Monthly Archive for October, 2009

Bright Idea: LEDs on Halloween!

Published
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admin
on October 29, 2009
in Uncategorized
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41y-prfw5xl_sl500_aa280_I don’t know about you, but Halloween is my favorite holiday. Any day you’re allowed to eat as much sugar as you want while simultaneously pretending to be somebody else is fine by me. And what about pumpkins? I mean, they’re delicious in a pie OR in a ravioli (my two favorite food groups), they’re fun to carve and smash, and their seeds make for a delightful savory snack. What’s not to like? Throw in the popcorn balls and the apple cider, and I’m in heaven.

Now, I’m not such a fan of admitting the downsides to Halloween, but granted, they do exist. First of all, it gets dark out there while you’re skipping around the neighborhood demanding candy. Between the spooky costume and all of the frantic street crossing, who knows, you might get hit by a car. And if you’re the one giving out the candy, you’ve got to deal with all of those trespassers trampling all over your lawn and your flowerbeds, trying to make it up to your door. And what about the fact that your jack-o-lanterns might catch on fire and burn your house down? I don’t care how much candy is involved, that’s just no fun.

Well, as luck might have it, there is one solution to all of the above mentioned problems. Let me spell it out for you: L-E-D. That’s right. LEDs are so lightweight and energy efficient, they can be easily incorporated into any costume. Not to mention the fact that they come in any color imaginable, so they’ll be sure to match, even accentuate, what you’re wearing. Furthermore, a quick install of LED strip lighting on your front walk way will ensure those pesky kids stay of the grass when they’re trick-or-treating, and a tiny battery-powered LED bulb inserted into your jack-o-lantern will prevent any fires from ruining your evening.

Let LEDs light up the spookiest day of the year, so you can enjoy it completely, without any fear!

Visit our store to find a wide assortment of LEDs today!

Produce the Lamps

Published
by
Dan
on October 28, 2009
in Uncategorized
. 1 Comment

wagner-bulbs

In 2007 there was an excellent exhibition of the photography of Catherine Wagner at Stephen Wirtz Gallery in San Francisco. Wagner had done an artist residency at the Baltimore Museum of Industry for almost two years and, in the course of it, discovered the museum’s collection of historic light bulbs, which numbered over 50,000. Her pictures focused on older bulbs from the 1890s and the 1900s, but also included experimental and colorful bulbs from later in the 20th century. Photos of old bulbs doesn’t sound like much on paper, but looking at them is quite an experience, and you can see in them the hand-blown glass bulbs and the many different materials and shapes of the filaments. You can see more of them at the Stephen Wirtz web site.

Because for many decades, Thomas Edison in the United States, Joseph Swan in England, and several others in Europe and the U.S. were racing to perfect what used to be called “light-in-a-bottle.” Countless experiments were carried out with a multitude of materials to determine what the brightest and longest-lasting material would be to make up a light bulb’s filament. Compressed charcoal, platinum, something called “tar-putty,” and even carbonized bamboo were tried until tungsten was settled on as the most efficient ingredient for a good filament.

carbon-lamp

Hot competition for bringing the best bulb to market involved Edison in dozens of trials brought by and against him. The most well-known may be the proceedings he brought against the United States Electric Lighting Company for patent infringement. The evidence that eventually won him both the case and a secure place in history took the shape of a box of prototype bulbs that was produced by his assistant John Howell with the words, “I hereby produce the lamps.” (If only the writers of Law & Order could come up with a line that good.) The box was found in 2006 in someone’s attic, and you can get an even better idea of the evolution of incandescent bulbs by looking at what was inside, as well as read about the trials of Edison at the edisonian.com.

So, as much as all of us here are convinced of the advantages of LED light technology, and as much as it is an important part of the future, let’s take a moment to appreciate the good old light bulb, and that all it took to vastly change the old world into the modern world was a wire with electricity passing through it (which is all an LED bulb is, too, after all.) Let’s remember a time when incandescent bulbs were the future, and an amazing, blazing one at that.

Black Lights Not Just for Dorm Rooms Anymore

Published
by
Christine
on October 26, 2009
in Creative-Uses and LED Lights
. 2 Comments

Remember that show that aired a few years back? The one where they guy takes a blacklight into a hotel room and reaveals all of the stains on the bedspread? Well, as gross as those discoveries may have been, watching that show also proved that blacklight can provide more than a groovy ambiance in a college dorm room. It can also make visibe certain things that are not visible in normal light.

First of all, what is black light? Black light emits very little light that is visible to the human eye, with wavelengths that begin at the extreme end of the visible light spectrum and on into the invisible range of short, ultra-violet radiation. Humans cannot see much light coming from a black light, but certain colors, pigments and materials absorb the invisible radiation then emit it, causing a glowing effect. All black lights emit UV rays, but depending on the length of the rays, different black lights can be used for different purposes.


Long wave UV black lights are usually employed in concerts and nightclubs because they are best for making things glow and creating ambiance. Medium wave UV rays are most likely what we saw in the TV show, because they cause certain bodily fluids (like blood, saliva and semen) to light up, and they can also be used to detect security markers in currency, making them useful in crime scenes and forensic labs.  Finally, short wave UV light is used to purify water and for other germicidal purposes.

And now, LEDs are making black lights more accessible than ever. Instead of lugging around a clunky flourescent black light that you have to plug in, for instance, you can get an energy-efficient black light LED flashlight that you can take with you anywhere. Just think, now you can detect all kinds of things in the dark (even certain insects and gems glow under black light). And best of all, you will never have to sleep under a dirty hotel blanket again!

The Angeles Light It Up at Anaheim Stadium

Published
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admin
on October 22, 2009
in Creative-Uses, Green Companies and LED Lights
. 2 Comments

Wow, it’s a close game.

It’s the bottom of the 7th inning in the 5th game of the American League Championships series, the Anaheim Angles versus the New York Yankees. The Yankees lead the series 3 to 1. In this game, they just scored 6 runs in the top of the 7th to put themselves back in the lead; the Angles have scored 5.

BUT, in the bottom of the 7th, the Angeles rally to bring the score back in their favor: 7 to 6. And thats where we sit right now; it’s a tense situation, let me tell you. I’ve got an Angeles fan on one side (my dad) and a Yankees fan on the other (my boyfriend). I’m not exactly sure to root for, and I know that no matter who wins, I’ll have a grumpy male to deal with.

Its no wonder then, that my mind turns to happier, brighter things. Namely, the lights on the field. No, I’m not talking about the big overhead lights that illuminate the field itself, but the lights that make up the images flashing in the advertising banners throughout the stadium. These banners and screens, which not only provide advertising for stadium sponsors, are also responsible for those flashy, eye-catching visuals we all love to cheer along to during an especially nerve-racking moment in the game, or during the 7th inning stretch.

And, if you’re an LED fan like I am, you’ll be happy to find out that most of those banners and screens are comprised of energy efficient, environmentally-friendly LED lights. Not only do LEDs help stadiums save on energy costs, they also allow for seamless and vibrant color changes in the images they are creating. That’s because LEDs can be digitally programmed to emit almost any color imaginable. Compared to the old days, when color changes in lighting had to be accomplished through plastic filters or switching out costly colored bulbs, LEDs are a big step up.

It’s the 8th inning, and the Angels are leading 7-6. Since I (like most of us here at Elemental LED) am from California, I have to admit, I’m rooting for the Angeles. So I guess it’s my lucky day when, with Yankees loading the bases, the Angeles still manage to come out ahead in the 8th inning, and they win the game! Yay! Afterall, it’s just another thing to feel good about, along with the fact that that baseball is just another place LEDs have taken the lead in lighting.

Treasure Island Music Fest Leads the Way with LEDs

Published
by
Christine
on October 21, 2009
in Company News, Creative-Uses, Green-Eco-Friendly, Health, Home and LED Lights
. 0 Comments

San Francisco’s Treasure Island Music Festival is only in its third year, but judging by the event’s production, you might think it has been around for a lot longer. First of all, the line up is a mix of big names and high-quality underground acts (usually in the electronic or indie rock categories). This year featured groups like MGMT, The Flaming Lips, MSTRKRFT, Grizzly Bear, LTJ Bukem, and many more. However, this ~15,000-person festival maintains the feel of a smaller event by building only two stages, which alternate back and forth without overlapping shows. This means that you’ll never have to miss an act, and you can bounce from one stage to the other to get your fill of your favorite artist or to hear something new without the fear of missing out on another act.

And while you’re watching a show, you’ll notice, as I did, that the stage is catching your eye in more ways than one. Not only do the rock stars up front offer some enticing aesthetic appeal, but so do the visuals depicted behind the band, thanks to the production team’s liberal use of LED lights. Instead of using a projection screen for visuals on stage as many festivals do, the Treasure Island main stage was decked out with a 3-foot X 30’-foot rectangle that was composed entirely of small LED lights. Each LED acted like a pixel, making up a portion of the whole “grid.” From a distance, the LEDs all blurred together to create one rectangular screen upon which an image was displayed. Even better, this screen was framed by a 40-foot long and 10-foot wide rainbow of LED light bars, which displayed the outer edges of the image-spayed out in a rainbow shape- that was being shown on the rectangular grid below. The effect was mesmerizing and the colors displayed were more vivid than anything that could have been done using projection. And, it’s always nice to remember that the LED’s helped the festival stay green, contributing to the reduction of its carbon footprint right along with its ride-share and recycling programs.

Music festivals are always a good time, but attention to the smaller details help make them GREAT experiences. Treasure Island certainly hit that mark, and it couldn’t have done it without the help of LED technology.

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LEDs: Give Peace (or at Least the Economy) a Chance

Published
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Christine
on October 15, 2009
in Green-Eco-Friendly and LED Lights
. 1 Comment

Ok, ok, we know that the recent hullabaloo about President Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize might be a tiresome topic by now. But we here at Elemental LED felt the need to weigh in; it only seems fair since Obama sung the praises of LED technology back in July. If you didn’t catch it, a couple months ago, our President stated, “When you hear the innovation that’s taking place — everything from LED LIGHTING that can save a huge amount on energy costs to new concrete materials … that gets you excited about the future. I know light bulbs may not seem sexy, but this simple action holds enormous promise because 7 percent of all the energy consumed in America is used to light our homes and our businesses.”

Furthermore, the President made a strong point on the David Letterman show in September, when he asserted that one way to get people back to work would be to employ hundreds of thousands retrofitting buildings in America to be more energy efficient.

It turns out that whatever you think about the Nobel prize fiasco, Obama is right about this issue. The McKinsey Report, which assesses energy usage in commercial buildings in the US, stated that switching to LED lighting is the absolute number one way to save money and reduce CO2 emissions. Furthermore, the U.S. Department of Energy has discovered that U.S. energy consumption has risen from $250 billion in 1980 to over $400 billion in 2009, with seven percent of that number being spent on lighting. That means that by switching to LED lighting, we could go from spending $28 billion annually on lighting to about $6 billion. And, even better, the LED retrofits, while an expensive process to endure, will last for up to 40 years.

So, we’ll let the Nobel prize debate rage on, but on this point, we want to thank Obama for recognizing what we’ve known for a long time: LEDs are the way to a healthier planet and a healthier economy.

What do you think? We’d love to hear your comments!

The Bulb Ban: Progressive or Regressive?

Published
by
Dan
on October 14, 2009
in Green-Eco-Friendly and Uncategorized
. 3 Comments

A little over a month ago, a ban on the sale and import of high-wattage frosted incandescent bulbs in the European Union began. The ban was initiated by the E.U. with the goal of cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent by the year 2020. The commonly-used clear 60-watt bulb will still be available until at least September 2011, and clear 40-watt bulbs until 2012. The promotion of energy-efficient lighting is just part of a wider strategy by the European Commission (EC) that includes more efficient appliances, consumer electronics and small engines.

Enforcement of these rules will be on the shoulders of individual EU national governments. So the Dutch Environment Minister Jacqueline Cramer, for example, while initially announcing support for a phase-out of incandescent light bulbs (which I’ll call IBs) by 2011, then reversed her opinion. She now supports the manufacturers’ call for a longer phase-out to last until 2019. (Cramer is a former employee of Philips, the electronic giant that is on the vanguard of manufacturing OLEDs, which we blogged about last week.)

The United States is planning on phasing out IBs, but not until 2012, and is presumably looking at the EU as a testing ground. Switching to CFLs can save homeowners upwards of $50 over the life of the bulb and is usually expected to pay for itself in energy savings in less than 6 months, while the bulbs themselves last 10 times as long as IBs. And the benefits to the environment? One could say, with a rhetorical flourish, that they are “incalculable.” But they are indeed calculable: CFLs require 20% of the energy that IBs do.

At the same time, however, the EC is recommending that consumers use, in addition to CFLs, halogen bulbs, which are only slightly more efficient than IBs, since they are, after all, just another type of IB. And many people claim that governments are ignoring the glaring disadvantages of CFLs in their forced phase-out of IBs. The most common objection is that, since CFLs contain mercury, they endanger the health of individuals when they break in the home, and will endanger public health in the future as they arrive by the millions in landfills, as the technology for dealing with the mercury in spent CFLs is lagging behind their use.

Consumer objections also include: most CFLs do not work with dimmer switches; they are available in only a few sizes; some CFLs emit a bluish light; some complain of headaches while working or reading under them; and they cannot be used in recessed lighting or enclosed globes. And some object that the ban will hurt a huge part of the manufacturing and retail sector that depends on IBs, as well as creating a situation where government is unfairly influencing competition and the market.

Of course we at Elemental could suggest that you bypass the debate, and CFLs, entirely by switching to LED lights. They are non-toxic, they last 5 times as long as fluorescent lighting and are twice as energy-efficient. They are available in many colors, including different shades of white, and are more compact and fit into more places than either IBs or CFLs. Many of our LED fixtures are dimmable, several are made for recessed lighting, and several are even waterproof.

Although LEDs may currently be the best solution in a practical sense, we’d like to now what our customers and readers think about the incandescent ban as an idea. Is it fair to manipulate the market for the public good? Is lighting technology advanced enough to deal with this change? Does the current competition between IBs and CFLs resemble that of the Edison light bulb versus the gas lantern? How would you react if IBs were being banned in favor of LEDs, which have been used commercially and civically since the 1970s, but are still relatively new as household fixtures? We’d like to hear your thoughts; please leave a comment below!

LEDs Join the Fight for the Cure

Published
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Christine
on October 13, 2009
in Creative-Uses, Health and LED Lights
. 0 Comments

370px-pink_ribbonsvg-1October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and we’re pleased to note that LEDs are playing an important role in treating and supporting breast cancer patients around the world.

You may have read about UV light therapy in one of our previous posts; the treatment does wonders for healing wounds, aches, pains and even acne. Now, that same concept is being applied to cancer.

Recently, non-invasive treatment for this potentially deadly disease was unveiled at the Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition in the UK. Leading scientists have discovered that Photodynamic therapy (PDT) can kill cancer cells using light. This revolutionary method eliminates the need for invasive surgery, and might even offer an alternative to radiotherapy in some cases. Science Centric explains how the treatment works: “PDT works by giving the patient a drug that makes the target area sensitive to light. The drug is activated when light a low power red laser is beamed at the area. The process starves the cells of oxygen, causing them to die.” It turns out that LEDs are one of the most effective types of lights to use in this therapy. Because of their inherent small size and low cost, LEDs are often a better choice than lasers for treating cancer with PDT.

And, LEDs can not only help treat cancer, they can also help you to show your support for breast cancer patients and survivors; it’s not just about pink ribbons and bracelets anymore. That’s right, you can also raise awareness about breast cancer with a pink LED light. Bulbrite, an LED lighting company, is marketing the Pink DOT-it light by Sylvania, a portable, stick-anywhere LED light that comes in a brilliant pink hue. Sylvania is supporting the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation by donating 10 percent of all sales of the Pink Dot-it light to the organization. The funds will go towards breast cancer research, education, screening, and treatment. Bulbrite will also donate 10 percent of all sales of pink-colored lights to the Breast Cancer Network of Strength for the month of October

The Ever-Expanding LED Market

Published
by
Christine
on October 8, 2009
in Company News, Green Companies and Green-Eco-Friendly
. 0 Comments

We’ve all heard of the Green Revolution-even during the current economic crisis, all things “green” still seem to be a safe place to invest your, well, green. A key indicator of this trend is the way the government reacts to and becomes involved in it, and recent news reveals that government organizations are more on board than ever. In May, the Department of Energy set aside $786.5 million of Recovery Act funds, allocating them for new and existing projects in “bio-refineries, sustainability research, infrastructure-compatible biofuels and ethanol research.” The government has also awarded $2.3 billion in tax credits to businesses who specialize in clean-tech equipment manufacturing.

And as if that’s not enough, the LED market is purportedly on the rise in a big way. In September, Business Week reported that while the LED market is currently a small portion of the lighting industry, it is anticipated to become the fastest-growing sector over the next 10 years. One thing that will help the LED industry grow is the national goal to improve building efficiency by 25-50 percent in the next ten years, according to Business Week.

Evidence of this new trend is popping up all over the country, as well as the world. For instance, new LED lighting technology will be installed in the Elb-Tunnel in Hamburg, Germany. The LEDs will not only help move traffic safely through the tunnel, but will also reduce energy usage and carbon emissions. And PR Newswire just reported that LEDs will completely replace halogen bulbs in the European surgical market by 2014. In fact, European nations are incorporating LEDs more rapidly than the United States.

But, the US is not far behind. Indianapolis, for instance, just joined ranks with other American cities by switching to using LEDs in their traffic signals. Indianapolis received federal stimulus funds to help them make the change, thanks to the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant Program.

It seems that no matter where you look, LEDs are popping up, lighting the way to a brighter, cleaner, safer future.

If Walls Could Talk…

Published
by
Christine
on October 5, 2009
in Creative-Uses, Green-Eco-Friendly, Home and LED Lights
. 0 Comments

LED WallpaperIf walls could talk, the ones covered in LED wallpaper would have a lot of interesting things to say. No disrespect to all of those ordinary walls out there, but this new product, created by graphic designer Jonas Samson, can turn a regular wall into a dynamic, beautiful and functional cutting-edge art piece. Not only does the light emitted from the wallpaper help to create soft, a ambient glow in any room, it also can shift and change shape as it moves across the surface of the wall, similar to the way a screen saver image moves across a computer monitor.

wallpaper_1

You might be wondering: How is the seemingly bulky technology required to power light images capable of fitting into the singular dimensions of wallpaper? Such streamlined engineering wouldn’t be possible without lightweight, energy-efficient, tiny LEDs. It works like this: the wallpaper is made of three different layers that work together to create the lighting experience. One layer conducts electricity, another layer transfers the electricity to the LEDs themselves, which reside in the third layer. Finally, those three layers are coated with ordinary wall paper, which allows the product to be placed on any wall in any home or business.

And, just wait! There’s more exciting news in the world of LED wallpaper. New inroads are being made in the OLED (Organic LED) market by General Electric, which has come out with a way to print OLEDs onto very thin surfaces like wallpaper. Typically, novelty LED items top out at 15 lumens per watt, but OLEDs are even brighter while maintaining efficiency; they can achieve a brightness of 30 lumens per watt. General Electric has reportedly set the goal of getting OLEDs to 100 lumens per watt in the near future.

To see more LED Wallpaper designs, visit Jonas Samson’s website at http://www.jonassamson.com.