*** Solar LED Alliance will now be providing Ringdale's CT Energy Monitor and Data Logger ***
CT Energy Monitor and Data Logger Gives Companies Superior Insight and Control over Energy Conservation Initiatives
GEORGETOWN, Texas, Sept. 22, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Ringdale® Inc., a Texas-based manufacturer of USA-made solid-state technologies, including ActiveLED® luminaries, announces its CT Energy Monitor and Data Logger with Ethernet connectivity for single- or three-phase power systems. The solution allows energy and facility managers to monitor and easily detect a variety of power issues, resulting in improved oversight of energy costs and energy conservation initiatives.
Used anywhere accurate logging of energy is required, the CT Energy Monitor and Data Logger measures root mean square (RMS) current and voltage. Managers remotely access the solution through their network to identify where energy is being wasted or to identify patterns of increased power use. The information is much more robust than merely trying to review utility bills. Gathered information can be accessed in real time via a web application or stored onto a USB drive for later evaluation.
The system is ideal for applications requiring accurate monitoring of energy usage for multiple locations, such as in high-rise buildings where energy use-per-tenant or per-floor is used for billing. Besides keeping a record of energy use, the CT Energy Monitor and Data Logger can also send an alarm notification via email in the event of a high- or low-current event or other user-programmed criteria, such as low voltage, voltage surges, power outages, brownouts, or failures.
Klaus Bollmann, president of Ringdale, explains how CT Energy Monitor and Data Logger recently helped a customer identify the source behind higher energy bills. "A customer changed its exterior showcase lighting to energy-efficient ActiveLED lighting and saved $10,000 on its monthly energy bill. Several months passed, and energy bills started to increase. After installing the CT solution, the facility manager could see what needed to be done to support the company's energy efficiency goals. The information let our customer see the impact of employees using personal heaters and helped the customer prioritize where new efficiency-based improvements should be made. It's about having the right data for targeted, accurate decision making," concluded Bollmann.
Ringdale, Inc., established in 1986, is an innovator of solid-state technology and manufacturer of commercial LED lighting fixtures, providing ActiveLED luminaries with patented, solid-state lighting control and thermal management technology. Ringdale is based in the United States with offices in the United Kingdom, France,Germany, Japan, and Singapore.
Sunday, August 16, 2015
Astronauts Sample Taste LED Grown Veggies in Space
Fresh food grown in the microgravity environment of space officially is on the menu for the first time for NASA astronauts on the International Space Station. Expedition 44 crew members, including NASA'sone-year astronaut Scott Kelly, are ready to sample the fruits of their labor after harvesting a crop of "Outredgeous" red romaine lettuce Monday, Aug. 10, from the Veggie plant growth system on the nation’s orbiting laboratory.
The astronauts will clean the leafy greens with citric acid-based, food safe sanitizing wipes before consuming them. They will eat half of the space bounty, setting aside the other half to be packaged and frozen on the station until it can be returned to Earth for scientific analysis.
NASA's plant experiment, called Veg-01, is being used to study the in-orbit function and performance of the plant growth facility and its rooting "pillows," which contain the seeds.
NASA is maturing Veggie technology aboard the space station to provide future pioneers with a sustainable food supplement – a critical part of NASA’s Journey to Mars. As NASA moves toward long-duration exploration missions farther into the solar system, Veggie will be a resource for crew food growth and consumption. It also could be used by astronauts for recreational gardening activities during deep space missions.
The first pillows were activated, watered and cared for by Expedition 39 flight engineer Steve Swanson in May 2014. After 33 days of growth, the plants were harvested and returned to Earth in October 2014. At NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the plants underwent food safety analysis. The second Veg-01 plant pillows were activated by Kelly on July 8 and grew again for 33 days before being harvested. The seeds had been on the station for 15 months before being activated.
Astronauts on the International Space Station are ready to sample their harvest of a crop of "Outredgeous" red romaine lettuce from the Veggie plant growth system that tests hardware for growing vegetables and other plants in space. (NASA/LEDinside)
The Veggie system was developed by Orbital Technologies Corp. (ORBITEC) in Madison, Wisconsin, and tested at Kennedy before flight. Veggie, along with two sets of pillows containing the romaine seeds and one set of zinnias, was delivered to the station on the third cargo resupply mission by SpaceX in April 2014.
The collapsible and expandable Veggie unit features a flat panel light bank that includes red, blue and green LEDs for plant growth and crew observation. Using LED lights to grow plants was an idea that originated with NASA as far back as the late 1990s, according to Dr. Ray Wheeler, lead for Advanced Life Support activities in the Exploration Research and Technology Programs Office at Kennedy.
Wheeler worked with engineers and collaborators to help develop the Veggie unit from a Small Business Innovative Research project with ORBITEC. Dr. Gioia Massa is the NASA payload scientist for Veggie at Kennedy. Massa and others worked to get the flight unit developed and certified for use on the space station. The purple/pinkish hue surrounding the plants in Veggie is the result of a combination of the red and blue lights, which by design emit more light than the green LEDs. Green LEDS were added so the plants look like edible food rather than weird purple plants.
"Blue and red wavelengths are the minimum needed to get good plant growth," Wheeler said. "They are probably the most efficient in terms of electrical power conversion. The green LEDs help to enhance the human visual perception of the plants, but they don't put out as much light as the reds and blues."
Wheeler, Massa and Dr. Gary Stutte, all from Kennedy, previously investigated similar experiments to grow plants in the Habitat Demonstration Unit at NASA's desert test site near Flagstaff, Arizona, in 2010 and 2011. Wheeler said Veggie will help NASA learn more about growing plants in controlled environment agriculture settings. Similar settings include vertical agriculture, which refers to stacking up shelves of plants that are grown hydroponically and then using electric light sources like red and blue LEDs. This kind of system is popular in some Asian countries and beginning to grow in the U.S.
"There is evidence that supports fresh foods, such as tomatoes, blueberries and red lettuce are a good source of antioxidants. Having fresh food like these available in space could have a positive impact on people's moods and also could provide some protection against radiation in space," Wheeler said.
NASA plans to grow food on future spacecraft and on other planets as a food supplement for astronauts. Fresh food, such as vegetables, provide essential vitamins and nutrients that will help enable sustainable deep space pioneering. (NASA/LEDinside)
After the first crop of lettuce was returned from the space station, Massa began working with a team of flight doctors and NASA safety representatives to get approval for the crew to eat the produce.
"Microbiological food safety analysis looks very good on the first Veg-01 crop of romaine lettuce," Massa said.
Besides the nutritional benefits, could growing fresh produce in space also provide a psychological benefit? Alexandra Whitmire, a scientist at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston is involved in research to answer that question.
Whitmire is the Behavioral Health and Performance Research scientist for NASA's Human Research Program. Her team supports research related to reducing psychological risks on a Mars mission.
"The Veggie experiment is currently the only experiment we are supporting which involves evaluating the effects of plant life on humans in space," Whitmire said.
Her team is focused on crew behavioral conditions, performance reduction, and team communication and psychosocial adaption.
"Future spaceflight missions could involve four to six crew members living in a confined space for an extended period of time, with limited communication," Whitmire said. "We recognize it will be important to provide training that will be effective and equip the crew with adequate countermeasures during their mission."
The countermeasures could include things like meaningful work. Habitat-related modifications also could include plant life. Whitmire said Earth studies have shown plants are associated with well-being and optimal performance. Plants potentially could serve as a countermeasure for long-duration exploration missions.
Massa agrees: "Besides having the ability to grow and eat fresh food in space, there also may be a psychological benefit. The crew does get some fresh fruits or vegetables, such as carrots or apples, when a supply ship arrives at the space station. But the quantity is limited and must be consumed quickly."
Having something green and growing--a little piece of Earth--to take care of when living and working in an extreme and stressful environment could have tremendous value and impact.
"The farther and longer humans go away from Earth, the greater the need to be able to grow plants for food, atmosphere recycling and psychological benefits. I think that plant systems will become important components of any long-duration exploration scenario," Massa said.
The system also may have implications for improving growth and biomass production on Earth, thus benefiting the average citizen. Massa said many of the lessons NASA is learning with Veggie could be applied in urban plant factories and other agriculture settings where light is provided by electrical light and water conservation is practiced.
"We hope to increase the amount and type of crop in the future, and this will allow us to learn more about growing plants in microgravity," Massa said. "We have upcoming experiments that will look at the impacts of light quality on crop yield, nutrition and flavor, both on Earth and in space."
The team at Kennedy and Johnson hope that Veggie and space gardening will become a valued feature of life aboard the space station and in the future on Mars.
Watch this video to learn more about growing plants in space.
Paul Zamprelli of Orbitec, the company that developed the Veggie greenhouse, describes the hardware that supports plant growth and, for the first time, crew consumption of lettuce on the International Space Station.
The US Department of Energy (DOE) has released an updated version of its report "Adoption of LEDs in common lighting applications." The report is based on research focused on the adoption of LED technology in ten common general-lighting applications, and also projects what savings could have been with greater penetration of solid-state lighting (SSL) technology. The report documents 143 tBTU (tera or trillion BTUs) in US energy savings in 2014 attributable to LED-based lighting products, although the savings could have hit 4896 tBTU if the country could have converted 100% of the ten applications to SSL. The DOE also just announced additional research funding opportunities.
The 2015 report equates the 2014 energy savings to $1.4B (billion). The savings, while significant, are the result of only 3% total penetration by LEDs into general lighting. Moreover, the largest penetration is in the A-lamp space with 36% of units installed being LED based. But A-lamps don’t offer the energy savings of many of the other nine lighting types covered in the research.
Indeed, the most compelling data is forward looking in other categories. The DOE said that commercial LED lighting applications including linear fixtures and high/low-bay fixtures hold great potential. Those applications have reached only 1.3% and 2.2% penetration, respectively, thus far, yet the commercial usage equating to long hours and high light levels would lead to significant savings as SSL penetrates to a larger degree. And the DOE notes that high-performing products in these applications are poised for escalated usage. The so-called overnight potential of complete conversion in these applications is 1812 tBTU and 1165 tBTU, respectively.
Thus far, directional lighting is the application in which LEDs have made the greatest impact on energy savings. The DOE said the combination of reflector lamps and downlights is responsible for 21% of the energy savings realized in 2014. The linear and low/high-bay applications closely follow in actual 2014 energy savings despite the relatively low penetration rate.
The new report also notes some challenges ahead to broader SSL usage. Specifically, linear fluorescent lighting with state-of-the-art ballasts remains a lower-cost alternative to linear LED lighting. The DOE also said better integration of controls is also needed in applications such as linear and low/high-bay fixtures so that the latest products deliver the maximum potential savings.
You can review both a full copy of the report and a summary on the DOE website.
SBIR/STTR funding
Separately, the DOE has announced the newest research funding opportunities for SSL in the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs. The agency is seeking applications for fiscal year 2016 (FY16) Phase I projects. LED and OLED projects will be considered in areas such as materials that can boost efficiency.
The great thing about energy-saving LED lightbulbs is that they’re designed to last a long time—often 23 years. And that’s why when some Cree LED spotlights died early in one of Consumer Reports’ tests—the most failures our lightbulb experts have seen for LEDs—it raised questions.
The dimmable Cree PAR38 Bright White LED spotlight replaces a 90-watt incandescent lightbulb and has a 27° beam angle. We paid $24 apiece at Home Depot. The model number is BPAR38-1503027T-12DE26-1U100. Here's what we found.
The tests. Our engineers conduct a number of different tests for brightness, energy use, light color, and more. Cycle testing tells us how the bulbs hold up after being frequently turned on and off. That on/off affects CFLs, but hadn’t affected LEDs, until now. Four of the eight Cree LEDs died after about a third of the way through the test.
And in our 3,000 hours life test, two of the 10 LEDs died, something that is unusual for LEDs but we have seen this in the past. One Cree LED went out before 500 hours and the other around 1,700 hours. This LED is meant to last 25,000 hours, or nearly 23 years when used 3 hours a day.
Need to know. Several visitors to HomeDepot.com commented that this LED failed very early on for them as well. The LED is Energy Star qualified, meaning it met Energy Star’s high standards when tested by a third party (not Energy Star and not Cree). And while Energy Star LEDs must have a warranty of at least 3 years, the Cree’s warranty is 10 years. This shows why you should save your receipt. And if you’re planning to buy PAR38 LEDs, especially for outdoor use with a motion sensor that frequently turns them on and off, consider the Great Value 90W PAR38 LED Soft White NonDimmable LED from Walmart. It’s $22 and a CR Best Buy.
One more thing. In our past tests Cree LEDs have done very well. We recommend the Cree 9.5-watt (60W) A19 Warm White Dimmable LED and at $8.50 it's a CR Best Buy. Our tests of the Cree PAR38 LEDs continue and we’ll continue to report on our findings.
Citing overheating dangers, the North Carolina-based lighting manufacturer is recalling 700,000 LED fixtures designed to replace fluorescent tube lighting. Cree
Cree has issued a voluntary recall of its tube-shaped T8 LED, a light designed to replace fluorescent bulbs in common commercial and office fixtures. The company estimates that roughly 700,000 units are affected, citing a potential fire hazard as the cause of concern.
According to the North Carolina-based manufacturer, the problem stems from electrical resistance between the spring contact and the printed circuit board. This resistance can lead to electrical arcing, which can, in turn, cause the light to overheat. At that point, the lamp could begin to melt, posing fire and burn hazards.
The T8 LEDs are sold through distributors to commercial lighting customers, and exclusively at Home Depot for residential usage. Nine SKUs in total are affected by the defect, and sales of all nine were halted on April 30th, 2015. Owners of those bulbs should disconnect them and contact Cree for a free replacement or a refund.
A Cree representative provided the following comment: "While known incidents are very small in relation to the number of products shipped, any potential safety issue is unacceptable. Cree is working with the Consumer Product Safety Commission, Health Canada and Profeco in Mexico to provide information to Cree T8 LED replacement lamp owners."
The representative goes on to emphasize that the issue is isolated to select models from the T8 LED line, and that it does not affect other product lines.
Xcel Energy Inc. (NYSE: XEL) honored Spradley Barr Ford of Greeley as well as Leprino Foods and King Soopers for their “outstanding” efforts to save energy.
The utility recognized a dozen commercial, industrial and small business customers statewide for participating in Xcel’s energy efficiency programs last year.
The companies lowered their energy costs and reduced environmental impacts, Xcel said. Altogether, they saved more than 49 million kilowatt-hours of electricity in a 12-month period. That means the businesses avoided producing more than 28,000 tons of carbon dioxide, similar to keeping more than 7,100 cars off the road for a year.
Xcel offered incentives, such as rebates and funding for energy efficiency studies, to commercial and municipal customers to encourage them to make energy-efficient choices. The companies recognized chose more efficient equipment and processes for their facilities.
Royal Philips (Philips) announced that a consortium led by GO Scale Capital has agreed to purchase 80.1% of its combined LED components and automotive lighting business. Philips will retain the remaining 19.9% and will receive about USD $2.8 billion in compensation for the transaction before taxes and transaction costs. Philips expects to get an additional differed contingent payment of USD $100 million. The transaction’s completion is scheduled for the third quarter of 2015, subject to regulatory approvals and certain closing conditions.
The new company will continue operating under the name Lumileds. The CEO of Philips’ Lighting Solutions business Pierre-Yves Lesaicherre will head the company. Philips’ Lighting Solutions business will continue operation and will remain an important customer of Lumileds. Lumileds will continue to act as a supply partner for Philips’ Lighting Solutions business.
“Philips is very positive about this transaction with GO Scale Capital as its principals are long-term, growth-oriented investors with a track record of building and expanding technology companies,” said Frans van Houten, CEO of Royal Philips. “We have significantly improved the performance of the LED components business and optimized the industrial footprint in the Automotive lighting business over the last few years, and established a strong management team and innovation pipeline. We are therefore convinced that together with GO Scale Capital, Lumileds can grow further, attract more customers and increase scale as a stand-alone company.”
Oak Investment Partners and GSR Ventures have sponsored the new investment fund GO Scale Capital. The consortium partners are GSR Capital, Asia Pacific Resource Development, and Nanchang Industrial Group. The GO Scale Capital team reportedly has a track record in scaling up disruptive technologies. The consortium partners have access to complementary technologies and manufacturing capacity through their past LED industry investments.
Sonny Wu, chairman of GO Scale Capital and co-founder and managing director of GSR Ventures, who will serve as interim chairman of Lumileds following the transaction’s completion stated, “The Lumileds acquisition will be a perfect example of how GO Scale turns cutting edge technologies into world class companies. GO Scale Capital will focus on expanding Lumileds’ opportunities by investing in its global centers of operation and in the fast growing general lighting and automotive industries. Through Lumileds’ world-leading technology in key verticals such as LED chips, LED mobile flash and automotive lighting, together with a customer base including the likes of BMW, Volkswagen and Audi, we expect to see significant growth and unparalleled inroads into new opportunities such as electric vehicles.”
“I am convinced that together with the new investors led by GO Scale Capital, Lumileds will extend its leading product portfolio of lighting components and continue to achieve robust growth,” said Pierre-Yves Lesaicherre, CEO of Lumileds.“With our strong technology leadership, we are ready to address the future needs of our customers. We will work closely with our industry partners and customers to lead innovation and the transformation of our industry.”
As announced in September 2014, Philips has started the process of creating two companies focused on Lighting Solutions and HealthTech. Philips plans to transition the Lighting Solutions business into a separate legal structure. Currently, Philips intends to separate the two businesses through an initial public offering, although Philips will continue to review other options.
ActiveLED Customer Installations Maintain Original Light Levels Five Years Later
PR Newswire
GEORGETOWN, Texas, March 16, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Ringdale®, Inc., Texas-based manufacturer of USA-made ActiveLED® luminaries, announced its unprecedented Performance Warranty, also dubbed the No Light Loss Warranty. ActiveLED fixtures carry a 10-year guarantee that the lights will not only function, but will not lose light levels or change color for 10 years.
The ActiveLED product—with its overall design that includes patents in LED phosphor, LED cooling, and LED driver technology—addresses issues that typically cause lights to fail. "At Ringdale, we've been revolutionizing solid-state technology for over 30 years. We focus on manufacturing fixtures as a whole, including all of the internal components, and this results in better, longer-lasting lighting for companies. This warranty is a testimony to our robust design and one that no other manufacturer in the industry has achieved," saidKlaus Bollmann, president of Ringdale and inventor of ActiveLED.
The No Light Loss Performance Warranty supports Ringdale's driving principle of delivering sustainable products made to be durable and long-lasting, thus breaking free of the consumption lighting model. The lights are guaranteed to deliver 90,000 light hours for maintenance-free performance.
Thermal management is a leading contributor to LED failure. ActiveLED uses superior heat sink designs and patented heat transfer technology to dissipate heat and minimize junction temperature. Keeping the junction temperature low allows fixtures to run cooler, last longer, and not depreciate. The product line's outdoor fixtures operate with full light output within a temperature range of -55°C (-67°F) to +55°C (+131°F) while indoor fixtures operate without light loss and within a temperature range of -40°C (-40°F) to +45°C (+113°F). Additionally, ActiveLED fixtures have an expected life under these respective conditions of more than 200,000 hours.
Ringdale has been offering this unparalleled assurance to customers since 2008. "When we initially started the dialog of ActiveLED providing droop-free lighting, many felt it was another unwarranted claim," explained Bollmann. "But after five years of delivering lighting that has experienced no light loss—five years during which hundreds of customers have enjoyed durable, long lasting performance—we felt now was the right time to make a formal announcement. Our proof points are the successful installations performing in some of the harshest climates and the most demanding environments."
The Performance Warranty covers every ActiveLED fixture in a portfolio of over 200 commercial-grade luminaries for interior and exterior applications, such as streets, parking structures, building exteriors, warehouses, offices, retail spaces, sports lighting, restaurants and architectural accents.
About Ringdale
Ringdale, established in 1986, focuses on helping organizations incorporate green savings into their business environments. Ringdale, an innovator of solid-state technology and manufacturer of commercial LED lighting fixtures, provides ActiveLED® luminaries with patented, solid-state lighting control and thermal management technology. Ringdale, Inc. is based in the United States with offices in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Japan, and Singapore and is part of the Network Technology PLC Group of Companies.
ForceField Energy's ESCO Energy Services subsidiary has announced that it anticipates receiving the first LED street light conversion orders under the Municipal Street Light Conversion Program. In a five-year partnership with the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities (CCM), the energy services company (ESCO) will enable municipalities to both purchase existing utility-owned street lights and convert those poles to LED-based fixtures.
Still, the ESCO Energy Services program goes beyond the typical retrofit project because it will allow municipalities that don’t own their street light inventory to purchase those lights from the local utility. Moreover, the offer includes the option to install networked controls and the management software and tools needed to manage the inventory both in terms of maintenance operations and in dimming the lights when appropriate for maximum energy savings.
"With a strong footprint across North America and diverse capabilities including comprehensive multi-site installations, real-time energy monitoring and analytics, and networked smart street light management systems, we are well positioned to penetrate the multi-billion LED street light market," said Richard St-Julien, ForceField Energy's executive chairman. The company says that it will future-proof the street light inventory for municipalities.
ESCO Energy Services said it is in negotiations with 20 of the 153 municipalities that comprise the CCM membership and believes the projects will commence in the second quarter. The company projects the potential to close to $25-$30 million in CCM LED street light projects during the next five years.
"We believe our ability to offer and deliver a comprehensive and fully integrated street light acquisition and LED conversion program that incorporates an array of financing options will set us apart in that growing vertical," said Mitch Barack, ESCO president and CEO. "As part of our program delivery, we also provide zero-landfill recycling of the old street light fixtures. Certificates of Recycling will be provided for all street lights received and processed. The zero-landfill recycling program actually pays the municipality for the value of the recyclable products we recover. This provides additional value in terms of contributing to the town's sustainability efforts and an added advantage of the ESCO comprehensive offering."
By Maury Wright Editor in Chief, LEDs Magazine and Illumination in Focus
