LED uses 40% less electricity than Fluorescents

Company press release, Seoul Semiconductor:

"Seoul Semiconductor Launches Acriche, its New Semiconductor Lighting Source for AC Outlets


November 16, 2006... Seoul, Korea-- Seoul Semiconductor, Korea´s leading LED producer, announced today that it had succeeded in mass producing its semiconductor lighting source Acriche, which can be directly connected to 110 volt or 220 volt AC outlets using a simple circuit, eliminating the need for a DC converter. The launch was announced simultaneously in five regions: Korea, U.S., Germany, Japan, and Hong Kong.

As conventional LED products can only work with DC power in AC outlets, it was previously impossible for consumers to use LED products with AC light bulb outlets without using a converter. "This latest technological breakthrough was not expected by the LED industry," said Lee Jung-Hoon, CEO of Seoul Semiconductor. "Now that mass production of semiconductor lighting for AC outlets is possible, LED applications are no longer limited to cell phones, computers or cars, but can expand to general lighting applications as well." Acriche offers improved power efficiency compared to incandescent and halogen lamps, and outpaces fluorescent lamps in terms of life span, power usage, and convenience. Seoul Semiconductor is planning to improve Acriche's brightness from current 40 lm/w to 80 lm/w by 4Q 2007 and to 120 lm/w by 4Q 2008.

Acriche's lifespan is also superior to other existing light products. Acriche lasts 30,000 hours, compared 1,000 hours for incandescent lamps, 3,000 hours for halogen lamps, and 8,000 hours for fluorescent lamps. By using Acriche, electricity costs are greatly reduced, costing consumers 75% less than incandescent lamp and 40% less than general fluorescent lamp. Furthermore, Acriche can also serve to help maintain health and express one's personality. Using different wavelengths, Acriche can be used for various purposes: a bright light for studying, a warm light for winter, a cooler light for summer, a night-light for sleeping, and so on.

Acriche is also expected to help the environment, as it requires less electricity to operate. For example, if Acriche replaces all the lights in Korea by 2010, the electricity savings would reach 60 billion kWh, which is equivalent to a nuclear power plant's output, saving 6 million tons of CO2 emission a year. Also, Acriche is environmentally friendly, as it does not contain environmentally harmful substances such as mercury, nitrogen or lead like other conventional lights."

Emphasis mine.

More here, complete with photos:
http://www.seoulsemicon.com/_homepage/home_eng/asp/news_content.asp?news_idx=29

Additional photos here:
http://www.marketwire.com/mw/release_html_b1?release_id=184915

More pictures here:
http://www.essc.co.kr/_HOMEPAGE/_upLoad/img/acriche.jpg

Sales flyer:
http://www.essc.co.kr/_HOMEPAGE/_upLoad/AcricheCatalog.pdf


Their reasoning for efficiency comparisons:
http://media.marketwire.com/attachments/200611/296978_46387Correctedone.ppt


I used a similar reasoning on the efficiencies of fluorescent lighting from manufacturer's datasheets here:
http://candlepowerforums.com/vb/showpost.php?p=1704561&postcount=22


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Very interesting. I wonder exactly how they make the LEDs operate directly from 120 VAC without any convertors. Is there flicker as with the old fluorescents on magnetic ballasts?

Seeing the developments in the past few months I have little doubt LEDs will not only make incandescents obsolete in the near future, but CFLs as well. 120 lm/W by 4Q 2008? That's well ahead of even the most optimistic predictions of a few years ago but we're on pace to get there. I'm looking forward in the next few years to replacing the 60 watt, 600 lumen incandescents in our chandeliers with 5 watt LEDs giving the same light. And hopefully available in 5000K as well.

Most of the house though is already using 4 foot T8s so it might be a while longer before I consider replacing those.

I also understand it, that very shortly, they will be doubling the efficiencies of these.

What is nice of this LED's technology improvement is they use a single chip, and half works with a phase of the AC power (when half die lights , the other is off). It allows to significant savings in converters losses and in wiring losses in long distances. But i wonder the way to make limiting current drivers for AC, anyway more complicated than working with DC.

There is some recent announces of AC leds, but all uses 2 die systems. Hope soon SSC give more details on the technology used. If one LED can be conected to 120/220w plug, i want to know what system they used to avoid large losses: ¿a current limit circuit integated in the AC led? If so, it will be very, very interesting

Kinnza said:

If one LED can be conected to 120/220w plug, i want to know what system they used to avoid large losses: ¿a current limit circuit integated in the AC led? If so, it will be very, very interesting

Click to expand...

I suspect that's what it is. They integrate a voltage converter on the LED die. It is possible to integrate passive components like resistors, capacitors, even low value inductors on silicon these days. Or maybe they used separate tiny SMD components and put them right in the LED package. Either way an LED which runs directly off the line voltage is a great thing. I once predicted that within a few years we'll have 1000 lumen, 7 watt LEDs capable of running directly off the AC line voltage for under $1 each, and that it would finally spell the demise of the incandescent bulb. It seems that's exactly what's happening now.

Anyone yet had a closer look at these Acriche things ?
The datasheet suggests there's not much regulation: Light ouput depends on the supply voltage.
Why are there always multiples of 2 LEDs on their modules ?
What are the non-LED components on the PCBs ?
I really wonder how they do it.

Now I thought abt the usefulness of these AC-LED modules. Here are a few reasons I found against them:
- 230 VAC across an LED requires some sort of protection so that the user cannot touch the leads. It's probably cheaper (and better-performing) to leave out that protective glass and instead use a traditional (isolating) power supply together with traditional DC-LEDs (they should be cheaper, too)
- AC-LED brightness changes with the line voltage. A switchmode converter + DC-LEDs stabilizes the LED current so this dependency is avoided.
- Whatever extra-circuitry is contained in AC-LEDs will produce some heat. DC-LEDs will be more efficient because they stay cooler without this extra circuitry.

This is very cool stuff. I really want to be able to easily incorporate LED lighting into everyday lives so more people can gain appreciation to LEDs and our flashlights

NewBie said:

...Acriche.... outpaces fluorescent lamps in terms of life span, power usage, and convenience. Seoul Semiconductor is planning to improve Acriche's brightness from current 40 lm/w to 80 lm/w by 4Q 2007 and to 120 lm/w by 4Q 2008...By using Acriche, electricity costs are greatly reduced, costing consumers 75% less than incandescent lamp and 40% less than general fluorescent lamp....Acriche is also expected to help the environment, as it requires less electricity to operate. For example, if Acriche replaces all the lights in Korea by 2010, the electricity savings would reach 60 billion kWh, which is equivalent to a nuclear power plant's output, saving 6 million tons of CO2 emission a year...

Click to expand...

Note that T8 fluorescent tubes can achieve about 94 lumens per watt, which is far more efficient than almost any LED fixtures: http://www.lightingtaxdeduction.com/technologies/t5.html

If Acriche can eventually surpass this, that's great, especially if in an incandescent plug-compatible form factor.

The statement about saving the equivalent of a nuclear plant and reducing CO2 is interesting, considering nuclear plants don't produce CO2. Maybe a translation glitch?

joema said:

The statement about saving the equivalent of a nuclear plant and reducing CO2 is interesting, considering nuclear plants don't produce CO2. Maybe a translation glitch?

Click to expand...

I'm sure they meant the amount of power produced by a nuclear plant or the CO2 produced by a conventional plant. Of course it was news to me that Nitrogen is an environmentally harmful substance.

Probably nitrogen oxides.

I look forward to the day we can all have high efficiency LED home lighting too.

I am an advocate of Fluorsecent lightsing I have a dual 4ft t8 light fixture for my room light. The problem with fluorescent is the size per lumen/watts. THey can probably take other non nuclear plants offline which lowers CO2 emission.


OMG don't let the nitrogen out.

Am I seeing some SMD rectifiers on their PC assemblies? That could answer a lot of questions (except for the efficiency claim vs. fluorescent).
:thinking:

Anything that reduces my electical bill and helps mother earth at the same time is great in my book. I already have all compact florescent lights in my house and soon enough, maybe these LED fixtures can replace those. Leaving me with more money for flashlights and multi-tools and knives and guns.

the pictures in the flyer still show them with big heat sinks on the back, so they still generate a lot of waste heat. I will be interested to see how they really work. I expected to see a big capacitor on the board acting like a resister but I dont see that. Those tiny smt things could be more diodes but I dont think they are resisters as even at the couple of watts that the lights will be ultimately pulling they are too small to dissipate the heat aren't they?

I'll bet that the big thick traces you see under the boards are actually a resistor material and are designed to turn the trace into a big resister to drop the voltage to a suitable range for the LED's.

The SMT things look like there are a place for 2 of them, so I bet that you can turn the board from 110 to 220 by putting a second device there, they may be just SMT bridges, no device at all, to connect up a longer resistance trace on the back.

what do you guys think?

The LEDs are configured in series pairs.

Here is a "possible" implementation method:

If the LEDs have series connected dice in a 4x4 or 5x5 matrix (16 or 25 series connected dice) and the forward voltage was about 3.5V for each die the Vf for each LED would be 56V and 87.5V reapectively. In pairs, that would give 112V and 175V with the latter being the required voltage for 120V rms. This implementation would also ensure each LED/die would be driven at the same current.

A closeup of the LEDs/modules would help figure out this one.

Color rendition for color-critical applications will still suck (Art galleries, display cases). You all know this. CFLs still suck at this and always will until the weak wavelengths get filled in.

FWIW, I use CFL/T12 at home.

Hello guys,

The "small things" on the AlPCB is resistors and nothing else, the big secret is SSC's new developed LED die that is (according to my contact person) totaly different from an ordinary LED die.

From what I have heard these Acriche modules do not show any flickering since they are 60hz * 2 ) 120Hz and they eye do not see flickering over 100Hz.

I am looking forward to getting more information about this Acriche.

Opto-King said:

Hello guys,

The "small things" on the AlPCB is resistors and nothing else, the big secret is SSC's new developed LED die that is (according to my contact person) totaly different from an ordinary LED die.

From what I have heard these Acriche modules do not show any flickering since they are 60hz * 2 ) 120Hz and they eye do not see flickering over 100Hz.

I am looking forward to getting more information about this Acriche.

Click to expand...

I can easily demonstrate flickering to people with an object in motion, even at 120Hz, depending upon the pulse duty cycle...

Anyhow, the part is officially announced again:

"Acriche offers improved power efficiency compared to incandescent and halogen lamps, and outpaces fluorescent lamps in terms of life span, power usage, and convenience.1) Seoul Semiconductor is planning to improve Acriche's brightness from current 40 lm/w to 80 lm/w by 4Q 2007 and to 120 lm/w by 4Q 2008. "

"Acriche's lifespan is also superior to other existing light products. Acriche lasts 30,000 hours, compared 1,000 hours for incandescent lamps, 3,000 hours for halogen lamps, and 8,000 hours for fluorescent lamps. By using Acriche, electricity costs are greatly reduced, costing consumers 75% less than incandescent lamp and 40% less than general fluorescent lamp. "
http://ledsmagazine.com:80/press/14164

Keep in mind, long life fluorescent bulbs now spec to 27,000 to 30,000 hours now, as long as you do not turn them off and on very often.

So...Is this constant on like a lightbulb....Or do they flicker like a flourescent? If they're already puting flourescents to shame, if they flickered them at the same rate (that mst people can't seem to detect...bothers me a little bit if ALL the light is FL, but if i'm not looking for it, it is usually ok) how much more efficient would they be? Or are they already doing that and i'm just not reading this right,,,

Martin said:

The datasheet suggests there's not much regulation: Light ouput depends on the supply voltage.

Click to expand...

Why is this a problem for an AC connected device? In the developed world, line voltage variations outside of the normal +/-10% variance are pretty rare and tend to cause the kind of havoc where changes in lighting brightness are minor in comparison. Regulation is important for battery connected devices; for anything plugged into the wall or hardwired, a stable supply voltage can be assumed.

havand said:

So...Is this constant on like a lightbulb....Or do they flicker like a flourescent?

Click to expand...

Urban legend time. There is nothing intrinsic to fluorescents that causes flicker.
Modern fluorescents with electronic ballasts switch at upwards of 20kHz and produce no visible flicker.

Only fluorescent fixtures based on obsolete inductive ballasts flicker.