Cree introduced 75 Watt equivalent LED for $24, Malaysian equivalent cheaper

Leading innovator of LED lighting and semiconductor products, Cree has introduced an LED bulb that can replace the 75W incandescent bulb and uses 82% less energy.

Built to the standard screw type A19, the 75W equivalent bulb consume just 13.5 watts of power. It was announced early this month and available for US$24.00 (about RM77.60)


Cree's 13.5W LED bulb is an equivalent replacement of the 75W incandescent bulb. Source: Cree


The company claims it will last 25 times longer than its energy guzzling equivalent. The brightness is an adequate 1,100 lumens. A fluorescent bulb of this brightness would consume about 20 watts.

Great things with LED bulbs are that they can be build dimmable. So are the 13.5W Cree bulbs. You can set them to achieve a very high brightness when needed, and you can simply dim them to save energy when the extra brightness is not needed.


Great! But that's a hefty price to pay for a bulb

There has to be something that makes the Cree bulb that expensive. The last time I checked, our local market price range for LED bulbs of 5W - 10W is RM30.90 to RM40.90. Still, the acceptance by the general public is low for this type of lighting.


This Panasonic 10W LED bulb is claimed to be the 75W equivalent of incandescent bulb. Priced at RM40.90 in Kota Kinabalu.


TheGreenMechanics: Energy saving compact fluorescent lamps (CFL) are available on the cheap at RM11.00 to RM18.00 (13W - 23W) and the price is dropping further. You can expect the LED lamp prices to drop substantially, too.


Cree's press release here.

Discard used energy-saving bulbs and tubes with care

Global lighting giant Philips predicts that by 2015, 50% of the global lighting market will be LED, and if that comes true, then the disposal of compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) could be less as a problem on a macro scale.

However, the high price barrier for LEDs means that most households will continue to use CFLs as they wait for the former to be more affordable, and this means that proper CFL disposal will remain a challenge in the short to medium term.

 
(Left) A 11W CFL bulb contains 2mg of mercury, and will go up according to the bulb size. 
(Right) The collection box at Ikea store in Petaling Jaya. 


Saving energy through the use of efficient lighting has been touted as a green act, but this is an incomplete picture as no focus has been given on end-of-life handling. Using CFLs is green only if the mercury inside is properly locked, if not recovered for reuse.


Problem with indiscriminate disposal

Added in vapour form, mercury is an essential part of the CFL technology, as it allows the bulbs to be an efficient light source. The downside of CFLs is that each bulb contains a small amount of mercury, typically around 4mg, that remain sealed within the glass tubing.

To compare, the old mercury-based thermometers can contain up to 500mg of mercury, which is more than what is found in 100 CFLs.

If mercury is swallowed, less than 1/1000 is absorbed by the body and most of it is eliminated, mainly through the urine and faeces. But the problem with mercury is that it is a persistent, bio-accumulative toxin. When the cumulative amount is huge, such as through the widespread use of fluorescent lamps, then there might be a real possibility of mercury contaminating landfills.


Discard with care

In some developed countries, like the United States, there are systematic efforts to salvage usable parts and materials from used CFL bulbs. According to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the recycling of CFLs and other fluorescent bulbs allows the reuse of the glass, metals and other materials that make up the bulbs.

It says virtually all components of a fluorescent bulb can be recycled. It is possible to separate the glass, phosphor powder and metal bits from crushed lights for reuse, but in Malaysia, this entire load is buried in a secured landfill.

For that to happen anywhere, there needs to be a proper disposal and collection system, whether mandated or otherwise. Malaysian regulations do not state that households need to properly dispose their CFLs. It is the same for Singapore, which allows households to throw away used bulbs along with their household waste.


IKEA the only one making an effort so far?

According to recent The Star report, Ikea in Malaysia is the only volunteer in doing its part to help reduce the problem of mercury emissions. It has placed a bulb collection box at its Mutiara Damansara store in Petaling Jaya, Selangor since 2010. No purchase is necessary for people to use the facility.

At its store, Ikea crushes the bulbs (along with fluorescent tubes) by using a specialised machine called the Bulb Eater, manufactured by US-based Air Cycle which cost the store RM20,000, before sending the waste to a secured landfill managed by Kualiti Alam at Bukit Nanas, Negri Sembilan. Thus far, the store has collected 11 drums of crushed lights weighing about three tonnes.

Kualiti Alam bills Ikea up to RM3,750 (not including transportation) for each tonne of crushed bulbs it receives.

Image credit: The Star. Full article can be found at The Star here.

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TheGreenMechanics: Participation by other private entities and NGOs is crucial. The government must play a role in easing the way for anyone wanting to promote the proper disposal of used bulbs/tubes. Ikea is definitely alone here.

Set up one center for each state for a start, then we can move on from there.

Can we replace all fluorescent bulbs with LED, soon?

Presently, there is already LED version of the long soft glowing tubes found in most offices and homes. But these LED tubes are very expensive and are not widely used.

What Phillips is doing is to develop an LED light that will be "far more efficient than the best fluorescents on the market. Greener and cheaper."

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Prototype of a new tube LED light developed by the Phillips that is capable of generating 200 lumens of white light per watt. AP Photo/Phillips


Goodbye fluorescent bulb? Philips says yes

Top executive at Dutch company Phillips said the prototype LED is headed to mass production and will hit the market in 2015. He claimed that in 10 years, LEDs will replace at least half of the world's fluorescent bulbs, which have been the main source of workplace lighting since shortly after World War II.

"This is a major step forward for the lighting world. It will bring an enormous savings in energy."- Rene van Schooten, CEO of Philips' light sources division.

Experts outside the Dutch company say they have long expected LEDs to eclipse fluorescents. If Philips' predictions are correct, however, the arrival of the LED in office spaces will come faster than expected.


Huge potential of LED tubes

Lights suck up more than 15% of all energy produced globally, and fluorescent lights currently make up more than half of the total lighting market.

In the United States alone, fluorescents consume about 200 terawatts annually, according to Philips' estimates. Cutting that in half would save $12 billion in electricity costs and lessen carbon dioxide emissions by 60 million metric tons per year, the company said.

The technical milestone the company claims to have achieved is the ability to produce 200 lumens of light per watt. That's about twice the output per watt of the best fluorescent tubes currently on the market.

A lumen is the standard measure of the amount of light a lamp casts in a given area.

"LEDs will take over, definitely within 10 years, certainly within 5 years, maybe within three." - Rene van Schooten.


Source: Yahoo News

Portable home lighting solutions by GreenBrilliance

The build looks simple and should not require high-tech input to it, other than creativity. Meet the newly launched solar-powered home lighting solutions by GreenBrilliance.

Basic: Solar panel, battery and LED lamps

Main features:

• 12W Poly-Crystalline PV Panels (size: 311mm x 358mm) - this is really small!
• 2 High Power LED lamps
• 8 hours of battery backup
• USB Port

Applications

This portable home lighting solutions is designed by GreenBrilliance, a manufacturer of globally certified photovoltaic solar modules based out of Gujarat, India. This innovative product is ideal for:

• Home lighting
• Boat cabin lighting
• Adventure trips
• Camping
• Roadside emergency lighting
• Natural disaster relief
• Rural / remote areas lighting
• Construction sites
• Charging USB devices like Mobile Phones, MP3 players, Bluetooth headsets etc.

It's strange that the website says USB charger is not compatible with iPhone 4S and iPhone 5. Then what is the iphone doing here in the pic?


The GreenBrilliance GBHL12: Technical Specifications

Source: GreenBrilliance website

MyLED Opto eyes 70% local market share in 5 years

This is another testimony that we are capable of producing products with cutting edge technology but end up shipping them out of the country for others to use.

Homegrown MyLED produces among others:

• LED fluorescent lamps
• Yellow LED lamps
• LED street lamps
• LED floodlights

The reason for the 70% shipping out to foreign markets could be a combination of small market in Malaysia and our slow adoption of LED lighting applications. I hope it is not the latter.

LED tube similar to the conventional fluorescent tube, but uses 50% less energy, is one of MyLED's products. Power factor ranges from 0.8 to 0.9


MyLED Opto Technology Sdn Bhd to capture local market

Kuala Lumpur: Malaysia's first light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and solid-state lighting (SSL) producer, MyLED Opto Technology Sdn Bhd (MyLED Opto), targets 70 per cent local market share in five years from 30 to 40 per cent currently.

Chief Executive Officer Jetson Lai said the company is optimistic of capturing a bigger share of the local market with its prices 10 to 15 per cent lower than international brands.

"About 70 per cent of sales is from foreign markets, which are our current focus, with high demand from Japan, Sri Lanka, the United Kingdom and Indonesia," he said in a statement here.

Lai said MyLed Opto will more aggressively market its products locally.

"The plan is to raise production capacity to 200,000 units of fluorescent lamp tubes a month from 50,000 units now," he said.

MyLed Group, which is 75 per cent Bumiputera-owned, offers various LED lamps including street lamps, floodlights, fluorescent lamps as well as yellow LED lamps for the local and overseas markets.

The company expects to rake in about RM2 billion in revenue over the next five years, he said.

"We have signed an agreement with the marketing arm of a Japanese company to supply LED lamps for self-service machines, which number 10 million units nationwide," he said.

Lai said to meet rising demand, MyLED Opto plans to venture into upstream industries and start production of LED components in the second half of this year.

"To meet this target, MyLed Opto plans to invest RM120 million to RM150 million to expand operations and buy high-technology production machinery, the plan is expected to start in June.

"We are working to obtain financing from financial institutions and the government, and we hope banks see the LED industry as an industry of the future after IT due to the technology's energy saving potential," he said.

MyLed Opto's RM5.2 million manufacturing plant in Batu Berendam, Melaka has been operating since last year. - Bernama

Full LED street lighting by 2014 for Shenzhen, China

It seems that many are benchmarking themselves against 2014 for going Energy Efficient in lighting their streets.

The nation is targeting 2014 for full use of LED street lights. While incandescent lamps will be banned in Malaysia by 2014 as they are very inefficient.

Shenzhen aims to be the first city in China to adopt full LED street lightings. Photo: Urbanista.net


In December last year, the municipal government of Shenzhen, the southern Chinese city bordering Hong Kong, issued the Implementation Plan of LED Lighting Promotion and Application in Shenzhen, calling for the installation of LED lighting in all public areas in two years.

This means that the implementation will be completed in 2014.

Shenzhen’s LED industry, valued currently at 70 billion yuan annually ($11.2 billion) accounts for nearly half of the China's LED output and there are promotional efforts to double the output to over 130 billion yuan ($20.9 billion) in 2015.

The Shenzhen government’s plan suggests that LED lighting applications be first deployed in public areas, including city roads, public facilities, government agencies, state-owned enterprises or institutions, and other projects and facilities invested by state-owned capital. Lighting in these areas are to use LED street lamps, yard lamps, landscape lamps. Other forms of lighting are to be converted in stages, with full conversion completed by the end of 2013.


Project financing

Green Prospect Asia reported that, to finance the LED lighting project, the plan requires the city treasury to use revenue collected as part of electricity tax, or to seek funds from other public sources. As for the financing of new projects undertaken by government departments, each department is responsible for the financing of its own LED projects.

Thera are obstacles in such a futuristic project such as high cost and the fact that LED road-lamp technology is still at a developmental stage and hence, not very scalable. But I'm sure the city planners can sit down and iron out plans to mitigate project financial risks.


TheGreenMechanics: There you go. Kota Kinabalu's plan to install energy-efficient light bulbs in the city by 2014 is not far fetched, isn't it. Just go for it!



To read the full article, visit Green Prospect Asia.

LED lighting for SK Randagong, Ranau

Being far away from the development of the urban area should not stop you from being efficient in your energy usage. Especially so if you happen to have been adopted by big corporation such as SESB (Sabah Electricity Sdn Bhd).

Energy efficiency is what we want to drive home to the younger generation and SESB did just that to the school children at SK Randagong in Ranau.

SK Randagong - children will learn about energy efficiency early. InsightSabah photo.


Called Energy Efficient (EE) Light programme, SESB started the initiative off in the rural area by 'acting' rather than 'preaching'. SESB came to the school and changed all its conventional light bulbs with energy saving LEDs in September last year, and helped reduce the school’s electricity bill by about 30% the next month. The less-than-expected saving is probably due to power consumption by other appliances that are not energy efficient.


How much?

The  total cost of changing all 35 lights at the school is RM5,350 which works out to be about RM135 per unit. A check with online retailers shows that LED tubes will set you back at RM130 to RM190 per set. Comparing this to the conventional fluorescent tube which is retailed at about RM14 (36 W), it is still a very expensive affair at the current market price.

But life span of LED lights are also about 10 times longer and are brighter,  plus there is virtually no heat generated compared to incandescent/filament and conventional tubes.

Coverage by local dailies, DE, NST and BP was not conclusive as to whether SESB replaced all lights with LED tubes, compact fluorescent tubes or combination of both but looking at the cost involved, I'm convinced they are LEDs.


Why LED? (The LED Revolution)

LEDs are evolving much faster than any other lighting technology. They offer advances in:-

• Efficiency. Energy savings from 50% to 70% compared with conventional technologies result in similar cuts to carbon emissions.

• Controllability. Better control over light colour,  intensity and direction allows lighting system designs that can deliver a wide range of social co-benefits. 

     Examples:

1. Outdoor LEDs offer improved visibility for pedestrians and traffic, as well as reduced light pollution.
2. Indoor LED smart control systems have been shown to improve student behavior and study performance.

• Lifespan. Well-designed LEDs are expected to last for 50,000 to 100,000 hours or more. Lifespans can be extended even further by coupling LEDs with smart controls.

According to LED 2012 Report by The Climate Group (Supported and sponsored by HSBC & Philips), when smart controls allow LEDs to dynamically change lighting levels in response to conditions, total system energy savings can reach up to 80%.*

While fluorescent tubes have doubled in efficiency since 1950, white LED efficiency has increased by a factor of ten since 2000. Today LEDs are among the most efficient lighting sources available, but in the near future they will reach far beyond any competing technology and become the technology of choice for most applications – with energy savings reaching up to 90% compared to today’s conventional technologies. [The Climate Group]


TheGreenMechanics:

SESB should not stop there. Move on to other schools, higher learning institutions, and collaborate with other GLCs or even local authorities. Get the involvement of the people. Involvement would instill the sense of belonging.

Thumbs up and many thanks, SESB!


* LED June 2012 Report by The ^oClimate Group.

Kota Kinabalu city to use energy-saving bulbs soon

It's a good initiative by City Hall, taking cue of government's intention to use LED for street lighting in 2014. For building illumination, a pilot project by the federal government helped save it around RM3.5 million or 10.3% in power usage, between January and October last year.

Energy saving light powered by solar at Petronas building compound in Kota Kinabalu

Citing what was reported in the Daily Express on Jan 10, 2013 "the use of LED is much cheaper from the existing lamps", I hope the tabloid merely misquoted the Mayor as this is definitely not the case. Infact the use of LED lamps is 'very expensive' if you compare it with sodium vapour and or metal halide street light bulbs.

The major selling point of LED lamps is its extremely low energy usage, and that is why the City Hall will save a lot in its electricity bills when using it. However, initial installation cost is higher than the existing ones.

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Energy-saving bulbs for some KK areas
D.Express. 10-1-2013

Kota Kinabalu: City Hall has identified some areas in the city to be lit by energy saving bulbs to help save on utility bills this year. Mayor Datuk Abidin Madingkir on Wednesday said City Hall would begin the installation of such bulbs like Light Emitting Diode (LED) bulbs in a pilot project, to determine its viability, soon.

"Certainly the use of LED is much cheaper from the existing lamps, we will not replace them all at once, but the installation will be done gradually, in phases," he said.

Preliminary results of a pilot project in the peninsula, revealed LED bulbs used in 12 government buildings in Putrajaya showed average savings of 10.3 per cent or RM3.5million from January-October last year.

The move could help the Government save up to RM800 million from the RM2.7 billion it spends each year. However, the cost of implementing the plan is costly, revealed Energy, Green Technology and Water Minister, Datuk Seri Peter Chin.

Reference: Daily Express

Addressable Light Bulb Goes On Sale

Do you fancy switching on some particular lights at home using your smartphone while you are still on your way?

In the internet protocol, every device connected to the world wide network has its own IP address. That's including your PC, laptop and mobile smartphones. This means that your devices have unique identification and therefore addressable.

Think about light bulb that has IP address of its own. And think about hundreds or thousands of addressable light bulbs. That is what this title is all about. LED Light bulbs that can become data hotspots and be controlled (switch on/off, dimmed, auto-switched, programmable) from anywhere in the world.

Image: dvice

On Monday, October 22, 2012, GreenWave Reality and NXP launched a new line of WiFi-networked LED light bulbs, along with the Connected Lighting Solutions platform to run them. According to Greentechmedia, GreenWave has already started shipping the bulbs to European utility customers, such as in Denmark, Netherlands, and Sweden. The new bulbs are also certified for sale in the US.


How much?

Noting that possibility is endless with such bulb, how much would you be willing to pay for it? For a start, a basic kit containing a gateway device and four bulbs, along with a handheld remote, will cost about $200. Individual bulbs can then be purchased at $20 to $30 (RM60 - RM90).

The technology make use of IPv6 connectivity to network LED light bulbs.

If $30 is too steep, think about these two things about network and connectivity:

1. The rise of the “Internet of Things” is pushing basic IP connectivity down to pacemakers, security webcams, smart thermostats and other devices at a pace that should cut costs dramatically in the years to come.
2. There’s a new breed of IPv6-enabled mesh networking technology that’s allowing these devices to receive and pass along data to one another, which beefs up the topological factors (i.e., walls) that can cause trouble for low-power wireless networks.

The advantage of using light bulbs as places to add wireless mesh nodes, is that they are likely to reach every part of the home or business they are deployed in. Hence the data nodes as well.

Although GreenWave and NXP are not the first to come up with the idea of a house full of IP-addressable smart light bulbs, the usability of such technology is still in infancy stage. But as earlier mentioned, the possibility is endless.

If you are interested to read further, hop in to GreenTechMedia