Milestone reached!

[billvon 3,098]

Nichia has just developed a white LED that gets 100 lumens per watt, making it as efficient as a fluorescent light. This is a big deal. LED lighting has the potential to be much cheaper, easier to use, more durable and much more long-lasting than fluorescent lighting, but up until now they hadn't been able to reach the same efficiencies of fluorescent tubes. Now they have.

This is going to open some doors in architectural lighting. No more will lights be constrained to go in places that can get hot, or that have to go in straight lines. You could cover a wall in lights. Make floor, wall and ceiling panels that have lighting built in. Do intelligent lighting that allows control over color and pattern as well as brightness. Imagine having a restaraunt whose lighting matches the weather, or that simulates clouds passing overhead, or that accentuates certain kinds of food.

Going to be interesting over the next few years as the prices on these start coming down.

[bmcd308 0]

And, most importantly, those of us who are sensitive to fluorescent lights will no longer be force to see the world in such horrible light. This truly is great news.

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www.jumpelvis.com

[Amazon 7]

gawd what a geek

[billvon 3,098]

>those of us who are sensitive to fluorescent lights will no longer
>be force to see the world in such horrible light.

Electronically ballasted high CRI flourescents look great and don't flicker. Really cheap LED lighting will flicker and probably be ugly. (Most likely will be orangey, since that gets you most perceived light per buck.) So I suspect in the future the problem will _still_ be cheap lights, not LED vs flourescent lights.

[flyinghonu 0]

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Imagine having a restaraunt whose lighting matches the weather, or that simulates clouds passing overhead,

But I have already seen this at Ceasar's Palace.

"Excuse me while I kiss the sky..." - Jimi Hendrix

[LisaM 0]

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And, most importantly, those of us who are sensitive to fluorescent lights will no longer be force to see the world in such horrible light. This truly is great news.

I hate flourescent lights... but I wonder if my plants will like LED as much as they do flourescent?

~ Lisa
~ Do you Rigminder?

[5432154321 0]

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And, most importantly, those of us who are sensitive to fluorescent lights will no longer be force to see the world in such horrible light. This truly is great news.

I hate flourescent lights... but I wonder if my plants will like LED as much as they do flourescent?

that would depend on the kelvin temp. what is the spectrum of said leds?

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xenaswampjumper SPANKS THIS ASS!!! I WISH karenmeal spanked this ass too.....

[billvon 3,098]

>what is the spectrum and said leds?

Like fluorescents, they can be made to emit almost any wavelength. They even work sorta the same. A blue LED excites a yellow phosphor, and the result is white light. (In fluorescents, UV light from the mercury arc excites white phosphor.) You can make a three element LED that will give you any color at all.

Just looked it up -

Chlorophyll absorbs light at around 430 and 660nm. Since the most popular high brightness blue LED's run at about 450nm, and red is around 630nm, a red/blue LED combo should work well for plants. (Although a 'white light' LED will probably have red/blue/green.

[ROK 0]

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>those of us who are sensitive to fluorescent lights will no longer
>be force to see the world in such horrible light.

Electronically ballasted high CRI flourescents look great and don't flicker. Really cheap LED lighting will flicker and probably be ugly. (Most likely will be orangey, since that gets you most perceived light per buck.) So I suspect in the future the problem will _still_ be cheap lights, not LED vs flourescent lights.

The only issue is that you get perceived light, but the number of LED's necessary to produce the same lumens footcandles in say...a parking garage 250W metal halide lamp require a pretty big and expensive fixture. We've been using LED's for years in exit signs and small "night lights" for stairs and hospitals. They have been working on perfecting the white LED for a long time. and they still aren't 100% time proven.

CRI stands for Color Rendering Index and is measured on a scale with sunlight, and incandescents being the top of the scale. Fluorescents can take you into the 80's on the scale, with some incandescents being right at 100. That's why incans are used in retail to highlight clothing. The higher the CRI, the better color rendering ability of the lamp. A .25 screw in bulb will give you better color rendering than any fluorescent, all day long.

Edited to add:

You are right to be excited. Problems aside, the energy savings are awesome. We're currently retrofitting neon to LED all over the country. If you ever get to Orlando, go by Supervision. Brett Kingstone owns the plant and his R&D and accomplishments are amazing. He also produces fiber optics for the home.

[stitch 0]

Milemarker Reached !

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