June 2009 Archives

Cree, Inc. has been awarded ENERGY STAR ^® qualifications for its LED downlights. The product line, including the LR6, LR5 and LR4 downlights, has demonstrated LED lifetime and fixture efficacy that qualifies for the stringent commercial rating, as well as the residential rating.

ENERGY STAR is a joint program of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that helps consumers and organizations save money and protect the environment by promoting energy-efficient products. Products earning the commercial ENERGY STAR qualification must meet extended lifetime criteria, which is 40 percent longer than residential standards.

"Being rated for both commercial and residential applications is especially significant since more than three-quarters of the LED lighting we are deploying today is in commercial installations," said Neal Hunter, president, Cree LED Lighting. "Cree also provides the highest color rendering of any ENERGY STAR-qualified LED downlight. In stark contrast to compact fluorescent devices that contain toxic mercury, Cree's non-toxic LED fixtures deliver better efficiency and render colors such that the user doesn't have to compromise their lighting experience."

The Cree LR6 recessed downlight is available and qualified in two color temperatures (2700K and 3500K), and boasts efficiency of more than 54 lumens per watt with lumen output of 650 lumens--higher than any other qualified recessed downlight. The LR6 was the first recessed downlight to receive the ENERGY STAR commercial qualification.

---

Green Directory: SolutionsForGreen.com ~ Certification Programs: GreenJobWizard.com

---

The Cree family of LED downlights excels in delivering beautiful, efficient LED light in a manner that surpasses even the most stringent ENERGY STAR standards, as set out in the SSL ENERGY STAR 1.1 criteria for Category A: Recessed Downlights.

	ENERGY STAR Residential	ENERGY STAR Commercial	Cree LED Lighting Downlights
Efficacy	35 lumens per Watt	35 lumens per Watt	46 to 54 lumens per Watt
Color Rendering Index	75	75	91 to 94
Rated Lifetime	25,000	35,000	50,000
Minimum Lumen Output ≤4.5" diameter	375	375	515-540
Minimum Lumen Output >4.5" diameter	575 lumens	575 lumens	650 lumens
Power Factor	≥ .70	≥ .90	.96-.97

 

To see the full list of ENERGY STAR-qualified LED fixtures visit the ENERGY STAR website:

·          Residential:
http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?fuseaction=ssl.display_products_res_html

·          Commercial
http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?fuseaction=ssl.display_products_com_html

 

About Cree

Cree is leading the LED lighting revolution and setting the stage to obsolete the incandescent light bulb through the use of energy-efficient, environmentally friendly LED lighting. Cree is a market-leading innovator of lighting-class LEDs, LED lighting solutions, and semiconductor solutions for backlighting, wireless and power applications.

Cree's product families include recessed LED downlights, blue and green LED chips, high-brightness LEDs, lighting-class power LEDs, power-switching devices and radio-frequency/wireless devices. Cree solutions are driving improvements in applications such as general illumination, electronic signs and signals, variable-speed motors, and wireless communications.

For additional product and company information, please refer to www.CreeLEDlighting.com

---

Green Directory: SolutionsForGreen.com ~ Certification Programs: GreenJobWizard.com

---

CREE introduces the LRP-38 LED lamp that provides a tightly-focused beam, exceptional color quality, extended life and unmatched energy-efficiency.

Designed for display and retail installations, the Cree LRP-38 is a narrow beam spotlight for use in supermarket produce displays, department stores, and museums--especially where exceptional color quality is valued. The lamp is currently being evaluated in grocery, department and furniture stores, as well as in big box retailers, where it replaced halogen and ceramic metal halide bulbs.

The Cree LRP-38 uses Cree TrueWhite(TM) technology to generate a CRI of 92 at a color temperature of 2700K. The lamp is designed to last 50,000 hours in open track fixtures or 35,000 in non-IC commercial recessed downlights.

The lamp has a unique optical design that maximizes the amount of light within the beam while minimizing the source brightness- so the eye is focused on the merchandise, not the light source.

With this product Cree extends the quality and performance of their award-winning LED lights into beam-controlled retrofit lamps.

The Cree LRP-38 will be sold through Cree LED Lighting sales channels and is currently shipping in volume, with high preliminary demand.

For additional product and company information, please refer to www.CreeLEDLighting.com

---

Green Directory: SolutionsForGreen.com ~ Certification Programs: GreenJobWizard.com

---

More than 4,200 LR24 recessed LED luminaires are planned for installation in Wedge 5 of the Pentagon as part of a major renovation.

  The Cree LR24 luminaires have undergone extensive government testing and business-case analysis, including a preliminary Pentagon installation to meter the fixtures and compare the results to the alternative fluorescent technology.

This independent analysis demonstrated a 22% reduction in energy usage and improved light quality.

• The business-case analysis yielded a payback of less than four years.
• The payback analysis considered energy savings, lifetime maintenance savings, savings from reduced load on the HVAC system, and elimination of hazardous waste disposal fees for mercury-laden fluorescent bulbs.
• Extensive modeling was also performed to determine optimal lighting design--analyzing the light distribution and spacing to ensure superior lighting and energy efficiency.
• The Wedge 5 installation is estimated to save 140 tons of CO2 emissions per year.

"The U.S. federal government is taking a leadership role in energy efficiency for federal buildings both through existing mandates, as well as President-elect Obama's American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan, which calls for the renovation of public buildings to make them more energy efficient," said Chuck Swoboda, Cree chairman and chief executive officer. "Installations of highly efficient, low-maintenance LED lighting, like these in the Pentagon and in the U.S. Federal Reserve, demonstrate that the future of energy-efficient lighting is here today."

The LED units being used for the Pentagon renovation are being purchased from Cree by the Department of Defense's (DoD) Title III program as a part of its ongoing development program with Cree, and provided to the Washington Headquarters Services (WHS), which oversees the Pentagon renovation program.

---

Green Directory: SolutionsForGreen.com ~ Certification Programs: GreenJobWizard.com

---

Have you thought of applying for projects that include 24/7 applications of LED lights in local public housing facilities?  Follow the money... here are some funding sources:

Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant (EECBG)

ARRA provided $3.2 billion for this Department of Energy (DOE) program, $2.8 billion to be distributed by formula, with the remaining $400 million to be awarded competitively.  EECBG provides grants to states and local governments for improvements in energy efficiency and to reduce energy use and fossil fuel emissions.  EECBG is a new program, receiving money for the first time due to ARRA, although it was authorized in 2007.  The block grant is administered by DOE's Office of Weatherization and Intergovernmental Programs in the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.

Potential housing-related uses of EECBG include: grants to nonprofits to perform energy efficiency retrofits; financial incentives for energy efficiency improvements; energy efficiency for buildings; and, residential energy audits.  In addition there are many other eligible uses ranging from energy efficient traffic signals to carbon capture and sequestration from power plants. 

Applications from sates and local governments are due June 25.

EECBG webpage, http://www.eecbg.energy.gov

EECBG Financial Assistance Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA),
http://www.eecbg.energy.gov/downloads/DE_FOA_0000013_Amendment_000003.pdf

---

Green Directory: SolutionsForGreen.com ~ Certification Programs: GreenJobWizard.com

---

Experts estimate that municipalities, businesses and consumers could save up to 189 terawatt hours of energy by switching from conventional HID lights to solid-state LED fixtures, the equivalent of taking 16 million households off of the grid and $20 billion in electricity savings.

J. Dee Dennis Jr., CEO and President of Visible Light Solar Technologies says, "For 150 years it was all about pushing as many lumens out onto the ground as possible without a thought to how much heat was generated or power was used. That's over. Now, our solar/LED solutions mean we can light right, not just light big." Dennis also asserts, "By reinventing lighting and replacing all the old HID fixtures in every commercial and industrial application in the US, we can reduce our customers' power consumption by billions of kilowatt hours, taking hundreds of coal powered plants off the drawing board."

Visible Light Solar announced it has installed or is installing Vector retrofit lighting applications at 12 sites, including the Bosque School, DKD Electric, and Osuna Business Park.

Vector products let businesses significantly reduce their kilowatt consumption without having to replace their existing infrastructure of light poles, heads, casements and wiring. Visible Light Solar claims to be the first commercial and industrial lighting company to integrate LED lighting devices with solar power technology in exterior and interior retrofit lighting fixtures.

According to a statement by the company, their solar/LED lighting applications operate up to 85% more efficiently than their HID counterparts because of the integration of energy efficient LED components with solar power technologies. Linking these two technologies is Visible Light Solar's Self Powered Device Interface (SPDI), a patent-pending intelligent power management infrastructure that combines custom hardware and software to control voltage fluctuations, seamlessly switch between solar battery and grid power, and provide the ability to customize each fixture's illumination levels.

In addition to dramatically lowering energy consumption, Visible Light Solar's solutions reduce maintenance costs; LED's require far fewer changes than HID bulbs because they can last up to 100,000 hours and are resistant to thermal and vibrational shocks.

First Product Line: Vector Lighting Retrofit

Visible Light Solar's inaugural product family, Vector Lighting, addresses the need by businesses to rapidly retrofit energy-inefficient, maintenance-intensive, metal halide and mercury vapor lighting fixtures while leveraging existing light poles, heads, casing and wiring. Customers can upgrade their existing lighting applications to hybrid solar/LED or LED-only retrofit solutions with no waste and minimal incremental cost while maintaining 100% reliability by backup grid connections. Businesses can choose from an extensive line of Vector retrofit applications, including:

Street Light Heads Parking Lot Heads High Bay & Low Bay Fixtures Wall Packs Parking Garage Fixtures Bollards

Self Power Device Interface (SPDI) 

Visible Light Solar's SPDI software and hardware infrastructure extends the light quality and reliability of LED lighting technology, provides voltage balancing, and allows for fixture-by-fixture programmability. SPDI gives facility managers the ability to program illumination levels for each fixture based on clock time, motion detection, ambient light levels, temperature and solar storage availability thereby increasing businesses' ability to provide enhanced security for their customers and raise and lower illumination levels as needed in order to reap energy savings.

For Visible Light Solar's solar/LED applications, SPDI provides the intelligent interface between the solar battery, grid power and the lighting application, ensuring the fixture's optimal use of solar power while maintaining 100% reliability through its grid connection. If the solar gain on a particular day has not sufficiently charged the battery, or if the battery charge becomes low, then SPDI will automatically manage the switch from solar to grid power to ensure adequate lighting levels are maintained. Finally, SPDI manages the voltage and current driving the LED devices, controlling power spikes and maintaining LED longevity.

Visible Light Solar's Certified Installation Partner Program will provide nationwide installation and maintenance of the company's products.

Outdated mercury containing HID bulbs and PCB-laden ballasts will be responsibly recycled by National Metals as part of Visible Light Solar's corporate commitment to environmental stewardship.

Based in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Visible Light Solar Technologies (www.visiblelightsolar.com) is an intelligent solar and LED lighting technology company. The company is headed by J. Dee Dennis Jr., the former founder and CEO of DKD Electric, and staffed by an experience team of solar, embedded software and LED lighting technology engineers. Visible Light Solar is a member of the Illuminating Engineering Society, US Green Building Council and the International Dark-Sky Association. The company is backed by the venture accelerator firm, Noribachi (www.noribachi.com).

---

Green Directory: SolutionsForGreen.com ~ Certification Programs: GreenJobWizard.com

---