SATELLITE BEACH, Fla., April 17, 2012 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- Lighting Science Group LSCG +2.86% , the world's premier LED lighting manufacturer, announced today the production launch of a revolutionary high output 8-watt LED MR16 bulb that is a direct replacement for traditional MR16 50-watt Halogen bulbs. Suited to a variety of applications that require directional lighting--such as track lighting, recessed ceiling lights, desk lamps, pendant fixtures and retail display lighting--the DEFINITY(TM) MR16 HO LED bulb will be the first of its kind introduced to the marketplace, and considered the best of its breed when evaluated by metrics of efficiency, lumen output and form factor.
The degree of difficulty involved in managing the MR16's d6iscreet size and internal power supply and the intense requirements for brightness of a 50-watt equivalent renders its design and manufacture a complex challenge. Competitive attempts at reaching these high levels of performance have resulted in concessions that have been viewed as unacceptable to the market. No such sacrifice is required with the Definity MR16 HO Series.
At only 8 watts and a 25,000 hour life rating, Lighting Science Group's new DEFINITY(TM) MR16 HO LED light is up to 33% more efficient than competitive products while staying within the industry accepted form factor and not using any moving parts like fans to achieve its superior performance. "A commitment to superior technology underwrites all Lighting Science Group operations; that's why our customers can rest assured that they're offered the most advanced and widest selection of LED lighting products," said Jim Haworth, chairman and chief executive officer of the Company. "We believe that our new MR16 HO, which couples unparalleled efficiency and incredible performance, is a significant advancement in the science of light and another step forward in the development of a more efficient, sustainable and brighter energy future."
The new bulb joins the Company's suite of products that have found applications ranging from use in NASA outer space ventures; to artistic designs that span skyscraper silhouettes; to everyday, practical implementations for American homes and businesses that save families and business owners significant amounts of money on electricity bills. On the global stage, Lighting Science Group has become synonymous with the ultra-efficient lighting revolution, and at home the Company is most commonly viewed as the fulfillment of America's clean technology promise.
To find your nearest sales location for Lighting Science Group's DEFINITY(TM) bulbs, visit: www.lsgc.com .
About Lighting Science Group Lighting Science Group Corporation LSCG +2.86% designs, develops, manufactures and markets LED lighting solutions that are environmentally friendlier and more energy efficient than traditional lighting products. Lighting Science Group offers retrofit LED lamps in form factors that match those of traditional lamps or bulbs and LED luminaires designed for a range of applications including public and private infrastructure for both indoor and outdoor use. Lighting Science Group's Advanced Projects Group business unit designs, develops and manufactures custom LED lighting solutions for architectural and artistic projects. Lighting Science Group is headquartered in Satellite Beach, Florida; the Company's European operations are based in Middelburg, The Netherlands; and the Company has a sales office in Sydney, Australia. Lighting Science Group employs approximately 1000 workers building lighting products from domestic and imported parts. Lighting Science Group is a Pegasus Capital Advisors portfolio company. More information about Lighting Science Group is available at www.lsgc.com .
Forward Looking Statement. Certain statements in this press release may constitute "forward-looking statements" made under the "safe harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements include, but are not limited to, statements concerning the performance of Lighting Science Group and its products and/or use terminology such as "anticipate," "assume," "believe," "estimate," "expect," "goal," "intend," "plan," "project," "seek," "target," "soon," "will," "first of many" and variations of such words and similar expressions. Such statements reflect the current view of Lighting Science Group with respect to future events and are subject to certain risks, uncertainties and assumptions. Known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those contemplated by these statements. In evaluating these statements, you should carefully review the risk factors detailed under "Risk Factors" in our most recent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission that may cause our actual results to differ materially from these forward-looking statements.
2012年4月19日星期四
2012年2月16日星期四
The humble light bulb has never been so confusing
Behold the humble light bulb: it doesn’t look revolutionary but its invention, refinement and adoption triggered mass literacy and shift work, forever changing our culture and propelling us towards the digital age
It’s also causing us a lot of confusion. Walk down the aisle of your local big box hardware retailer and you’ll find a bewildering selection of bulbs. There’s incandescent, compact-florescent (CFL), florescent, halogen, LED and, coming soon, a new, improved and energy efficient incandescent, just to name a few.
So, which bulb is right for what space in your house? Do the higher costs of the CFL or LED lights pay off in reduced energy costs over their lifetime? What about the health risks posed by the mercury inside CFLs?
Let’s see if we can, er, cast some light on all these and other questions.
The venerable incandescent light bulb is the probably the one most people are most familiar with. Incidentally, it wasn’t invented by Thomas Edison in the late 1800s. He merely refined the design that had been around for 75 years or so and created a distribution system for electricity and lighting which made it more practical and desirable.
The result is a simple design found all over the world, but it’s a notorious energy pig.
The bulbs are cheap to buy but over their lifetime 90 per cent of the energy they consume will be lost as heat, which is why the federal government has been trying to ban them since 2007 and why, as of Jan. 1, they’re been banned in the U.S., China and Europe.
The shock for consumers, however, is that their replacements — compact florescent and LED bulbs — are much more expensive, though they do pay for themselves by consuming less energy over a longer life span.
First, if you’re still buying old bulbs, you’re not breaking any laws. The Canadian federal government has now pushed back the deadline to ban incandescent importation to 2014 and Ontario announced in December it will shelve its own legislation to ban stores from selling them this year.
This shift has also contributed to consumer confusion because there’s an expectation incandescents are about to vanish and some folks are even hoarding supplies.
“It is confusing,” admits Pierrette Leblanc, senior standards engineer at the Office of Energy Efficiency at the National Research Council Canada. “And one of the reasons the government delayed barring imports of incandescent bulbs is so we can bring in a new labelling system which will made it easy for consumers to be informed and clear up the confusion.”
Like food labels, the new labels will have easy-to-read graphics listing the type of bulb, strength of light in lumens (a more practical measurement than watts) and how efficiently it turns power into light and colour balance indexed by a number.
The labels will also note whether the bulb is EnergyStar rated, which will go a long way to illuminating consumer choices, she said. Incidentally, those low wattage bulbs for appliances like fridges and ovens are unaffected.
Currently, the most efficient bulbs on the market are LED Light Emitting Diodes — which are miserly consumers of power but hard on the pocket book, costing $30 or more.
“But they are coming down in price as manufacturers work on them,” said LeBlanc. “And the quality is also improving.”
Still, changing 30 or 40 light bulbs in the average home to LEDs will be an expensive proposition, even with the power savings. The other drawback to LEDs is that while some versions will retrofit to a standard light socket, they are better off in a specifically designed fixture, one that better dissipates the heat, she said.
“The heat and how it is dissipated is what will determine the life cycle of the LED bulb,” she said.
LEDs can last as long as 25,000 hours (that’s about 20 years or more of usage) compared to CFLs at about 10,000, both well ahead of the 1,000 hours the incandescent lasts.
The technology is still developing and what’s in the laboratories now bodes well for the future, she said.
A word of caution, however; Those thinking about switching to LEDs should stick with big brand names, says Rhomney Forbes who runs Light Brigade, a Toronto commercial and residential light designing company.
“I’ve been offered ‘deals’ on LEDs but they just don’t last and the consistency (of colour) isn’t there,” she said.
Forbes said what kind of bulbs we choose and where we use them will determine what kind of light we get. What consumers want is also a matter of taste, adding some of the resistance to replacing incandescent bulbs was that newer bulbs didn’t give off the same warmth.
That’s changing as technologies develop, she said, and the colour temperatures are much better for home lighting but still not to everyone’s taste.
“There’s a difference in how you’d light a contemporary home as opposed to a century home,” he said, noting in the latter there would be more light in the range of fireplaces and candles for a warmer effect.
Our preferences for the “warmth” of incandescents is likely rooted in our cultural reference to the comfort and romanticism of hearth fires and candlelight, not any biological need, she said.
Kitchens, for example, need strong clear lights that render true colours for food preparations, Forbes said. For the most part, we put track lighting or pot lights in but it creates shadows right where the cook is working and that’s where under cabinet lights and LEDs do well.
That said, the CFL remains the most viable option on the market in terms of price and value for most homeowners in most situations, she said.
“Generally, CFLs probably provide the best value (right now),” she said. “Given their cost and energy use and life cycle, they are much more affordable than LEDs and while they may have a shorter life cycle, it’s not so great that the extra cost for LEDs is justified.”
Indeed, CFLs have come a long way. They’ve shed their “scrunched spaghetti” look and are contained in a sphere, are dimmable and generate more lumens, making them an obvious choice for incandescent replacement. They’re a little more expensive but last longer and use less power.
The one drawback is that they contain trace amounts of mercury, which require careful handling if one gets broken. NRC recommends opening a window in the room the clear any vapour and then carefully clean up the broken glass using duct tape or other sticky tape to get small pieces. Broken or burned-out bulbs should be put in a plastic bag. The bag can be disposed off at your local hardware retailer if they have a hazardous materials disposal program, or through your municipal hazardous materials program.
There are still a few other options on the market and newer technologies in the works. halogen bulbs, for example, burn hot but are more energy efficient than incandescent bulbs and popular for track lighting and other specific installation. Even so, manufacturers are developing LED replacements for them along with those for mini floods, known as PAR (parabolic aluminized reflector lamps), which are also common in recessed and track lighting fixtures in bathrooms and kitchens.
In the next couple of years, as the incandescent importation ban takes effect, manufacturers are gearing up to meet the new energy standards —but don’t write off incandescent as defunct.
Philips Lighting last year introduced a high-efficiency incandescent halogen — the Halogena — which employs halogen gas and a better filament and sold for about $5, making them competitive with CFLs. They were only sold in the U.S. but there’s a new line on its way, the Ecovantage, which will replace the Halogena and will be available in Canada. They’re an energy-efficient incandescent and, while more costly than a standard incandescent, they’re cheaper than the Halogena, contain no mercury but have a shorter life cycle of about 1,000 hours.
You’ll also hear more about new technologies gaining traction, like ESL — electron stimulated luminescence — which will replace floodlights and pot lights.
Regardless of which type of lighting and what type of bulbs you choose for your home, energy efficient design is only part of the battle.
Replacing 60 watt bulbs with lower-rate bulbs where possible will cut down power usage, as will turning off the lights when they’re not needed.
“And use dimmer switches where ever you can to lower the lights,” says Forbes.
It’s also causing us a lot of confusion. Walk down the aisle of your local big box hardware retailer and you’ll find a bewildering selection of bulbs. There’s incandescent, compact-florescent (CFL), florescent, halogen, LED and, coming soon, a new, improved and energy efficient incandescent, just to name a few.
So, which bulb is right for what space in your house? Do the higher costs of the CFL or LED lights pay off in reduced energy costs over their lifetime? What about the health risks posed by the mercury inside CFLs?
Let’s see if we can, er, cast some light on all these and other questions.
The venerable incandescent light bulb is the probably the one most people are most familiar with. Incidentally, it wasn’t invented by Thomas Edison in the late 1800s. He merely refined the design that had been around for 75 years or so and created a distribution system for electricity and lighting which made it more practical and desirable.
The result is a simple design found all over the world, but it’s a notorious energy pig.
The bulbs are cheap to buy but over their lifetime 90 per cent of the energy they consume will be lost as heat, which is why the federal government has been trying to ban them since 2007 and why, as of Jan. 1, they’re been banned in the U.S., China and Europe.
The shock for consumers, however, is that their replacements — compact florescent and LED bulbs — are much more expensive, though they do pay for themselves by consuming less energy over a longer life span.
First, if you’re still buying old bulbs, you’re not breaking any laws. The Canadian federal government has now pushed back the deadline to ban incandescent importation to 2014 and Ontario announced in December it will shelve its own legislation to ban stores from selling them this year.
This shift has also contributed to consumer confusion because there’s an expectation incandescents are about to vanish and some folks are even hoarding supplies.
“It is confusing,” admits Pierrette Leblanc, senior standards engineer at the Office of Energy Efficiency at the National Research Council Canada. “And one of the reasons the government delayed barring imports of incandescent bulbs is so we can bring in a new labelling system which will made it easy for consumers to be informed and clear up the confusion.”
Like food labels, the new labels will have easy-to-read graphics listing the type of bulb, strength of light in lumens (a more practical measurement than watts) and how efficiently it turns power into light and colour balance indexed by a number.
The labels will also note whether the bulb is EnergyStar rated, which will go a long way to illuminating consumer choices, she said. Incidentally, those low wattage bulbs for appliances like fridges and ovens are unaffected.
Currently, the most efficient bulbs on the market are LED Light Emitting Diodes — which are miserly consumers of power but hard on the pocket book, costing $30 or more.
“But they are coming down in price as manufacturers work on them,” said LeBlanc. “And the quality is also improving.”
Still, changing 30 or 40 light bulbs in the average home to LEDs will be an expensive proposition, even with the power savings. The other drawback to LEDs is that while some versions will retrofit to a standard light socket, they are better off in a specifically designed fixture, one that better dissipates the heat, she said.
“The heat and how it is dissipated is what will determine the life cycle of the LED bulb,” she said.
LEDs can last as long as 25,000 hours (that’s about 20 years or more of usage) compared to CFLs at about 10,000, both well ahead of the 1,000 hours the incandescent lasts.
The technology is still developing and what’s in the laboratories now bodes well for the future, she said.
A word of caution, however; Those thinking about switching to LEDs should stick with big brand names, says Rhomney Forbes who runs Light Brigade, a Toronto commercial and residential light designing company.
“I’ve been offered ‘deals’ on LEDs but they just don’t last and the consistency (of colour) isn’t there,” she said.
Forbes said what kind of bulbs we choose and where we use them will determine what kind of light we get. What consumers want is also a matter of taste, adding some of the resistance to replacing incandescent bulbs was that newer bulbs didn’t give off the same warmth.
That’s changing as technologies develop, she said, and the colour temperatures are much better for home lighting but still not to everyone’s taste.
“There’s a difference in how you’d light a contemporary home as opposed to a century home,” he said, noting in the latter there would be more light in the range of fireplaces and candles for a warmer effect.
Our preferences for the “warmth” of incandescents is likely rooted in our cultural reference to the comfort and romanticism of hearth fires and candlelight, not any biological need, she said.
Kitchens, for example, need strong clear lights that render true colours for food preparations, Forbes said. For the most part, we put track lighting or pot lights in but it creates shadows right where the cook is working and that’s where under cabinet lights and LEDs do well.
That said, the CFL remains the most viable option on the market in terms of price and value for most homeowners in most situations, she said.
“Generally, CFLs probably provide the best value (right now),” she said. “Given their cost and energy use and life cycle, they are much more affordable than LEDs and while they may have a shorter life cycle, it’s not so great that the extra cost for LEDs is justified.”
Indeed, CFLs have come a long way. They’ve shed their “scrunched spaghetti” look and are contained in a sphere, are dimmable and generate more lumens, making them an obvious choice for incandescent replacement. They’re a little more expensive but last longer and use less power.
The one drawback is that they contain trace amounts of mercury, which require careful handling if one gets broken. NRC recommends opening a window in the room the clear any vapour and then carefully clean up the broken glass using duct tape or other sticky tape to get small pieces. Broken or burned-out bulbs should be put in a plastic bag. The bag can be disposed off at your local hardware retailer if they have a hazardous materials disposal program, or through your municipal hazardous materials program.
There are still a few other options on the market and newer technologies in the works. halogen bulbs, for example, burn hot but are more energy efficient than incandescent bulbs and popular for track lighting and other specific installation. Even so, manufacturers are developing LED replacements for them along with those for mini floods, known as PAR (parabolic aluminized reflector lamps), which are also common in recessed and track lighting fixtures in bathrooms and kitchens.
In the next couple of years, as the incandescent importation ban takes effect, manufacturers are gearing up to meet the new energy standards —but don’t write off incandescent as defunct.
Philips Lighting last year introduced a high-efficiency incandescent halogen — the Halogena — which employs halogen gas and a better filament and sold for about $5, making them competitive with CFLs. They were only sold in the U.S. but there’s a new line on its way, the Ecovantage, which will replace the Halogena and will be available in Canada. They’re an energy-efficient incandescent and, while more costly than a standard incandescent, they’re cheaper than the Halogena, contain no mercury but have a shorter life cycle of about 1,000 hours.
You’ll also hear more about new technologies gaining traction, like ESL — electron stimulated luminescence — which will replace floodlights and pot lights.
Regardless of which type of lighting and what type of bulbs you choose for your home, energy efficient design is only part of the battle.
Replacing 60 watt bulbs with lower-rate bulbs where possible will cut down power usage, as will turning off the lights when they’re not needed.
“And use dimmer switches where ever you can to lower the lights,” says Forbes.
2012年2月6日星期一
Old light bulbs fading, but what will replace them?
ELGIN — There’s one trend we usually can count on in electrical equipment, from TV sets and radios to music players and telephones: As the years pass, it will become cheaper and cheaper, and more and more disposable.
But as a five-year-old federal law takes effect this month, Americans may have to get used to just the opposite when it comes to the light bulb.
The bulbs of the future will cost much more than the cheap, disposable incandescent bulbs we have been using since Thomas Edison figured out how to make one way back in 1879. But they also will last much longer — maybe even to the point of becoming built-in pieces of each lamp that last as long as the lamp does. And they will reduce our electric bills.
On New Year’s Day, the light-bulb business felt the first impact of the Energy Independence and Security Act, which had been passed by Congress and signed into law by President George W. Bush in 2007. The law was backed by an alliance of congressmen who wanted to reduce foreign energy imports and cut greenhouse gas emissions from making electricity.
The act aims to force consumers to switch over three years from their cherished, good-looking, cheap old incandescent bulbs and start using newfangled bulbs that consume less energy.
Beginning this past Jan. 1, the act forbids manufacturing or importing 100-watt and higher bulbs unless they put out at least 25 percent more light than the current incandescents. That rule expands to cover 75-watt bulbs in 2013, then 60- and 40-watt bulbs in 2014. Similar rules about specialized types of bulbs also go into effect in 2013 and 2014.
“Big changes are coming in lighting,” said Dave Stokes, a manager at the Ziegler’s Ace Hardware store in Huntley. “People have to start thinking in terms of lumens, the amount of light given off by a bulb, instead of just watts, the amount of power used by the bulb. People will start thinking in terms of lumens per watt the way they think now about miles per gallon. And just like the government used miles-per-gallon rules to force carmakers to make energy-efficient products, the lumens-per-watt rules are forcing manufacturers to make more efficient light bulbs.”
Political remorse
In mid-December Congress, stirred by complaints from consumers and rage against government controls, attacked the new bulb rules. When they passed a new omnibus spending bill, they didn’t include any money for the U.S. Department of Energy to enforce the new light-bulb rules.
“Let there be incandescent light and freedom. That’s the American way,” declared conservative radio commentator Rush Limbaugh.
But spokespersons for the lighting industry said the enforcement defunding will make no difference in their plans to phase out the old incandescents.
General Electric spokesman David A. Schuellerman told the Washington Post that the industry has already spent millions gearing up to build only new kinds of bulbs and that the December vote does not repeal the 2007 law.
“We still are required to abide by the (new) standards, and of course we intend to comply with our legal obligation,” he said.
“There is a lot of misinformation,” said Kateri Callahan, president of the Alliance to Save Energy. “Retailers don’t have to take inventories of old bulbs off the shelves. The government is not going to come into homes to check. ... You’re still going to be able to buy incandescent bulbs. They’re just going to be 28 to 30 percent more efficient.”
Choose carefully
Well, that’s not quite the only difference between the old bulbs and their replacements, notes Steve Walker, manager of the Batteries Plus store in Elgin. The store’s owner decided a few weeks ago that this would be an opportune time to start selling a large selection of light bulbs in addition to its line of batteries.
Yes, the new styles will use less electricity and save big on your ComEd bill, Walker notes. But they also will cost more up front. They don’t all provide the same kind of warm-feeling, all-around colors we have gotten used to. And some types have enough mercury to require them to be recycled as semi-hazardous waste rather than just being tossed into the trash.
Walker said there are three types of bulbs competing to replace your old incandescents:
Halogen incandescent bulbs, which also use a material that glows hot and bright when an electric current passes through it but use a different kind of material than the tungsten filaments typically used in old-style bulbs. These use less power than the old bulbs but more than the other alternatives. For example, one halogen bulb offered for sale at Batteries Plus gives the same amount of light as an old-style 75-watter but draws only 53 watts.
Compact fluorescent lights, or CFLs, which are similar to the long tubes used for decades in office and store lighting and use hot gases to generate their light. The compact ones typically have a small tube wrapped into a spiral shape. If you think that’s ugly, or you have a lampshade designed to snap onto the old-style incandescent, CFLs now also come in a rounded shape that looks much like the old-style bulbs on the outside.
CFLs use less power than halogen incandescents. The one equivalent to an old-style 75 uses just 20 watts, in effect cutting your electric bill for using it by three-fourths. CFLs are the type that contain a small amount of mercury, an environmental hazard, but hardware stores and Batteries Plus will accept them for recycling.
LED light-emitting diode) bulbs, which are the most high tech bulbs of all. They are similar to the LEDs used in electronic dials and some brake lights, flashlights and traffic signals.
They’re the most efficient type of all from the standpoint of power use, but also are the least well developed at this point. Remember how dim those LED Christmas decorations seem to be? LEDs strain to achieve the same kind of brightness as a living-room lamp, and in fact the brightest LED available at Batteries Plus puts out only one-third as much light as a 75-watt incandescent bulb.
Varying prices
Prices, colors and life expectancies also vary considerably among the four types. At Batteries Plus, 75-watt incandescents can be had for 50 cents apiece if you buy them in a four-pack. The equivalent halogen fluorescent will cost you four times as much, or about $2 a bulb. The CFL equivalent is about $3.99, or twice as expensive as the halogen and eight times as much as the old-style incandescent.
And the LEDs? Don’t ask. At Batteries Plus, that biggest LED that produces only a third as much light as a 75-watt incandescent will set you back a whopping $34.99.
But the new styles may last so long that over the life of a lamp, the purchase price looks more reasonable. According to the website of Phillips Electronics, if an old-style bulb burns out in a given usage in one year, a halogen bulb in the same usage will last two years, a CFL will last seven to 11 years, and an LED bulb will burn on and on and on for at least 15 years.
Walker said some users have complained that CFLs burn out sooner than that, but he thinks that depends on how the bulb is being used.
“You need the right bulb for the right application,” Walker said. “If someone has a closet light that they switch on and off all the time for just a few seconds at a time, that will be hard on a CFL. But for a porch light that turns on once a day and stays on for hours, a CFL will last a long, long time.”
Add in the savings on your electric bill, and ComEd and the Alliance to Save Energy argue that using the newfangled, expensive-to-buy bulbs usually ends up saving money over the long run.
Also, ComEd will help you some with the purchase cost. Just a few years ago, the utility would provide its customers with free replacement bulbs that they could pick up at grocery stores such as Gromer’s in return for paying just a few dollars a year more on their power bills.
Now ComEd will provide a $1.25 rebate on each new bulb that qualifies for the Energy Star rating, up to 10 bulbs per customer. The customer fills out a rebate slip while purchasing the bulbs and the store even handles the chore of sending the forms in after giving the customer the instant rebate at the cash register.
One of the main customer complaints about the new bulbs is that they don’t duplicate the warm, homey colors of the old-style incandescents, which generate about the same color spectrum as a gas fire or a camp fire. Halogens and fluorescent lights often are described as too blue-ish or too green-ish or too glaring. But Walker said developers are rapidly improving the looks of the new light.
For example, CFLs now come in three color spectrums — “soft white,” “bright white” and “daylight.” Walker advises buyers to ask a store employee for advice on what looks best in a given situation.
Super bulb
Despite their current high price and limited intensity, Ziegler’s Stokes is convinced LEDs will be the bulb of the future. A retired Air Force officer, Stokes is familiar with the technology because he is both a hardware store manager and an amateur pilot.
“The first thing we’ll see is most people switching to halogen incandescents,” Stokes said. “Then they will go to compact fluorescents. But eventually everybody will be using LEDs. We just got one in (at ACE) that can replace a 40- or 60-watt incandescent and uses only 2 watts of power.”
Researchers are figuring out how to make LEDs brighter and brighter, Stokes said. “The FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) has now approved airplane landing lights made of LEDs. Of course, for my plane a new incandescent bulb costs $10, while to replace it with an LED would cost $280. But that price will go down.”
Walker said the Rockford Airport recently replaced its runway lights with LEDs, too — but then ran into an unexpected problem.
The reason incandescent bulbs use so much power is that they convert most of the electrical energy into heat instead of light.
“They found out the LEDs were so efficient and burn so cool that snow just piled up on the runway lights without melting until you couldn’t see the light anymore,” Walker said.
But as a five-year-old federal law takes effect this month, Americans may have to get used to just the opposite when it comes to the light bulb.
The bulbs of the future will cost much more than the cheap, disposable incandescent bulbs we have been using since Thomas Edison figured out how to make one way back in 1879. But they also will last much longer — maybe even to the point of becoming built-in pieces of each lamp that last as long as the lamp does. And they will reduce our electric bills.
On New Year’s Day, the light-bulb business felt the first impact of the Energy Independence and Security Act, which had been passed by Congress and signed into law by President George W. Bush in 2007. The law was backed by an alliance of congressmen who wanted to reduce foreign energy imports and cut greenhouse gas emissions from making electricity.
The act aims to force consumers to switch over three years from their cherished, good-looking, cheap old incandescent bulbs and start using newfangled bulbs that consume less energy.
Beginning this past Jan. 1, the act forbids manufacturing or importing 100-watt and higher bulbs unless they put out at least 25 percent more light than the current incandescents. That rule expands to cover 75-watt bulbs in 2013, then 60- and 40-watt bulbs in 2014. Similar rules about specialized types of bulbs also go into effect in 2013 and 2014.
“Big changes are coming in lighting,” said Dave Stokes, a manager at the Ziegler’s Ace Hardware store in Huntley. “People have to start thinking in terms of lumens, the amount of light given off by a bulb, instead of just watts, the amount of power used by the bulb. People will start thinking in terms of lumens per watt the way they think now about miles per gallon. And just like the government used miles-per-gallon rules to force carmakers to make energy-efficient products, the lumens-per-watt rules are forcing manufacturers to make more efficient light bulbs.”
Political remorse
In mid-December Congress, stirred by complaints from consumers and rage against government controls, attacked the new bulb rules. When they passed a new omnibus spending bill, they didn’t include any money for the U.S. Department of Energy to enforce the new light-bulb rules.
“Let there be incandescent light and freedom. That’s the American way,” declared conservative radio commentator Rush Limbaugh.
But spokespersons for the lighting industry said the enforcement defunding will make no difference in their plans to phase out the old incandescents.
General Electric spokesman David A. Schuellerman told the Washington Post that the industry has already spent millions gearing up to build only new kinds of bulbs and that the December vote does not repeal the 2007 law.
“We still are required to abide by the (new) standards, and of course we intend to comply with our legal obligation,” he said.
“There is a lot of misinformation,” said Kateri Callahan, president of the Alliance to Save Energy. “Retailers don’t have to take inventories of old bulbs off the shelves. The government is not going to come into homes to check. ... You’re still going to be able to buy incandescent bulbs. They’re just going to be 28 to 30 percent more efficient.”
Choose carefully
Well, that’s not quite the only difference between the old bulbs and their replacements, notes Steve Walker, manager of the Batteries Plus store in Elgin. The store’s owner decided a few weeks ago that this would be an opportune time to start selling a large selection of light bulbs in addition to its line of batteries.
Yes, the new styles will use less electricity and save big on your ComEd bill, Walker notes. But they also will cost more up front. They don’t all provide the same kind of warm-feeling, all-around colors we have gotten used to. And some types have enough mercury to require them to be recycled as semi-hazardous waste rather than just being tossed into the trash.
Walker said there are three types of bulbs competing to replace your old incandescents:
Halogen incandescent bulbs, which also use a material that glows hot and bright when an electric current passes through it but use a different kind of material than the tungsten filaments typically used in old-style bulbs. These use less power than the old bulbs but more than the other alternatives. For example, one halogen bulb offered for sale at Batteries Plus gives the same amount of light as an old-style 75-watter but draws only 53 watts.
Compact fluorescent lights, or CFLs, which are similar to the long tubes used for decades in office and store lighting and use hot gases to generate their light. The compact ones typically have a small tube wrapped into a spiral shape. If you think that’s ugly, or you have a lampshade designed to snap onto the old-style incandescent, CFLs now also come in a rounded shape that looks much like the old-style bulbs on the outside.
CFLs use less power than halogen incandescents. The one equivalent to an old-style 75 uses just 20 watts, in effect cutting your electric bill for using it by three-fourths. CFLs are the type that contain a small amount of mercury, an environmental hazard, but hardware stores and Batteries Plus will accept them for recycling.
LED light-emitting diode) bulbs, which are the most high tech bulbs of all. They are similar to the LEDs used in electronic dials and some brake lights, flashlights and traffic signals.
They’re the most efficient type of all from the standpoint of power use, but also are the least well developed at this point. Remember how dim those LED Christmas decorations seem to be? LEDs strain to achieve the same kind of brightness as a living-room lamp, and in fact the brightest LED available at Batteries Plus puts out only one-third as much light as a 75-watt incandescent bulb.
Varying prices
Prices, colors and life expectancies also vary considerably among the four types. At Batteries Plus, 75-watt incandescents can be had for 50 cents apiece if you buy them in a four-pack. The equivalent halogen fluorescent will cost you four times as much, or about $2 a bulb. The CFL equivalent is about $3.99, or twice as expensive as the halogen and eight times as much as the old-style incandescent.
And the LEDs? Don’t ask. At Batteries Plus, that biggest LED that produces only a third as much light as a 75-watt incandescent will set you back a whopping $34.99.
But the new styles may last so long that over the life of a lamp, the purchase price looks more reasonable. According to the website of Phillips Electronics, if an old-style bulb burns out in a given usage in one year, a halogen bulb in the same usage will last two years, a CFL will last seven to 11 years, and an LED bulb will burn on and on and on for at least 15 years.
Walker said some users have complained that CFLs burn out sooner than that, but he thinks that depends on how the bulb is being used.
“You need the right bulb for the right application,” Walker said. “If someone has a closet light that they switch on and off all the time for just a few seconds at a time, that will be hard on a CFL. But for a porch light that turns on once a day and stays on for hours, a CFL will last a long, long time.”
Add in the savings on your electric bill, and ComEd and the Alliance to Save Energy argue that using the newfangled, expensive-to-buy bulbs usually ends up saving money over the long run.
Also, ComEd will help you some with the purchase cost. Just a few years ago, the utility would provide its customers with free replacement bulbs that they could pick up at grocery stores such as Gromer’s in return for paying just a few dollars a year more on their power bills.
Now ComEd will provide a $1.25 rebate on each new bulb that qualifies for the Energy Star rating, up to 10 bulbs per customer. The customer fills out a rebate slip while purchasing the bulbs and the store even handles the chore of sending the forms in after giving the customer the instant rebate at the cash register.
One of the main customer complaints about the new bulbs is that they don’t duplicate the warm, homey colors of the old-style incandescents, which generate about the same color spectrum as a gas fire or a camp fire. Halogens and fluorescent lights often are described as too blue-ish or too green-ish or too glaring. But Walker said developers are rapidly improving the looks of the new light.
For example, CFLs now come in three color spectrums — “soft white,” “bright white” and “daylight.” Walker advises buyers to ask a store employee for advice on what looks best in a given situation.
Super bulb
Despite their current high price and limited intensity, Ziegler’s Stokes is convinced LEDs will be the bulb of the future. A retired Air Force officer, Stokes is familiar with the technology because he is both a hardware store manager and an amateur pilot.
“The first thing we’ll see is most people switching to halogen incandescents,” Stokes said. “Then they will go to compact fluorescents. But eventually everybody will be using LEDs. We just got one in (at ACE) that can replace a 40- or 60-watt incandescent and uses only 2 watts of power.”
Researchers are figuring out how to make LEDs brighter and brighter, Stokes said. “The FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) has now approved airplane landing lights made of LEDs. Of course, for my plane a new incandescent bulb costs $10, while to replace it with an LED would cost $280. But that price will go down.”
Walker said the Rockford Airport recently replaced its runway lights with LEDs, too — but then ran into an unexpected problem.
The reason incandescent bulbs use so much power is that they convert most of the electrical energy into heat instead of light.
“They found out the LEDs were so efficient and burn so cool that snow just piled up on the runway lights without melting until you couldn’t see the light anymore,” Walker said.
2012年1月13日星期五
Are HID Kits Legal?
High-intensity discharge headlights emit a brighter white or bluish light than halogen lights. HIDs are legal only on vehicles with original equipment manufacturer systems. After-market kits used to install HID systems on other vehicles are illegal in all 50 states.
Design
Halogen headlights have a metal filament. When electrically charged, the filament heats up until it glows. HID lights have no filament. They are filled with xenon gas and equipped with a ballast, which converts a car's normal DC voltage to higher AC current. This creates an arc that ignites the gas and makes it glow.
Safety Concerns
HIDs installed in headlight systems designed for halogen lights produce substantially different beam patterns. They are difficult to aim, and emit light that exceeds the intensity allowed under the U.S. Department of Transportation's Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards.
Regulations
Under federal regulation FMVSS 108, replacement lights must conform to the specifications for the original equipment manufacturer's system they will be installed in. The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration has determined that HID conversion kits can never be designed to meet this standard. The NHTSA declared HID kit illegal in 2004.
Design
Halogen headlights have a metal filament. When electrically charged, the filament heats up until it glows. HID lights have no filament. They are filled with xenon gas and equipped with a ballast, which converts a car's normal DC voltage to higher AC current. This creates an arc that ignites the gas and makes it glow.
Safety Concerns
HIDs installed in headlight systems designed for halogen lights produce substantially different beam patterns. They are difficult to aim, and emit light that exceeds the intensity allowed under the U.S. Department of Transportation's Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards.
Regulations
Under federal regulation FMVSS 108, replacement lights must conform to the specifications for the original equipment manufacturer's system they will be installed in. The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration has determined that HID conversion kits can never be designed to meet this standard. The NHTSA declared HID kit illegal in 2004.
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