Calling any professionals or anybody with lighting expertise...

Hello. I have an odd question for anyone that has any training or expertise in general lighting. For a college English couse I have, I needed to interview someone that would have some expertise in a certain technology that may deal with my major (Mechanical Engineering), but should also be a topic that was of interest to me, or is even a hobby to me. Obviously, I have had an interest in LED lighting and it is a newffound hobby (and an expensive one), so I thought this would be a perfect choice for me. This area of general lighting that I speak of is very wide. It can include the application of different lighting sources, the technology and design of lighting sources and fixtures, and any other area, like the electrical systems and thermal management. I would love to focus on high brightness LEDs, but I would be more than happy to discuss incadecent lighting and any flourescent and gas discharge lighting. Applications can range anywhere from automotive use, portable lighting (hmmm), and architectural and home lighting.

The reason I am reaching out to these forums is that there is a very scarce amount of people here at the University of Cincinnati (in southern Ohio) that I can find that know anything of lighting. Since we are a school that is nationally ranked for Architecture, there are some people that know a bit about architectural lighting and lighting in interior design, but this is not quite what I desired. Furthermore, I was hoping that Mechanical and Electrical engineers would have knowledge of this area (both are related because lighting is both a electrical and mechanical in some way) but I was very suprised when a few of them told me that they knew probably just as much as me on the subject and I should look elsewhere. Right now, I am clueless and I have not recieved any replies to phone calls that I made to some architectural lighting professors.

I have hope that many people here are able to help in some way. I was wondering if anybody here would know how to help me or direct me in the right direction. If someone could help me here on these forums, could I interview you? If possible, I can have a simple conversation via MSN Messenger or any other messenger service with one of you. If it would be easier, possibly I can have a short phone conversation. I know this is a strange request. I would just hate to have to change my topic to some other boring and common technological field that two other mechanical engineers are writing about. This interview is to help me prepare the perfect topic for a major, ten-page essay that is due in early June. The point of the interview is to review different topics related to general lighting that is the most favoritable to the general audience or even the educated and technologically experienced reader. This will iron out various kinks and allow me to figure out the most solid topic to discuss in my final essay.

Any help would be greatly appreciated and valued. Any reccomendations or refferals to another person would be great, also. I would be glad to hear any questions or comments (if it appears that my question/request mentioned in this post is unclear or something of that matter). Feel free to reply directly to this post, send me a PM, or even feel free to email me. I will check this as often as possible. If this isnt the right section of the Candle Power Forums, please tell me and I can ask this question in a different section. Thank you so much ahead of time for your help and interest in my strange problem.

Bump? Thanks...

It might help if you narrowed the topic of your interview. What specific questions do you want to address? That may "hook" some candidates. Or we can all pitch in, or you can spend 2 years reading the archives.

Thanks for replying GreenLED. The reason I am not narrowing down the topic any further is because the field of general lighting is already specific enough for my current assignment. I need to discuss different topics withing general lighting and try to come up with something that I must argue about. I just need to talk to someone that has some in depth knowledge about this field. If you know much about the technology and design of LEDs, then you would be of much help. The same if you specialized in the application of various outdoor or landscape lighting. I just need to find someone that really knows the current issues about today's lighting. I would love to speak to someone with the expertise in LED lighting (in any area). If you would know the issues with it (like how it is still inefficient and not powerful enough), you would be of great help.

Compare my assignment to argueing about some controversal technological field (like hybrid cars, nuclear and other alternative forms of power, and etc). I need to argue both for and against (of course more strongly for) this new technology or field. With LEDs in mind, you can say many things to make them sound great, or you can prove how impractical they are to use in general lighting. The possibilities are endless, practically.

I hope I answered your question. So, anyone with expertise would be very helpful to me. If someone knew a heck of a lot about high brightness LEDs and their use in different forms of lighting, as well as the latest technology of them, that would be a bonus for me. Anyway, thanks again. Please spread the word!

-Tony

I went to UC for awhile and wrote a paper on advantages of LED's and CPF's. Perhaps I can help. I currently have a line of mods that range from single cell, 2-cell and Li-ion based. You can take a look at a few of them via the link in my signature below. I have a good knowledge of several aspects. PM me in you're interested in talking with me.

I think that Craig is one of the resident LED gurus here. :bow:

I work with large outdoor LED videowalls (some folks call them JumboTrons, but that is a brand name of Sony). I'm familiar with the electronics, servers and networks behind these systems. I don't know if this info would be useful to you but you can PM me if you'd like to know more.

pw

I am a UC Chem Eng grad 1982. If you need some slightly useful comments, I can help, but there are of course limits on how much time I can put into it.

There is a lot of work going on at Rochester on studying the effect of CCT and color quality, as well as at MIT. There is probably a lot of good info from the profs there. Those are the most specific topics on general lighting which affect your general topic.

Wow! I have been watching this for sometime, but I havent been able to reply right away. Thank you all who have replied and offered me help. Right now, I no longer need an interview, but I really appreciate the generosity. I know that most of us at CPF can depend on each other if needed. I love it here. I wont forget this and I will help any others with troubles. Thanks again!

-Tony

From my experience lighting sources all have advantages and disadvantages:

LED:
Small size, they can be fit in tiny lights and produce an adaquate volume of light for everyday tasks. LED's are cheap to produce and are relitavely efficient. You can expect anywhere from 30-40 Lumens per watt from a high powered LED. Disadvantages of LED's are thier poor color spectrum which can make it difficult to differentiate between certain shades of red. LED's require heat sinking. Led's have poor throw because the large size of thier emitting source.

Incandescent A.K.A. Hotwire:
Incandecents produce light in more reddish spectrum but as the temperature of the fillament increases the color becomes more white. Since the light emitting area of a bulb is small it can throw a beam much farther than an LED. Bulbs can fit into small flashlights but generaly not as small as LED's. Bulbs are best when a large volume of light is prefered such as in applications of 500+ lumens. Disadvantages of bulbs is that they have low efficiency generally between 20-30 lumens/watt. Filiments burn out from time to time. Also while incandescents dont require heat sinking they do produce a large volume of Infra Red heat.

Then theres HID's, and fluorescent... But I'm out of time and gotta go to class.