Be on the cutting edge with LED holiday lights.

Each bulb with this new LED technology uses only 0.04 watts and is up to 90 percent more efficient than its incandescent counterpart. So a household burning 10 strands of lights for eight hours a day for a month at $0.0853 per kilowatt-hour would spend $127.67 for large incandescent bulbs, $7.20 for traditional mini-lights, and just $0.72 for LEDs. Also these newer bulbs are sturdier, last up to 100,000 hours, or 20 years, and barely warm up thus eliminating most fire concerns.

To also maximize holiday lighting savings, use timers to limit light displays to no more than six evening hours a day. Leaving lights on for 24 hours a day will easily quadruple your energy costs while also creating 4 times as much green house gases from the additional energy needed to light them.

And be safe, unattended lights can cause fires, especially if the lights are on a dried holiday tree or wreath, so always unplug your interior lights before going to bed or leaving the house. See the U.S. Department of Energy website to learn about the savings.

Change the Settings to Save Money!

Just by changing the picture settings of your TV you can reduce your energy bill and save money.  Most LCDLED TVs shipped are factory set with same high brightness and contrast levels to make them jump out at you when viewing them at the electronics store. However, you can still set your Sony brand LCD TVs have a Power Saving setting you can set to OFF, Low, High, and Picture OFF.  So set it to High. It also has a Power Management setting to have the LCD TV save energy when there is no signal is detected saving substantial energy lost to vampire power.

When buying a new HDTV, be sure to look for a green energy LCD TV. The new Energy Star 3.0 ratings standard requires less than 1 watt of power usage when the TV is off and has a algorithm for maximum energy use based on screen size. Look for this mark on any TV or for that matter most electronic devices when you make a purchase.

First U.S. Retailer to Phase Out the Bulb

Starting August 1st, 2010, IKEA will start phasing out incandescent bulbs from its U.S. stores, with the goal of completely eliminating them by January 1st, 2011. As we know, incandescent bulbs actually are more efficient at producing heat than the light they give off thus much of the electricity used is spent producing this by-product.  However IKEA isn’t only doing this out of concern for the environment: “The IKEA phase out will come in advance of the federal legislation that will begin to phase out incandescent light bulbs in 2012.” Why are they doing this and what will replace incandescents? Well for one it saves them money in energy costs by installing LED lighting and saves them money by having less cooling costs as well. Doing it sooner than required gets them not only saving money faster but gives them a marketing edge. Also as most retailers delay to do this it could create a temporary shortage driving up the price by the time they need to comply.  Many kudos for IKEA for being the first to make the big jump.

Sylvania LED light bulb

There is a shortage of light emitting diodes (LED) in the USA due to increased consumer uptake as people rapidly begin to use them in place of power hungry incandescent bulbs. According to a recent Department of Energy report on LED technology it states that 7% of electricity used America is to light our homes and businesses. Although that number is down significantly in the last few years due to the adoption of efficient lighting, there is still a great deal of ground to be gained. Further adoption will be because of continued innovations in more subdued color LEDs which will begin to make their way to the market. The DOE expects this further adoption to result in even larger decrease in energy use.

A small change like using this technology has a BIG impact as the cumulative savings of the continued adoption of LEDs over the next 20 years could lead to saving 1.500 terawatt-hours which based energy prices today is around $120 billion. The savings would eliminate the need for 24 new large power plants, to say nothing of the decrease in carbon emissions. So don’t delay get the LED out today!

A light-emitting diode (LED) is a semiconductor device that emits incoherent monochromatic light when electrically biased in the forward direction. This effect is a form of electroluminescent. The color depends on the semiconducting material used, and can be near-ultraviolet, visible or infrared. LED bulbs use less energy than your standard incandescent bulb, a whopping savings of 96% energy means a very low electricity bill. LED bulbs are the safest and the most cost-effective artificial light source in the world.

Many LED bulbs now fit into standard sockets and they work well with all types of light.     Advances have been made to make the color temperature of LEDs more of a traditional warm white. Applications for use include shops, bars, offices, show rooms, homes and more.

The leading LED manufacturer is Long Life Lamp Company which has been around for more than 15 years. Its latest high power LED, the 3rd generation, is designed to become a replacement of fluorescent tubes and halogen lamps, which is the future direction of the lighting industry. Although the price of these products are higher than current lighting sources, LED is better than other available lighting technologies due to its dramatic energy savings of up to 96% with higher luminance, therefore, the overall cost of using LED is less than others. Keep in mind that LEDs last up to 60,000 hours and produce virtually no heat making them highly cost effective over the long term especially when you factor in additional labor costs needed to replace conventional bulbs more often.

For additional information on these products and where to buy them, see www.longlifelamps.co.uk .

Wind-up LED Bike Light

Riding your bike safely at night is all about being seen, so the last thing you want to worry about is a dying battery or a dead bulb! Well worry no more. This LED bike light puts the brilliance of LEDs to perfect use in a new wind-up bike light. This complete bike light set comes with a 3-White LED headlight and a 3-Red LED taillight. You can set both lights for either a constant light or a flashing light to call more attention to yourself.

The rechargeable battery for both lights is in the headlight so when the lights start to dim, you only have to wind-up the headlight. The taillight connects by a slim cable to the headlight, so you don’t have to worry about winding it up as well. All mounting hardware is included, making it easy to connected the lights to your bike and hit the road.

One minute of winding gives you 8 minutes of bright light for headlight and taillight combined, or 60 minutes of flashing light. And when fully charged, get up to 50 minutes of light from headlight and taillight. And, both lights are water resistant.

LED’s That Look Like Incandescents

Osram Sylvania, one of the largest lighting manufacturers in the world is scheduled to come out with an LED bulb in mid August that emits as much light as a 60 watt incandescent bulb. The 60 watt output bulb will consume only 12 watts and they claim to have another one out shortly that would have a 75 watt output equivalent. LED bulbs in general are expected to last 10-12 times longer than conventional ones.

However one of its competitors, Lighting Science, recently announced that Home Depot has started selling its LED bulbs. They also said they will come out with a 50 watt equivalent bulb that only uses 9 watts with a suggested retail price in the low $30 range.

General Electric, Panasonic, Lemnis Lighting and many others have announced or already released bulbs in the $40 range. These bulbs, however, only have and output equivalent of 40 watt bulb. While this is good, the general market acceptance is for 60 watt output bulbs. Another key factor is the color output. To be successful they will need to be in the 2700 Kelvin range or better (lower) so that they more closely resemble the yellow warm glow we like about incandescent bulbs as consumers are highly sensitive to color temperature (or tone) in bulbs. Surveys show that most still prefer the warm, yellowish light of incandescent bulbs to the bluish tone of older LEDs.

Although low prices will help drive massive adoption, performance and look will also make a huge difference in which companies do well.  As you can see by the above picture Osram Sylvania deliberately tried to get its LED bulb to look as much as possible as a conventional bulb.

Cree one of the leading manufacturers of LED lighting for home and businesses unveiled this cute video just in time for Easter and the impending heat from Summer to prove a point – incandescents throw off unnecessary heat!  This may be good in the winter months however there are way less expensive methods to heat your home. A whopping 90% of the energy used by an incandescent bulb generates heat with a mere 10% used for the actual lighting! So change out your lights today to save the Easter Bunny from getting it! If not by using LEDs, then by using CFLs which also throw off  less heat, using either will save you BIG $$ with your lighting bill while also using less energy  to cool your home or business. See Cree at Creelighting.com or see the SAVING $ tab for more energy savings tips.

Coffee powerhouse, Starbucks , has embarked on a massive project to help reduce its global environmental footprint and as part of it, has begun converting to LED lighting systems at company-owned stores in the U.S. and Canada.

In 2008, Starbucks wanted to substitute incandescent and halogen lighting with LED lighting technology to conserve energy, but found no commercially available product that met its needs. They reached out to GE, which developed a highly energy efficient LED product that complements Starbucks store design and fits its existing fixtures.

Starbucks has completed installation in more than 1,000 U.S. locations and will expand the program to international markets in March 2010. The switch is part of Starbucks goal to achieve a 25 percent reduction in energy use by the end of 2010.

In addition to its work with GE, Starbucks announced that it has entered into the construction phase of the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED pilot program, which is an internationally recognized green building certification system. Over the next six months, Starbucks will build or renovate a minimum of 10 pilot stores in six different regions around the world. The goal is to achieve LEED certification for all new company-owned stores worldwide beginning in late 2010. Kudos to Starbucks for its green initiative and for giving us all another reason to buy expensive coffee!

Different energy-saving light bulb technologies, halogen (left), compact fluorescent (center), light-emitting diode (right). (Credit: Osram Sylvania)

Is 2010 the Year of the LED?

Many consumers this year will have their first experience this year with LEDs when stringing lights on the Christmas tree or adding a decoration that incorporates them in its design. As a result, many people will begin to start screwing in LEDs for general lighting next year based upon this initial experience and corresponding cost savings on their holiday electric bills.

This week a semiconductor research company iSuppli forecasted double-digit sales growth in the next three years for all types of LED lights, that are used in everything from street and automobile lights to flat-screen TVs. The study claims that although LEDs are still mostly used for other lighting applications, LEDs have started to penetrate the residential market as a replacement for incandescent bulbs.

“While the retail prices for LED light bulbs are still an order of magnitude higher than those traditional incandescent lamps, customers increasingly are becoming aware of the power savings and long life benefits of solid-state LED lights,” according to iSuppli.

Many LED light manufacturers have released a 40-watt replacement bulb with the traditional Edison shape. However Lemnis Lighting, has jumped ahead and is marketing a somewhat pricey 60-watt replacement that consumes only 6 watts. The high entry price of LEDs has temporarily stalled mass market acceptance for now, however people have begun understand the benefits of switching by making a using more cost efficient alternatives like CFL lighting for the time being.

Consumers will increasingly consider LEDs for more efficient lighting as the US passes a law in 2007 to phase out Edison’s incandescent bulb design in the U.S. by 2012. According to an Osram Sylvania study, “two-thirds of people will consider lower-energy options for replacements, although more than half said the price is a key consideration,” according to company representative Stephanie Anderson. They plan to also introduce a 60-watt replacement in the spring of 2010, which is a more popular lighting wattage choice that could draw more people because of an anticipated lower cost than Lemnis Lighting.

The path to consumer acceptance will clearly be an evolutionary one as people become more acquainted with the various technologies and the type/color of light they shine. For more information on alternative lighting technologies see Department of Energy’s Lighting Facts Web site.