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The pros and cons of LED (light emitting diode) technology were presented to members and guests of the Central Ohio IFMA Chapter November 19 at the Confluence Park Restaurant by Dough Beh, director of sales for Loeb Electric Co.
The good aspects include:
The challenging aspects include:
Beh pointed out that the lighting market is being flooded with product and is in constant change, similar to the way in which the computer industry affected the market in the 1980s.
“LEDS have been around for 30 years,” Beh said, “but the real breakthrough came recently when Nichia (Corp.) invented the blue LED that has allowed us to create white light. Blue is the essential color that is needed for white light production…but (it) also happens to be the least efficient right now.”
He said red is the most efficient LED and explains why so many are rapidly replacing neon lighting in the signage market, adding, the financial payback and return on investment of red LEDs over neon is very attractive.
Beh said the essential components of the LED are the chip, the optics or lens, and the thermal management mechanisms.
The chip is of paramount importance, and Beh said, “The first question I always ask when someone brings me a new product is, ‘Whose chip is it?’ because that will tell me how high quality the chip is.”
He said there are three good manufacturers—Philips-Lumiled, CREE and Nichia, “but Nichia chips have a lot more technology and that’s what drives their efficiency up.”
Beh said, “Heat associated with an LED is critical, just like a computer system and similar to what we have experienced in electronic ballasts. Your ability to get very long life out of any electronic device is contingent on how you manage the heat.”
He said fixture manufacturers are doing considerable research to determine how LED chips can be used so that they can be marketed for specific applications.
Beh also said when talking about LEDs “We can’t use the traditional lumens per watt that we use with lights. We really have to look at a given application and the application efficiency.”
In doing so, he said, LEDs post some ‘big wins’ because the light source is directional and unlike the fixtures used with ordinary lighting can be pointed exactly where it is needed, making it more efficient even though it has fewer lumens per watt.
Beh said, “Each LED product that comes out is really designed for a specific purpose. But what people are getting excited about is that down the road in a few years, if we can keep this efficiency, we are really going to start replacing HID (high-intensity discharge) and fluorescent (lighting), which is the bulk of our general lighting.
“There is lots of promising stuff (coming to market). It’s much more complex than what we are used to, and it’s important to understand what the ratings are as you evaluate product because a lot of the rush, the ‘first-to-market guys,’… (just) wanted to sell some product.
“The big lighting manufacturers, the guys who have been around for 100 years, see this as an industry-changing event. They are not investing in research and development just to sell product today, they are investing to sell over the next 50 years.
“We are seeing a switch in the lighting industry, and it is really interesting to see, where it’s about fixtures and what do I do with this light bulb. We are seeing some replacement product come out, but an inordinate amount of investment has gone into production of fixtures for specific applications.
“My prediction is over the next three or four you are going to see a great change in the lighting industry as far as who is leading who.”