LED Lighting for a brighter future!

AFP/Jiji Press/AFP/File  - Energy saving traffic lights in Japan are failing to melt snow covering them AFP News: Energy-saving LED traffic lights seemed like a cool way to cut back on electricity costs, but Japanese police said Monday they might just be too cool -- because they don't melt snow. Light-emitting diodes (LEDs) account for around 45 percent of all of Japan's stop-and-go signals and that proportion is growing as local authorities cotton on to their economising possibilities compared with regular incandescent lights. But in wintery northern Japan the lights have encountered a problem -- drivers can't see them because they don't get warm enough to melt accumulated snow. Akira Kudo of Aomori Prefectural Police said snow has to be removed manually between December and mid-February during blizzards. "We don't have enough staff members to remove snow as more and more LED lights are being introduced," he said. LED lighting is becoming ...

Published on 14 Jan 2015 Hear from the experts about how advancements in LED lighting will help make our cities smarter. These interviews were conducted at a European high-level event under the Italian EU Presidency, co-organised by the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research (MIUR), and the European Commission DG CONNECT Photonics which was held on 29 - 30 October 2014 in Rome, Italy. Visit us at novelenergylighting.com to explore outdoor lighting, from streetlights to floodlights to bollards to security lighting. Or call us to discuss your needs: 0208-540-8287

Portfolio Update: We add the new Hawthorn IP22 range of slim LED round ceiling panels to our round panel and downlight collection today. These energy efficient panels are the perfect retrofit for old halogen or CFL downlights. Ranging in wattage from 6W to 24W with a variety of cut-out sizes they can be used to replace most 'old technology' downlights. Available in 3000K warm white, 4000K natural white, and 6000K daylight. IP22 with a 3 year warranty. Energy savings of over 50% are achieved, and with a long lamp life above 50,000 hours, they will continue to deliver cost of ownership savings for many years. The Hawthorn range of panels adds to our already strong family of LED round panels, where we offer IP ratings from IP22 to IP54 to suit project needs: Our MEGE LED Round panels offer IP40 rating, with a 5 year warranty: Our ThermaLED Round panels offer IP54 showing rating, with a 3 year warranty: We also offer IP54 rated LED Downlights in a rang...

Drax power station - Energy efficiency, including LED lighting, means the UK needs fewer of these The UK is saving billions of pounds a year thanks to the ‘unseen’ benefits of reducing energy demand, according to  a new report . The Association for Decentralised Energy, which represents the combined heat and power industry, says that generating energy locally and using it more efficiently is saving consumers more than £37bn ($56bn) a year, compared to 1980. The report, which looks at local energy generation and energy efficiency actions such as lighting, says that these measures have helped the UK avoid building 14 new power stations, the equivalent of half the country’s current power generating capacity. But these benefits are often overlooked because policymakers focus too much on energy supply and not enough on demand, the association said. It’s easier for politicians to implement and evaluate big, centralised measures addressing supply than to grapple with the...

'LED streetlighting is being imposed on people and any negative feedback is being ignored’ - campaigner Simon Nicholas   Lux Reports:  Simon Nicholas insists he’s not ‘anti-LED’. It’s a point worth making, as he has become famous in lighting circles for his one-man campaign against bad LED streetlighting. ‘I believe LED is the future of lighting,’ he says. ‘But it’s a sophisticated technology being used crudely because of a lack of expertise. There’s a lack of understanding of the wider issues and a lack of skills within many local authorities.’ ‘In many cases it’s cheap and cheerful. It’s not even cheerful, it’s cheap and nasty. In fact it’s not even cheap, it’s expensive and nasty. And if residents complain, all they get back from their local authorities are cut-and-paste platitudes.’ Nicholas thinks taxpayers deserve better, so he has made it his business to get councils to look more carefully at how they procure and specify LED streetlighting - and ...

A computer-generated image of a street scene in Tehran, as it would look if enhanced with new lighting. Designers believe an upgrade to public lighting can help draw tourists back to the city Lux Reports: Better public lighting in the Iranian capital of Tehran could help encourage tourists back to the city, says lighting designer Roger Narboni, who led a workshop on the city’s lighting at a recent conference. Narboni, a French urban lighting specialist whose company Concepto has designed more than 90 lighting projects in France and beyond, described Tehran’s current public lighting as ‘very basic’ and the lighting in its bazaars as ‘an amazing mess’. Participants in Narboni’s workshop, including representatives from the Tehran Municipality, spent four days coming up with a lighting ‘masterplan’ for parts of Tehran’s historic centre. The plan focused on the city’s Marvi and Oudlajan bazaars, which are currently being renovated, and the surrounding areas. Designers ...

Coming to a Woolworths car park near you: the retailer is planning to roll out its LED lighting scheme to other stores following the massive energy savings it achieved in Coorparoo. LUX reports: Compared to other conventional lighting solutions, T5 is still seen by some as too efficient for the facilities team to justify upgrading to an LED lighting system. But combined with controls, even the leap from T5 fluorescent lighting to LED can yield significant savings. Woolworths is a case in point; the retailer’s branch in the South Eastern Brisbane suburb of Coorparoo managed to save 77 per cent energy in its car park area with LEDs and occupation sensors, and earned a Peak Load Reduction Reward for its efforts. One of the reasons the management was looking for a new solution was the amount of hours the light was on in the car park. The T5 fittings, which had an average life span of two years, were on all day and night, with no control system in place.  The entry to ...

LUX Reports: Hadrien Bera leads a team of 20 engineers responsible for the overall asset management of London’s grand hotel Claridge's in Mayfair. It’s a challenging role; requirements to save energy aren’t easy to balance with the need to maintain the look and feel of a lavish Grade II listed building with art deco interiors, frequented by the royals and sometimes referred to as the ‘annexe to Buckingham Palace’. Lux  spoke to Bera to find out how he plans to make the lighting in the prestigious, 200-year-old building more efficient. Lux : What are the biggest lighting challenges you face at Claridges? Bera:  We’ve got a lot of different systems and it is difficult to keep enough stock because a lot is custom-made. That forces me to plan ahead and to create stocks of critical spares so any issues would have as little disruption to the hotel’s operations as possible. We’ve got chandeliers in the main reception that use incandescent candles, which also comes with ...