7:47 PM 4/24/2006

Author: Lucien Beauley

Lighting Facts…I Wanna Know !

Each one of us, at one time or another has either driven or been a passenger in an automobile and experienced our traffic control lighting system. Originally unique, but now part of a global system.

Situated at every fully functional traffic light intersection is at least one “Red” light which is timed to turn on and off regularly to “Stop” traffic. It employs a 100 Watt(varies between 90 and 120 Watts)incandescent light bulb. Several years ago, these light bulbs began being replaced with the latest LED(Light Emitting Diode) cluster assemblies, as were the other lamps at the same intersection. The newer Led lamps consumed only 10 Watts to accomplish the same light output(mostly greater). The clincher ! The original incandescent bulb only radiates approximately 10 % of the power consumed in visible light. The other 90 % is radiated as “heat”. And with the red filter used on the original assembly to only let through the RED color needed for the “stop” function, another 30 % of the original visible portion of the light is lost, so that only about 7 % of the 100 Watts of power consumed to light the lamp is visible(to the human eye). The real clincher is that our local taxes to pay the utilities have been calculated for the 100 Watt consumption for each bulb( when it is turned on ) and only getting 7 % of the light. We

town citizens and tax payers have been paying for the 93 % wasted as invisible heat for several decades.

Leds, on the other hand, are a different breed of lighting technology and do not radiate light in the form of heat( unless designed specifically for that purpose ) and the Red Led assembly cluster which replaces the original traffic light bulb needs no red filter because it radiates a “pure” Red light. Granted, the initial cost for this lamp cluster

assembly is still higher, but when we consider the LED lamp “life” estimated to be 100,000 hours and therefore lower replacement along with labor cost, the pay-back is quick and fairly permanent. These benefits are not even considering the ongoing 90 % energy cost savings.

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Some Quick Mind Twisters(Awaikeners)

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To shatter an LED lamp would require more than 1,000 G’s of impact force !

To shatter an incandescent lamp would only require less than 10 G’s

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The time it takes for an incandescent light to turn on(to its maximum brightness)is about 1/10 of a second.

It takes much less than 1/1,000,000 of a second for the LED to accomplish the same thing and a generally accepted Led spec.. One might say , “who cares” ? Well, when Led lighting is used for an automobile brakelight, 1/10 of a second greater reaction time can mean the difference between stopping in time, or a collision, with possible severe injury to some, or all of the occupants.

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The Role We Can Each Play

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We can all play a part in lessening our reliance on fossil fuels.

A- Use low-energy lamps such as CFL replacements for as many incandescent lightbulbs as possible in our home or apartment.

B- Turn off all lamps in areas where they are not needed.

C- Turn down water heater temperature to between 120-125 degrees.

D- Seal your home or apartment from obvious air drafts.

These steps could save the average family $300. to $400. a year in electricity costs alone, lessening the fossil fuel needed to produce it. It certainly becomes plainly obvious that if all Americans stopped driving their automobiles and ceased all commercial transportation, which includes both ground and air travel, we would most likely not be importing any foreign oil and would likewise be exporting at least some of the oil that we produce here. Obviously, this is not feasable.

Lately, most governments of the world have made it their priority to begin to deal with the problems of energy consumption and how to deal with the over consumption of fossil fuels along with Renewable energy sources. Many are adopting the latest in renewable energy technology such as Wind Power and Solar Power generation. Many have begun new projects that when completed will save millions of dollars on imported oil, domestic use of oil, or other fossil fuels.

Renewable Energy is the road to take. We must now tame this new source to be more competitive and more reliable than its predecessors which have been a source for many decades earlier. Today, we are learning this taming process very quickly and as we adopt these new technologies they will become more rewarding. Eventually, it is hoped, the oil wells of the world will wane into a minority source of energy.

With Renewable Energy in the news of late and the phenominal increase in Windmill farm deployments in 2004 and 2005 along with greatly expanded use of Solar Energy in this same period in many areas of this country, it is hoped that this trend will greatly lessen our needs for Fossil fuel sources in the near future.

Date: 04-23-06

With the price of gasoline on the upswing(again, April 20, 06), there seems to be little sign that we Americans are at least trying to conserve fuel, though there are pockets of concerned groups that are making their voice heard, mainly against Oil Company price gouging. At the same time the automotive advertising media seems to be pushing the higher gas consumption Suv’s and cars. Granted, along with trucks, etc., these are the prime fossil fuel guzzlers, but they are by no means the only culprit for our increasing fuel dependency, be it fossil or renewable.

With all due respect to mr. Edison, inventor of our non-directly fueled commercial lighting system, which was design for practicality and therefore efficiency at the time had not been entered into the picture. The goal was only to provide a method of supplying the world with inexpensive, widely available commercial lighting. From this gigantic effort, we know, the incandescent light bulb was born. This achievement was, at the time, a monumental gift to the world…, but the future would reveal some flaws.

This virtually unchanged technology is still the top lighting source used today. For decades, the incandescent light bulb had little or no competition. Over this time, It has maintained the lowest cost per light unit of output(brightness) than any other lighting technology. All of this time its shortcummings were not challenged, or at least not so heavily, until a much newer technology, the LED(Light Emitting Diode) made its phenominal technological advances in recent years…by surpassing it in light output for the power consumed. All that remains for the LED is the cost per lumen of light output to drop to a competitive level. Given the present LED disparity with the incandescent, the total advantages of LED technology far outweighs this because of its longevity of operation, which is over 10 years in constant use(under most conditions), it is virtually unbreakable and because LEDs give off so little heat due to their much greater efficiency and thus lower operating cost, it far outweighs its present day greater price structure.

Consumer Demand For The LED Is The Key

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As the demand levels for this new breed of basic “tear drop” solid state light source increases, the price will come down some more and it will eventually reach that price competitive barrier. Of course, production quantities alone will not be the only influence determining the final selling price of the LED lamp to the “home lighting” market, for example, but its total monetary value to this particular market.

We would certainly hope that the LED would eventually replace most our present day lighting

sources, saving the nation…to begin with untold billions of dollars per year, but even

if this were possible today, just a little over 20 % of our energy consumption is used for lighting, so this alone would not solve our total energy problems, but it is certainly a beginning. It will take a national and multi-national effort to even begin to level off

the world energy needs through the use of Renewables. It could certainly and quickly reach

a point that an all out global effort will be needed to ebb the ongoing crisis and if not curbed quickly at that point, I believe it may reach a point of…irreversability.