LED + SSL

The U.S. Department of Energy’s CALiPER program has released Report 23: Photometric Testing of White-Tunable LED Luminaires, which is the first in a planned series of investigations on color-tunable LED luminaires. The main goal of the new study was to understand the amount of testing required to characterize a white-tunable LED lighting product. In this [...]

An article I wrote for tED Magazine. Reprinted with permission. In the construction of some facilities, a skeletal framework is used, which forms an interior subspace called a bay. The Illuminating Engineering Society categorizes these bay spaces as either high-bay (>25 ft. off the floor) or low-bay (15-20 ft. These high-ceiling interior spaces are common [...]

The U.S. Department of Energy has released a report on a GATEWAY demonstration, in which maintenance and energy costs were significantly reduced while retaining the quality of light when LED modules replaced 87 halogen lamps in existing wall washers at the University of Maryland’s Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center. The project began with mockups in [...]

I wrote a feature article about LED drivers for the April issue of ELECTRICAL CONTRACTOR, which I’m happy to share with you here. The article describes the purpose and functionality of LED drivers, constant voltage versus constant current, major trends, and things to know during selection.

A brief article I wrote for tED Magazine. Reprinted with permission. While LED promises long service life as one of its primary advantages, accurately projecting lifetime remains a challenge. The Next Generation Industry Alliance’s (NGIL) LED System Reliability Consortium (LSRC) recently updated a key report, LED Luminaire Lifetime: Recommendations for Testing and Reporting, to shed [...]

Recently read an interesting article about LED lighting in ELECTRICAL CONTRACTOR. Early on, a quote from Kevin Willmorth: “LEDs bring a global rethink,” said Kevin Willmorth, owner of Lumenique LLC, a lighting product development and consultant firm in Germantown, Wis. “They introduce us to a new era of lighting as an appliance. But this new [...]

BizLED recently published an interesting story about a solid-state lighting technology that could become efficient enough to take on the LED: nanowires. I’ve theorized that given LED’s efficiency and performance, it may well be the last major light source for the foreseeable future. There will continue to be a great deal of innovation for many [...]

Magnitude Lighting Converters sent us a link to a page on their website that includes a terrific and lengthy infographic describing how LED lighting works, concluding with detail about the difference between constant current and constant voltage operation. Check it out here.

Yesterday, LightNOW published a guest blog post by Jim Brodrick, DOE’s SSL Program Manager, on a new IEEE recommended practice on LED flicker. As metrics, IEEE uses % flicker, operating frequency and flicker index. A graphic is provided that plots % flicker relative to the light source’s operating frequency. Color shading reveals safe and low-risk [...]