131 Lumens per Watt bye bye Flourescent lights

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Stephen7372

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http://www.cree.com/press/press_detail.asp?i=1150834953712

Cree Demonstrates 131 Lumens per Watt White LED

DURHAM, NC, JUNE 20, 2006 — Cree, Inc. (Nasdaq: CREE), a market leader in LED solid-state lighting components, today announced LED efficacy test results that set a new benchmark for the LED industry. Cree reported results of 131 lumens per watt white LED efficacy, confirmed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Gaithersburg, Maryland. Tests were performed using prototype white LEDs with Cree EZBright™ LED chips operating at 20 mA and a correlated color temperature of 6027 K.

"This is the highest level of efficacy that has been publicly reported for a white LED and raises the bar for the LED industry," said Scott Schwab, Cree general manager, LED chips. "This result once again demonstrates Cree's leadership in LED technology and provides a glimpse into the future as to why we believe LED-based lighting products could not only save energy, but also change the way people use light."

"Technical advancements at the component level are critical to growing the emerging white LED lighting space. Cree's results speak to the exciting developments underway that will enable new white light applications and subsequently facilitate market adoption," stated Fritz Morgan, chief technology officer for Color Kinetics, a leading innovator of LED lighting systems and technologies.

Lumens-per-watt is the standard used by the lighting industry to measure the conversion of electrical energy to light. As a reference, conventional incandescent light bulbs are typically in the 10 to 20 lumens per watt range, while compact fluorescent lamps range from 50 to 60 lumens per watt.

About Cree, Inc.
Cree is a market-leading innovator and manufacturer of semiconductors and devices that enhance the value of solid-state lighting, power and communications products by significantly increasing their energy performance and efficiency. Key to Cree's market advantage is its world-class materials expertise in silicon carbide (SiC) and gallium nitride (GaN) for chips and packaged devices that can handle more power in a smaller space while producing less heat than other available technologies, materials and products.

Cree drives its increased performance technology into multiple applications including exciting alternatives in brighter and more tunable light for general illumination, backlighting for more vivid displays, optimized power management for high-current switch-mode power supplies and variable speed motors, and more effective wireless infrastructure for data and voice communications. Cree customers range from innovative lighting-fixture makers to defense-related federal agencies.

Cree's product families include blue and green LED chips, lighting LEDs, LED backlighting solutions, power-switching devices and radio-frequency/wireless devices. For additional product specifications please refer to www.cree.com.

This press release contains forward-looking statements involving risks and uncertainties, both known and unknown, that may cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated. Actual results may differ materially due to a number of factors, such as the risk we may be unable to develop and release commercial products with performance ratings comparable to the development results described above; the possibility we may be unable to manufacture products with sufficiently low cost to offer them at competitive prices or with acceptable margins; the rapid development of new technology and competing products that may impair demand or render our products obsolete; the potential lack of customer acceptance for the products even if they are developed; and other factors discussed in Cree's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its report on Form 10-K for the year ended June 26, 2005, and subsequent filings.

Cree is a registered trademark and EZBright is a trademark of Cree, Inc.


Contact:
Deb Lovig
Marketing Communications Manager
Ph: (919) 287-7505
Fax: (919) 313-5615
Email: [email protected]
 
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Not likely, not anytime soon at least.

131 lumens per watt given is for individual emitter, possibly cherry picked, under optimal conditions (such as room temperature). Include driver circuit loss, lumens per watt loss from heat as the LEDs get integrated into a cluster and output depreciation with hours under high operating temperature. It's likely things will start looking unfavorable.

Since we're discussing the leading edge LED, its only fair to compare against the state of art fluorescent.

Fluorescent technology:
GE Ultramax ballast + GE high efficiency lamp (lumens per watt is the efficiency of the driver/ballast and lamp combined)
  • 98 LPW for a three 4' lamp 9500 lumen setup(1)
  • 100 LPW for a three 4' lamp 7200 lumen setup(1)
Five year ballast + three year lamps, total system warranty (2)
I don't know the exact terms of this warranty, but it's not unusual for this kind of system warranty to include labor, meaning that if lamps burn out during the warranty, manufacturer pay for the new bulb/ballast and labor.
  • 90% lumen maintenance at 16,000 hours *(3)
  • ~88% lumen maintenance at 24,000 hours (end of life)*(3)
  • 24,000 hours average life (3) usually means when 50% of lamps burn out.

OK, so a vanilla three lamp fixture with the aforementioned internals probably wouldn't cost more than $100/fixture. Just how much do you expect a 7200 or a 9500 lumen LED fixture to cost up front?

To be competitive with fluorescent technology, the LED system must offer significantly higher useful lumens per watt, defined as lumens coming from the ceiling per watt drawn from the grid.


My own specifier:
If the LED lamp modules are designated as lifetime, they should be covered by no less than a five year warranty, including labor. Furthermore, the lumen decay curve must be comparable or superior to fluorescent. The modules must maintain no less than 88% of initial efficacy over a 100,000 hour service life at operating temperature likely to be encountered inside the fixture. Lamp modules failing or falling below 80% within five years from installation must be covered by warranty. If the modules would not maintain >80% output throughout the useful life of the fixture, then the modules will not be considered "lifetime". If auxiliary cooling is necessary, the power consumption of these devices will be penalized against the system efficacy. The total cost of ownership (capital cost, labor&parts, and power) over a five year time frame should offer a justifiable amount of competitive advange over the time proven fluorescent technology.


My personal opinion, uh.. ain't gonna happen.
LEDs are likely not going to meet the efficacy specs at operating temperature

Manufacturers are not going to offer a five year warranty against both depreciation and failure. (I'm aware fluorescent doesn't offer warranty against premature depreciation, but it is time proven enough to be predictable and there has to be an assurance that new technology will perform as well or better, backed by a warranty for customers to be convinced)

6054K isn't exactly the prefereble color for specifiers.

references:
(1) http://www.gelighting.com/na/busine...t_brochures/downloads/property_management.pdf

(2)
http://www.gelighting.com/na/busine.../ballast/downloads/16233_ultramax_ballast.pdf

(3)
http://www.gelighting.com/na/busine...nloads/fluorescent/28342_ultra_f28_linear.pdf
 
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