasted heat which opens up more doors.

Energy saving is the pushing factor here for LED Lights and the doors of design are just beginning to open.

Led Lighting Innovation not just a Light Bulb

Wispa — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 07:51:50 +0000

The year 2010 could just be the year the Light Emitting Diode (LED) Light bulb comes of age.

LED Lighting has been slowly progressing through our town and homes slowly replacing the inefficient incandescent light bulbs that were invented so long ago by a Mr Joseph Swan. Not the name you thought, well history does not always tell the correct story.

Technology and Environmental ideals are pushing the old bulbs out and replacing them with the LED. Your home is full of lighting that can be replaced with more energy efficient bulbs that will save you large amounts on your lighting costs. But that is just the start. Simply replacing a bulb for a bulb is not enough for innovators and designers they want to make your life better.

A hint of what might be can be seen from Yanko Design Segmented LED Light Bulb Concept. Just being energy efficient is not enough here. Instead of lighting up all the room, the design allows just parts, or segments to be illuminated. As well as being able to add ambient lighting effects to your room this would massively lengthen the life of the bulb. LED lights already have a much longer lifespan. Less wasted lighting also means less energy cost. If you thought you were saving a bundle then you could save even more.

Low energy lighting lends itself to lots of uses that will soon be commonplace in this decade. You could imagine Yanko Design taking this a step further. Maybe a pair of house slippers tracking your movement around the home. If its 3am in the morning and your slippers feel your feel slide into them then its a good chance that you might be going to the bathroom. Maybe the lights should be turned on automatically for you. Or it’s just approaching 9pm and you are tracked from the kitchen to the sofa in the living area. How about some nice cosy TV lighting without even thinking about it.

Some day these ideas might come to fruition but in the meantime go and save yourself a bundle and convert your lighting to LED.

Images: YankoDesign

Siemens Christmas Star Shines over Munich

Wispa — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 07:24:21 +0000

If your driving up the A9 Autobahn you might see a bright piece of artwork lighting up the sky this December.

Siemens have adorned a giant wind turbine in highly efficient LED’s that creates a spectacular display for the holiday season. Each blade of the wind turbine has 1000 Light Emitting Diodes glued on with space glue. That is 3000 of those lights in total and the system will use as much energy as a hair dryer.

The Christmas star has a width of 70 meters and can be seen from distances of up to 30 kilometres around Munich. If you want to catch sight of the display it will be shining in the evenings from 4.40 pm until midnight and for those early risers between 5 and 8 am. This only lasts until the 6 of January 2010 when the artwork is scheduled to end.

The YouTube video from Siemens contains a lot of corporate happy talk but explains the ideas behind the display. The one below shows the LED’s in action.