Posts Tagged LED
Instrument Systems buys the Light Measurement Division of X-Rite
Instrument System forms Berlin based Optronik subsidiary to integrate X-Rite’s Optronik-branded light measurement product portfolio.
Instrument Systems extended its broad portfolio of LED and light measurement technologies adding the Optronik product line from X-Rite in a recent acquisition. Instrument systems integrated the X-Rite portfolio into a newly formed subsidiary called Optronik Berlin GmbH thereby continuing the brand used previously on the X-Rite product line.
The Optronik product line targets the automotive and transportation engineering sector. The Berlin unit will continue to serve testing and certification institutes, suppliers of automotive light products, and many automobile manufacturers.
“This acquisition enables Instrument Systems to better satisfy future market demands for LEDs in general lighting applications and extend its lead in light measurement technology,” notes company president Richard Distl. “What’s more, all legacy customers of Optronik are sure to benefit from our expertise in spectroradiometry.”
Optronik’s main products include large goniophotometer systems, retroreflectometers, and photometers. Those products will add to the Instrument Systems portfolio that includes LED testers, light sources, and test software; as well as spectrometers, goniophotometers, and photometers.
E.ON installing LED street lights and traffic signals in Blackpool
A coastal resort town in the UK famous for its decorative illuminations is benefiting from a multiyear project to replace street lights and traffic signals with LED fixtures. Work has already begun on a 25-year project which will upgrade, operate and manage 20,000 street lights and 2,000 traffic signals on nearly 430 km of highway in Blackpool, a seaside resort town in the north of England. The project will track energy savings and carbon emissions at every stage of the rollout.
E.ON Sustainable Energy, part of energy company E.ON, will install and maintain LED street lights and LED traffic signals on behalf of the Community Lighting Partnership, a consortium between consulting engineers Pell Frischmann; and property partnership company Telereal Trillium.
The Community Lighting Partnership recently secured a 25-year Private Finance Initiative (PFI) encompassing both street lighting and traffic signals for Blackpool, the first place in the world to install electric street lighting in 1879.
The LED street lights and traffic signals could save Blackpool Council tax payers up to 25% of their street lighting bill, according to E.ON’s estimates, as well as removing over 1400 tonnes of carbon emissions per year. (These figures are based on a 50-watt LED light with a burn time of 4180 hours per year for each light type versus a more traditional 70-W SON light running at 85W for the same timescale.)
The project will use the Marlin LED street lights recently unveiled by E.ON Sustainable Energy and Advanced LEDs Ltd, a UK-based LED lighting manufacturer.
Benefits of LED lighting
As well as saving money through reduced maintenance and energy usage, Blackpool Council were particularly interested in the potential benefits of LED-based lighting in improving road safety, helping tourism and even reducing crime.
“LED lighting is expected to reduce the number road accidents, and improve the quality of CCTV pictures,” said Richard Scott, Head of Consultancy for E.ON Sustainable Energy. The company has performed extensive testing of the LED street lights at its own facilities.
Scott says that the rollout began in January, despite some unexpected bad weather, and is expected to take 5 years before all the street lights and traffic signals are replaced.
For the Blackpool project, everything from the energy use of the luminaire to the design of the carbon-neutral aluminum street-light columns have been scrutinized for ways to conserve resources and reduce energy consumption.
The system will also utilize remote monitoring technology and a dynamic management system which Scott refers to as “dimming and trimming.” This could for example allow lights to be dimmed, and will also indicate when lights are not functioning, removing the need for maintenance engineers to visit each light to check its performance.
According to figures from E.ON, street lighting uses an estimated 2% of the UK’s electricity, meaning that if all the street lights in the UK were replaced with LED alternatives, over 6 million tonnes of carbon could be saved over a 30 year period.
From LEDmagazine.com
LED modules for accent lighting surpass the performance of halogen lamps
| Modules built using separated phosphor technology demonstrate that the benefits of LEDs can be harnessed in the realm of accent lighting with no compromises in light quality, even taking halogen as a benchmark, as ROGER SEXTON describes. | |
| In the 1970s, the advent of dichroic halogen lamps allowed high-quality accent lighting in retail, hospitality, museums and other applications. From the 1990s until now, compact metal halide lamps have also been used in these applications offering more “punch” (for example, highlighting of merchandise even against the higher background illumination levels of department stores) alongside improvements in longevity and energy consumption.
At the beginning of this decade, highbrightness LEDs showed the promise that more improvements still could be made in terms of longevity. However, until now, light output and efficacy, luminaire size and light quality compromises have been barriers to adoption. ++++++ This article was published in the Jan/Feb 2010 issue of LEDs Magazine. To read the full version of this article, please visit our magazine page, where you can download FREE electronic PDF versions of all issues of LEDs Magazine. You can also request a print copy of LEDs Magazine (available by paid subscription) and sign up for our free weekly email newsletter. |
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| About the Author | |
| ROGER SEXTON is VP of Marketing and R&D at Xicato (www.xicato.com). |
LED TV backlights to drive escalation in LED production (MAGAZINE)
| Analysts forecast a ramp in LED-backlit LCD TV sales, but will LED makers be able to deliver the required capacity? MAURY WRIGHT reports. | |
| There’s a very good chance that LED-backlit LCD TVs in all sizes will significantly boost LED production requirements immediately and over the next few years. Most indications—including analyst projections and product introductions at the recent Consumer Electronics Show— point to a faster uptake of LED backlighting than previously predicted. But can the LED suppliers handle the increased demand, and will consumers actually pay the premium for LED-backlit TVs? We can’t definitively answer these questions, but we can see an unmistakable trend toward LED backlighting.
Bruce Berkoff, chairman of the LCD TV Association, states “LED-backlit TVs are going to take over the industry.” Berkoff won’t predict when LED-backlit sets will take a predominant share of market, but he can tell you why. According to Berkoff, consumers care about three things in buying large-screen TVs—“image quality, WAF (wife acceptance factor), and green.” Berkoff states, “LED-backlit sets win in all three areas.” ++++++ This article was published in the Jan/Feb 2010 issue of LEDs Magazine. To read the full version of this article, please visit our magazine page, where you can download FREE electronic PDF versions of all issues of LEDs Magazine. You can also request a print copy of LEDs Magazine (available by paid subscription) and sign up for our free weekly email newsletter. |
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| About the Author | |
| Maury Wright is the Senior Technical Editor of LEDs Magazine |
Inside an LED TV
Posted by LED Larry in LED, Other Technology on April 20th, 2009
Posted By: Michael J. Miller
Original Source: blogs.pcmag.com
Ever wonder what’s inside your TV? Yesterday afternoon, I went to a press event hosted by Samsung Electronics where the company not only showed its new line of TVs, but had all of the pieces on display.
The TV in question is one of Samsung’s new “LED TVs.” Technically, these are LCD televisions with what others call “LED-edgelighting” meaning that the display is lit from LEDs on the edge of the TVs rather than the display being lit from behind (as in most LCD TVs, which use fluorescent backlighting; or traditional LED-backlit displays in notebooks, etc.)
After the jump are pictures of all the components.
The part of the display in front is the bezel, and these LED TVs continue Samsung’s “Touch of Color” theme, with a reddish tint. The speakers and an IR receiver are built into the bezel.
Behind comes the LCD panel itself, the guts of any TV. Some of the LED TVs (the 6000 and 7000 series) have a 120 Hz refresh rate; the high-end 8000 series features a 240 Hz refresh rate. Samsung’s 240 Hz rate includes frame interpolation for all the missing frames, as opposed to inserting black frames in a strobe fashion.
What makes this TV different from most TVs is the lighting. It has LEDs on the edges of the panels, and the light is aimed at a “light guide” – a special sheet with tiny prisms that reflect the light toward the front of the set. There are more prisms towards the center (which is farther from the light source) than near the edges, creating a more consistent level of brightness.
The light guide is part of the overall backlight unit. In front of it are sheets of glass that diffuse, filter, and polarize the light; and in back of it goes a reflective panel so all the light stays in the set.
Behind the backlight goes the electronics that run the TV. In this case, they are separated into three distinct groups, including the main circuit board, TV tuner, and the power supply. I noticed how there were holes in the motherboard itself so some thicker pieces could be places within the holes, making the combined electronics a bit thinner.
This set has two USB ports (one powered), 4 HDMI ports, and the usual other assortment of ports.
Of course, at the end the TV is put together, with a back case as well. The LED lighting , along with other things such as the thinner electronics, help make this set very thin: just 1.2-inches deep. And Samsung has a mount that lets it attach to the wall in only 0.6-inches.
Samsung actually will have three lines of LED TVs – the 6000 series, which features a 120 Hz refresh rate; the 7000 series, which adds IPTV features that Samsung calls “Media 2.0″; and the 8000 series, which includes the Media 2.0 features and goes up to a 240 Hz refresh rate.
I thought this was a great display of the things that go into making a modern TV.
It’s not just a sign of the times, it is in our LED.
Posted by LED Larry in LED, Signs, Uncategorized on April 15th, 2009
It’s not just a sign of the times, it is in our LED. LEDs are a wonderful, energy efficient, and environmentally friendly solution to illuminated signs and accent lighting.
LED products are efficient, safe, low voltage, long-lasting and arguably better at using energy than other lighting technologies. LED technology converts energy straight to light, resulting in running cost savings over standard energy bills. They also last up to 10 times longer than traditional lighting for signage. Beware, not all LED companies pride themselves on energy efficiency. Some over-drive their LEDs, resulting in shorter product life spans and slim, if any, reduction in energy costs. If energy efficient lighting wasn’t your first choice
for your signage – that’s OK.
Eco Friendly Sign Lighting Solutions
LED environmentally friendly products offer:
• Significant energy cost savings
• Standardized low-voltage systems
In addition to offering an environmentally friendly product, USLP has taken the following steps to creating a better work place and planet:
• Recycle all box cardboard and paper products
• Employees are encouraged to use e-mail to reduce the need for paper copies being sent to our customers whenever possible
• Recycle all wooden products including skids
• Recycle printer and toner cartridges
We are committed to ensuring that our product and business activities take into consideration the impact on the environment, and to the continual review of these activities. In this manner we can develop, educate and improve to support the company’s environmental awareness practices.
Energy Resources and Incentive Programs
Energy Policy Act 2005 and Tax Credits
The Energy Policy Act of 2005 became available to homeowners, businesses, and manufacturers on
January 1, 2006. It provides a variety of tax credits for the purchase of energy efficient buildings and
improvements to existing buildings. More information can be found on the Building Energy Codes Resource Center
http://resourcecenter.pnl.gov/cocoon/morf/ResourceCenter/article/1529
Additional Resources
• Tax incentives for buildings and other efficiency improvements
www.energytaxincentives.org
• Commercial building provisions
www.efficientbuildings.org
• U.S. Department of Energy
www.energycodes.gov/comcheck/ez_download.stm
Incentive Programs
• DSIRE – Database of State Incentives for Renewables and Efficiency DSIRE is a comprehensive source of information on state, local, utility, and federal incentives that promote renewable energy and energy efficiency.
www.dsireusa.org
• BC Hydro LED product incentive program
www.bchydro.com/business/incentive/incentive8823.html
• Pacific Gas and Electric Company lighting incentive program
www.pge.com/mybusiness/energysavingsrebates/rebatesincentives/ref/lighting/
French R&D program to test LED lighting for indoor illumination
| 18 Feb 2009 | |
| The CITADEL program will develop measurement protocols and benchmarking analyses of LEDs, and methods to assess the aging and life expectancy of LED lighting products. | |
| The CITADEL program – an R&D initiative led by the CSTB (the French Center for Building Science and Technology), major French academic lighting laboratories and the French branch of Philips Lighting – has recently been formed to research and promote the optimal use of LEDs in buildings.The program’s goal is to fully characterize LED lighting products, as they apply to the specific needs of buildings and tenants. The program hopes to define new measures of visual comfort and color rendering specific to LEDs, said Christophe Martinsons, head of the Lighting, Electricity and Electromagnetism Division of the CSTB.
The three-year project (started Feb. 9) has a budget of 1.5 M Euro and is funded by the French Environmental Agency (ADEME). The project was partly inspired by the US DoE CALIPER initiative. “Like its American counterpart, CITADEL is intended to provide physical measurement protocols and benchmarking analyses. However, the scope of the CITADEL program goes beyond,” said Martinsons. The program will determine aging methods (climatic and endurance) to assess the real-life expectancy of LED lighting products. Durability will be studied together with life-cycle analyses and total cost-of-ownership. |
Legislation: What You Should Know
Everyone has different motivators for lighting upgrades. For industrial users still living with T12 fluorescent and magnetic ballast technology, the government will soon be mandating your move to more efficient lighting.
Note: T12 fluorescents and their corresponding magnetic ballasts are largely considered antiquated technology. So much so, that effective June 30th of 2010, you’ll no longer be able to purchase replacement magnetic ballasts to support those T12 lamps. That means you have less than one full burn cycle in your existing T12 lamps to make the shift to electronic ballasts.
Linear FLourescent System Guide: Download for free!