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LEDs emerge as a popular ‘green’ lighting
"The lighting industry has finally come up with an energy-efficient replacement for the standard incandescent bulb that people actually seem to like: the LED bulb.
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Campaign Archive: (Feb 05 to present)
Campaign Goals: 1. Create a deadline for action Ban the sale of incandescents by specific dates Ban 60W + 100W incandescents first (bayonet + screw) Ban other incandescent designs later 2. Remove the price advantage of incandescents Increase the cost of incandescent light bulbs Reduce the sales tax (VAT) on CFLs from 17.5% to 5% 3. Help the poor Help the poor to replace their incandescents Help the poor to save money on their energy bills 4. Encourage responsible recycling Encourage the responsible recycling of CFLs Encourage fair + adequate funding for recycling Encourage discussions amongst recycling stakeholders 5. Encourage + strengthen supporting legislation Include light bulbs in the EU's Eco Directive Explain the pros + cons of the EU's RoHS Directive 6. Propose appriopriate exemptions Make the case for appropriate medical and specialist exemptions 7. Encourage continued innovation Propose that technology neutral "watts per lumen" criteria should be included in ban legislation Propose "watts per lumen per m2" as further criteria Highlight promising technologies as they emerge 8. Encourage energy efficiency and conservation Explain the benefits of greater energy efficiency Explain the benefits of turning things off Accelerate the uptake of available technologies 9. Use LEDs to set energy performance standards LEDs offer a 90% energy saving CFLs offer a 65-80% energy saving High efficiency incandescents offer a 25% saving Incandescents offer 0% energy saving Banning incandescent light bulbs would... Save 2 to 5 Million tonnes of CO2 per year in the UK Save 23 to 53 Million tonnes of CO2 per year in the EU Global Energy Use: Thanks to...OilPrice.com Links: BBC "Green Room" 3 Feb 06 Light bulbs: Not such a bright idea Comments BBC "Green Room" 21 April 06 Shedding light on call to ban bulb Comments BBC "Green Room" 20 Oct 06 Where have all the leaders gone? Comments BBC article 29 Jun 06 Lighting the key to energy saving IEA : Lights Labour Lost report BBC article 2 Nov 06 Bulbs must be efficient by 2009 BBC "Green Room" 19 Jan 07 The need for ambition + imagination Stern Review: Summary Guardian article 1 Feb 07 Should I replace incandescents now? Worldwatch: Effects of WEEE Directive BBC article 31 Jan 07 Plan to ban light bulbs... in California Nine MSN article 20 Feb 07 Plan to ban light bulbs... in Australia BBC article 20 Feb 07 Australia pulls plug on old bulbs Courier Mail article 21 Feb 07 See the light Turnbull EurActiv article 21 Feb 07 How many EU members does it take to change a light bulb? Guardian article 22 Feb 07 Should we ban these bulbs? Scotsman article 24 Feb 07 How many light bulbs does it take to change the world? Daily Mail article 10 Mar 07 EU switches off our old light bulbs BBC "Green Room" 16 July 07 Sex sells, but at what cost? The Guardian article 27 Sept 07 UK to phase out 150W, 100W + 60W bulbs The Guardian article 27 Sept 07 Ban The Bulb? International Light Bulb Campaigns 18 Seconds (US) Greenpeace India : BTB petition (India) www.banthebulb.co.uk (UK: unaffiliated) Campaigns One Watt Initiative (IEA) One Billion Bulbs (US) Big Green Switch (UK) Eco Portal Eco Earth Info (US) References Homestayfinder: How CFLs work MPs' Letters: EU light bulb rules Wikipedia: Ozone Depletion EU: Kyoto Protocol Lighting Industry Federation >LIF: Lamp Guide 2001 pdf UK Climate Change Programme >UK CCP: Review pdf UK Market Transformation Programme ECCP Report 2001 pdf European Lamp Companies Federation DTI: WEEE Directive Energy Saving Trust GE: Soft White Dimmable CFLs Cubans + Jamaicans hand out free CFLs ELCFED FAQs Lighting Advice Energy Saving Trust Lighting Bulb ratings Lighting choices Low energy fittings Save Your 20% Customer Utility Services Light bulb suppliers lightbulbs.co.uk Just LED Direct Trade Supplies Light Rabbit Light Rabbit : Commercial AVR LED Track Lighting Bulb Buddy Energy Bulb Synergy Lighting USA (USA) Express Light Bulbs LED Light Bulbs LED Lighting Supplier eco LED Light E-Leds EcoPal (Ireland) LED Lights LED Tape Eco St LED Eco Lights Light Bulb Planet Green Led LineLite First Light Direct Lamps On Line UltraLEDS (UK) LiteBulbs Bright Green Technology (signs) Eco Friendly Light Bulbs Go Green Lights (UK) Energy Saving World (UK) Light Bulbs Direct (UK) Better Generation (UK) Efficient Light (UK) Ultima (UK) Megaman (UK) Amazon.Com (US) The Bulbman (US) LED Online [LEDs] (UK) OptoSource [LEDs] (UK) CyberLux [LEDs] (US) Androv Medical (UK) BestBulb (UK) The Light Bulb (UK) Solar Solar Power Centre (UK) Intelligent Energy Solutions (UK) Solar Insiders (UK) Solar Gadget Store (UK) Select Solar Panels (UK) Energy Saving Advice Conserve Energy (UK) Intelligent Energy Solutions (UK) Solar Security Solar Security Solutions (UK) Energy Company Advice Good Energy Shop (UK) Home Energy Generation / Storage Cyber Energy (UK) Low carbon technology sites The Solar Centre (UK) Price comparison sites Business Electricity Prices (UK) Business Gas Prices (UK) USwitch: Business Energy (UK) Home Advisory Service (UK) UK Power (UK) Business Gas (UK) Business Electricity (UK) Solar Price Comparison Services Talk Solar Panels (UK) Talk Solar Boilers (UK) Solar Quote Provider (UK) Solar Lighting Lux Outdoor Ligting (UK) The Eco Experts (UK) http://www.theecoexperts.co.uk Light bulb history An overview 1809 Humphrey Davy (Arc lamp) 1820 Warren De la Rue (vacuum + wire) 1879 Edison and Swan (carbon + cotton) 1880 Edison (carbon + bamboo) 1898 Karl Auer (osmium) 1903 Siemens/Halske (tantalum) 1906 to 10 GEC/William Coolidge (tungsten) Fluorescent light and lamp history 1857 Becquerel (fluorescence) 1901 Cooper Hewitt (mercury vapour lamp) 1934 Germer (high pressure lamp) 1970s Anderson + Hollister (electrodeless) 1976 Edward Hammer (spiral lamp) Mercury + Fluorescent Lights Efficiency Vermont Michigan Dept. of Env. Quality Energy Efficiency Advice EU Energy Label Refrigeration Laundry Dishwashers Boilers Insulation + Windows Find recommended products (UK) Generate your own energy General advice Solar Photovoltaics Solar water heating Heat pumps Small scale wind Small scale hydro Biomass Press coverage The Guardian 7 Dec 05 BBC News Online 'Green Room' 3 Feb 06 BBC Radio 4 'Broadcasting House' 5 Feb 06 Austrian Broadcasting Corp. 7 Feb 06 BBC Radio Wales 8 Feb 06 BBC News Online 8 Feb 06 The Hindustan Times editorial The Guardian "Campaign O.T.W. " 21 Feb 06 BBC Radio Essex 22 Feb 06 Interesting energy ideas... Option 10 (UK) Light Up The World (Can) TVEC.org (UK) Downshifting Path (UK) Cent. for Alt. Tech. (Wales) Patio Heaters Are Evil (UK) NGOs Friends of the Earth Greenpeace International Natural Resources Defense Council New Economics Foundation WWF Renewable Energy Businesses Select Solar Solar Century Climate Change Carbon Trust Climate Stability 2005 DEFRA Hadley Centre IPCC Met Office Pew Centre Tyndall Centre UK Energy Research Centre UNFCCC Reports National Audit Office > report Environmental Blogs Alternative Energy Blog Dangerousmeta! Earth Blog Earth Info Energy: Action Envirotech George Monbiot Greenpeace Weblog Gristmill Mark Lynas Meta Efficient One Change Real Climate Rebecca Blood Sierra Club Scoop World Changing Ethical Expert © matt prescott
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Wednesday, January 23, 2013NYT: LEDs emerge as a popular ‘green’ lightingHere is an article by Diane Cardwell from the New York Times:
Although priced at around 20 times more than the old-fashioned incandescents, bulbs based on LEDs, or light-emitting diodes, last much longer and use far less electricity, a saving that homeowners are beginning to recognize. Prices for the bulbs are falling steadily as retailers like Home Depot and Lowe’s sell them aggressively and manufacturers improve the technology.
And because the light in LED bulbs comes from chips, companies have been able to develop software applications that let users control the bulbs, even change the color of the light, with tablets and smartphones. Apple sells a three-pack of such bulbs, made by Philips, with the hardware to operate them for about $200.
“You’re seeing all of your growth in the LED category,” said Brad Paulsen, a Home Depot merchant. “We absolutely expect LED technology in four or five years to be the most popular lighting technology that’s out there.”
Last year, LED sales, though small at about 3 percent of the residential market by some estimates, grew faster than those of any other lighting technology, according to retailers and analysts.
Among A-type bulbs, the most common, LEDs will outsell incandescents in North America in 2014, according to projections by IMS Research, an electronics research firm that is now part of IHS Inc. And LEDs will become the most popular A-type technology by 2016, with North American shipments reaching almost 370 million, a more than tenfold increase from the roughly 33 million shipped last year, the firm estimates.
Already at Philips, LEDs were responsible for 20 percent of lighting sales last year, according to Ed Crawford, general manager of the lamps division.
Incandescent bulbs, while cheap, are very inefficient, wasting most of their energy as heat as they pump electricity into filaments to make them glow. The government has been pushing consumers to other technologies for several years, in part by phasing out the manufacture or import of the least efficient bulbs.
The first big alternative to emerge, compact fluorescent bulbs, has left many consumers dissatisfied. The light quality is seen as harsher, the bulbs can be slow to warm up and difficult to dim, and they contain toxic materials.
LEDs are more expensive, but offer better light quality and more flexibility. And thanks to heavy marketing by retailers, customers are beginning to discover their appeal.
“The LED you buy, even though you pay even $25 or $30, it’ll last like nine or 10 years,” said Tariq Syed, a machinist at an electrical utility who was eyeing LEDs at the Home Depot in Vauxhall, N.J., on Thursday. “And environmentally, it’s safe, too.”
Bulb manufacturers are rushing into the market, sending prices falling. Home Depot sells some 40-watt-equivalent bulbs for about $10.
“Most of the manufacturers are moving toward new designs in solid state lighting, as are we,” said Jim Crowcroft, vice president for market development at TCP, a company based outside Cleveland that manufactures energy-efficient lighting under its own brand as well as the house brands of several mass retailers.
Although the company still sells far more compact fluorescent lights, growth in that business has slowed, while demand for LEDs is skyrocketing, he said. “In the long run, solid-state lighting is going to make a whole lot of sense for almost every lighting application.”
For the manufacturers, LEDs pose a new challenge. They offer higher profit margins, but because they can last for decades, people will be buying fewer bulbs — of any sort. The Energy Information Administration estimates that total light bulb sales will fall by almost 40 percent by 2015, to just under a billion from 1.52 billion bulbs, and continue their decline to about 530 million by 2035, with LEDs making up a steadily increasing portion of the market.
As a result, many companies are competing to establish themselves as popular brands.
“The company that can dominate will make a lot of money,” said Philip Smallwood, senior lighting market analyst at IMS Research. “So it’s a big push to get into it early.”
With demand growing for LEDs in other uses — like backlighted phone and computer screens, automotive lights and street lamps — manufacturers have been able to develop their technologies and benefit from economies of scale to help bring the price down, said Thomas J. Pincince, the chief executive of Digital Lumens, which sells LED systems to businesses.
In the commercial and industrial sector, use of LEDs is more common than in homes, analysts say, because companies are more likely to do the long-term cost-benefit analysis of buying lighting than homeowners, who are still largely driven by the upfront price.
Goldman Sachs estimates that in the residential sector, penetration of LEDs will rise from 3 percent last year to 16 percent in 2015, still lagging the commercial and industrial sector as well as outdoor applications like parking lots and billboards.
But as the cost of an LED approaches $10 — a tipping point that would speed mass adoption, according to Mr. Smallwood — retailers have been stepping up their efforts to market the lights, often with proprietary brands like Home Depot’s EcoSmart jostling for shelf space with established names like Philips and General Electric.
“One day I randomly walked into a Home Depot and thought, ‘LED — when did that happen?’ ” said Clayton Morris, 36, a host of “Fox & Friends Weekend,” who was buying the bulbs in Vauxhall as part of his project to slowly replace the incandescents in his Maplewood home. “It’s a hefty investment upfront,” he said, “but it just seemed like a great savings.”
At the same time, in an effort to transform light bulbs from a cheap, disposable product into something that consumers might show off to their friends, manufacturers have been adding functions that could ultimately fit into a larger home automation system. Often Bluetooth- or Wi-Fi-enabled, a new generation of LED bulbs offers all manner of new remote controls and automatic responses. The Philips Hue, sold exclusively at Apple stores for the next month, can change colors along a broad spectrum and offers settings that can mimic sunrise in the morning or use a special “light recipe” intended to raise energy levels. The bulb has been a big hit, executives say, attracting a host of software developers who have created free apps for new features, like making it respond to voices or music. The bulb can also tie into the Nest thermostat, a so-called smart device from Apple alumni who helped develop the iPod, that learns consumer heating and cooling patterns and adjusts to them automatically.
“For me, it was, ‘Wow, this is really cool, this is piece of futuristic technology that I could have,’ ” said Jonathan Crosby, 25, who works at an Apple store in the Bay Area and learned about the Hue because of all the customers asking about it. He bought starter kits for himself and an uncle, purchases he might not have made without the hefty employee discount.
The bulbs, he said, offer a hint of the lifestyle of people like Bill Gates of Microsoft, who lives in a house loaded with high-tech conveniences. “It’s amazing, like the futuristic Bill Gates is now me,” Mr. Crosby said".
Posted 9:25 AM by Matt Prescott 
Tuesday, January 22, 2013LUX magazine : Are commercial LED tubes safe?LUX magazine has produced a timely and useful video explaining the controversy surrounding the safety of commercial tube LEDs.It appears that buyers still need to take considerable care when sourcing their tube LEDs as electrical fittings are likely to need rewiring and several of the designs on the market could easily give electric shocks to anyone touching them! As with anything electrical, it is clearly important to take great care when making purchasing decisions and to talk to people who know what they are talking about that you can trust. As things stand, always make sure that you are fully briefed on all of the relevant safety issues. Posted 6:57 AM by Matt Prescott
Waitrose Ipswich Store : 100% LED lightingLux magazine has produced a report on the new Waitrose /John Lewis store in Ipswich, which is the first all-LED store for the partnership and the first to hit the magic 10W/m2 for lighting.This report has lots of interesting points including the warm, bright and even lighting that commercial LEDs can now provide and the ability of LEDs to work especially well in refrigerated areas. Ban The Bulb believes that this is the future of retail, and congratulates Waitrose on blazing a trail. We look forward to them rolling out this use of energy efficient LEDs across all of their stores. Posted 6:42 AM by Matt Prescott
Thursday, January 17, 2013Guest Blog : David Kennedy : Light Rabbit LEDsAs an experiment, Ban The Bulb has invited David Kennedy of Light Rabbit (www.lightrabbit.co.uk) to write the following guest blog about the energy and money savings that LED lighting can offer homes, offices and shops.
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"Lighting goes clean, green and lean"
By David Kennedy
Most people know that they can make savings with energy efficient lighting - but do business owners?
LED lighting = 70% energy savings
Here are the fast facts - LED lighting typically uses 70% less energy than like for like traditional commercial lighting - so why is business so slow to make the switch?
Well it could be that business owners are just not aware of the savings that can be made. Fluorescent tubes have long been considered energy efficient but times have moved on and when compared to the advantages of LED lighting it is quite surprising to discover how much energy business owners could save - vital in this time of austerity.
 Keep it simple : Retro-fitting
Depending on the sector, lighting accounts for at least 30% of all energy consumption. You just need to drive around a city in the middle of the night to see offices and shops with lights left on 24/7. As most energy consuming devices don't have a lower energy alternative such as computers, fridges or air conditioning - the installation of retrofit LED lighting can facilitate this leading to atypical energy saving of at least 20%. With such great saving most retro fit installations will see a return on investment of under 12 months with the benefit of those saving lasting well into the future.
Stay cool, for longer
LED lights don't get hot which also reduce the energy required to cool office buildings - A major issue in warmer countries but also the UK.
LED lighting lasts longer, much longer. LED chips being manufactured today will lat 50,000 hours. To put that into perspective that is 11 years of 12 hours per day use of maintenance free lamps. This eliminates re lamping and associated labour costs. The old joke of how many people it take to change a light bulb seems to be less funny with modern health and safety regulations requiring training, supervision and equipment to access lights in rooms with high ceilings. The joke is now on those who don't start to think of sustainable alternatives to the traditional lamp.
Quick and simple
The reduced carbon footprint is instant, but that’s not all... Modern lighting control systems can further reduce energy consumption. As you probably know, florescent tubes take a while to start up and will flicker when switched on. There is a lot of energy consumed during this process and it has been argued that leaving these type of lights on all the time uses less energy than switching them on and off. LED tube lights turn on instantly without the need of a starter or ballast, which present the opportunity for movement/occupancy sensors to save further energy.
Security Lighting
A perfect example of this is car parking where the lights are left on 24/7 - The lights will only come on when there is somebody in the car park. In a job recently undertaken by my company Light Rabbit Ltd, we managed to save the management company 95% on their energy consumption for a residential underground car park with the use of LED lighting and PIR sensors.
 Make a difference... to the bottom line and the environment Find out more at www.lightrabbit.co.uk Posted 2:26 PM by Matt Prescott
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