My challenge to you: Be open to change

As an LED guru I spend a lot of time reading about, blogging about, hearing about LEDs and LED products. Guess it's a great thing I like what I do, or else what fun would this all be!?!

Here's my challenge to you: Be open to change.
Here's what I mean...
If they come out with an all electric car, would you expect to take your car to a shop and have them replace your car's guts with electric car guts and you drive away with a brand new-to-you electric car? No, likely you would have to buy a new car.
If you want a flat panel tv (if you're like me and don't already have one), do you take yours into the store and they modify it to be flat panel? No, you want new technology, you'd have to buy a new TV.

This is going to be very true with LED technology. Often times we will have to change a fixture, and not just a light bulb. LED light bulbs have their place and we need to be sure we're using them where they make sense and we pass on them when they're not the right choice, but all the while we're thinking about the bigger picture.

You have a flood light and you are tired of changing bulbs. The quick thought may be to switch to an LED bulb The right answer will likely be to change the fixture. Sure, it sounds like more work, I totally get that, but I'm not asking you to go change the fixtures...just be open to the possibility that it may take a little extra investment, that a fixture made for LED lighting is always going to be the better fit.

You have a 2x4 troffer and a guy stops by your office trying to sell you a T8 replacement bulb lined with LEDs. Probably not the right choice, not that I've seen yet anyways. Instead of buying 3 bulbs at $100 each, maybe we change that fixture to an LED 2x2 downlight and avoid the interim/quick/swaparoo and get you into something actually built for LED lighting, all for about the same price.

It's not a demand...just a friendly challenge. If some us were able to try or tolerate the curly CFL bulbs, we can certainly give LEDs a little more respect (they deserve it) and think of it as more of a technology swap out than just a bulb change.

White LEDs // LED White Light

I never dream of a white Christmas (having 6 months of cold each year truly and honestly makes me dream only of a tropical and warm Christmas). I never dream about a big white wedding (I mean, a comfy pair of jeans and Elvis in Vegas sounds like a much better story for the grandkids). I don’t even dream about living in the White House (I mean, why would I, I do lighting, not politics). But what I do dream about is THE white LED. Yeah...I know...

The white LED is the Holy Grail in the lighting industry. He who holds the white LED holds the fortunes (I should be a fortune cookie writer…note to self-possible career change...wonder how it pays).

When I write about white LED products I purposely say “LED white light.” It’s because, although it’s acceptable in the industry to say white LED product (and mean white light), I don’t want to be accused by the LEDs of being politically incorrect. In the past 1-2 years we’ve seen an explosion of white light LED products hit the market (some that are great, some that weren’t ready, some that are tolerable, and some in the middle). But they’re not white LEDs.

LED white light is typically made up in variations of three ways:

1. By using a red, blue, green LED combined at full to give you white light. It works, it’s not the best white light out there, giving mediocre color rendering, but if you want a fixture with color changing abilities, the ability to put RGB to full and get a version of white light is only an added bonus. In theory, too, if you have RGB and control over the intensities of the colors, you can make yourself a better looking white to match your need.

2. By using a blue LED covered in a phosphor that gives it a white appearance. If you want to put yourself into a Wiki coma reading about blue LED phosphor, please feel free. Essentially depending on the chemical mix of the phosphor used it will create different colors of white light. I know some great products that use this method, and if it's a quality product, using quality LEDs then you should have a good white. If you don't...then you could end up with a variation of white that may not be a good one, that may be a completely different color than the other part in a 2-pack, or even 6 different whites in a 6-pack. (A mfg. named Color Kinetics combats this very issue with a proprietary binning method I will talk about in a future post).

3. And the third and final method I’m bursting with excitement to discuss is Cree LED Lighting's TrueWhite Technology. The phrase is trademarked. The method is patented (I think). And it’s easy to see why, because it’s amazing what they’re doing and on the surface it seems so simplistic, but Cree LED Lighting….they hit the ball out of the park on this one.
Cree LED Lighting's TrueWhite Technology:
They use a proprietary mix of yellow and red LEDs to create the white light. That’s the ‘seems so simplistic’ part. Then, every fixture (and now, every lamp) has an active color management system, which is a chip inside of the fixture that reads the light output and adjusts the red &/or yellow LEDs as necessary to maintain the same color temperature. All LEDs, over time, fade. And LEDs age (fade) at different rates. As the red LEDs fade and the yellow fade, at different rates remember, the other will adjust by getting more or less bright to maintain the same color temperature. This means if you have 100 LR6 downlights in an office building, in 5 years, they will all look like each other. And then you go to add 50 more…those will look the same, too.
Other methods of white lighting with LEDs are not as reliable. LEDs are not an exact science. You could buy 10 LED bulbs, all say 3500K, all from the same bulb mfg., all with LEDs from the same LED mfg. and you could plug them in side-by-side and they are then all different variations of colors. One may be a little greenish, one a little pink, one a little too warm, etc. Imagine all those bulbs are inside of a large fixture that’s telling the yellowish one and the greenish to burn less bright, and has the pink one burn at max to produce the PERFECT 3500K you were promised. That is what Cree LED Lighting is doing and it’s in EVERY FIXTURE. It’s not an adder and the products equipped with this fantastic technology aren’t priced higher than comparable products (in fact the LR6, at under $100, is one of the lower priced LED downlights on the market).
It is also important to note that the mfg. Cree makes LEDs that other companies use in their products, as they are one of the handful of LED manufacturers who produce well made LEDs. Cree LED Lighting is a division of Cree that uses the technology and colored LEDs as I describe above specifically in their products.
PLEASE NOTE: I do not work for Cree and they’re not paying me to write this (but if you’re with Cree and reading this and want to, please drop me a line).

This all leads to one last question: Who's up for a tropical Christmas?

Meet you in MAUI!!!!

LR6 - 6" LED retrofit module by Cree LLS

LED White Lighting for residential and commercial applications is now practical, both in performance & economics. Cree has received national recognition for the performance of their products, including having won numerous government awards. They have made “going green” easy, affordable, and ready to install. Cree LED Lighting Solutions: http://www.creells.com/

6” (LR6) Downlight Features
Available in warm (2700K, LR6) and neutral (3500K, LR6C) color temperatures
12 watts per fixture, 650 lumens
50,000 hour lamp life (approx. 20 years for residential use)
Contains NO mercury
92+ CRI, Damp Location Rated
Designed for new construction or retrofitting existing applications
Fits into many new and existing 6” housings, including IC rated housings
Dimming capabilities to 25% of full

The manufacturer's website is wonderful and easy to use. In the upper right corner they have a download center that gets you spec sheets on all products, ies files, housings/dimmers compatibility and more. Their website also features a "news" tab that shows so many accomplishments, awards, ratings, high profile installations (including installing their new 2x2 troffers in the Pentagon).http://www.creells.com/PressRelease.aspx?ID=33

Options and differences: The key to the LR6 is to not make it complicated. So here's the skinny on the options:

1. Each 6" downlight is available in a medium base (Edison Base) and a Gu-24 base. Typical retrofit applications will have existing medium base. New construction, California residents (title 24 compliance) will be the ones to typically use the GU-24 base. Cost of LED module would be the same regardless of base.

2. They have an adjustable 'eyeball' version available. You can't add an 'eyeball trim' to an existing LED module, you would buy LE6 version (choose base/color temp), which comes standard with the adjustable 'eyeball'.

3. There is a surface mount housing available to put a standard LR6 into. Offered in white and black.

4. Cree also offers a line of new construction housings. What makes their housing special is that it's rated for 12w only. This means if you're running HVAC loads on a new building, you only have to account for a max of 12W to be used in that fixture--period.

5. The standard LR6 is all one piece (no loose trim), and you do not need to buy a separate trim, but if you want to 'jazz' up the look a bit, they have additional trims you can buy to add to the fixture.

A quick internet search for "LR6" reveals you can get these LED modules many places for under $100. These are great for residential or commercial use. By way of commercial use, imagine retrofitting a 10 story building and not have anyone call about a light bulb needing changed for 8+ years (or 16+ years if ran 12hrs a day/5 days a week). Imagine being able to easily dim the lights in your office to 50% on most days because the window provides the rest of the light needed or dim more if you have a headache.

You don't see the LEDs, you can look at it without seeing spots for 5 minutes afterwards, there are no loose parts, it's quick and easy and relatively inexpensive as compared to 'competition'. Definitely check it out, put a couple on your front porch or in an office at your business, see if people notice.

NOTE: Look for future blog on Cree's TrueWhite™ Technology, how they get white light, and how their method is not only different, but better for numerous reasons!