In less than a year, 100-watt incandescent lamps will no longer be produced in or imported to the United States per the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 in order to reduce energy waste. IKEA, a home décor and furniture company, and the state of California have already phased out the incandescent lamps at the start of this year. At the starts of 2013 and 2014, the 70-watt, 60-watt, and 40-watt lamps will also be phased out.

Incandescent bulbs produce a large amount of greenhouse emissions and their short lifespan means a high consumption of raw materials in production, packaging, and transportation. Mary Beth Gotti, member of the National Lighting Bureau’s board of managers and manager of the GE Lighting Institute explained in a press release that lighting is measured in lumens (the amount of light produced) per watt, and the banned 100-watt lamps produce about 17 lumens per watt, which is very inefficient compared to alternative lighting available. Halogen bulbs, which work similar to incandescent bulbs, produce about 37 lumens per watt and have a 72-watt lamp equivalent to the 100-watt incandescent. Compact fluorescent lamps produce about 62.5 lumens per watt and have a 26-watt equivalent to the banned incandescent. Solid state lighting, the most efficient, produces about 75 lumens per watt and has a 10-watt equivalent to the banned incandescent! They even last 60-70 times longer!

As the incandescent phase out continues, please choose LEDs for your lighting needs!

Light Visually X-Transcending System, a startup company also known as LVX System, has built the first few lighting systems that will transmit information through flickering LED lights. You may say, well, flickering lighting in office buildings is annoying and causes eye strain, headaches, and is plain annoying. LED lights can flicker thousands of times per second, which is undetectable to the human eye. The LVX system’s cluster of flickering LED lights will communicate with computer modems and other technologies to transmit information over the internet, so computers will not have to be connected to the internet. Short range transmissions are getting crowded, said Mohsen Kavehrad, an electrical engineer that has been working with optical network technology for years. This may help speed up the system, especially with the lights transmitting at 3 megabytes per second, similar to a residential DSL line. The LVX system will be installed in six municipal buildings in St. Cloud, Minnesota. The city paid $10,000 for the system and is mostly excited for the electricity and maintenance savings. The new LED lights consume 36 watts of power, while the standard fluorescent lamps consume 100 watts.

The next generation of the LVX system may have “smarter” lighting. The lights will be able to detect if bright sunlight is coming into the room or it is empty and automatically dim the lights. The LEDs are also able to change color, so they can use a different color to lead employees and customers to an emergency exit. The Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport is also looking into using the LVX system, and installing cameras onto the LEDs to boost security system while also saving on electricity and maintenance! What will developers come up with next?

Yet another exciting development in the solid state lighting world has been made, but this time, combined with wind turbine power. Urban Green Energy, a leader in small wind energy and leading manufacturer of vertical axis wind turbines, announced a new street light product combined with LED lighting and solar and wind power. Sanya, the new street light, comes with a 77-watt LED lamp and a 150-watt solar panel that can store five days of energy to ensure there will always be light when needed. The street lights were also designed to have the wiring and batteries be at ground level for easy access. The easy installation and minimal maintenance make Sanya a sustainable alternative for street lighting.

The new street lights are designed to power themselves with 100% clean energy from the sun and wind. According to the press release from Urban Green Energy, there are already major installations of Sanya street lights in North America, Australia, Asia, and Europe. The City of San Francisco, California, has already begun installing Sanya street lights in front of the city’s civic center. Mayor Gavin Newsom is working toward making the civic center and city more sustainable, and installing these street lights is a big step! The street lights will use the wind from the Bay and the power from the sun to save the city thousands of dollars in energy costs.

We hope to see the Sanya street lights come to Arizona and other parts of the United States and the world!

In the beginning of September, we blogged about the ground-breaking of the first all-LED Habitat for Humanity home. In case you missed the blog, Habitat for Humanity is a non-profit housing ministry that builds homes for families in need. The family helps the volunteers build their new home, and their mortgage payments go toward the building of new Habitat homes. The all-LED Habitat for Humanity home in Durham, North Carolina, was sponsored by Cree and built by Cree employees and other Habitat volunteers.

After five months, the house is complete! The Rahlan-Ksor family, originally from Vietnam, used to live in a one-bedroom apartment, and now lives in Habitat’s three-bedroom home, complete with Cree’s award-winning CR6 downlights and other Cree LED products. Chuck Swoboda, Cree chairman and CEO, is pleased to say in a press release that the family can enjoy the new energy-efficient lighting that will not have to be replaced for the next twenty years. The family will also be saving $300 annually on electricity costs. Cree also made a three-year $1.5 million pledge to Habitat for Humanity to provide LED downlights in the kitchens of the new homes.

The volunteers also broke a record for the quickest building of a Habitat for Humanity home in Durham. We commend the volunteers for working so hard, and we also commend Cree for providing solid state lighting for these homes!

Pasadena, California is making some big changes by installing solid state lighting in some of its public places. One mixed-use complex parking structure is replacing their 32-watt T8 fluorescent fixtures with 11.6-watt 4-foot LED tubes. The old fluorescent fixtures gave off an orange-greenish hue, while the new fixtures give off a bright, daylight-looking light. The installation of the LEDs is reducing carbon emissions by 17,723 pounds each year. The project cost the complex $1,096, but will be seeing a payback in only seven months and be saving $1,438 annually on energy costs!

The Pasadena Central Library also received an LED retrofit. The library had not replaced the 900-watt pendant lamps in the main common areas in the library because the fixtures are historic and the library wanted to preserve the historic-feeling. The problem was the old fixtures consumed 900 watts each and provided sub-par lighting. The light would get “buried” in the deep pendant fixtures and what light was left would bounce off reflectors to create ambient lighting for visitors. The library replaced the energy-wasting, dim lamps with LED lamps created by LEDtronics that would fit in place of the metal halide fixtures and allow the library to keep the old lamps. Now, more light from the LEDs shine on the reflectors, creating a brighter environment, including an addition 17-watt LED lamp placed on top of the pendants for even more light. The Pasadena Central Library is saving 788 watts per fixture, equaling thousands of dollars annually. They are also seeing thousands of dollars in savings in maintenance costs because maintenance crews do not have to be hired regularly to replace the high, hard-to-reach lighting.

In 2008, the Pasadena Central Library replaced 90-watt fluorescent fixtures in the downstairs document room with 40-watt LED fixtures, and has no problems or apparent dimming or burn-outs since the installation. Even libraries can benefit from LED lighting!

It is just as important to recycle your old incandescent and fluorescent lamps as it is to purchase new, energy efficient and environmentally safe LEDs. Millions of light bulbs end up in landfills every year, and the toxins from the lamps contaminate the soil and other surrounding garbage at the dumps. If people continue to toss lamps in the garbage, we will run the risk of having our drinking water and soil contaminated from toxins and glass. Recycling light bulbs will help prevent the release of mercury into the landfills. Lamps aren’t built very durable and can easily break during transport to landfills, if not in them. Some parts of light bulbs can also be recycled, such as the glass and metals used to build the lamps. Also, some states require that citizens recycle lamps that contain mercury. California, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Minnesota are some of the states that have these laws.

So where should you recycle your light bulbs? Inquire within your community to see if there are recycling centers. If you visit www.earth911.com, you can enter what you want to recycle and where you are located, and the website generates locations of specific recycling centers. You can also contact your local hardware stores, which should have a light bulb recycling program. Many Home Depots, Ace Hardware stores, IKEAs, and Lowes have in-store recycling. Certain companies, such as Osram Sylvania, have mail-in recycling programs. You buy a bag or a box, you fill it with bulbs, and the company covers the cost of shipping the bulbs back! If there is absolutely no way you can recycle, at least put your light bulb in a sealed plastic bag before you toss it in the garbage. If it breaks, the mercury will be contained in the bag.

In the state of New York, Central Hudson Gas & Electric applied and were approved for a tariff that will help the state save more money by installing LED lighting. Previously in New York, and currently in other states, the electric companies don’t necessarily meter street lights. They calculate energy consumption of each lamp, and then just charge the city that rate per lamp. With the new tariff designed to benefit LED lamp usage, the electric company will have to recalculate the amount of energy consumed by the lamps, which is significantly less than high pressure sodium and metal halide lamps, and adjust the amount the city pays per lamp. Central Hudson also wanted to be able to benefit from the American Recovery Reinvestment Act of 2009 funds with the LED lighting installation. Hopefully the new tariff in New York will convince other states to apply for an LED option tariff and take advantage of saving even more money by installing LED street lighting.

Many solid state lighting projects have been popping up all over cities in Arizona! As cities start to renovate and redevelop areas, they are choosing to replace their old lighting systems with LEDs, along with other “green” alternatives. Central Station at Central Avenue and Van Buren Street in downtown Phoenix is currently in phase II of a $5 million federal stimulus project to renovate the popular bus station. Renovations include energy efficient shades for passengers, solar cells of the roofs of the ticketing and administration buildings, sustainable plumbing in restrooms, Wi-Fi, LED lighting, and LED panels around the 2.6 acre station for entertainment and news purposes.

A $9.3 million project in Chandler has been completed recently. Arizona Avenue between Chandler Boulevard and Frye Road has been renovated and made more pedestrian-friendly over the past year. On May 21, Think Green – It’s Friday (T.G.I.F.) featured an article about the new LEDs. The General Electric Evolve LED Cobrahead street lighting installed downtown won a United States Department of Energy award because of the fixture’s efficiency and design. The lighting only uses a fraction of the energy of other popular street lighting fixtures. Chandler also gave its City Hall Complex a new look. The sustainable building is planning to get a Gold LEED Green Building Rating. The building will be conserving water, harvesting daylight, using high-efficiency windows, and most of all, installing LED lighting through the building!  Keep it up, Arizona!

Schools are yet another important place for the growth and installation of LED lighting. Most elementary, junior high, and high schools have to be lit at least eight hours per day for students and teachers in class, not including the time spent by teachers before and after school preparing for class, and janitors after hours cleaning the campus. Also, with all the cuts to many states’ education budgets, having the most energy efficient lighting can allow the school district to spend their money elsewhere!

The first school to be lit entirely with LEDs is Thomas Jefferson Primary School in Peoria, Illinois. The school replaced T12 fluorescent fixtures around the campus with T8 LED dimmable troffers. The LEDs will reduce energy by 49% and eliminate 1.76 million pounds of carbon dioxide emissions over 10 years. Dave Ryon, District #150’s Director of Capital Programs said the LEDs will reduce the costs of operating the school, provide superior lighting for the students, and teach the students the importance of sustainability.

A school district in Bethany, Oklahoma, is finding another use for LED lighting. The school district is installing 52 solar LED flashing beacons in the city’s school zones paired with school zone signs to alert drivers they are approaching a school zone. The city has been having safety problems around school areas with roads from the school to residential areas. The drivers sped down the roads and there were no signs warning drivers to slow down. According to a press release by Carmanah, “Studies have shown that flashing beacons increase visibility of marked signage and reduce vehicle speeds by up to 5 to 7 miles per hour.” The beacons were also easy to install and didn’t disrupt traffic or the students. We hope to see more creative LED installations in the schools!

A recent article by ElectroIQ predicts that the LED market will see a rapid growth over the next five years, specifically in solid state lighting. Dean Freeman, research vice president at Gartner, the world’s leading information technology research and advisory company, said the current driver of the LED market is LED LCD backlit televisions, which he predicts will be 60% more prominent in the market by 2014, growing from 25-26% in 2010 to 80% by 2014. The slim LED televisions have better picture quality than LCD televisions, and viewers are able to see shadows of characters on the television, which makes the images clearer. These televisions also use 40% less energy than traditional units.

The Gartner September 2010 forecast data graph included in the article shows the predicted growth of different sectors of the LED market from 2010 to 2020. According to the graph, there is going to be a rapid growth of LED lighting in 2015, predominantly in the commercial sector. We have already seen so many installations of LED lighting this year alone in warehouses, grocery stores, retail shops, gas stations, and other locations.