According to many manufacturers, LED Lighting products are poised to catapault that technology into a leading position in numerous lighting markets. While the acceptance of LED solutions may be slower than the promotional hype may suggest, we have been interested in reporting on case histories that describe actual LED applications that have been recommended as a realistic choice to cut energy consumption, and that have been successfully installed. 

Unfortunately, most LED case history news that we’ve uncovered fails to impact the lighting product categories most important for distributors.

Currently, most available LED case histories – especially those that report actual measured energy cost savings/ROI/payback period data which we see as critical to report on -- are not focused on LED products that are designed for residential and commercial applications such as downlighting, wallpacks, and pole-top outdoor applications.   

While many new LED products flood the market, the vast majority have little or no installed base to provide case histories. Sure, Philips reports the use of the company’s LED components being used to upgrade Future Lighting Solutions’ 64,000 sq-ft London-based HQ. But in reality, such LED makeovers are marketing/sales showrooms for the manufacturers.

Meanwhile, while there are ample examples of LED sales for advanced OEM LED components, fixtures for retail showcase lighting, and for theatrical lighting, it’s harder to determine where the commercial/resi LED lighting market is at the moment. So while we continue to speak with leading LED manufacturers, let’s look at some other proven Green Electrical sales successes:

1.      ProLogis, a leading global provider of distribution facilities was hired by Sears Holdings, the nation's fifth largest broad-line retailer, to build a new 780,400-sq.ft. distribution center in Stockton, California. For the lighting, Exposure Illumination Architects was asked to meet a list of lighting needs that included maintained 30-footcandle light levels, good lighting uniformity, and high energy efficiency.

The lighting designers specified 16,000 linear ft. of Cooper Lighting’s Metalux MB Series T5HO Micro-Bay fixtures in linear rows mounted 32 ft. off the floor. The result is one of the most efficient warehouse buildings in the country, with an effective lighting power density of 0.18W/sq.ft.—78% less than the maximum prescribed by California’s Title 24 energy code. Select luminaires were specified with emergency battery backup, providing mandatory illumination in the event of a power outage.

According to Daniel S. Spiro, AIA, IES, president of Exposure Illumination Architects, Micro-Bay luminaire’s narrow profile increased design flexibility. “The building code required obstructions wider than 2 ft. to be at least 2 ft. away from sprinkler heads. By being less than 1 ft. wide, we were able to place the luminaire within 1 ft. of the sprinkler heads. The luminaire could be as close as possible to the aisle center as a result.”

One of the primary advantages of fluorescent over metal halide is its instant-ON operation, making automatic energy-saving switching strategies much easier to implement. A Cooper Controls Greengate lighting automation system keeps lighting in critical spaces ON all day for safety reasons. During the night and on cloudy days, power is fed to the rest of the lighting rows, which are turned on if occupancy is detected by occupancy sensors. If the daylight contribution is high enough, the lighting is kept OFF.

And the payoff is significant! Sears is benefiting from a projected $399,000 in energy savings per year (compared to a standard HID solution complying with Title 24’s requirement of 0.8W/sq.ft. maximum power allowance), which is being confirmed via monitoring. After a major incentive provided by the local utility, PG&E, the net premium cost can be recovered through the energy savings in less than eight months, generating a return on investment of 154%.

2.      Siemens Industry continues to enhance its energy efficient i-3 Lighting Control Technology^TM which is an economical lighting control system that combines circuit breakers and lighting control in one panel through the use of controlled pods.

Most recently i-3 Control Technology 30A pod has received UL 489 and UL 67 certification and offers more capabilities and configurations that will allow users to take control of even larger lighting loads. Using what Siemens claims is the industry’s smallest control breaker lighting panel, the i-3 Control Technology “is a compact solution for controlling circuits remotely with a time schedule or external signals.”

Siemens indicates that “…the i-3 Control Technology offers an affordable approach to connecting the lighting control systems to an enterprise-wide solution. It can be easily integrated with energy management, security and building automation systems through the most widely used open protocols, such as BACNET or ModBus, to provide a more comprehensive energy management system.”

The company claims the i-3 Control Technology provides a rapid return on investment (ROI). “By integrating standard products into a standard lighting panel, i-3 provides easy installation, with no external hard wiring required for the simple, single panel solution. Its innovative touch screen, System Controller, uses the latest Microsoft’s Windows^® technologies reduces commissioning and training costs,” indicated a Siemens source.

We are seeing an explosion in Green Electrical applications, from warehouses to office buildings, better ways to cut electrical costs, improve occupancy comfort and eliminate wasted energy consumption. Moving forward, I expect we’ll be seeing the LED marketers slowly add more of their own success stories to the green building market.

In recent years, no green electrical technology has out-hyped LED Lighting for media attention and editorial coverage or manufacturer promotional muscle.

Recent Lightfair conferences have been packed with LED product marketing claims from scores of companies – at one such event I counted over 200 exhibiting companies listing themselves as sources for LED lighting products.

But how has all the LED excitement translated into real-world installations for lighting applications? Here are a few recent examples of LED technology making inroads into various lighting markets.

1.      GE Consumer & Industrial announced that the company’s new 7-watt GE LED PAR 20 flood and spot light lamps which deliver 200 lumens were installed in more than 150 Red Robin® restaurants.

The retrofit replaced 12,000 standard incandescent and halogen lights for general down lighting applications where high-quality lamp-to-lamp white LED color is required.

The LED benefits:

• energy consumption is cut by up to 77%
• lamp life projected at 6X longer @ 20,000-hour rated life to 70% of initial light output compared to the replaced standard 30W incandescent R20 reflectors (also 200 lumens, and only 3,000-hour rated life)
• Annual energy cost savings projected at $120,000, or $10 per LED lamp.

Customer, John Rogers, Red Robin’s vice president of capital purchasing, said this about the lighting upgrade, “Switching to LED lamps in our company-owned Red Robin restaurants offers immediate energy-cost advantages given the number of locations involved in our energy reduction efforts. We expect a very attractive return on investment with reductions in both energy consumption and maintenance requirements.”

( www.led.com)

2.       Dialight’s DuroSite™ High Bay 150W LED fixtures were used to light the new 11,200 sq/ft manufacturing and assembly plant facility where Ohio-based Frontline International constructs commercial restaurant equipment used to manage and recycle cooking oil. Because of the high number of fluorescent and incandescent lighting units required to properly light the assembly area in the older plant, Frontline’s electrical costs were substantial.

John Palazzo, president of Frontline, was motivated to reduce electrical costs and make the operations greener. “Sixty percent of our operation is assembly work, manufacturing the equipment. So as part of our intial sustainability initiative, one of the first palces we looked to improve our practices was in our manufacturing facilities.”

The Dialight 59 DuroSite Series High Bay LED lighting system installed in the new facility has greatly improved worker visibility compared to the older facility. “The Dialight High Bay overhead fixtures are a huge improvement, providing light bright enough for assembly work at waist level and even floor level,” said Palazzo.

Dialight claims the DuroSite™ High Bay 150W LED “sustains approximately 80% lumen capacity over 60,000 operating hours and last for an average of ten years. This reduces maintenance burden and equipment replacement costs…” 

Dialight projects less than a 1-year payback period for the DuroSite™ High Bay 150W LED system based on annual energy savings of $13,500 for a single unit compared to a 6-bulb T5HO fluorescent using 324W of energy.  

Even if we’re still skeptical about some of the LED claims being made, obviously lighting companies are delivering sensible LED solutions that are certainly worth a closer look. We’ll report on other LED Lighting products that are helping expand market acceptance.

Lighting Control technologies are at the core of increasing building energy efficiency. Included here is a great wireless control solution that requires no battery power and a source for free online training about lighting control solutions. Meanwhile, other innovative companies, like Legend Power Systems, are out to make a name for themselves by developing more unusual energy-saving approaches.  

1.      ILLUMRA is a producer of self-powered, battery-free wireless lighting control and energy management systems that operate using the EnOcean protocol for batteryless low-power wireless communication. ( www.ILLUMRA.com).

ILLUMRA announced what the company termed “breakthrough technology” at the recent LIGHTFAIR trade show in Las Vegas with the release of a new solar-powered sensor product that can run indefinitely on a few hours of light a day. The new product, when used with other wireless devices, creates a daylight harvesting solution that is both easy to install and use.

The ILLUMRA wireless battery-free sensor communicates to a host of wireless products: relays, dimmers, room and task on/off controllers through the uncrowded 315 MHz band, saving energy by lowering the output of artificial light when daylight is present in a room. Company claims customers can reduce energy consumption 20 to 60 percent, depending on the devices used and the room configuration. The sensor integrates into systems using BACnet and wireless RS-232/Ethernet gateways. When fully charged, the sensor can work in total darkness up to three days.

Jan Finlinson, director at ILLUMRA, had this to say about the new product, “The new light sensor gives building owners a powerful tool to control costs. By reducing electrical light levels in a room and taking advantage of the ambient light, we could greatly reduce the world’s $200+ billion light bill*,” said Finlinson. (*source: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory)

Previously, LED Dimmers from ILLUMRA helped reduce energy consumption by up to 75% on outdoor LED light poles installed at the Vancouver Winter Games.

2.      Does your team need further training to better support sales of Lighting Controls products? If so, you may want to look into the free online education on commissioning lighting controls offered by the Lighting Control Association. The “EE110: Commissioning Lighting Controls” program was authored by Craig DiLouie, a leading lighting industry educator and journalist, and a frequent contributor to TED Magazine.

The five-part program is designed to provide a working understanding of lighting control system commissioning through the Education Express feature at www.aboutlightingcontrols.org, including:

• Fundamentals of the commissioning process
• Commissioning procedures for occupancy sensors
• Relay-based time sweep control systems
• Architectural dimming control systems
• Daylight harvesting control systems.

3.      While every distributor is familiar with many lighting and lighting controls products that help reduce electricity consumption, few may have heard of the more unique approach of achieving significant energy savings through voltage optimization.

Legend Power Systems recently announced that the company’s patented smart grid technology, the Electrical Harmonizer-AVR, had received a five point contribution level to a building’s overall LEED score. Kyle Anders, one of the third-party evaluating engineers who managed the product’s certification indicated, “5 points is a very noteworthy contribution…it is rare that a single product/technology can have this high an impact.”

The Electrical Harmonizer-AVR is proven to reduce electrical consumption by 7%-12% with most commercial or industrial end-users realizing an investment payback within three years. In addition to energy savings, the Electrical Harmonizer-AVR extends the life of building electrical equipment, reduces maintenance costs for the electrical infrastructure, and reduces peak utilities demand which increases the capacity of the existing power generation/distribution system. (www.legendpower.com )

Next week, our Innovations & Trends Series will begin taking a closer look at some of the available LED Lighting products that are helping expand the market for that technology.

Sadly, there still remains a disproprtionately large percentage of unemployed and displaced construction workers, contractors, architects and other professionals tied to building and home construction. Still, the green lining appears to be real as data continues to support growth – which drives the need for innovation – in the green building sector.

1.      Green building activity sustained impressive growth during 2009, according to the 2009 Green Building Market & Impact Report published by GreenerBuildings.com. The report is good news for enthusiasts of energy efficient solutions and illustrates the continued growth of the green building segment despite the brutal construction market that has badly damed other segments of the construction marketplace.

According to Rob Watson, report author and GreenerBuildings.com executive editor, and considered by many to be ‘The Founding Father of LEED’, floor area registered and certified by the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED green building rating system in Because much of the commercial lighting upgrade activity focuses on T8 and T5 fluorescent product solutions, companies continue to develop improved components that help expand the applications for these highly efficient systems.

2009 is estimated to grow by over 40 percent compared to the 2008 totals, for a cumulative total of over 7 billion square feet worldwide since the LEED standard was launched in 2000.

Quoting the author provides positive support for increased momentum within the green building sector:

“This growth is perplexing for a couple of reasons. First, dramatic declines in

2009 U.S. new non-residential construction starts—by some estimates almost

40% below the peak of 2007—means that new non-residential construction

might dip below the one billion square foot mark, yet registrations of LEED new

construction projects in the U.S. are expected to exceed 1 billion square feet!

[This includes LEED New Construction (NC), Core & Shell (CS), Commercial

Interiors (CI), LEED Schools and LEED Retail, but not LEED for Existing

Buildings (EB).]”

Download the report at: http://www.greenbiz.com/sites/default/files/GreenBuildlingImpactReport2009.pdf

2.      Is the Green Economy Too Big to Fail? That’s a key question asked by Joel Makower, author of State of Green Business Forum 2010” which was published in February by GreenBiz.com. The report indicates that during 2009, corporate investment in environment, health and safety (EHS) and in green product development continued a pattern of growth. The author said the two indicators suggested “that green may be recession-proof, at least for now.”

The publisher created the GreenBiz Intelligence Panel ( http://greenbizintelligence.com/ )  which twice a year asks the 2,750-member panel for their views on key economic indicators. According to Makower, the most recent survey, in January 2010, “garnered 593 responses, nearly half from companies with revenues greater than $1 billion. We can now see clear trends by comparing those results with data from surveys conducted in late 2008 and mid 2009.”

In January, the indicators were all positive for the green economy, including EHS spending, employment, and green product development:

• Eighty-three percent said their 2010 EHS spending will be equal to or greater than 2009
• Nearly half (43 percent) reported an increase in green/EHS spending.
• This represents a continuous increase since the survey was begun.
• Only 6 percent reported cutting spending, compared with 22 percent doing so six months ago.

An excerpt:

“Hiring freezes are thawing. We saw a rise in the percentage of firms ‘with open requisitions for environmental- and sustainability-related positions’ — from 18 percent in mid 2009 to 23 percent in early 2010. Investments in green product development continue to show growth, especially in companies with revenues greater than $1 billion. When these big companies were asked to identify their top environmental initiative, increasing investments in green product development (27 percent) narrowly overtook energy-efficiency investments (26 percent) for the first time since we began the survey. When asked about investment in green product development, 86 percent said it would be equal to or greater in 2010 than last year (27 percent and 59 percent respectively).”

3.      In a move to provide better solutions for the growing need for lighting energy-savings, Lutron Electronics announced the expansion of the EcoSystem product line with the company’s new EcoSystem^® H-Series ballasts. According to Lutron, the new EcoSystem H-Series ballast is a cost-effective option that offers increased flexibility, superior performance and easy installation. The new ballasts deliver high performance dimming from 100% to <1% for T8 and dimming to 1% for T5; dimming to 5% for T5 twin-tube. Benefits include:

• Digitally configured zones can be changed at any time without re-wiring
• Models available for 1-lamp and 2-lamp T8, T5 and T5 twin-tube, and 3-lamp T8
• The EcoSystem Digital Link can be wired as Class 1 or Class 2 – making the H-Series Ballast ideal for both retrofit and new construction
• Connect to the QS sensor module for communication with wireless sensors and controls
• Models available to meet BAA requirements of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act – visit www.lutron.com/baa for a list of models and more information

As long as the construction market continues to favor green building, Green Electical Innovations & Trends will be a hot topic. We’ll serve up a few more tasty examples next week.

Amidst the LED hype, we are seeing real technologial innovations that have the capacity to change the game in actual energy performance measurements. The same can be said of the promise held by wireless sensing technology.

In both cases, manufacturers, technology investors and the media have all made a multitude of claims regarding the technologies and their potential to alter their product segments. As part of our continuing series on Green Innovations & Trends, we include some recent news about these and other innovative Green Electrical product solutions and promising trends that are impacting the sustained growth of the energy-efficiency segment.

1.      As if the LED lighting arena wasn’t already demanding a great deal of attention, two-year old Redwood Systems, a startup technology company based in Fremont, CA, has launched a very promising network-based LED lighting system for commercial buildings. The Redwood Systems LED lighting system utilizes a building’s network cables to supply power to the LED lights. This is a more efficient method to convert currents compared to traditional LED systems which require transformers at each light to convert AC line voltage into lower-voltage DC current. The new approach removes the AC-DC driver normally attached to each LED fixture by centralizing the driver function in a larger engine that handles power and monitoring communication with up to 64 lights. The company claims the platform can save up to 75% of a building’s lighting electrical consumption and it can also operate fluorescent or halogen lighting technology (www.redwoodsystems.com ).

2.      An increased number of surveyed commercial facilities executives say they plan to spend more on energy efficiency technology in 2010. The Johnson Controls Energy Efficiency Indicator survey released by Johnson Controls found that 52% of more than 1400 executives and managers responsible for technology in commercial buildings in North America said they plan to make capital investments in energy efficiency this year (up from 46% in 2009). Of those surveyed, 60% plan operating budget expenditures on energy efficiency efforts over the next 12 months (up from 55% in 2009) (www.channelinsider.com ).

3.      Wireless sensor networks are finally gaining increased sales traction. According to Kirsten West, an analyst with West Technology Research Solutions LLC, the wireless sensor networking market is projected to reach $40 million sales in 2010, up from $28 million in 2009. Earlier projections anticipated far greater growth, but the enthusiasm for wireless sensors has been dampened by the large number of technology standards and manufacturers vying for market share. West indicates that both the vendor base and range of standards platforms are both expected to consolidate which should reduce market confusion (www.eetimes.com ).

4.      The Colliers International Global Sentiment Survey polled 240 major institutional investors involved with the commercial property market and found 30% of the U.S. investors indicated they are willing to pay a premium for a sustainable green building.

Our Canadian friends to the north proved more bullish with 50% saying they are prepared to pay a green premium (www.torontosun.com ).          

That’s it for this week’s look at Green Electical Innovations & Trends.