Author Archive for Dan

LEDs light up a midtown gallery

Published
by
Dan
on January 26, 2010
in DIY
. 1 Comment

We recently spoke with Grimanesa Amorós, an artist who splits her time between New York City and Peru, about a recent gallery installation in which she used some of our flexible LED strip lighting. In the installation, titled La Incubadora (2010), she has re-envisioned the Lab Gallery at Roger Smith Hotel in Manhattan as a warm human incubator for her sculptures of imagined hybrid humans.

Did this kind of flexible LED strip lighting suggest how the pieces in La Incubadora would be installed, or did you have a vision of it prior to finding the lights?

“We have often used LED lights in other projects, so we understood the potential and capabilities that are unique to LEDs. We chose your warm white LED strips because they are flexible, low voltage and can be cut to any desired length. The idea was to create futuristic heating elements around each of the figures. It needed to be flexible strips to create a curve around the wombs and to be warm white to simulate heat. Simulated warmth was important because the sculptures are made of wax and hand made abaca pulp from the Philippines, which makes them sensitive to temperature changes.”

You say in a statement about the piece that “the lighting in the space and the music…reinforce[s] the magical quality that many of us feel when confronting the wonders (or monsters?) of modern science.” How do you think the lighting helps to achieve this?

“LEDs are indicative of modernity and more and more everyday devices are incorporating built-in luminance as both a practical and an aesthetic feature. In nature, light predominately comes from the sky, therefore light from below has an eeriness which is indicative of humanity’s abstraction of nature.”

Without asking you to do the interpretation for us, how are the figures related to each other, in your view? Are they isolated? A community? What role does the lighting play in interpreting this piece?

“The humanoids are cooped up like livestock; some huddle for warmth, others try to escape. The round illumination both sustains and ensnares them. They were artificially inseminated so they have no mate outside of this space. They are all bound together under the same forced cohabitation, yet each alone.”

The final installation differs from the renderings, in that there are no silhouettes of the figures on the walls, and throughout there is just the warm white color of the lighting. What created these changes? Were there originally going to be elements of color and projection in the installation?

“I initially knew that I wanted lighting and shadow to play into this piece. I always wanted to have many more figures and the shadows would, in effect, duplicate their appearance. Unfortunately shadows are difficult to maintain in a windowed space with solar exposure, so the final execution was based on reenforcing the concept rather than multiplication of imagery.”

According to her statement, Amorós’s work “often makes use of sculpture, video, lighting and sound to create works that illuminate our notions of personal identity and community.” See more of this fascinating work at www.grimanesaamoros.com

Grimanesa Amoros's installation La Incubadora uses flexible LED strip lights.

Grimanesa Amoros's installation La Incubadora uses flexible LED strip lights.

Detail of the flexible LED lights used in La Incubadora.

Detail of the flexible LED lights used in La Incubadora.

Flexible LED strip lighting in the art installation "La Incubadora" by Grimanesa Amoros.

Flexible LED strip lighting in the art installation "La Incubadora" by Grimanesa Amoros.

LEDucation for the Nation!

Published
by
Dan
on January 1, 2010
in Uncategorized
. 0 Comments

We here at Elemental LED realize that a lot of our light fixtures are examples of a technology that’s new to many people. That’s why we’ve just created a series of instruction sheets and videos which we call LEDucation, in order to familiarize you with the different connector types used by our fixtures, how to power them and what to power them with. We think you’ll find, after spending a few minutes LEDucating yourself, that LEDs aren’t that complicated, and it’s worth spending a little time figuring it all out so that you can save electricity, reduce your carbon footprint, and start enjoying your low voltage, low heat, and high impact LED lights. LEDs are so much more than the regular old light bulb. How many people does it take to screw in an LED light? Just one.

On the LEDucation page, you’ll find a How To section and a What Is section. How To currently offers 4 tutorials. LEDucation 1 familiarizes you first with the 4 basic and most commonly-used connectors for our standard non-waterproof single color flexible strips. Then it shows you how to use a strip plug to connect a strip light to one of our 12V DC adapters. LEDucation 2 shows you the waterproof plug connectors, then how to power a waterproof strip light or light bar, as well as our brighter light bars, since both waterproof and non-waterproof brighter bars have the same connector type. LEDucation 3 explains how to install a waterproof LED light bar as under cabinet lighting in a kitchen. And LEDucation 4 indicates how to power our full color RGB strip lighting and RGB light bars with RGB connectors.

In the What Is section, you’ll find answers to common questions from our customers, such as “What are Elemental’s connector types?”, “How much power do I need for a given LED light fixture?”, “What is color temperature?”, “What are lumens?”, and “How do LEDs work?”

Each LEDucation chapter has instructions in the form of a web page, a PDF, and a video, so you can decide which format suits you best. And don’t worry, we’re not trying to send you back to school: we’ve made these materials simple and fun, and they even have funky music! Click on the “LEDucation” link on the menu bar above to get started. And don’t forget to check back in the near future, as we’ll be adding content regularly. Send us an email to answers(at)elementalled.com if there’s a topic you’d like to see covered.

LEDIY part 1

Published
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Dan
on December 18, 2009
in Uncategorized
. 0 Comments

LEDIY is a new video series we’ve come up with where Elemental customers tell us in their own words–and show us with their own pictures–what they used our LED light fixtures for and how they did it. Given the variety of fixtures we sell, and the flexibility their compactness and shapes offer, it seems like the sky’s the limit for how many different applications you can find for them. We hope this is only the beginning of LEDIY, and that we’ll have many audio/visual contributions from customers in the future.

Part 1: Mike of Minneapolis tells us how he replaced his hot old incandescent cove lighting setup, that was using hot candelabra bulbs drawing a lot of power, with cool, energy-efficient LED strip lights. Hopefully what shines through in this debut episode of LEDIY is that, although installing LED light fixtures isn’t always as simple as screwing in a light bulb, the unique properties of LED lighting opens up a lot of possibilities for a customized lighting installation.

We Will We Will Light You

Published
by
Dan
on December 2, 2009
in Green Companies and Uncategorized
. 1 Comment

The media engineering department of Elemental (i.e. me) recently moved to Portland, Oregon, where it’s maybe more rare to see LED light fixtures than in the Bay Area. So imagine my surprise when, for the third time this year, I noticed LED lights poking their head out of the live music world.

One of these times was actually when the metal band Mastodon played in August at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco. Their newest release “Crack the Skye” is a concept album about, among other things, the life of Russian mystic and con-artist Rasputin. Behind them on stage they had a screen—about 8 feet high and 12 feet wide–showing a somewhat psychedelic film montage of scenes from the classic film “Aleksander Nevsky” and animations of Rasputin and space travel (that’s one subject I was referring to in saying “among other things”.) I was thrilled to see that the screen was made of LEDs, which gave the images a sharp yet glowing quality, and a lot of impact.

The best pictures I could find of the screen used for the Crack the Skye tour were by Sarah Roberts, a photographer based in Glasgow, Scotland. Scroll down to see one, and visit her Web site www.sarahrobertsphoto.com for more great pictures. I guess LED televisions have been on the market for a little while, but it was still exciting to see the impact of an LED screen at an already powerful rock show.

Then last month I saw the great punk band NoMeansNo at Berbati’s Pan, a Portland institution that has perhaps the best sound in town. I noticed at that show that most or perhaps all of their stage lights are round LED can lights, very similar to, if not virtually the same as, the PAR 64 RGB LED Wall Washer that we sell. It can honestly be said their LED lights are very bright, even the colors that are on the lower end of the brightness spectrum, such as red and green.

I couldn’t find any pictures online from that show, but did find some nice shots by Carrie Johnston, who is actually a Portland-based writer who contributes to the concert review site Melophobe. One of her pictures from the Dirty Three show at Berbati’s is below. (How did I miss that show?!?)

The Dirty Three at Berbati's Pan, September 2009. Photo by Carrie Johnston.

The Dirty Three at Berbati's Pan, September 2009. Photo by Carrie Johnston.

The LED screen used by Mastodon on their recent tour, behind drummer Brann Dailor.

The LED screen used by Mastodon on their recent tour, behind drummer Brann Dailor. Photo by Sarah Roberts.


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.

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!

It’s a Light! It’s a TV! It’s a Shirt! It’s an OLED!

Published
by
Dan
on September 30, 2009
in Uncategorized
. 1 Comment

Although many people think of LED lights as the future, here at Elemental, we think of them as the present. So what do we consider the future of lighting? OLEDs, that is to say Organic LEDs, as opposed to the LEDs we sell here, which are inorganic. But it does seem that OLEDs are already well on their way to entering mainstream culture and, if you are as tech-y as we are, you probably own an electronic device that uses them. Things like Mp3 players, PDAs, cell phones with touch screens, and the newest TVs commonly use Organic LEDs.

So what are they? First the similarities: both kinds of light are based on semiconductors, meaning, as it sounds, a material that sort of conducts electricity, as opposed to a straight conductor (like wire) or an insulator (like rubber.) Without going into the gory (and wiry) details, the fact that semiconductors have some resistance to electricity is essential to their ability to be modified for different uses, and in fact different kinds of semiconductors are produced by adding various impurities to the material.

The differences between LEDs and OLEDs are fairly simple: in LEDs, the semiconductor is made of inorganic crystals, usually silicon, while in Organic LEDs, it is made of some organic material. It turns out that organic material is much more flexible than inorganic, and allows for the molecules in it to interact with each other in more ways than one. An LED diode, after all, is just two wires that meet at a very small semiconductor in a plastic lens, so it produces a concentrated light. OLED material, on the other hand, is organic semiconductor material suspended throughout a thin layer of polymer, so the light it produces is much more even and diffuse.

You can even visualize the semiconductor layer as organic compounds “printed” onto the polymer in a grid, which also gives you an idea of how thin OLEDs are. This polymer layer is then just sandwiched between a clear front layer and a backing layer to produce OLED products. Although most OLEDs are now flat and rigid, the technology for flexible OLEDs (here comes another acronym: FOLEDs) is such that you’ll be able to buy, in the next few years, lighting fixtures and screens that resemble fabric.

Which brings us to the final point: Don’t worry! LEDs and OLEDs are not exactly in competition, they’re apples and oranges, so your LED strips and bulbs will not be obsolete in 5 years. LEDs will continue to become more powerful and efficient in focused lighting applications, and OLEDs may soon become lights that double as windows, walls, clothing, or furniture. OLEDs are not replacing LEDs, just offering a more expansive (yes, a pun) way to light things up!

Harmony Between the Sun, LEDs, and Toyota

Published
by
Dan
on September 19, 2009
in Uncategorized
. 2 Comments

This summer and fall, Toyota has again shown itself to be a forward-thinking company, this time using LED lighting as part of a promotional campaign that takes the shape of, well, giant sunflowers. Toyota chose the Yerba Buena Gardens in San Francisco as the fifth stop on a “solar tour” to promote the 2010 Prius hybrid automobile, and Elemental LED’s Max (pictured) and Matt were there to install our flexible LED strip lights on the 18-foot tall sunflower sculptures that are the centerpiece of the tour. Toyota has also installed solar-powered fans in a few bus shelters around the city to cool waiting bus riders. (Did someone tell them summer’s actually in the fall in SF?)
The sunflowers feature solar panels that power free wireless internet and 110V AC outlets to power laptops and charge cell phones, as well as comfy seating on the plastic “grass” beneath the flower petals and leaves. The sustainable sculpture stations and bus stop fans have proven a hit on other stops of the tour—such as Boston and Chicago—where they highlight two of the new features of the Prius: optional solar roof panels and a standard solar-fueled ventilation system. (The standard Prius also comes with LED headlights, which makes us happy!)
The flowers are at the gardens September 12 to 27 as part of the launch of the Prius and they bring to life the theme: “Harmony Between Man, Nature and Machine.” Electricity and wi-fi are available daily, 8 a.m. to 10 p.m., and if you stop by after sunset, you’ll catch the warm glow of our LEDs lighting up the yellow and white flower petals of the night.
Elemental CEO Max installs LED strip lighting on a sunflower sculpture.

led_light_sunflowers_21

LED strip lights mounted behind the flower petals illuminate the sculptures after dark.

LED Flexibility

Published
by
Dan
on July 15, 2009
in LED Lights
. 1 Comment

There are some really amazing light fixtures being made these days that take advantage of not only the efficiency of LED technology, but the physical characteristics of LED bulbs and strips. LED bulbs can be isolated into tiny units or, when combined, can spread out in a line or over a wide area. No matter what, they offer characteristics that are flexible and adaptable to nearly any design situation.

Using the slender quality of the new T8 LED light tubes, which are similar to but smaller than fluorescent tubes, London-based designer Tomas Alonso has created the Mr. Light series of fixtures. Unlike a fluorescent tube, the new T8 tube doesn’t require a reflector shade and uses fewer components to power it, which means it’s more compact and therefore more flexible as a design element. Alonso’s fixtures occupy an interesting territory between floor lamp and furniture, and with his Mr. Light series (as the word “Mr.” suggests), he has created objects that are not only sleek and chic but have individual personalities of their own. Check out our LED light bars, maybe they will give you some lighting inspiration!

The Wa Wa floor lamp is a part of the recently developed Eco-Logic Light collection of LED lighting by the firm of Catellani & Smith, based in Bergamo, Italy. Designer Enzo Catellani had made a fixture that is a cross between a lamp and a wall projection, and it appears that you can adjust the individual LED bulbs to customize it! You could put it in a corner and point some of the bulbs toward each wall or create patterns on one wall using the spaces where the lights overlap.

Last year Johannes Dinnebier created what he calls the Dione, a ring lamp that comes in two sizes made of matte stainless steel or polished stainless steel with adjustable rings and LED bulbs. It looks like it has at least 100 LED bulbs but consumes only 30 watts of power. (Which, efficient as it is, still draws more power than our LED strip lighting: 5 feet of our Flexible LED Strips has 90 bulbs and consumes 7 watts.) His company  Licht im Raum (which means “Light in space”) is located in Germany and boasts all handcrafted items. You DIYers out there could definitely, with the help of some of our strip lights, take a cue from Herr Dinnebier and create your own fabulous suspension lamp.

Another fixture that incorporates the shape of the light cast from a bulb as a design element is the Let Art table lamp, which throws silhouettes on a transparent canvas and whose color and patterns can in fact be adjusted by the user. The Let Art lamp hails from Lucerne, Switzerland and the firm of Baltensweiler, under the roof of whose gorgeous studio all of the design, manufacture and marketing of their lamps takes place. Again, Elemental offers you the same technology used in this fixture in our line of full color LED products, from RGB strips, bars and tubes to DMX RGB controllers that give you the full range of custom lighting control.

Clearly all of these designers have been in some way inspired by the flexibility—in more senses than one—of LED technology, and also empowered to do more and think in broader terms by the adaptability of LED lighting to different needs and situations. And isn’t it great that you can have lamps that are eco-friendly and look cooler, too?

Elemental’s Index

Published
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Dan
on June 2, 2009
in Uncategorized
. 0 Comments

Percentage of an incandescent light bulb’s energy input that is emitted as heat: 98
Maximum estimated lifespan of a compact fluorescent bulb, in hours: 15,000
Minimum estimated lifespan of an LED light: 50,000
Minimum number of years an LED light will last if used 3-4 hours per day: 40
Factor by which a fluorescent lamp will outlast an equivalent incandescent lamp: 8-15
Factor by which an LED may outlast an incandescent: 100
Ratio of the brightness of an LED bulb to that of a CFL: 5 to 1
Year in which the LED was introduced in America as a practical electronic component: 1962
Year in which Russian radio technician Oleg Losev discovered that diodes emit light: 1927
Estimated age of the sun, in years: 4,570,000,000
Rough amount of sunlight reaching the earth’s surface on average, in watts per sq. meter: 342
Amperage with which High Power LEDs can be driven, compared to normal LEDs: 10
Approximate luminous efficacy (brightness by power consumption) of a typical CFL: 60
Average LE of the sun: 115
Approximate luminous efficacy of an LED developed in 2008: 170
Luminous efficacy, in 2008, of technology using nanocrystals: 300
Luminous efficacy of a candle: 0.3
Percentage of fluorescent tube lighting that can be dimmed: 0
Percentage of LED strip lighting that can: 100
Amount of mercury contained in an average CFL, in milligrams: 4
Amount in an LED bulb: 0
Number of milligrams of ibuprofen in a standard tablet: 200
Number of compact fluorescent lamps sold in 2007 in the United States: 270,000,000
Percentage of the 104,000 tons of U.S. mercury emissions that year represented by CFLs: 0.1%
Number of months it takes the efficiency and light output of LED technology to double: 36
Number of LED bulbs that could fit in an area the size of the sun: 347,995,000,000
[sources: Elemental, Wikipedia]