New Architectural Lighting Blog Image Gallery!

Just a quick note to let you know that I have posted a gallery page (click the “gallery” tab at the top of the blog just under the header or click here) . Currently it contains a small collection of some of my 3D renders and sketches of concept LED-based architectural lighting fixtures.  I will add to it as I can. Let me know what you think!

Smart LED Parking Lot Lights

UC Davis parking garage. Photo courtesy of Cree.

Ruud Lighting/BetaLED along with the University of California at Davis have developed “smart” LED parking lot lights that reduce the energy consumption by 80% over the more traditional metal-halide lamps they replaced. The 50 LED light fixtures implement a two-level activity sensing system that dims the lights to half power when no motion is detected and then bring them back up to full power when motion is sensed. Along with conserving energy, drivers, pedestrians, lot attendents, and security personnel will now have visual ques to the presence of other drivers/pedestrians in the area. After two years of development and testing, the fixtures were installed in the UC Davis South Entry Parking Structure. The smart lighting system technology is being destributed via Cree’s LED University program. Very cool indeed!

Click here to read the full article from LED News

Technorati Tags: architectural lighting, parking lot lighting, parking lights, led parking lot lights, UC Davis, University of California, California Lighting Technology Center, Smart LED lighting, Smart lights

How LED lighting can save on costs and help the environment

Harking back to a topic I posted earlier on this blog about LED replacement lamps for amusement park rides or lack thereof I thought you might find a recently published article from Funworld Magazine in which I was quoted interesting. Hopefully you find it interesting, I enjoyed being interviewed by Ms. Gable and I think the article illustrates some of the pros and cons of adopting LEDs within the amusement ride industry. Give it a read.

As usual, your comments are appreciated!

Click here to read the article on the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions website

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Story on LED Replacement Lamps Highlights Need for Standardized Testing Methods

I recently read a story on LEDs magazine about Toronto’s Palace Pier condominium tower becoming the largest residential LED conversion in North America. The Palace Pier is an upscale, 44 floor condo building with spectacular views that the designers wanted to carry over into the interior of the building. They replaced the existing 1300 MR16 halogens with direct MR16 replacement LED modules. The halogens consumed 35 watts of electricity versus 4 watts for the LED replacements. Kudos on being green!

The thing that I found most interesting here is that the contracted company providing the replacement LED fixtures does not put up complete specifications for either of their replacement LED products:  no datasheets, nothing specific. Just a general 300+ lumens for their MR126 replacement product. I question the comparison in brightness between MR16 halogens and the LED replacements. The story just says comparable brightness but when you go to the CRS website, all you see is the 300+ lumens. Ignoring the fact that lumens is not brightness but total light output in all directions as measured in an integrating sphere, 300 lumens isn’t even close to the 1000+ lumens light output you get from a typical 35 watt, 12 VDC MR16 halogen lamp. What I am sure they are referring to is center beam candela, which is a brightness measurement but their website doesn’t have that specification. Perhaps the MR16 halogens they are replacing weren’t particularly bright, a very real possibility but who knows? I’m sure the fixtures were tested, at least by their own eyes, to make sure they were as bright or brighter but the published specs alone don’t bare that out. I am also sure that in this case it is just an oversight but it does lead me to ramble on about something that is all too common in the industry these days: confusing. missing, or misleading specifications.

Unfortunately, beam candela measurements have to take into account the measurement distance and the angle at which the beam is sampled, neither of which needs to be defined in the results. So a manufacturer that took a measurement at 4 feet away from the lamp over a 26 degree sampling angle and only came up with 480 Candela could retake the measurement at 3 feet from the lamp for a 10 degree sampling angle and get a more favorable 950 Candela and publish that as their spec without saying it was measured at 4 feet at a sample angle of 10 degrees. If these were separate manufacturers and separate lamps, how could you make a direct comparison based on 480 candela versus 950 candela without knowing the missing information? You couldn’t, really. Beam candela refers to how bright a narrow beam of light will look to an average human observer at some specific distance away. A lamp such as the replacement lamps used at the Palace, may only output 300 lumens but at a very narrow 15 degree beam angle so the brightness at, lets say 4 feet away may be quite high compared to an MR16 halogen at the same 4 feet with a more impressive 1000 lumen output but with a broader beam angle of 30 degrees. Kind of confusing isn’t it?  One lamp manufacturer may publish their 1000+ lumens as a measure oft their lamps brightness while another may publish 850 Candela as theirs. So which one is brighter? You’d have no clue without actually buying each and testing them both. Errr!

As an LED manufacturer and distributer, I have a real problem with LED lamp manufacturers that do not put up their specifications and when they do, they only put up generalities or use the more confusing numbers such as lumens as an indicator of brightness. This leads to confusion and hurts the industry as a whole. I know of several large companies/institutions that would switch over to LED lighting if the market weren’t full of confusing and misleading numbers. They just won’t take the chance. The DOE, working on standardized testing methods for LED based architectural lighting, has run into this big time with submissions that had stated outputs no where near what the DOE’s testing bore out. Click here to read more about the DOE’s efforts on standardized testing methods for solid-state lighting.

Well I’m not going to go on much further. I said what I wanted to say. I’m not impugning the company in the story. In fact, congratulations to them on their success on this project. I’m merely citing the story as an example of an industry-wide practice that needs to improve if solid-state lighting hopes to make it into every home.:(

Click here to read the full story at LEDs Magazine

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LEDs Modernize Time’s Square New Years Eve Ball

Thanks to reader Kc for giving us the link to a great article about the new LED version of the venerable Times Square New Years Eve ball.

This year is the 100th anniversary of the New Years Eve ball and the ball has been completely redone by Waterford Crystal and has been updated with a brand new, sophisticated LED lighting system by Philips Lighting. Philips has replaced the 600 incandescent light bulbs and halogen bulbs with 9,576 Luxeon LEDs to give us all a New Years Eve ball that is brighter and way more energy efficient. Another benefit, provided by Focus Lighting, is that the LEDs are now under better computer control and can produce millions of colors and changing patterns of light never before possible with traditional lighting.

Anyrate, click here to check out the article, it’s well worth it. There is a brief history of the Times Square New Years Eve Ball and also a video of the New Ball.

Technorati Tags: leds, led modules, accent lighting, architectural lighting, engineering lighting, light engineering, color changing light, color cycling light, rgb leds, color leds, light design, designing with light, lighting design, architectural light industry, leds for fun, fun with leds, led projects, projects with leds, solid-state architectural lighting, office lighting, lighting in architecture, architectural design, innovative architectural lighting, Philips Lighting, Philips LED Technology, Waterford Crystal, New Years Eve, Times Square, Times Square New Years Eve Ball, New Years Eve Ball, Time Balls, Focus Lighting

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“Pixel Cloud” LED Array Just Might Be The Coolest Architectural Accent Light Ever!

Finally! A really, really cool application of LEDs in architecture! Lately, everything has been “like wow, we replaced a bunch of light bulbs with LEDs…hooray!” or innovative LED illuminated windows on a very non-innovative cube building, or “look more facade uplighting”. I’ve been waiting for a really “WOW” architectural lighting project to come along and this is it.

Seriously, you have to go read the full article, these “Pixel Cloud” LED arrays are way cool for large atriums, lobbies, concert halls, my cubicle….just kidding on that last one. These “Pixel Clouds” are made of pendant-like LED globes suspended at various heights from the ceiling forming a 3-dimensional array. Each LED globe is cleverly constructed of 24 LEDs in a dodecahedron (I’ve been waiting years to write about a dodecahedron for something) , with each LED individually controllable and each globe individually addressable via some seriously sophisticated software. The software and dedicated server can perpetually change the appearance of the cloud array even projecting images from passing clouds from a skyward pointed video camera mounted on the roof of the building. How kewl is that! I’m going to hit my boss up for one of these things.

Check out the full story at LEDs Magazine

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Cree XLamps to Illuminate Worlds Largest…um…Illuminated Cube

Ahhh!!! It’s a giant cubicle made of blue mutant DNA strings!! AHHH!!!!

Uh…sorry. I couldn’t resist. This blog is, of course, about architectural lighting so I will refrain from comment on the uh…Aqua Cube….no…the Water Block….nah… the Squishy Square….no…that’s not right..ah forget it! I’ll refrain from commenting on the um..stylish, yeah that’s it…stylish architecture and stick with the fact that this is a gigantic architectural installation of LED lighting. Lack of imaginative building design non-withstanding, the fact that over 400,000 Cree XLamps are being stuck all over the building is news-worthy in and of itself, especially if you’re Cree. The “bubble” designs on the outside of the building are created with giant translucent panels which will be illuminated by the XLamps. RGB color cycling will be used to shift the colors of the “bubbles” from their normal blue to other shades that will give the building a more “gigantic cubicle made of enormous blood drops or gigantic cubicle made of yellow toadstools” look. With over 400,000 XLamps, this aught to be the only swimming pool enclosure visible from Saturn. The architect’s brilliant, otherworldly cube-theme clearly is rumored to originate from Uranus.

Click here to read more about the use of Cree XLamp LEDs at the new Beijing National Aquatics Centre

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Ultra-tough Recessed Solar LED Fixtures

Solar Cynergy has introduced a line of residential, commercial, and municipal-type solar-powered LED fixtures. Based on what I have seen, these things are really neat. They are self-contained modules that are designed to be recessed into floors, walls, walks, and streets. These high-quality Japanese fixtures are completely self-contained within a hard resin body for durable, environment-proof use . Each unit has a solar array that charges a pair of capacitive storage units that eliminates the need for battery replacement. According to Solar Cynergy, these things are tough enough for a tank to drive over them. I’d love to get some of these to run through some tests (minus the tank) because they look fantastic and would appear to be low to no-maintenance (perfect for lighting my parents front walk ). They come in square, round, and rectangular and are available with a large choice of colored or white LEDs and colored or transparent lenses. I can see these getting a lot of use out on some of the darker highways and byways of the world (the south shore of Massachusetts comes to mind). These also come in flashing versions for hazard and safety marking. Maybe I’ll get some in for testing and if so will post the results here to let everyone know how they faired.

You can check out Solar Cynergy at www.solarcynergy.com

Technorati Tags: architectural lighting, architectural lighting design, solid-state architectural lighting, led architectural lighting, architectural led lighting, lighting design, solid-state lighting design, leds, solid-state lighting, led technology, recessed lighting, recessed led lighting, highway marker lights, led highway marker lights, led street marker lights, pathway lighting, path lighting, led path lighting, led walk lighting, walk lighting, solar lighting, solar powered lighting, solar-powered lighting, led solar light, led solar powered light, solar powered led ligh, solar powered led lighting, solar leds, solar led light, recessed leds, recessed municipal light, municipal lighting, street lighting, street lamps, led street lamps, led hazard lights, led hazard markers, led safety markers, safety lighting, hazard lighting, solar cynergy, Japanese led products, Japanese led marker lights, high-quality led lighting, high-quality Japanese led lighting

Colored LED Replacement Lamps for Amusement Parks, Theaters, Whatever

Hey! All you amusement park enthusiasts, operators, owners, whatever…In reference to an article I recently ran on my LED Development Blog about amusement parks not updating to LED lighting when they have thousands of colored incandescent lamps burning out all over the place: I mention that colored LED replacement lamps are just now becoming available but demand is low so availability and cost are high. I didn’t quote figures since, to tell you the truth, I lost the address to the one web page where I could find colored LED replacement bulbs when I wrote the article. Doesn’t matter since I have now found a much larger source for these types of LED replacements: LEDTRONICS, INC. Click here to fly over to their web page with the appropriate S14 LED Replacement bulbs but make sure these are the actual types you need since they do make quite a few other types (these were the type I was referring to in the article). Anywho, these S14 LED replacements were installed in several high-visibility projects including the Bardavon Theater in NY. LEDTRONICS has a great press release/case study showing the theater and throws some savings numbers out. The theater before and after shots are amazing! Quality of LED light compared to incandescents is something that doesn’t get mentioned often but maybe it should. Hmmm….

As expected, the cost of these bulbs (list, single quantities) is very high at around $40.00 each. Compare that to a colored incandescent S14 at $0.98. The energy and maintenance savings offered by these replacements is where users will really benefit. These have a reported life of 100,000 hours. Compare that to a typical, long-life colored S14 incandescent life of 5,000 and you can see where the LED S14’s will really begin to pay off. Better still that 5,000 hours for incandescent S14s is reduced to something on the order of 1,000 hours when they are cycled on and off as they typically are in amusement parks or theater marquees. LED replacements are not effected by cycling.

Anyrate, I thought you might be interested. If anybody uses these LEDTRONIC S14’s or any other colored LED replacement bulbs for high volume installations like amusement parks, theaters, or whatever (particularly high vibration or flashing applications) I’d be interested to hear from you. Even if you’re contemplating LED replacements in high volume but haven’t done so,I’d still like to hear from you. Tell me your thoughts, reservations, experiences, social security numbers (just kidding), etc…

Technorati Tags: leds, solid-state lighting, lighting industry news, lighting industry market, lighting market, solid-state lighting, led news, led technology, leds in the news, global industry analysts report, energy star, energy-star, energy savings, saving energy, energystar, energy efficient, municipal lighting, municipal lighting projects, led city, led cities, led-based municipal lighting, led municipal light, municipal leds, municipal light design, municipal street light, street lights, led street lights, led streetlight, led streetlights, municipal streetlight, municipal streetlights, architectural lighting, architectural lighting design, solid-state architectural lighting, led architectural lighting, architectural led lighting, lighting design, solid-state lighting, amusement park, amusement lighting, leds in amusement parks, ride engineering, ride lighting, ride design, amusement design, amusement ride design, amusement ride lighting, amusement ride leds, leds in amusement rides

Osram supplies LEDs for street lights, unveils new Dragon

…green clovers, blue stars, and now with NEW Golden Dragons….

For all you architectural lighting designers and engineers out there: Osram has released a new Golden Dragon LED which incorporates new oval shaped lenses (20 and 40 degree viewing angles) specifically for road and footpath lighting. Fitted into luminaires from Soltec, these solar-powered fixtures produce 60 lumens at 350 milliamps (typical efficacy of 54 lumens/watt).

Maybe when Osram releases an IES file for these things, I’ll fire’em up in DIALux and setup an example roadway lighting design simulation. We’ll just have to wait…….while your waiting, click here to read the whole story from LEDs Magazine.

Technorati Tags: leds , solid-state lighting , lighting industry news , lighting industry market , lighting market , solid-state lighting market , lighting market analysis , global led market , global led news, global lighting industry , global lighting fixtures , global lighting , led technology , leds in the news , OSRAM inc, OSRAM leds, OSRAM modules, dragon leds, ostar leds, record breaking leds, brightest red led, brightest green led, dragon leds, golden dragon leds, road lights, pathway lighting, footpath lighting, lensed golden dragon leds, osram roadway lighting

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