| 7.
Energy for Lighting
Archive
of Past Articles for Chapter 7
2009 August 4. LEDs
Are As Energy Efficient as Compact
Fluorescents.
By Eric A. Taub, The NY Times. Excerpt:
While there’s no question that
LED lamps use a fraction of the energy
to produce the same amount of light
compared with a standard incandescent
bulb, several Bits readers have pointed
out that that’s only half the
story.
If the energy used to create and dispose
of the LED lamp is more than that for
a comparable standard bulb, then all
of the proclaimed energy savings to
produce light are for naught.
Until recently, no one knew if that
was the case. In March, a preliminary
study reported by Carnegie Mellon indicated
that LED lamps were more energy efficient
throughout their life, but the researchers
pointed out that not every aspect of
the production process was taken into
account.
A new study released on Tuesday by
Osram, the German lighting giant, claims
to have confirmed the efficiency findings.
...the report examines the energy needed
to create and power an LED lamp. Even
the energy needed to ship a lamp from
the factory in China to an installation
in Europe was taken into account.
...The findings, according to a summary
of the study: today’s LED lamps
are essentially as energy efficient
as compact fluorescents, in the amount
of energy needed to create, recycle
and provide light. Osram said it expected
those numbers to improve as LEDs become
more energy efficient....
2009 May 11. Industry
Looks to LED Bulbs for the Home. By Eric A.
Taub, NY Times. Lightfair International,
the lighting industry's
annual trade show, showed off an
abundance of LED bulbs for homes
and
workplaces.
2009 Mar 28. Earth
Hour 2009. Before
after photos of Earth Hour efforts
around the globe.
2009 March 25. Let
there be light-emitting diodes. By Erin Allday, SF Chronicle.
Excerpt: No doubt, street lights
enhancements are not the most thrilling
policies to come out of City Hall.
But the LED lights being installed
in the Tenderloin are actually pretty
neat.
...The LEDs are more energy efficient
than traditional bulbs, so there's
an environmental angle (of course).
But what's cool about the lights
isn't so much the LED technology,
which we've all seen before (they've
been installed in many traffic signals,
for starters), but the "smart
controller" that's also involved.
Mayor Gavin Newsom showed it off
at a press conference on Wednesday
when he turned on the Taylor Street
lights by hitting a button on his
iPhone. With the right password,
the lights can be turned on and off
from just about anywhere.
The lights can also be dimmed ...
and turned into strobes, which would
be used to point police and fire
personnel to the location of an emergency.
The LED lights will replace most
street lights in phases over the
next several years. Each light costs
about $700, compared to about $150
for old-fashioned bulbs, but city
officials note that they last at
least four times longer and are 50
percent more energy efficient....
2008 June 22. The
New Trophy Home, Small and Ecological By FELICITY
BARRINGER. NY Times. Excerpt:
For the high-profile crowd that turned
out to celebrate a new home in Venice,
Calif., the attraction wasn't just
the company and the architectural
detail. The house boasted the builders'
equivalent of a three-star Michelin
rating: a LEED platinum certificate.
The actors John Cusack and Pierce
Brosnan, with his wife, Keely Shaye
Smith, a journalist, came last fall
to see a house that the builders
promised would "emit no harmful
gases into the atmosphere," "produce
its own energy" and incorporate
recycled materials, from concrete
to countertops.
Behind the scenes were Tom Schey,
a homebuilder in Santa Monica, and
his business partner, Kelly Meyer,
an environmentalist whose husband,
Ron, is the president of Universal
Studios. Ms. Meyer said their goal
was to show that something energy-conscious "doesn't
have to look as if you got it off
the bottom shelf of a health-food
store."
"It doesn't have to smell like
hemp," she said.
That was probably a good thing. The
four-bedroom house was for sale,
with a $2.8 million asking price.
Its rating was built into that price.
LEED - an acronym for Leadership
in Energy and Environmental Design,
is the hot designer label, and platinum
is the badge of honor - the top classification
given by the U.S. Green Building
Council. "There's kind of a
green pride, like driving a Prius," said
Brenden McEneaney, a green building
adviser to the city of Santa Monica,
adding, "It's spreading all
over the place."
Devised eight years ago for the commercial
arena, the ratings now cover many
things, including schools and retail
interiors. But homes are the new
frontier.
While other ratings are widely recognized,
like the federal Energy Star for
appliances, the LEED brand stands
apart because of its four-level rankings
- certified, silver, gold and platinum
- and third-party verification.
...More than 1,500 commercial buildings
and 684 homes have been certified
but just 48 homes have received the
platinum ranking, among them a four-bedroom
home in Freeport, Me., as well as
homes in Minneapolis; Callaway, Fla.;
Dexter, Mich.; and Paterson, N.J.
2008 February. Let
There Be (Fluorescent) Light. Union of Concerned Scientists.
A provision in the 2007 energy bill
requires lightbulbs to be 30 percent
more energy-efficient starting in
2012-a standard that will effectively
phase out traditional incandescent
bulbs. But why wait? Today's compact
fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) already
use 50 to 80 percent less energy
than incandescent bulbs. If every
U.S. household replaced just one
incandescent bulb with a CFL, the
Environmental Protection Agency estimates
we would reduce global warming pollution
by an amount equivalent to taking
more than 800,000 cars off the road.
...CFLs do contain a small amount
of mercury, so they cannot be thrown
out in the trash (see the related
links for disposal information).
However, the mercury in CFLs represents
a much less significant environmental
hazard than incandescent bulbs because
CFLs require much less electricity,
and more than half of our nation's
electricity is generated by coal-fired
power plants-the largest U.S. source
of mercury emissions.
In other words, the average coal-fired
power plant emits only 3.2 milligrams
of mercury for each CFL running six
hours per day for five years, but
emits nearly 15 milligrams of mercury
for an incandescent bulb running
the same amount of time, according
to UCS research. The difference far
exceeds the approximately five milligrams
present inside a CFL. Properly disposing
of CFLs ensures the mercury in them
remains contained.
25
February 2008 -
March 8 GLOBE
at Night
Make simple observation of Orion
and use simple magnitude charts to
gauge quality of sky. Report observation
to the GLOBE project.
During the 2007 event there were
8,491 observations reported from
60
GLOBE countries, almost doubling
the observations from 2006
November 2007. LED
Lights Make Your Holiday Greener,
Union of Concerned Scientists. Read
this issue of Greentips
online Twinkling lights on trees
and houses are an icon of the holiday
season, but their energy consumption
might put a damper on your celebratory
mood: this year's holiday lights
could generate as much global warming
pollution as about 250,000 cars,
according to UCS research. Most of
this electricity is needlessly wasted,
because the mini and C-7 incandescent
lights used by most homeowners are
only about 10 percent efficient.
There are a variety of ways to decorate
the home without using electricity,
but families who enjoy the look or
tradition of holiday lights can save
money and help protect the environment
by switching to LED (light-emitting
diode) holiday lights. LEDs employ
semiconductor technology to convert
electricity into light directly,
resulting in significant energy savings.
An LED uses approximately 0.04 watt
of electricity, compared with 0.45
watt for a mini incandescent light
bulb and 7 watts for a C-7 incandescent
bulb.
LEDs provide several other benefits
as well:
* Safety-LEDs stay cool to the touch,
posing less of a fire hazard compared
with incandescent lights. In addition,
their low energy consumption allows
you to connect up to 25 strands of
lights end to end without overloading
a circuit. * Durability-The small
size and solid construction of LED
bulbs make them less likely to break.
* Long Life-LED bulbs can last up
to 100,000 hours or more, which is
equivalent to more than 10 years
of continuous indoor use. If a single
bulb in an LED strand does happen
to fail, the remaining bulbs will
continue to work.
While they have a higher purchase
price (they cost about two to three
times more than incandescent lights),
LED holiday lights quickly pay for
themselves through energy savings.
Using the national average residential
rate of 11.06 cents per kilowatt-hour,
it costs only 32 cents to use 300
LED lights for five hours per day
for 45 days. In comparison, using
incandescent mini lights or C-7 lights
for the same amount of time would
cost $3.36 and $52.25, respectively.
This does not include replacement
costs for incandescent light strands,
which do not last as long as LED
strands....
1 October 2007. The
Great World Wide Star Count.
... Roberta Johnson. Windows to
the Universe is running a citizen
science campaign beginning October
1 -- the
Great World Wide Star Count. This
international event encourages
everyone to go outside, look skywards
after dark, count the stars they
see in certain constellations,
and report what they see online.
This campaign is designed to raise
awareness about the night sky and
encourage learning of astronomy.
All the information needed to participate
will be available on the Star Count
Web site. The Star Count uses a simple
data collection procedure and an
easy data entry form. At the conclusion
of the event, the submitted data
will be analyzed and a map will be
generated highlighting the results
of this exciting citizen science
campaign. Mark your calendars and
plan on joining thousands of other
students, families, and citizen scientists
counting stars this fall. The Great
World Wide Star Count will be held
from October 1st through October
15, 2007. For more information visit
http://www.windows.ucar.edu/citizen_science/starcount.html or email starcount_info@ucar.edu.
9 May 2007. BAN
THE BULB: Worldwide Shift from
Incandescents to Compact Fluorescents
Could Close 270 Coal-Fired Power
Plants. Earth Policy Institute.
Eco-Economy Update. Lester R. Brown.
Excerpt:
On February 20, 2007, Australia
announced it would phase out the
sale of inefficient incandescent
light bulbs by 2010, replacing them
with highly efficient compact fluorescent
bulbs that use one fourth as much
electricity. If the rest of the world
joins Australia in this simple step
to sharply cut carbon emissions,
the worldwide drop in electricity
use would permit the closing of more
than 270 coal-fired (500 megawatt)
power plants. For the United States,
this bulb switch would facilitate
shutting down 80 coal-fired plants.
...At the commercial level, Wal-Mart,
the world's largest retailer, announced
a marketing campaign in November
2006 to boost its sales of compact
fluorescents to 100 million by the
end of 2007, more than doubling its
annual sales. In the U.K., Currys,
Britain's largest electrical retail
chain, has announced that it will
discontinue selling incandescent
light bulbs. ...One disadvantage
of compact fluorescents is that each
bulb contains a small amount of mercury,
roughly one fifth the amount in a
watch battery. This mercury is only
a small fraction of that released
into the atmosphere by the additional
coal burned to power an incandescent.
Mercury released by coal-fired power
plants is the principal reason why
44 of the 50 states in the United
States have issued mercury intake
advisories limiting the consumption
of fish from freshwater streams and
lakes. Nonetheless, worn-out compact
fluorescents, watch batteries, and
other items that contain mercury
still need to be recycled properly.
Fortunately, this is possible, whereas
the mercury spewing from coal smokestacks
blankets the countryside, ending
up in the water and food supply.
20
February 2007. Australia
to Ban Old-Style Light Bulbs.
By ROHAN SULLIVAN, Associated Press Writer (02-20) Excerpt:
12:15 PST SYDNEY, Australia (AP) --The Australian government
on Tuesday announced plans to phase out incandescent light bulbs
and replace them with more energy-efficient compact fluorescent
bulbs across the country. Legislation to gradually restrict the
sale of the old-style bulbs could reduce Australia's greenhouse
gas emissions by 4 million tons by 2012 and cut household power
bills by up to 66 percent, said Environment Minister Malcolm
Turnbull. ...Last month, a California assemblyman announced he
would propose a bill to ban the use of incandescent bulbs in
his state. And a New Jersey lawmaker has called for the state
to switch to fluorescent lighting in government buildings within
three years. Cuba's Fidel Castro launched a similar program two
years ago, sending youth brigades into homes and switching out
regular bulbs for energy-saving ones to help battle electrical
blackouts around the island. The idea was later embraced by Castro's
friend and ally, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who announced
his own program to save energy and in recent months has given
away millions of fluorescent bulbs in neighborhoods nationwide....
2
January 2007. Wal-Mart
Puts Some Muscle Behind Power-Sipping
Bulbs. The New York Times.
By MICHAEL BARBARO Excerpt:
...it turns out that thelong-lasting,
swirl-shaped light bulbs known
as compact fluorescent lampsare
to the nation's energy problem
what vegetables are to its obesity
epidemic: a near perfect answer,
if only Americans could be persuaded
to swallow them. But now Wal-Mart
Stores, the giant discount retailer,
is determined to push them into at
least 100 million homes. ...For all
its power in retailing, though, Wal-Mart
is meeting plenty of resistance -from
light-bulb makers, competitors and
consumers. ...A compact fluorescent
has clear advantages over the widely
used incandescent light - it uses
75 percent less electricity, lasts
10 times longer, produces 450 pounds
fewer greenhouse gases from power
plants and saves consumers $30 over
the life of each bulb. But it is
eight times as expensive as a traditional
bulb, gives off a harsher light and
has a peculiar appearance. As a result,
the bulbs have languished on store
shelves for a quarter century; only
6 percent of households use the bulbs
today. ...selling 100 million compact
fluorescent bulbs a year by 2008,
... saving Americans $3 billion in
electricity costs and avoiding the
need to build additional power plants
for the equivalent of 450,000 new
homes. ...During an extraordinary
meeting in Las Vegas in early October,
...Selling 100 million bulbs "is
not a slam dunk by any stretch of
the imagination," Stephen
Goldmacher, an executive at Royal
Philips, the Dutch company that is
one of the world's largest light-bulb
makers, told the group. ...The attendees
did not need to look far for evidence.
Wal-Mart had asked the owners of
the Mirage Hotel and Casino, where
the conference was held, to commit
to using the energy saving bulbs
in its guest rooms in time for the
meeting. The hotel politely declined.
...In the past, Wal-Mart had sold
them on the bottom shelf of the lighting
aisle, so that shoppers had to bend
down. In tests that started in February,
it gave the lights prime real estate
at eye level. Sales soared. ...Wal-Mart
will have to persuade its traditional
consumers that it is worth paying
a bit more at the checkout counter
to save a significant amount money
down the line, a seemingly simple
task that few companies ever accomplish.
..."It has
taken the American public forever
to grasp this," said Charlie
Jerabek, the chief executive of Sylvania....
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