LED lighting to take a place in the consumer market

Tag : Lighting Capacitors


DailyTech has been following the field of solid state lighting. Solid-statelighting, or using LEDs instead of traditional filamentincandescent or fluorescent tube designs, promises long bulb lives,energy savings, and monetary savings thanks to the lower powerconsumption. The light bulb, largely unchanged for decades, isfinally on the verge of evolving .

Leading the way in the lighting renaissance is the U.S. Departmentof Energy, which announced millions in prizes in its new "L Prize" competition for solid state lighting . Its programs also encompassed working with standardsorganizations to develop certifications and standards for the newdevices.

Now researchers with the National Institute of Standards andTechnology (NIST) working with experts worldwide have delivered two key standards . These standards will help legitimize the form of lighting in thecommercial industry. The more recent of the two was completed lastmonth. The new standards dictate color specifications of LED lampsand LED light fixtures and testing methods for determination oftotal light output, energy consumption and chromaticity, or colorquality.

NIST scientist Yoshi Ohno, who chairs the groups that developed thestandards, explains how a little solid state lighting will go along way, stating, "Lighting uses 22 percent of the electricity and8 percent of the total energy spent in the country, so the energysavings in lighting will have a huge impact."

The new solid state designs will be twice as efficient as thetouted fluorescent bulbs and ten times as efficient as incandescent bulbs . To put it in perspective, current models can deliver 12 hours oflight over an entire year for only 80 cents. Further, they lastten years. Over its lifetime, one bulb is advertised to provideconsumer savings of over $370. While most manufacturers arecurrently in the prototype phase, the technology is incrediblypromising.

One additional benefit of LED lighting is color. Solid statelights can produce a richer more full color than incandescent orfluorescent bulbs. This can not only help with visibility, but hasbeen shown to psychologically improve mood among many.

The Department of Energy (DOE) has partnered with NIST to achievethe goal of reducing energy consumption by lighting by 50 percentby 2025, by helping to establish LED lighting in the market.

The first standard was the work of the Illuminating EngineeringSociety of North America (IESNA). The all-encompassing standard ontesting details required environmental conditions, applicable testapparatus, methods of measurement, and how to stabilize and operatethe lights during testing.

American National Standards Institute (ANSI) created the second standard C78.377-2008, which covers color standards. It offersrecommendations for color of cool to warm white LEDs with variouscorrelated color temperatures.

This fall the Department of Energy (DOE) will begin certifying LEDdesigns with its Energy Star certification. This process will beassisted by the NIST-developed standards. Says Ohno of the needfor more standards and the new standards that work towards thisend, "More standards are needed, and this will be the foundationfor all solid-state lighting standard."

Ohno and other scientist are continuing to work hard on developingmore standards. They hope to soon release a standard on LEDlifetime. Further, they hope to develop an additional standardabout performance measurements of high powered LED chips andarrays.