OLED lighting - OLED light bulb2inShare

OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diodes) are light emitting panels made from organic (carbon based) materials that emit light when electricity is applied. OLED are used today to make beautiful and efficient displays, but it is also possible to use the technology to create white light panels for lighting.

An OLED 'light bulb' is a thin film of material that emits light. OLEDs provide an area-lighting panel (i.e. not point-lighting like LEDs and feature good color temperature. In fact some OLEDs (such as Verbatim's Velve panels) are color tunable. OLEDs can also be made flexible or transparent - and in the future we can expect exciting new luminaire design that use those advanced panels.

OLED lighting - the green light source

Not only are OLEDs very efficient (somewhere between CFLs and LEDs), but these 'lamps' do not contain any bad metals such as mercury, which is present in CFLs.

Sample design kits

There are several companies offering OLED panels: Philips, Osram and Japan's Lumiotec for example. These are 'sample panels' - which are not real commercial products as they are produce in small quantities and cost quite a fortune. They are used in premium light fixtures or as design kits for lighting professionals.

Philips' OLED panels are called Lumiblade, and were the first to be released back in 2009. Philips' panels come in different sizes, shapes and colors. Check out our first OLED light review of a couple of panels they sent us. Philips thinks that transparent and color-tunable OLEDs will be here within 3-5 years. Flexible ones? a bit longer, might take 5-8 years.

OSRAM's OLED panels are called Orbeos and aer available since November 2009. OSRAM offers round panels (88mm diameter) and square ones.The price of the round panel is around $375. Here's our hands-on review of the ORBEOS.

OSRAM ORBEOS

Lumiotec started offering their white OLEDs in February 2010 with just one panel - a rather large (15cm by 15cm) square OLED that's very bright. Lumiotec are now offering their second generation panels, with prices ranging from $200 to around $500. Here's our on-hands review of Lumiotec's Version 1 OLED panels - which includes a comparison to the Philips and OSRAM panels as well. Here's a short video review of all these panels:

OLED lamps

Several companies (including Philips, OSRAM, WAC Lighting, Blackbody and others) offer lamps built from OLED panels - obviously at a very high price. Blackbody are offering several lamps (they make their own OLED panels). The light-photon (shown below), for example, which has a single large 47cm x 37cm OLED panel costs $5900. Their largest lamp, the Big Bang, uses 249 OLED panels!

Light Photon OLED lamp

OLED lighting status

Virtually all lighting companies are engaged in OLED research and development - including Philips, OSRAM and GE. There are many other companies involved: including Samsung, LG, AUO, Lumiotec, Konica Minolta, Kaneka, Pioneer, Mitsubishi, NEC, Panasonic and others. While some companies are already producing panels, we are still years away from real mass production of OLED panels to compete in the general or professional lighting markets.

Visionox OLED lamp prototype

Here's a nice chart by DisplaySearch, showing the leading companies and their announced OLED lighting plans:

The future of household lighting will soon be the wide spread adoption and use of white energy efficient LED light bulbs. Though the present market for finished white LED products is geared mainly towards enthusiasts and early-adopters, the efficiency and cost effectiveness of LED lighting systems will drive demand for more affordable LED lights. Opto-electronics is an exciting area and we predict, that in the near future, white LED lighting applications will be powerful and cheap enough to replace incandescent lighting for everyday use in our homes, in street lights, outdoor signs, and offices.

Advantages of LED LightsThe operational life of current white LED lamps is 100,000 hours. This is 11 years of continuous operation, or 22 years of 50% operation. The long operational life of an led lamp is a stark contrast to the average life of an incandescent bulb, which is approximately 5000 hours. If the lighting device needs to be embedded into a very inaccessible place, using LEDs would virtually eliminate the need for routine bulb replacement.

There is no comparison between the cost of LED lights vs. traditional incandescent options. With incandescent bulbs, the true cost of the bulb is the cost of replacement bulbs and the labor expense and time needed to replace them. These are significant factors, especially where there are a large number of installed bulbs. For office buildings and skyscrapers, maintenance costs to replace bulbs can be enormous. These issues

can all be virtually eliminated with the LED option.

The key strength of LED lighting is reduced power consumption. When designed properly, an LED circuit will approach 80% efficiency, which means 80% of the electrical energy is converted to light energy. The remaining 20% is lost as heat energy. Compare that with incandescent bulbs which operate at about 20% efficiency (80% of the electrical energy is lost as heat). In real money terms, if a 100 Watt incandescent bulb is used for 1 year, with an electrical cost of 10 cents/kilowatt hour, $88 will be spent on electricity costs. Of the $88 expense, $70 will have been used to heat the room, not light the room. If an 80% efficient LED system had been used, the electricity cost would be $23 per year - there would be a cost savings of $65 on electricity during the year. Realistically the cost savings would be higher as most incandescent light bulbs blow out within a year and require replacements whereas LED light bulbs can be used easily for a decade without burning out.

Our white LED lights currently come in packages which contain 36 or 48 LED lamps and can be adapted for use with any power supply or casing. Our clusters allow for conversion to operate from all common caving batteries, e.g. FX5/Kirby pack down to two AA cells, in case portability is needed. We have produced a seven-LED cluster light source as an alternative to low wattage light bulbs and a possible portable light source.

The main limitation to the adoption of white LED lighting as a lighting standard is the current high cost of led bulbs. Although the cost keeps going down, LED light bulbs are still expensive. A single AC bulb (17 LED), replacing a 25 watt incandescent, will cost about $40. Although LED's are expensive, the cost is recouped over time and in energy cost savings. Factor in that it is significantly cheaper to maintain led lights, the best value comes from commercial use where maintenance and replacement costs are expensive. Traffic lights and outdoor signs, for example, are being switched over to LED's in many cities. Smaller arrays, such as those in flashlights, headlamps and small task lights are great for specialty and outdoor use. LED based automotive headlights are current being used in high end luxury cars.

It will be interesting to see what developments are coming for more residential applications of LED lights. LED lighting technology has been researched and developed for the past two decades and we are beginning to see practical applications from this work. There is already wide spread use of LED traffic signs and LED headlights where a

premium is placed on a reliable light source that is cheaper and less labor intensive to maintain. We in the industry are certain that tomorrows LED lights will last longer and consume even less power than todays energy efficient led light bulbs. LED lighting will be used to replace virtually every type of light, bulb, and lamp that is currently in use.

Power consumptionOSRAM developed the world's most efficient flexible OLED lighting panel (32 lm/W)

OSRAM announced that they developed a new flexible OLED with an efficiency of 32 lm/W - which makes is the world's most efficient OLED lighting panel (according to OSRAM). The new panel is made on a thin steel foil with a thickness of approximately 100 micrometers - like a sheet of paper. OSRAM developed a new electrode design for this top-emitter OLED panel, which brightness is fixed at 1,000 cd/m².

OSRAM's flexible OLED research was conducted as part of the TOPAS 2012 project - the same project in which OSRAM developed the 87 lm/W white OLED panel back in June.

Nov 11, 2011

Horizontal orientation of emitting OLED molecules

Prof. Daisuke Yokoyama from the Yamagata University in Japan published an interesting research paper about molecular orientation in small-molecule OLEDs. Daisuke says that orienting the molecules horizontally has two positive effects: the light outcoupling efficiency is increased (by around 50% compared to randomly oriented emitters) and the charge transport between molecules becomes more efficient (which can lead to a lower driving voltage).

Daisuke tells us that some materials in commercial OLEDs are already horizontally oriented - but not all. He claims that most phosphorescent emitters are not horizontally oriented yet. If so, we can expect good performance increases once these materials are oriented.

Nov 01, 2011

The world's most efficient OLED on plastic developed at the University of Toronto

Researchers from the University of Toronto developed the world's most efficient OLED on plastic, which they say is comparable with the best glass-based OLEDs. They discovered that coating the plastic substrate with a 50-100 nano-meter thick layer of tantalum(V) oxide (Ta2O5), an advanced optical thin-film coating material enabled them to re-construct the high-refractive index property previously limited to heavy metal-doped glass:

The researchers say that to create a high-efficiency OLED you need a high-refractive-index (n <= 1.8) substrate (to enhance the outcoupling of trapped light in the device). Plastic substrates have a low refractive index (n <= 1.6). The researchers say that their method allows for a high-efficiency OLED that does not depend on a high-index substrate. They used a phosphorescent OLED, a high-index Ta2O5 optical coupling layer, electrically conductive gold layer and hole-injection MoO3 layer. All these components are collectively optimized to achieve high efficiency. The maximum external quantum efficiency reaches 63% for green, which remains as high as 60% at >10,000 cd/m–2.

Oct 31, 2011

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Konica Minolta starts shipping efficient OLED lighting samples under the Symfos brand

Konica Minolta announced a new next-generation lighting brand called Symfos. The first Symfos product is the OLED-010K OLED lighting panel sample kit - which is now shipping. The kit includes four OLED panels, and external driver box and an AC adapter.

The OLED itself uses all phosphorescent emitters (KM is using Universal Display's PHOLED technology) and offers 45 lm/W. This is the same panel that Philips is offering (as the Lumiblade Plus). In fact Philips is producing this panel for Konica Minolta, as was announced in July 2011. We do not know the price of the OLED-010K kit, but Philips is selling each Lumiblade Plus panel for €120.

Oct 09, 2011

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Panasonic developed the world's most efficient white OLED at 128 lm/W

Panasonic Electric Works announced that they developed a new highly efficient OLED device - featuring 128 lm/W efficiency. This was achieved using a semi-spherical highly-refractive lens to enhance light extraction. The OLED panel is small - only 2x2 mm, and according to Panasonic this is the world's most efficient white OLED.

PEW says that in order to achieve this high efficiency, they inserted a light extraction layer composed of a highly-refractive material between the emissive layer (EML) and the glass substrate. The back side uses a high-reflectivity metal material. Detailed calculations were performed to minimize the internal reflection - this doubled the light extraction efficiency to 40%. This panel uses all-phosphorescent materials, and PEW says that this technique is actually similar to the technique used by Universal Display when they developed the 102 lm/W device back in 2008.

Sep 11, 2011

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Panasonic announces OLED lighting roadmap, to start selling panels tomorrow

Panasonic Electric Works (PEW) released some very interesting news today regarding their OLED Lighting project. First of all, they announced that Panasonic Idemitsu OLED Lighting

(PIOL), their joint-venture with Idemitsu Kosan will start shipping OLED lighting panels tomorrow (September 1st) - to local and international markets. Those rather small (80x80mm), thin (2mm) and light (38g) OLED panels will feature no less than Ra90 color rendering (they say it's the world's highest) and 3,000 cd/m2 - the world's brightens panels. The efficiency is 30 lm/W and lifetime (D70) is 10,000. The temperature is 3,000K (like a regular light bulb).

PEW itself will start offering OLED lighting modules in December 2011 - which will include the OLED panel, a frame and a built-in control circuit. PEW says that these modules will be "easy-to-embed" and will have a narrow frame design (11mm maximum width). You will also be able to replace the OLED panel in the modules in a simple way.

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UDC announces Stacked-OLED lighting panel advances

Universal Display announced advances in their white OLED lighting panels. The new panels use a Stacked-OLED (SOLED) architecture and exceed the DOE's commercial panel target of 10,000 hours (at an initial luminance of 3,000 cd/m2 ) by more than 20%. The panels are 15x15cm2 in size and feature 90,000 liftimre (D70), 55 lm/W efficiency and a CRI of 86. A stacked-OLED provides better lifetime, but has more layers and is more difficult to manufacture.

The company also showcased an all-phosphorescent, white OLED luminaire designed into an under-cabinet lighting system. This development was funded in part under a DOE Solid State Lighting program back in 2009. The warm-white OLED offer a power efficacy of 70 lm/W when

operated at 190 lumens (~1000 cd/m2 ), and 61 lm/W when at 420 lumens (~2200 cd/m2 ). The panels operate at a low voltage of ~4 V.

Bright future for lighting technology with glowing OLED wallpaperOLEDs may soon replace lightbulbs in homes and offices with panels of energy-efficient light built into walls

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Alok Jha , green technology correspondent guardian.co.uk , Wednesday 30 December 2009 Article history

The paper-thin OLED material is capable of emitting light almost as bright as fluorescent lightbulbs. Photograph: Everett Kennedy Brown/EPA

Wallpaper that can glow with light and bendable flat-panel screens are a step closer thanks to research into organic LEDs (OLEDs), which are widely hailed as the next generation of environmentally friendly lighting technology.

OLEDs use very little power to produce light, even compared with modern energy-saving bulbs. The chemicals they are made from can be painted on to thin, flexible surfaces, allowing them potentially to be used to replace traditional lightbulbs in homes and offices with panels of

energy-efficient light built into walls, windows or even furniture. Other uses include flexible display screens, whose very low power consumption would mean they could operate without mains power, for example as roadside traffic warning signs powered by small solar panels.

Lomox Limited, a two-year-old company based in north Wales, awarded more than £450,000 today by the government-backed Carbon Trust to accelerate the development of its OLED technology.

Around a sixth of all the UK's electricity is used for lighting and Lomox claims its OLEDs are 2.5 times more efficient than standard energy-saving lightbulbs. The Carbon Trust said that, if all modern lights were replaced by OLEDs, annual carbon emissions around the world could fall by 2.5m tonnes by 2020 and almost 7.4mT by 2050. Replacing old, incandescent bulbs with OLEDs would generate even greater CO2 savings.

OLEDs have shown much promise in laboratories but must get over two major hurdles to become widespread consumer items: they are expensive to make and they tend to have relatively short lifetimes. "What our technology does, with the seven patents we have, is fix those problems," said Ken Lacey, chief executive of Lomox. He said his company's OLEDs have the potential to last as long as modern fluorescent lights and, for the display sector, as long as LCD panels. Lomox also claims its light matches natural light more closely than other energy-saving bulbs.

The company will focus its efforts on getting the first of its OLEDs to market by 2012, mainly for outdoor lighting. "The early part of the grant is to do the testing and take this out to that marketplace," said Lacey.

Mark Williamson, director of innovations at the Carbon Trust, said: "Lighting is a major producer of carbon emissions. This technology has the potential to produce ultra-efficient lighting for a wide range of applications, tapping into a huge global market. We're now on the look-out for other technologies that can save carbon and be a commercial success."

The grant for Lomox is one of 164 projects supported by the Carbon Trust for small companies working on a range of renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies such as fuel cells, combined heat and power, bioenergy, solar power, low-carbon building technologies, marine energy devices and more efficient industrial processes.

Efficient Lighting

Incandescent lights are basically electric space heaters that give off light as a byproduct. They are VERY inefficient, wasting most of the power they consume as heat.

Since lights are one of the biggest power uses in a remote home, pay close attention to what kind you use. If you replace all of your lights with efficient versions, you may be able to get

by with fewer expensive batteries and solar panels.You may have noticed that we've made major changes to this page. This is because of new information given to us by some lighting experts regarding lighting efficiency. Our thanks to Don Klipstein and Victor

Roberts for the engineering lessons...

Otherpower.com's lighting recommendations in a nutshell: For best efficiency, use fluorescents of any type. Install standard fluorescents in workspaces where you can stand the blue-tinged light, hum and

flicker. Use compact flourescents in living spaces for a more 'friendly' ambiance. Use halogen lighting for outdoor applications where temperature causes problems with fluorescents. Use white LED lighting for applications that normally use dismally-efficient small incandescents...task lights, nightlights, pathway

lighting, exit signs, and flashlights. Don't use incandescent lighting at all if you can afford to avoid it.

Lighting Efficiency Ratings

A standard way of rating lighting efficiency is in lumens per watt--this figure accounts for all of the light produced by a bulb. This rating does not necessarily reflect how much usable light is is thrown on your

work area. The reflector and fixture will have a large effect on this. So be sure to read our guidelines for each type of lighting discussed below--lights that show a lower efficiency may still save you energy

depending on the application.

Be aware of the different ways that lighting efficiency can be represented. For example, there's a big difference between two common LED manufacturer's efficiency specs -- some show only

lumens per watt of light output, while others show lumens per watt used by the LED. The latter is useful information, a true efficiency rating. The former does not include power wasted as heat,

and is useless for evaluating lighting in an off-grid home.

32 watt T8 fluorescent--85 to 95 lumens/watt standard F40T12 cool white fluorescent--60-65 lumens/watt compact fluorescents--low 30's to low 60's lumens per watt, usually 48-60 UPDATE 12-2006 -- The newest white LEDs shipping from manufacturers in 2006 are

approaching the efficiency of compact fluorescents, into the 50-60 lumens/watt range. At this time, however, there are no RE lighting products that use these new LEDs, and they remain extremely expensive. Manufacturer's research labs are also reporting new white LEDs that approach the 80+ lumens/watt of T8 fluorescents. However, these products are not shipping yet.

T3 tubular halogen--20 lumens/watt white LED--15-19 lumens/watt standard 100 watt incandescent--17 lumens/watt incandescent night light bulb (7w)--6 lumens/watt incandescent flashlight bulbs--dismal, less than 6 lumens/watt

But wait! What about all the white LED high-efficiency claims that are all over...including the claims that used to be on this site? Unfortunately, much of this information is incorrect. Comparing the

efficiency of a white LED light with a compact fluorescent by measuring the intensity of a tiny spot within the beam does NOT give proper efficiency results. We got much of our data for efficiency claims

from an article in Home Power Magazine (click here to see this testing article) and in literature from LED distributors. The problem? All of the light from our LEDs is concentrated in a 20 degree beam, while the incandescent and compact fluorescent lights were tested without fixtures...and most of the light they

produced was never measured in the test, since it sensed only light falling on the sensor. It's OK to compare different lights by how brightly they illuminate a certain size area...but put a reflector behind

the compact fluorescent and incandescent bulbs in the test rig and the data would change significantly. Therefore, while the LED lights in this test may illuminate a small area as brightly as other lights, they are

NOT significantly more efficient. LEDs can still be a good choice for illuminating your workbench, for example, as long as the light cast onto your small work area is as bright as you need--in this case your

LED light could be a good investment for saving power, especially if your old incandescent fixture is also lighting the rest of the room where you don't need the light (like in the Home Power experiment

link above). If you try and light an entire living room with an LED fixture, though, you are not saving much--in that case you want a wide dispersal of light, and a fluorescent fixture would be the hands-

down winner for efficiency, cost and practicality.

Another thing to keep in mind--notice that with current commercial lighting products, the smaller the incandescent bulb, the less efficient it is. For small-sized and lower-light-intensity applications such as

task and reading lights, pathway lighting, exit signs, and flashlights, LED lights will be much more efficient than the equivilant small incandescent. This is because fluorescent light products in these

small sizes are not available commercially. We are currently researching remote power applications for small cold-cathode fluorescents, which are commonly used to backlight LCD screens. We hope to have

more information about these lights soon, though they are still significantly larger than LED products...too big to use in anything smaller than a very large flashlight.

Don Klipstein's LED news page is an excellent place to keep track of the latest developments in LED technology.

LED lightingDespite our new information regarding white LED efficiency claims, they are still VERY useful in certain

applications. They are an excellent, efficient replacement for the terribly inefficient SMALL incandescent bulbs found in task lights, nightlights, pathway lighting, exit signs, and ESPECIALLY flashlights. As the

amount of light needed gets larger (lighting an entire room, for instance) LEDs are only marginally more efficient than a 100 watt incandescent--but a nightlight made with white LEDs is almost three times as efficient as the incandescent it replaces. Also, if run at recommended current levels, LED lights should

last tens of thousands of hours, a huge improvement over other lighting technologies. They are also very shock and cold resistant, perfect for portable and outdoor applications.

Groups of 3-9 white LEDs are effective as reading lamps. 3 of our white LEDs running together use only

0.22 watts! Single white LEDs make great pathway lights, and can be left on all the time. Flashlights can

be easily converted to use LED bulbs...this is probably the best application for them. Converted LED flashlights have become my favorite lights for fire/rescue and wildland firefighting, since the

batteries last 6 times longer, I've never replaced an LED bulb, and light output is more even, though

slightly dimmer than the original.

Click Here for information about home built LED room lighting

Click here for information on converting flashlights to LED bulbs

Compact FluorescentThese lights were a huge advance in energy efficient lighting--very efficient, with 10 times longer life than an incandescent bulb. Plus, the light quality (color temperature) is much warmer than normal

fluorescents, they fit in most normal light fixtures, and flicker is hardly noticable. Models are available for any application, including spotlights with reflectors.

We highly recommend these lights in both 120 volts AC and 12 volts DC models. The AC versions are available at any hardware store and are

very inexpensive for efficient lights ($8 to $15 each). DC compact fluorescants are more expensive because of limited demand for 12 volt

ballasts, but only the ballast is different for AC and DC compact fluorescents--the bulbs are the same! We may soon offer interchangable compact fluorescent bulbs and ballasts for both 12 volt DC and 120 volt

AC systems. Currently, interchangable parts are available from Jade Mountain.

The only drawbacks to keep in mind for compact fluorescents are 1) they are not very bright at cold temperatures, and 2) the quality of light is still not as good as halogen or incandescent bulbs. I personally use 12 volt DC

halogen bulbs for reading lights, while lighting whole rooms with compact fluorescents.

Standard AC Fluorescent LightsThese really are a very good, energy efficient method of area lighting, and are widely available. They are the most efficient room light available. Problem is, the quality of light is very irritating to some people. It's too blue, and some of them flicker (depends on the ballast design), which is extremely annoying to me. Perhaps this is a reaction to my lifelong aversion to large office buildings with windows that don't

open! But fluorescents make great energy efficient lights for shops, garages, etc. where you don't have to spend too much time in the winter. I also use them for under-cabinet countertop lights in the kitchen.

Quartz-Halogen LightsThese bulbs are only about 15% more efficient than standard incandescents, but are available in 12 volt DC versions. They were a lifesaver for our house--the inverter doesn't have to run to use them, they are more efficient, and the quality of light is excellent for reading or any other use. They fit in ALL standard light sockets, so the monetary investment is low. AC versions are available anywhere, and are still more

efficient than standard bulbs. They give out lots of light even in an outdoor situation where its 25 degrees below zero, and last almost 3 times longer than incandescants. We hope to offer 12 volt DC

Halogen bulbs for sale on our products page soon, as they are difficult to find--even most RV shops don't carry them, only the innefficient 12 volt incandescents.

Standard Incandescent BulbsThey give out more heat than light. Only 40 cents each, or lots more in 12 volt versions. Popular

electricity wasters, seen in almost every grid-connected house. Edison's invention changed the world, but much more efficient lights are available now. Besides, EDISON HAD GRID POWER!

Amory Lovins of the Rocky Mountain Institute calculated that replacing a 75 watt incandescent lightbulb with an 18 watt compact flourescent (that gives the same amount of light) would, over the lifespan of

the new bulb, prevent the emission of about 1 ton of carbon dioxide and 8 kilograms of sulpher dioxide into the atmosphere, plus a huge savings on electricity cost. And, the compact flourescent will last over

10 times as long.

Gas Lights

A real technological innovation a hundred years ago, these lights are still effective today if you have no electricity and some propane or gasline to burn. Humphrey has been making these lamps for 92 years, they are available from Jade Mountain, Lehmans, and certain Amish catalogs. They make some noise,

but not too much.

Coleman lanterns are another familiar gas light--they use white gas that is vaporized in a heated generator tube. These are VERY noisy! Also, the mantles in these lights (and in kerosene mantle lamps) are treated with radioactive thorium--it doesn't pose much of a hazard, but don't carry mantles in your pocket! The thorium from lantern mantles can be used to contruct a home built lightning detector for

fun or experiments--see our plans on this website.

Click here to read about making a home built lightning detector!

Kerosene LampsThe Aladdin mantle version of these (with the tall glass chimney) produces lots of light and heat, more

than enough to read by. Regular kerosene lamps produce enough to read by, barely, but are much brighter than a candle. But most of us up here spent at least a year with ONLY kerosene for lighting, and

it sure beats a candle or nothing! Be careful of the fire hazard--don't burn these lights unattended.

Emergency LightingEven off-grid systems can fail at the worst possible time, and the utility grid experiences frequent

failures. It's very handy to have automatic emergency lighting near the critical areas of your home, especially the power control center. And in the USA, most businesses (no matter how small) are

required to have emergency lighting systems so that people can safely exit the building during a blackout. There are various systems available that use self-contained batteries and efficient CF or LED lights, but batteries fail over time too. Recent technological developments have made Self-Luminous

Emergency Lighting possible, with no batteries or electricity involved. Both versions of these lamps are very handy to have around, and have at least a 25 year life span.

LED Lights Reduce Energy Consumption 48% in Cree Headquarters

Cree, Inc. (Nasdaq: CREE), a manufacturer of LED solid-state lighting components, released the results of the first phase of the conversion of its Durham headquarters to LED lighting, which has resulted in the use of 48% less energy than the lights they replaced and plans to convert all lighting at the headquarters and manufacturing facility to LED lighting. The parking lots, entryways, lobby and conference rooms at Cree’s headquarters building are now 100-percent lit by energy-efficient, environmentally friendly XLamp(R) LEDs.That means replacing everything from high-pressure sodium parking-lot lights to the fluorescent tubes in offices and hallways to the spotlights on the flagpole out front.

“Conventional wisdom is that LED lighting is years away from widespread adoption. The truth, however, is that the performance of Cree’s LED technology enables real LED lighting solutions today,” said Chuck Swoboda, Cree chairman and CEO. “The conversion of Cree’s site demonstrates that the LED Lighting Revolution is well underway and will illustrate the benefits in energy savings, maintenance costs and environmental impacts.”

The new LED lights use 48% less energy than the incandescent, fluorescent and high-pressure sodium lights they replaced. Cree began the process in October 2007 and will continue until it replaces the tens of thousands of bulbs and tubes that light the campus, inside and out.

Cree claims that the combination of the energy savings, reduced maintenance and disposal costs and the environmental savings demonstrate that LED lighting is now a real alternative to traditional lighting solutions.

The following table from the LED Workplace website, illustrates the savings that have been obtained in their outdoor lighting.

According to Cree this conversion validates the energy savings, quality of light and reality that LED lighting is now a viable option for business and residential consumers.

On September 13 Cree announced it had achieved R&D results of 129 lumens per watt for a cool-white LED and 99 lumens per watt for a warm-white LED. These are the best results reported for packaged, high-power LEDs.

Another installation cited on the LED Workplace website is that of Sentry Equipment Corporation Oconomowoc, WI. When they decided to build a new facility, a major concern was energy-efficiency and chose LED lighting for most of their lighting.

The building’s original lighting design indicated that the company’s fixtures would require about 75 kW. The company reduced their actual lighting load, however, to only about 30 kW through effective use of daylight and high-efficiency artificial lighting, mainly LED technology.

Sentry estimates the cost for the new lighting technology has an approximate 1.3-year payback. They also project their annual lighting energy costs to be more than $13,000 less than estimated in the original lighting design.

Not all of Sentry’s lighting comes from LEDs. They use some fluorescent lighting. However, LED lighting provides the greatest energy savings. Where the company installed LED lighting, they reduced energy consumption from 14.6 kW in the original plan to an actual consumption of only 3.6 kW. The company’s LED lighting also reduced overall energy consumption since they have a power factor near 90%.

About Cree

Cree is a market-leading innovator and manufacturer of semiconductors and devices that enhance the value of solid-state lighting, power and communications products by significantly increasing their energy performance and efficiency.

Cree drives its increased performance technology into multiple applications, including exciting alternatives in brighter and more-tunable light for general illumination, backlighting for more-vivid displays, optimized power management for high-current, switch-mode power supplies and variable-speed motors, and more-effective wireless infrastructure for data and voice communications.