Blog and guide about LED, solar power, and energy efficient gadgets
Greggs UK Bakery with Recessed LED Lights
Greggs UK Bakery with Recessed LED Lights
Counters and Shelves lit by LED strip lights
UK bakery chain Greggs has store lighting completely redesigned by Philips lighting. Full LED lighting should reduce energy consumption by 50%. Here is the original article from Philips.
Philips launches the “new eW® Reach Powercore and iW® Reach Powercore floodlights can dramatically accentuate building exteriors and landmarks with a choice of high-quality white or fixed color light, while at the same time reducing energy consumption and maintenance.”
“eW Reach Powercore is powerful enough to brilliantly illuminate large architectural façades and structures. eW Reach Powercore offers an alternative to traditional metal halide sources, providing more lumens of output (over 8,500 lumens at 2700 K; over 11,000 lumens at 4000 K) and unparalleled light projection (over 700 feet at 2700 K; over 800 feet at 4000 K) than any other competitive light fixture. This powerful fixture represents the next generation in exterior illumination.
Starting September 1st, 2009, the EU has banned the importation of incandescent bulbs. You can still sell the bulbs but you can no longer import and restock. This is a huge move as incandescent bulbs waste most of the energy through heat output and not light. A similar ban of incandescent imports will start in the US sometime in 2012.
This is a great announcement as people and companies are forced to switch to compact fluorescent lighting and LED lights which are more energy efficient and last much longer.
Osram has developed a small light-emitting diode spotlight that achieves an output of more than 1,000 lumens for the first time. That’s brighter than a 50-watt halogen lamp, thereby making the device suitable for a broad range of general lighting applications. The Ostar Lighting LED, which will be launched on the market this summer, can provide sufficient light for a desk from a height of two meters, for example. Its small size also enables the creation of completely new lamp shapes. Source: Siemens
For more information, please visit this articles web page.
So I came across a few blogs about farming in the city. “New York” the magazine just published an article about creating a skyscraper dedicated to farming. The building uses renewable energy (solar power, wind, and pellet power), recycles all the waste water as well as plant matter.
I quote from the article:
Imagine a cluster of 30-story towers on Governors Island or in Hudson Yards producing fruit, vegetables, and grains while also generating clean energy and purifying wastewater. Roughly 150 such buildings, Despommier estimates, could feed the entire city of New York for a year. Using current green building systems, a vertical farm could be self-sustaining and even produce a net output of clean water and energy.
The article even mentioned that 150 of these buildings would be enough to feed all of New York City for a year. Imagine getting fresh grocery right by you instead of having it trucked in from countryside farms.
For more information, please visit this articles web page.
I just found this article in slashdot about a new solar cell technology made to increase efficiency and bring down costs. The technology was developed at MIT to redirect sunlight and concentrate it to increase efficiency. The process includes dyeing the glass that will then redirect and focus the sun light to solar cells at the edges thus using less solar cells and still capturing all the sunlight. As I read through the article, the benefits to this form of solar concentration versus the “lets spin mirrors around to chase the sun” method is that it does not require mechanical mirrors chasing the sun and the main solar cell does not need to be cooled. This application could mean solar windows that will redirect light to the edges and create electricity for your home.
The link to the articles is here:http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2008/solarcells-0710.html
I also read a lot of the comments on slashdot regarding this article and the general sentiment is that none of this technology and said efficiency and cost saving will actually make it to the consumer. One of the best comments on slashdot was…”we solved the global climate crisis at least 4 times this last week”…which is hilarious but at the same time disturbing because for every “new” technology i read about that is suppose to be so dramatically life changing such as this solar cell technology…it never seems to trickle down to benefit the consumer. Solar Powered products continue to be excessively over priced because of the availability of solar cells. I have not encountered a single price drop in solar technology as an importer and distributor of solar products and I do not forsee the change. The scientists in this article claim to bring this technology into the market in 3 years but the real question is when will i be able to walk into a Home Depot/ Walmart or even GoldenGadgets.com and simply order a solar concentrating window that easily installs and then also easily hook it up to my grid without paying an additional 5000 dollars for an efficient inverter. better yet…how about having these windows in say a new Hybrid that will further assist battery charging…..the point is…new technology is wonderful…but its even better when we can actually get our hands on it and use it everyday.
Recently I read an article by Extremetech’s Loyd Case as he arranged for the installation of solar power for his home. The article is one of the best written article for installing solar power at your home.
The first article details Loyd’s experience with selecting a supplier and contractor. He went through 3 different quotes and finalized on one contractor specifically for the rebates and the “whole package” factor which meant the company did the install, wiring, mounting, rebate processing, and building permits all in one go. I thought that was great as I have spent hours on the phone and in person trying to convince hardcore DIY people that if you have the money, pay someone to do it all at once…it is worth it and it will save you a ton of headaches.
Solar Power Installation for your Home
Solar Power Monitoring and Review after one month
The article goes into details about what can go wrong when setting up such a big solar panel system. From his experience, the process of installing the solar panels seem to be the easiest and the toughest was deciding how much power he wanted to generate and then how much it will cost based on the rebates. (worked out to $38,000 after rebates and $60,000 before). Great part is that the owner is monitoring the system closely to see how long it will take before he will recoup his initial investment…and he estimates 8-9 years. Also his new electricity bill is now $11-12 dollars versus the $150+ he was paying.
For more information, please visit this articles web page.
Circa 1988…my parents invest in their first big screen TV (36″ CRT to be exact) and included with the TV was the first solar powered product I had ever seen…a solar powered remote control.
A gallon of gas was approximately $1, a first class stamp was 25 cents, and no one cared about being green or energy efficiency, yet at the age of 8 I held in my hand a remote control that will never require batteries and will operate perfectly for 10 years. Today, energy efficiency and being green is all the rave but I feel farther detached and separated from being green than I did 10 years ago. I speak strictly from my own experience but solar power technology is becoming more and more prevalent but the price and cost of entry has prevented a lot of great innovation for everyday life. Every week I will read about a technological breakthrough to reduce the cost of solar power technology but every time I request a price break from my solar supplier all I hear is that resources are more expensive and solar panel demand is higher than ever – so I have to raise your prices…crap… what happened to technological breakthroughs driving down costs?
Well as someone who trades in solar power products, I have found that solar power is becoming less prevalent and less accessible than before. If you are independently wealthy and have enough foresight to invest in a residential solar power system (approx. $60K initial investment and $40K after rebate if you’re in CA to cover about 75% of your power use), then good for you as you are one in a few that will come in contact with solar power and the benefits they bring. For the rest of us, solar power might as well be pie in the sky as solar powered products are often over priced and under utilized.
When was the last solar powered product you held in your hand? Let me re-phrase that question…when was the last time you held a solar powered product that you can: 1. use on a day to day basis, 2. saved you money and energy, 3. did not have a learning curve.
The answer for me…none. And it wasn’t until I found my old TV remote that I realized the green craze has actually stumped innovation in solar powered consumables. Everyone is so concerned with global warming and alternative energy that most of our resources are spent on chasing one big solution to all our lives. What i’m proposing is small innovative changes where green technology actually touches our everyday life so that we can personally experience the benefits. Imagine if every TV from 1988 till 2008 came with a solar powered remote, think of how many batteries will not have to be wasted…now extend that one step further…everyone that would have benefited from a self-charging remote will also be familiar with solar technology and the demand for solar powered goods will not just spike due to “an inconvenient truth” but already be a part of our lives and readily available. Think of the effect it will have on our product engineers and designers, who became familiar with solar power from a remote, might have gone on to design a solar powered iPod, or integrate a solar power casing for the Nintendo DS, or your PDA or even a GPS which is sitting on your car windshield melting from the sun when it can be converting that energy to power itself.
The rush to be green in my opinion has actively driven our money and resources to chase a pipe dream to fix all our problems in one swoop (see solar satellite plan by NASA ) whereas I believe we need small solutions that is easily accessible to all and more importantly involve individuals to partake in becoming energy efficient.
Introduction to LED Lighting.
LED, Light Emmitting Diode, is a semiconductor chip that emits light when conducting current. LEDs are very versatile as they can emit multiple spectrums of light and provide highly efficient lighting without wasting power. In the early days of LEDs, LED lights were primarily used as indicator lights in remotes and electronic appliances. The little green or red light blinking on and off on your cellphone or your tv remote are LED lights. As LED lights evolved, they became capable of producing acceptable levels of illumination for primary lighting use such as flashlights, home lighting, and office lighting.
The very first LED primary light that I came in contact with was an LED Keychain light which I purchased from a county fair. It was expensive but certainly impressive. It cost $25 and was about the size of a quarter. It had 1 single 5mm LED attached to a CR2016 lithium battery and it was bright. You could not look directly into the LED as it was blinding and from then on, the popularity of LED lights grew.
LED Flashlights
Because of the energy efficiency of LEDs, most initial development using LEDs were primarily in developing flashlights. The led keychain brought about a revolution which led to the LED flashlight first only using 1 LED to upwards of 41 LEDs in a single flashlight. Traditional incandescent flashlight had a major problem was that they sucked up energy and were easy to break due to the filament bulbs. An incandescent bulb flashlight might last 30min to 60min max on say 2 x AA batteries whereas the new LED flashlights were able to produce 10-20 hrs of illumination on the same 2 x AA batteries and be more durable as the LEDs did not have any loose filaments. All the benefits of LED flashlights were easily recognizeable and development in LED flashlights flourished. Within months, we saw LED flashlight manufactures move from 1 LED flashlights to 14 LED flashlights to now 41 LED flashlights. LED flashlights manufactured with 5mm LEDs had one major drawback…range. 5mm LED has an effective range of 10-15 feet whereas Xenon lights were able to project light out to 50 and even 100 feet away. LED technology was growing and newer high powered LEDs were entering the market to address the range challenge. Initially introduced by Philips LumiLEDs, the high power LED branded the Luxeon was the first LED to challenge traditional flashlights in brightness and range while still retained the energy-efficiency of the LED. The first Luxeon used 1-Watt of power to create upwards of 40-50 lumens.
The First LED Light Bulb carried by GoldenGadgets.com
Once the high-powered LED flashlights entered the market, we started seeing the first of the household LED lights. The first 110V AC LED light bulb I saw was the 18 LED Spot Light (L-18S) . This light bulb was based on the MR16 size but had the E27 Edison Screw-In base. The 18 LEDs were 5 mm directional LEDs clustered together to project a spot light. The light output was decent for a small spot light but not as powerful as a standard incandescent bulb. But unlike a conventional bulb, this bulb was drawing a little over 1 watt of power… 1 Watt versus say 60 watt incandescent spot light. Also the light bulb was suppose to last 50,000 hours and be more durable as it does not have fragile filaments. I was not impressed by the light output, but the energy efficiency and the durability made a viable case for the LED light bulb and for GoldenGadgets to pursue developing it further. The barriers to entry were mainly two things: 1. price, and 2. light output. We needed to find the most direct source for these LED bulbs so that we can bring the price low enough to justify the switch to this new technology. When we first carried this bulb in June 2002, the cost was upwards of $39.99 and that was considered cheap as a keychain at the time with 1 led cost $29.99. The other thing was how can we effectively increased light output without dramatically increasing the cost of the bulb. We had already seen the first Luxeon bulb in a flashlight but it was too costly to place in a light bulb, so we decided the opposite direction…stick with low power 5mm LEDs and just keep adding the number of LEDs to increase the light output. When GoldenGadgets.com officially opened the online retail site on June of 2003, we carried some 10-12 LED flashlights and 1 LED light bulb which was the L-18S.
The Progression of LED Lighting and LED Light Bulbs
Starting from the 18 LED light bulb, we started actively pursuing newer and better LED bulb technology. The next progression for us was to double the number of LEDs to increase the light output and keep the cost down. The next LED bulb we started to carry was the L-36S: 36 x 5mm LED bulbs clustered in a PAR38 bulb body. The new bulb used a little bit more than 3 Watts of power and was significantly brighter. Also with the introduction of the L-36S, we started to carry the L-18S in various colors. Many of our customers have decorative lighting that is kept on 24-hours a day and when using LED bulbs, our customers were able to realize maximum savings.
The next step was the development of the LED flood light. The LED Spot lights were fantastic as a spot light but was not useful when you needed area lighting. As we were trying to solve this problem, the LED industry started introducing the wide angle LED (capable of 120 degree viewing angle) and they were cheap and produced a significant amount of light. With that development, came the first sets of L-39F: 39 Wide Angle LED Light Bulb. The success of the flood bulb eventually led to the development of the L-120F: 120 Wide Angle LED Light bulb placed in a PAR38 light bulb.
While low power LEDs used in clusters were developed and pushed to the max, the high-powered LED bulbs were making its way into the home market. We started seeing MR16 GU5.3 Bi-Pin bulbs that used 1 to 3 Watts of power and provided a powerful beam on par to that of a 45-60 watt halogen spot light bulb. Recently we have started seeing the development of clustering high-powered LED bulbs as well as the development of a new type of high-powered LED bulb from CREE. CREE developed a high-powered LED bulb that was able to generate almost twice the amount of lumens with the same amount of power. The new bulbs put the industry on alert as bulbs like the Luxeon has enjoyed there monopolistic dominance of the market and have put R&D on the back seat. Now the LED market is extremely healthy due to the tremendous amount of competition from LumiLEDs to CREE to SSL and they are starting to come from different countries and industries.
LED Lighting Benefits and calculating the energy saving potentials
Benefits:
If you are replacing a 100-Watt incandescent bulb with say one of our newer 3-Watt LED Spot Lights and lets assume that this light will be on at least 12 hours a day.
you will save 97 Watts of power per hour and 1164 Watts of power per day and that translates to 34920 Watts per month. In CA, an average kilowatt is $0.12 so in one month of switching to this LED bulb, you have saved $4.19 off your electricity bill. The price of our LED light bulb in this example is $14.99 on sale and $19.99 regular price. So basically, you will recover your purchase cost of the bulb within 5 months of usage but the bulb is intended to last 50,000 hour which is about 139 months if you use the bulb 12 hours a day for 30 days a month. You will save approx. $581.94 for the duration that you own and use this LED bulb.
Ok most people will argue that the bulb does not produce enough light to replace a 100-Watt incandescent bulb. So lets re-run this scenario with a 40 Watt incandescent or CFL bulb replacement. You save 37 watts per hour for 12 hrs a day which equals 444 watts per day and 13320 Watts per month. Once again using CA as an example and assuming $0.12 per kilowatt, that translates to $1.60 saving per month. To recover your bulb cost of $19.99, run the bulb for 12-13 months and you have saved that much…but did i mention that the bulb will last for an additional 126 months and save you an additional $201.60 in the life time of the bulb.
Different Types of LED bulbs and Sockets
As I look through the emails and questions from my customers, one of the primary questions I get are which socket and which power source should I purchase… so here are the details:
There are a lot of different light bulb bases and I will go through the different kinds we carry:
E27 or Edison Base or Screw-In Base
GU5.3 or Bi-Pin
GU10
Here are the two different voltage types:
110V AC
I have no idea how i would illustrate 110V by pictures so I will give a brief explanation. 110V AC refers to: 1. the voltage in this case 110 which is the voltage for the US. Europe and most of Asia operate off of 220V. 2. AC means alternating current which is a way of alternating electrical current to make it easier and safer to distribute electricity further. Almost all residential electrical outlets work off of the AC system as the power is distributed from a central transformer.
Simply put…if it plugs into your house…more than likely it is AC powered. If you are in the US…then it is 110V AC.
12V DC
To be continued…
Putting My BlackBerry Curve on a 1-Week Solar Power Diet.
I have carried our S-2600P: Solar Power Battery Charger for approximately 4 months now and I had conducted many preliminary tests on the product. This week I will be doing a week long test by keeping my Blackberry Curve only on solar power from this unit. Here is the plan:
Include a S-2600P: Solar Power Battery Charger on my dashboard to charge the unit. Only charge my Blackberry Curve by the S-2600P and nothing else. Monitor the results and see how practical it is to power my Blackberry by Solar all the time.
My first day started last friday. I had tossed out my blackberry AC charger and added the S-2600P into my car dash.
This is the exact unit available here:
S-2600P: 2600 mAh Portable Solar Power Pack
So the basics of this unit is as follows:
The S-2600P is a 2600 mAh lithium ion battery pack that you can charge by solar power or by AC power via USB. The BlackBerry Curve 8300 that I use is the Pale Gold Curve from T-Mobile which as WIFI, Bluetooth, and Edge. For the purpose of this experiment, I only have Edge connections on and WIFI off as well as Bluetooth off.
I started my experiment on Friday August 1st, 2008. First thing first, I stopped charging my Blackberry Curve and placed a S-2600P on my car dash.
I use my Blackberry a lot as I collect emails from 4 different emails account including the goldengadget emails. By Saturday about 8:45 pm, my Blackberry was blinking its green light complaining of low battery. My S-2600P Solar Power Charger has been sitting on my dash for about a day and a half and getting sunlight basically on the first half on Saturday between 9:00 am – 1:00 pm (4 hours of solar charge). I had my doubts as to whether the S-2600P had gotten enough sun to fully charge my battery, so I just left my Blackberry in the car connected to the S-2600P. I got back into my car at midnight and my Blackberry Curve was fully charged. I could not tell whether the solar power pack was completely drained but I know that my Blackberry stopped receiving a charge and was currently full power.
The weekend is now over and my Blackberry still has half its power. My S-2600P is on my car dash and will be receiving plenty of sunlight as I leave it parked outside from 9:00am – 5:00 pm (8 hours). This should be sufficient time to fully charge the S-2600P: Solar Power charger. When I leave work, I expect my Blackberry to have about half its power left and I will start charging it on my S-2600P while I go climb from 6:00 pm to 10:30 pm.
August 5th, 2008
So my solar unit charged itself while my car was parked out of the office and I used it to charge my Blackberry Curve while I climbed. When I went back to my car, my blackberry was almost max charged (the very last bar was kind of faded) but my S-2600P: Solar Battery Charger seems to be completely drained. I tried to plug it in and out of the blackberry just to see if i can get a little more juice out of it but it did not respond. I was kind of worried that the S-2600P was completely shot so I took it home and plugged it into my USB port to make sure the unit was still working. Plugged it in and the S-2600P charging indicator light came back on. I unplugged it and threw the unit back in my car. This morning on my way to work, I plugged my Curve into the solar charger and just let it soak up the sun. BlackBerry has 3/4 of it battery and the S-2600P is once again outside soaking up the sun.
Funny thing is when I had my solar charger at the climbing gym, people were interested but they thought it was broken because the S-2600P uses the Poly-Crystalline solar cell which looks shattered but in fact gives off more power. I’ll keep this updated till the weekend. Here is a pic of my S-2600P charging my blackberry this morning:
We’ll see how it holds up for the rest of the week.
August 6th, 2008
My blackberry is down to 3 bars of power (out of 5 bars) and I’m gonna bring my solar charger into my office and charge my blackberry. I started charging it at 10:15 am and the solar charger is doing fine. I think i will have my blackberry back to full power by noon. I’ll keep this article updated.
Ok so it is now 11:49am and my Blackberry is fully charged. It took approx. 1 hr and 15 min to replenish my blackberry of 2 bars of power…not bad. however, there is one drawback that i noticed. The solar power pack will continue to give power to my blackberry even after it has been fully charged. I believe this is the same thing as having your blackberry plugged in as the blackberry will choose to be powered by the external battery instead of its own internal battery. Because of this, I do not recommend leaving your solar power pack plugged into your blackberry unattended as it will completely drain your solar power pack and you will have to recharge your solar power pack back from zero. In the meantime, I will toss this solar charger back on my car dash and let it recharge itself.
August 7th, 2008
It is 11:11am and I am starting to get bored of this project as I realize that basically my blackberry will use up 2 bars of power per day and then my S-2600P solar charger will replenish it in the next 1-2 hours. My phone is charging now and i’m pretty sure it will be fully charged before 1 pm. I will continue this project till August 11th just to commit to the week but the S-2600P works great and honestly I’ll probably end up charging my blackberry this way as it does not disrupt my phone usage and I even have extra power along with me in the car.
Ok it is now 12:27pm, approximately 1 hr and 16 min. later and my blackberry curve is back to full charge. I am dropping off my S-2600P back into my car dash now so it can replenish itself.
August 8th, 2008
Hey the Olympics just kicked off and my blackberry is still only being charged by solar power with no problem. once again…it is 11 ish and my Blackberry has only used up 1 bar of power. I am charging it again with the S-2600P solar power pack and it works…what more can i say. now lets see how this thing holds up through the weekend and maybe i’ll actually have some interesting updates on monday.
August 11th, 2008
My last weekend with the S-2600P did turn up some surprises so here goes…
First of all, I did not charge my phone by any means other than using the S-2600P powered by the sun for approximately 7-8 days. The last weekend with the S-2600P, I finally ran out of power. I used my blackberry curve on friday, saturday, and half day sunday till my phone only had 1 bar of power left. I then went to my car and got the S-2600P solar power pack to charge my phone. I left it in my room to charge and 1-2 hours later I came back to check on it and the blackberry curve had been charged to 4 bars (1 bar short of full) and my S-2600P has been completely drained. I was mildly disappointed but I had not drive my car since friday and therefore my S-2600P has not been replenished for 2 1/2 days. I placed the S-2600P back on my car dash and has been recharging.
This concludes my week of solar for my Blackberry. In my week long experiment with the blackberry, I found the S-2600P to provide ample power to keep my Blackberry charged throughout the week.
Pros:
+ solar charging all day everyday even when my phone was not connected
+ internal battery held enough charge to fill up my blackberry everyday
+ multiple plug-in options as it includes a female USB plug so I even charged my Ibiza Rhapsody when I was low on power
Cons:
- the metallic body of the S-2600P made it extremely hot after a few hours under the sun
- no suction cup or holder of any sorts (I just jammed it in my car dash)
In my opinion I believe the S-2600P solar battery charger is a great product especially if you are traveling a lot. As a day to day solar charger for my blackberry, I found it sufficient and provided enough power. But taking the product in and out of my car was inconvenient and if you do wish to power your phone by only solar, I recommend keeping the S-2600P at home near a window as that will provide sun shine everyday and you do not have to worry about not getting enough sun (recommend south facing window).
UPDATE
August 13th, 2008
I have recently tested the S-2600P: 2600 mAh Solar Battery Charger on my Ibiza Rhapsody as well as on a Nokia 5300 music express phone and an iPOD Nano 3 (new little one with video). Here are some pictures.
