Philips Joins The Climate Group’s LED Lighting Campaign

Philips has become a corporate partner in The Climate Group’s three-year Clean Revolution campaign, which aims to speed up the global switch to LED lighting.

Philips Lighting has become the first corporate partner to join The Climate Group’s three-year Clean Revolution campaign. The partnership aims to speed up the global switch to LED lighting, which offers extraordinary opportunities for significant cuts in both energy use and worldwide carbon-dioxide emissions, according to the participants.

The Climate Group is an independent, not-for-profit organization working with governments and business leaders to advance policies, technologies and financing that will accelerate low-carbon economic growth. In December 2009, The Climate Group launched its LightSavers program of outdoor LED lighting demonstration projects.

The participants believe that LED lighting also provides important social benefits, such as higher productivity at work, increased road safety, more-effective school learning and an enhanced sense of well-being and comfort at home, in buildings and on streets.

Marc de Jong, CEO of Professional Lighting Solutions, at Philips, said: “We have joined the Clean Revolution campaign as we believe it is an excellent avenue to further strengthen the case for LED lighting that can lead to dramatic savings in energy and spur low carbon growth, while enhancing people’s feeling of security and comfort on streets, in buildings, and at home.”

“This partnership underlines our commitment as a leading health and well-being company to drive the wave of innovative LED lighting and provide meaningful solutions that improve people’s quality of life.”

Mark Kenber, CEO of The Climate Group, said: “Over the next three years we will be working with Philips to highlight the opportunity for governments and corporations in investing in the low-carbon economy with a focus on expanding the use of what is one of the most promising smart technologies, LEDs.”

Kenber said that the Lightsavers program had seen LED-lighting pilots in ten global cities, including Hong Kong, London, New York and Mumbai. “Our cooperation with Philips will allow us to further highlight the great cost-savings and energy efficiency improvement LEDs provide and catalyze a low carbon transformation in lighting around the world,” he said.

Currently, lighting accounts for around 19% of global electricity production. A full switch to LED lighting could reduce energy consumption for lighting by 40% worldwide. This translates to approximately 130 billion euros in running costs and 670 million tons of avoided carbon-dioxide emissions per year.

Furthermore, the switch to LED lighting could cut back the need for capital investment in new electricity-generation capacity of over 1 trillion euros – or some 640 power plants.



Reasons That LED Downlights Are so Popular

When it comes to energy-efficient lighting, LED downlighting is the latest trend. With the advancement in technology, lighting has come-of-age with the availability of LED downlights. Today, people are beginning to discover the numerous benefits from using this lighting product.

An LED downlight is proven to yield impressive energy-saving qualities, making conventional incandescent and fluorescent bulbs pale in comparison. Now you can use only far less power. While others argue about the expensive price of LED downlights, this amount will definitely be recovered in a short time since consumers will be assured they will be saving a significant amount of money on their electricity. You will enjoy a fabulous quality of light for your home or building, at a great monthly power rate.

Here are some of the benefits making more and more consumers change to LED:

1. LED downlights are very energy-efficient. To be specific, they use almost 90% less power when compared to incandescent downlights, and almost 50% less power than fluorescent. This feature means significant savings in your costs.

2. LED downlights are long-lasting. They last tens of thousands of hours, which is more or less equivalent to a lifespan of 25 years with normal usage.

3. LED require no constant maintenance or changing. You are assured that your LED downlight won’t burn out, but will simply go dim at the end of its lifespan. When this happens -after at least twenty years of usage- this is a signal that you finally need to replace it.

Available colors of LED downlights

LED downlights are perfect when you need a light similar to daylight. They are available in two main colors: warm white and neutral white.

If you want the yellow glow that is similar to that produced by an incandescent bulb, choose the warm white LED downlights. If you prefer neutral or daylight color that is thrown by a fluorescent lamp, then choose neutral white. Ensure that you get the right color by checking the product. Basically, a 2700K colour temperature means the LED emits a golden glow. You must get one with a color temperature of 3500K if you want a neutral-white light.

LED downlights and other LED-based lighting in general are a boon to the environment -more than the conventional or other known energy-efficient lighting alternatives. For instance, LED downlights do not contain a trace of toxic mercury; this means that there are no environmental hazards to be concerned about if you need to replace them.

However, you need to buy only top-quality LED downlight products. The LED lighting industry is still fairly new, and there are unscrupulous manufacturers producing inferior quality LED products. By purchasing superior LED downlights, you are assured of not only superb quality in color of light and brightness, but also the best in energy-efficiency.



Osram Opto Semiconductors And Arquiled Partner on All-LED Supermarkets in Portugal

New supermarkets owned by the Jerónimo Martins Group have been equipped with intelligent LED fixtures from Arquiled that use LEDs from Osram Opto Semiconductors.

The Jerónimo Martins Group has installed all-LED lighting inside and outside its new supermarkets located in Portugal. The first installation took place in 2011 in its Recheio store in Torres Vedras, a region north of Lisbon. The installation uses LEDs from Osram Opto Semiconductors and luminaires and intelligent light management system from Arquiled, a Portuguese lamp manufacturer, to reduce energy cost for lighting by up to 50 percent. The lighting in the shopping and outdoor areas will be used as a model and reference for the chain’s other stores. The second installation will take place in a store in Tavira, Portugal.

“Apart from the performance and efficiency of the products, which are unparalleled on the LED market, another winning feature of the LEDs from Germany is the excellent local support we receive,” said Rafael Abelha Santos, CEO of Arquiled.

Arquiled developed the luminaires for the project based on a detailed assessment of the retailer’s lighting requirements. A key advantage to using LEDs in supermarkets is the fact that they emit little thermal energy and therefore can be placed close to food to illuminate it directly without damage. Three Arquiled modules are to be used at the Jerónimo Martins in Tavira: the Arquiway, a module that uses four Oslon SSL LEDs; the Arquistore, with 72 Oslon SSL LEDs per luminaire; and Arquishelf luminaires, which provide shelf lighting using 56 Oslon SSL LEDs.

The Jerónimo Martins Group is among the first European retail companies to equip its new stores entirely with LED lighting, including the outdoor parking lot and integrated gas stations. The Arquicity street lamps incorporate light sensors and can adjust light levels automatically. Antonio Sousa of Osram Opto Semiconductors in Portugal said “The technical properties of the LED technology will help to achieve considerable savings on power consumption and offer numerous advantages in terms of installation and maintenance, too. That means we save three different resources: power, time and money.”



Features to Deliberate on Replacing Halogen Bulbs to LED Light Bulbs

In case you are considering changing your conventional energy powered halogen light bulbs for power reduced LED light bulbs there are some aspects to think about when taking these actions. This simple yet life transforming step can help decrease your energy production by more than 50 percent and reduce your monthly light cost. But before you decide to make this phase take some time that is needed to comprehend the importance in energy efficient solutions.

The definition of LED light bulbs is defined as light emitting diodes which are responsible for conserving energy as well eliminating any disposable hazardous materials that are found in your traditional halogen light bulb. Making LED light bulbs a safer alternative in regards to placing these products in your home and around your family.

If you want to replace halogen bulbs with LED lights you will have already conserved 75 percent more electrical power in this simple purchase, now consider if you were to entirely swap almost every traditional light bulb with LED fixture, the sum of savings would be huge.

Since halogen light bulbs were created before the energy crisis, we now consider LED light bulbs the new and improved way to implement light in your home, as well as diminishing unwanted heat that traditional halogen light bulbs are known to produce. It has been reported that 90 percent of energy that is produced by regular lights transmits into heat, creating wasted energy as well as unsafe environment. LED light bulbs are well known to only create a small fraction of wasted heat while supplying sufficient lighting.

LED light sources have a life span of around 50,000 hours of helpful lighting time, when compared with your halogen bulb that is only anticipated to carry only 6,000 hours of effective lighting time. That is a lot more than triple the quantity of lighting hours that LED lights can produce, proving this a better more effective product to make investments your finances into.

Although, there have been discrepancies in regards to the cost of each of these products, the quality and saving can be seen for years to come with LED light bulbs. Your regular halogen light bulb can run you 5 dollars for each one, while your LED bulbs can run for 50 dollars each. Even though LED light bulbs are more expensive than traditional bulbs, the amount of saving in electricity bills as well as the replacement bulbs that are deducted when you use a LED light bulbs, will save you hundreds in the long run.

If you contain dimming light fixtures in your home or business, this is the only benefit of halogen bulbs when compared to LED light bulbs. Halogen light bulbs are known to work with these fixtures for the simple fact they are in controlled environment. This is compared to being left on for several hours producing large amounts of unwanted heat. LED light bulbs were made to with stand long periods of use while conserving energy and producing less heat.



Why People Should Buy LED Light Bulbs

You’re running out of time resisting LED light bulbs. The US government has already implemented an Energy Conservation Bill that phases out less energy-efficient light sources. The phase-out starts in 2012, and each year after that, the energy-efficiency requirement becomes steeper.

Apart from that, there are lots more advantages to appreciate. Because LED light bulbs use up very little power, expect your electricity cost to go down also. And not only you conserve a lot of money, you also assist to create a better environment.

Not convinced yet? Here are 4 reasons why you should Buy LED Light Bulbs soon. All these reasons take into account previous misconceptions on LEDs and will help you see its many advantages.

1-Only LED lighting meet the DOE’s energy-efficiency norm.

The US Department of Energy’s proficiency rating demands bulbs to be very cost-effective by 25%. This implies light sources must consume electricity and convert that to generating light more beneficial by 25%. In fact, the innovative regulation isn’t basically banning one specific kind of lighting source, example the incandescent bulbs. It also doesn’t favor one over another. Being said that, standard incandescent bulbs do not match the new energy-efficiency standard.

Homeowners are not pressured to change their lights systems all at one time. LED bulbs can be pricey. Alter your bulbs one at a time, so the impact on your financial budget is minimized.

2-The investment is definitely worth it.

Energy-solving typically include a hefty price. Solar panels, for example, initially cost you thousands. But the prices ultimately went down, when the technology became refined, more producers entered the fray, and marketplace demand grew. LEDs will go through the same path, but since the energy bill mentioned previously is already in position, you simply shouldn’t wait around until LEDs get less expensive. All the more reason why you have to Buy LED Light Bulbs quickly.

Right now there is a large price variance between incandescent and LEDs. However, the decline in operational price (simply described as your electricity bill), will soon pay for the money you spent getting these lights. LED lights, briefly, pay for themselves. Plus, they give back the investment also with considerably long life cycles. Even the cheapest-quality LED light can endure up to 30 000 hours, while the best quality incandescent is able to only perform for about 1000.

3-The health issue.

The principal competitor of LEDs with regards to operational financial savings is CF lights, which utilizes hazardous mercury vapor to elucidate. The flickering in fluorescent light tubes and CF Ls has also been recognized to cause migraines and set off epileptic attacks.

LEDs, in contrast, do not flicker in any way, and they light immediately. They also do not give off any harmful ingredients. So the plain answer why you should Buy LED Light Bulbs shortly is, they’re beneficial to health.

4-Dimmable

LED designs are dimmable, basically compatible with nearly all dimmable systems. This raises your operational savings a lot more, just be cautious, though. You will most likely be required a custom-built fixtures for LEDs that come with their distinct dimmer settings. The great news is that leading hardware stores now have a full range of LED-related fixtures and accessories.