LEDS - anyone know what developments are likely ?

mointainwalker · 23 Sep 2009

Hello

As I'm currently renovating an old barn, I'm interested in lighting developments and would like to know if, in professional publications that I'm sure some of you read, manufacturers are giving any indications when LED's will have developed to the extent that they will be used throughout the home at a reasonable cost.

Thanks in advance

ColJack · 23 Sep 2009

wrong forum.. try the "electrics outside the UK" forum... as you are in france..

Chri5 · 23 Sep 2009

A bit harsh- we have LED's in the UK !

Audi and some car brands have / will have LED's for car main beam lighting.

Here on the domestic side a 5/6w LED will give about 50w 'ish lighting and in GU10 format hurt the pocket by £20 each bulb.

We can all hope that the price drops and the evolving technology allow for something towards 10w, giving (in my opinion) a decent lighting level.

Problem with LED is that the light doesn't seem to cover, so I'd imagine it's multi lamps in a fitting or the continued use of spot lighting with multiple light positions for the immediate future.

Also the high cost hurts, and I'd assume a manufacture will keep prices high due to the fact that they will last for years and that's not 'good' for replacement business.

At the moment eco wise, CFL seems to be the cost v LE = acceptable.

ban-all-sheds · 23 Sep 2009

One future direction may well be products like Thorn's BaseLED, which doesn't try to get something useful out of an MR16-type replacement lamp (which will never work, BTW).

If current LED technology has any future it will be in luminaires designed to exploit its strengths and mitigate its weaknesses, not as replacement lamps to go into luminaires designed for lamps with completely different characteristics.

In the longer term though I I'd not be surprised if it turns out to be a dead end, and that OLED is more successful.

But as for lighting a building now, why restrict yourself to LED?

Compact fluorescent lighting comes in a wide range of styles - again, avoid the incandescent replacement lamps, and go for purpose designed products where the control gear is in the luminaire, not the lamp. High-frequency gear gives fast starting, flicker-free running and the ability to dim them.

Cold-cathode can be used as a basis for all sorts of innovative designs, and you can get products which just sneak under the low voltage limit (1000V), e.g. http://www.outline-uk.com/

Metal halide is another option, and is very efficient.

Finally, see what you can find in the way of magnetic induction lighting - superb technology, sadly under-exploited.

DCC · 23 Sep 2009

ban-all-sheds said:
In the longer term though I I'd not be surprised if it turns out to be a dead end, and that OLED is more successful.

The OLED light panels look very promising.

ban-all-sheds · 23 Sep 2009

1) Are there any products on the market yet?

2) If so, do they have a sticker on them and you're not sure whether it has the EAN number or the price?

Steve · 23 Sep 2009

ban-all-sheds said:
2) If so, do they have a sticker on them and you're not sure whether it has the EAN number or the price?

LOL I dont think the price will be 13 digits long ban. Unless its a shorter EAN8 barcode in which case its entirely possible to be 8 digits long

DCC · 23 Sep 2009

ban-all-sheds said:
1) Are there any products on the market yet?

2) If so, do they have a sticker on them and you're not sure whether it has the EAN number or the price?

1) No.

2) Maybe.

Can't dispute that the idea has potential though. Lets hope they are non-combustible though

Stoday · 29 Sep 2009

ban-all-sheds said:
Metal halide is another option, and is very efficient.

They're fine for specialised use, but useless as an alternative to GLS. I have two MH lights in my house, in an outside lighting column and a fibre optic chandelier, both controlled by solar timeswitches.

The drawbacks are:
Must be in a fully enclosed luminaire because the lamp may explode at the end of life.
You can't switch it back on after switching off until it has cooled down for a few minutes. The working pressure is far too high to allow an arc to strike.
It takes a couple of minutes to warm up to full brightness.
The arc is very small hence very bright — comparable to the sun. So you have to arrange the light so you can't see the arc directly.

ban-all-sheds · 29 Sep 2009

All lights are fine for specialised use, and b*****-all use for areas outside their speciality.

GLS lamps are very good for general room illumination when dangling from the ceiling, or in a surface luminaire, but they are very poor in other applications, which is why, even within the same basic incandescent technology, so many other lamp formats exist.

MH is not a replacement for GLS incandescent, just like MR16 QH lamps are not, and just like MR16 LEDs are not a replacement for either. Generally you'll go wrong far less often if you assume that no different lamp technology is a replacement for any other in a straight swap than if you assume that when the maker says it's the equivalent of an X W GLS or MR16 etc it will be a suitable replacement.

CFL replacements for GLS lamps are probably the most successful, even if some people would rather die than tolerate the slight ramp-up in brightness and the different colour temperature, and the tin-foil hat brigade complain they give them headaches, blurred vision and beri-beri.

But the only sure-fire route to success is to go back to the drawing board, consider the space you want to light, the reason you want to light it (i.e. what will you be doing in it) and look for a system which meets those requirements, not one you've picked because you saw it used in a completely different environment and thought it looked cool, and not one based on sticking lamps into luminaires designed for lamps with completely different characteristics.

mattylad · 29 Sep 2009

Well....... they have bought out Green ones, Red ones and Orange/Yellow ones.

Blue ones are there and the next will be the Tartan ones that have been developed in Scotland.

ban-all-sheds · 2 Oct 2009

DCC said:
The OLED light panels look very promising.

I like the idea of having something flexible - imagine a roller blind that lights up. In the daytime light comes from the window, at night time it comes from the blind.

ban-all-sheds · 2 Oct 2009

Google 'osram planon'.

I've not had time yet to see if any products using this are available in the UK, but again it looks like it could be ideal where you want a simple, effective, unobtrusive light.

333rocky333 · 2 Oct 2009

ban-all-sheds said:
1) Are there any products on the market yet?

In this months " Profesional Electrician" there is an article about them, if you reply to the reader link they will send you some info.
I think it is Ge, they say there fittings will be out next year.

^woody^ · 2 Oct 2009

Here's a video for a new bulb technology

Not LED, not CFL but best of both. May be promising

www.vu1.com/ESLupdate/default.htm

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LEDS - anyone know what developments are likely ?

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