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How to Green Your Lighting

What’s the Big Deal?

How we light up the places we live and work makes a big impact on how we feel. It also makes a big impact on the environment. The kind of bulbs, the kind of fixtures, the kind of power, and the habits we keep can all add up to a very significant greening. Start with the fact that a conventional incandescent bulb turns only around five to ten percent of its consumed energy into light, the rest goes out as heat. From there, there’s no limit to how green your lighting can be.

Top 10 Tips

Here are 10 highly effective ways to go greener. Hit it.

1. CFL: The better bulb
Compact florescent bulbs (CFLs) are those swirley little guys that look like soft-serve ice cream cones. Actually, they come in a myriad of different shapes, sizes, and colors of light. Economically speaking, they’re a great deal, too. CFLs cost a bit more than an incandescent, but use about a quarter as much energy and last many times longer (usually around 10,000 hours). It is estimated that a CFL pays for its higher price after about 500 hours of use. After that, it’s money in your pocket.

Also, because CFLs release less heat, not only are they safer, but your cooling load is less in the summer. CFLs aren’t hard to find anymore, and many cities will give them away for free. Wal-Mart has plans to sell 100 million of them.

2. Get the LEDs out
LEDs are a definite TreeHugger favorite. LEDs, or light emitting diodes, are a technology that allows for extremely energy efficient and extremely long-lasting light bulbs. LEDs are just starting to hit the consumer market in a big (read affordable) way and still cost quite a bit more than even CFLs, but use even less energy and last even longer.

An LED light bulb can reduce energy consumption by 80-90% and last around 100,000 hours. They even light up faster than regular bulbs (which could save your life it there are LEDs in the brake lights of your car). They are almost always more expensive presently, but we have seen the cost go down steadily. It’s no coincidence that the Millennium Technology Prize went to the inventor of the LED.

Most LED lamps on the market have the bulbs built into them, so you buy the whole unit. For screw-in bulbs, check out Ledtronics, Mule, and Enlux. For desk lamps, check out a few affordable ones from Sylvania and Koncept. For more designer models, look at LEDs from Herman Miller and Knoll. Vessel rechargeable accent lamps represent some of the interesting new things LEDs can do as well.

3. Materials
Light isn’t all about the bulbs, though. Having eco-friendly lamps and light fixtures is key to greening your lighting. When scouting for new gear, keep your eyes out for lamps made with natural, recycled, or reused materials. Lights made from recycled materials include metal, glass, or plastic, and natural materials can include felt, cloth or wood. Interesting lamps that use reclaimed materials include these made from traffic signal lenses, and these made from wine bottles. Also, don’t be shy about borrowing ideas for reuse in your own projects (see DIY).

4. Disposabulb
Fluorescents last a long time, but when they’re dead, they have to be properly disposed of. CFLs, like all florescent bulbs, do contain a small amount of mercury, which means they definitely can’t be thrown in the trash. Every city has different services for recycling, so you’ll need to see what’s offered in your area. LEDs, to our knowledge, do not contain mercury, but the jury may still be out on how to best recycle them.

5. Wall warts
Power adaptors, or “wall warts” as they’re affectionately called, are those clunky things you find on many electrical cords, including those attached to lamps and some light fixtures. You’ll notice that they stay warm even when their device is turned off. This is because they in fact draw energy from the wall all the time. One way to green your lighting is to unplug their wall warts when not in use, attached lights to a power strip and turn off the whole switch when not in use, or get your hands on a “smart” power strip that knows when the devise is off.

6. Day-lighting
By far, the best source of light we know is (yes, you guessed it) the sun, which gives off free, full-spectrum light all day. Make the most of daylight by keeping your blinds open (sounds obvious but you might be surprised). If you want to go a little farther, put in some skylights, or, of you are designing a home or doing a renovation, put as many windows on the south-facing side of the house as possible (or north-facing if you live in the southern hemisphere). To take it even further, sunlight can be “piped” inside via fiber optics and other light channeling technologies.

7. Good habits
As efficient as your lighting equipment might be, it doesn’t make sense to have lights on when no one’s around. Turn out lights in rooms or parts of the house where no one is. Teach your family and friends about it too and it will become second nature. If you want to get a little more exact, follow these rules:
Standard incandescent: turn off even if you leave the room for just seconds. Compact fluorescent: turn off if you leave the room for 3 minutes. Standard fluorescent: turn off if you leave the room for 15 minutes.

8. Do it yourself
We’re always encouraging people to take matters into their own hands. So much great eco-innovation comes when people create the things they can’t find elsewhere. Lighting is an especially accessible and rewarding thing to tackle. For some inspiration, check out the Cholesterol lamp made from cast-off plastic egg cartons, and the recycled Tube Light. Strawbale building pioneer Glen Hunter made some LED fixtures when he couldn’t find any he liked on the market. Eurolite, the company from which he bought the lighting components, liked his designs so much they decided to sell them.

9. Dimmers and motion sensors
Motion sensors can be a good way to keep lights turned off when they’re not needed, and dimmers can give you just the right amount of life, and timers can be set to turn things on and off when needed.

10. Get green power
A great way to green your lighting is to buy green power. More and more electric utilities are offering customers a green power option on their bill. Signing up for green power usually means paying a few more dollars a month to support energy in the grid that comes from renewable sources like wind, solar, or biogas. For some more info on how to get green juice, look here, and for the greenest grids in the States, look here. More info is also available in How to Green Your Electricity.

Note: This article is written by Yahoo Green.

The Case for Solar-Powered LED Lighting

Rapid developments in solar cells, LED lighting and energy storage are creating great opportunities for solar-powered solid-state lighting, says Moneer Azzam of SolarOne Solutions.

The outdoor lighting industry, as with so many other application-oriented industries, assumes that the power source is infinite and always available. This is a tribute to the reliability of the electric grid - at least in developed-world nations. It has certainly made life simpler for the lamp/lighting designers who, for the most part, are able to divorce the lamp characteristics from the energy source. The developed world is starting to learn that the power source is far from infinite.*     Fig. 1. Some companies are not waiting to see the bottom of the barrel, and are exploring alternatives that range from replacement power sources to energy demand reduction. A number of companies are developing technologies that achieve both: SolarOne Solutions' work in solar-powered solid-state lighting under the SOLED™ brand name is an example of this. [* Estimates indicate at current levels of energy usage, the earth has about 150 years of energy stored in the form of oil, coal and uranium. However, if the entire population of the earth consumed as much as Americans' do on a per capita basis, that amount drops to 15 or 20 years.] Solar-powered lighting Solar electric lighting systems do in fact connect to a truly "infinite" power source - the sun. However, as we all know, this source is intermittent. In the case of solar outdoor lighting, the power source is inversely related to the load (the lights turn on when the sun goes down). This relationship leads to an important conclusion; the system must rely on energy storage (e.g. batteries), unless it remains connected to grid.   Fig. 2. Now in order for a solar lighting system to perform reliably, the solar panel and battery must be sized for the period of longest nights, shortest days and cloudiest weather, all of which occur at the same time each year (see figure 2). Historically, the solar industry has addressed this worst-case scenario by seeking out the most efficient lumen per watt DC lamps and over-sizing the system for the rest of the year. That translated to DC fluorescent bulbs, bigger solar panels, more batteries, higher costs and less-than-appealing appearance. This approach confined the market for solar lighting to areas closer to the equator with highest average levels of solar irradiation and temperatures that did not affect the performance and lifetime of the DC fluorescent bulbs. It also left the markets in the higher latitudes, typically with higher per capita wealth levels and greater lighting needs rather under-served.   Fig. 3. SolarOne perceived the shortfalls in the status quo products and the under-served market as an opportunity to integrate white LED lighting into its product offering and an area on which to focus its development efforts. With a deep understanding of solar cell characteristics and system operation along with resources in circuit design and micro-processor programming and strong relationships to major manufacturers of key components, the company saw their role in integrating the components into useful products and developing the brains that most cost-effectively manage their operation. At this year's LightFair International, SolarOne announced the first embodiment of such a system in a lamp, driver, and system manager combination named SOLED™ mc2 Technology. With the proverbial umbilical cord to the electric utility severed, the mc2 Technology seeks to create a more symbiotic relationship between the lighting load, solar cells, battery storage and the user. While the use of high efficiency components and circuit designs are a vital aspect of the technology, attaining the highest level of resource utilization is paramount to the mc2 philosophy. This is where the LEDs make an enormous contribution. 1. More effective illumination Fluorescents, while providing a cool color temperature at a very efficient lumen per watt (lm/W basis still have fundamental deficiencies. In addition to their bulk and inherent fragility, fluorescents project light poorly, in all directions around the lamp and in almost 180 degrees in the plane of the lamp. Thus their utilization, (the amount of usable light projected) is lower than the technical calculations of efficiency suggest. A reflector can redirect the light around the lamp downward, but there are efficiency costs. Further, as the fluorescent lamp is controlled to direct light downward for ambient lighting, approximately 30% or more of the light is lost. For more demanding task lighting, when even greater control is required, the loss from the fluorescent is approximately 50%. In contrast, LEDs produce directional beams of light, up to 90% of which is usable for ambient lighting and 70% of which is useable for task lighting (assuming that the lighting design incorporates multiple LED installations to compensate for shadows in a space measuring 4 feet square). The relatively low lumen output ratings of LED lamps are often times compensated for when looking at the foot-candle levels at the illuminated surfaces. In other words, for outdoor lighting applications, SolarOne estimates that an LED lamp rated at 45 lumens per watt will perform equivalently to a fluorescent bulb rated at 75 lumens per watt. This facet of LEDs offer an enormous side benefit to areas with dark-sky mandates. 2. Optimized system efficiency Solar cells and LEDs share many characteristics - even in the assembly process. For example, both solar cells and LEDs require sorting and balancing to optimize performance. The SOLED mc2 LED Lamp and Lamp Driver is configured to effectively eliminate the need for balancing resistors and their associated losses. Perhaps more significantly, through its range of testing and field experience, SolarOne has identified "sweet spots" in LED operation that optimize current flows and light levels with solar panel and battery costs. The trade-offs are quite different than grid-connected or even automotive applications. This translates into almost a 10% improvement in overall system efficiency. 3. Fine tuned to user needs   Fig. 4. Unlike conventional lighting, LED's lend themselves to programmability and fine-tuning. Delivering light not only where, but at the level and time it's most needed is another cornerstone of the mc2 philosophy. This aspect alone can reduce solar panel size and battery capacity by as much as 50%. The mc2 System Manager offers the user with 16 set lighting profiles they can select for their application. The company also offers factory installed custom profiles, depending on the size and nature of the project. 4. Battery runtime extension   Fig. 5. SolarOne's extensive field experience with solar systems highlighted the need to give options to users in selecting the preferred intervention methods for those cases where battery drops to lower states of charge. By giving the user the ability to define their "hierarchy of needs" and apply it to system operation, mc2 adds a new tool to address solar panel size, system cost and siting issues to the satisfaction of the customer. 5. Cold weather Another shared characteristic between Solar cells and LED lights is improved efficiency, performance and lifetime at colder temperatures. This brings advantages over other types of lamps whose performance and lifetime drops in colder climates - such as DC fluorescents. An LED lamp is expected to last at least 5 to 10 times as long as a DC florescent in these environments. It is another arrow for solar/LEDs' quiver in serving markets at latitudes further from the equator. Summary SolarOne and the other companies in this business space are just scratching the surface of opportunities for outdoor lighting. Quantum leap developments are underway in the fields of LED lighting, solar cells and energy storage alike. With each advancement, the benefits multiply throughout the system. As an example, the latest generation of high-brightness LEDs are playing a key role in realizing the potential of the SOLED mc2 concept. Cutting the tether from the outdoor light fixture to the electric grid is akin to what happened in the telecommunications market with the advent of the cellular phone. LED bulbs are conceptually solar cells in reverse - solid-state devices converting electricity into light. By combining them we create wireless, solid-state lighting. Who knows what markets will emerge? One thing seems certain, great opportunity exists in the compatibility between solar cells and LED lighting, it is just a matter of seizing it.

Note: This article is adopted from Ledsmagazine.com.

All About Solar Lighting

It's not hard to see why outdoor solar lighting is all the rage. Of course it's great that you don't have to pay for electricity, but more important for most folks is the fact that you don't need to install any wiring. Take the light out of the box, put it beside your walkway or in your garden, and you're done. Because most solar lights have a built-in darkness sensor, you don't even need to think about turning them on and off.

The technology for outdoor solar lighting is improving rapidly. Solar lights are looking more attractive, shining more brightly, and their run-time is getting longer. To give you a better sense of how these lights work and how to select a good one, here are the basic components:

Solar Panel: The solar panel has a photovoltaic cell inside, which converts sunlight to an electrical current. A solar panel's effectiveness depends on the size and quality of the solar cell and the transparency of the protective cover. The solar cell itself is usually the most expensive part of a solar light. As photovoltaic technology advances, prices are gradually coming down.

Battery: The solar cells are wired directly to a re-chargeable battery that stores the electricity generated by the cell. A diode located between the cell and the battery ensures that electricity flows only one way -- into the battery. NiMH batteries are often used because they stand up better to the frequent charge and release cycles than standard NiCAD batteries. NiMH batteries also have a significant environmental benefit. They can be disposed of without harm to the environment. The battery is usually the second most costly component of a solar light.

 LED: "Light-emitting diodes" are like miniature light bulbs that are installed in-line on an electrical circuit. The light emitted by an LED bulb is the byproduct of electrons moving through a semi-conductor material. Since there's no need for a filament, these bulbs last a very long time and also do not generate waste heat. The standard runtime of most LEDs is upwards of 100,000 hours, while an incandescent bulb usually lasts for about 3,000 hours. LEDs can be wired in clusters to intensify the light output.