Article on a french newspaper "Le Figaro": Homelights, 18 months of experience

We often need a smaller than self. Toshiba has an alliance with a French start-up, Homelights, to market in Europe its LED lamps in food superstores and DIY stores.
Homelights was founded in June 2008 by Ludovic Rambert, a self-made man of 36 years. "I worked in retail and I was convinced that a revolution was brewing in the lighting”, he says simply.

He made his first table with all investors subject to the ISF, who can exempt a part of their seed money. Homelights raise this way 450,000 euros. The company is currently realized its third table. In 2008, Homelights set up a joint venture with a Chinese industrial, Foudi Light Electronics, which manufactures most of its LED range.

The products are designed by the Homelights’ Franco-Chinese team based in Shanghai. The success won’t be long. The last year, the french realized a turnover of 1.4 million euros. This year, he gamble on sales between 10 and 12 million euros.

Ludovic Rambert chose to manufacture its products in China, not so much by reason of the cost of production than to be near of its electronic components suppliers.

The ideal would be to have an assembly plant in France. This would allow us to reduce our manufacturing delays and costs of non-quality, "says Ludovic Rambert, who specifies sometimes refused" half of a production for quality problems: the standards are not the same in China and in Europe”

In addition, the production cycle in China is three months, including travel time. It must therefore be six months of inventory. A real problem in a market which evolved precisely every three months.

"To manufacture in France would allow us to be more competitive, more reactive. With Toshiba, we wish to repatriate a part of the production. But it is a real challenge of re-industrialization of France," said Ludovic Rambert.

With its Japanese partner, he worked to assure that a packing plant at Dieppe, in the facilities of Toshiba. The project is under financial assessment. By 2012, the two partners would like to also achieve the assembly. A fine prospect for the future of the site

With modulization of LED Streetlights, 870,000 Streetlights are to be Installed Globally in 2010, a 42% Increase YoY

Focusing on the future of LED streetlight development, research institute LEDinside indicated that although streetlight standards have not been established and regulations of the product specifications are set according to different needs in different regions, LED streetlight becomes modulized, and intelligent control system of LED streetlight will be more complete. It is estimated that a total of 870,000 units of LED streetlights will be installed in 2010, an increase of 42.62% compared to 610,000 in 2009.

From the global market perspective, LEDinside noted that LED streetlight standards around the world are still being drafted. Among these countries, the fastest in progress is in Taiwan, which launched the CNS 15233 LED streetlight standards. China’s street lighting requirements are still applicable to the CJJ45 traditional streetlight standards, while LED streetlight projects of other governments are still being regulated in the form of standards. LED streetlight standards in the United States and Europe are still being drafted. Judging from the current standards of LED streetlight, there are strict requirements on the angle of light source, quality, and luminous decay.

Nevertheless, there are several distinct trends in the development of LED streetlights in 2010. According to LEDinside, the advantages of using LED modulize are that they are easy to replace and can reduce the maintenance costs. Therefore, more and more LED streetlight vendors have introduced modular LED streetlight products, and some of the vendors have integrated the heat sink, optic, mechanic, and electric into a single module, while others are in the form of light source module separated from the thermal dissipation.

Another important trend is the LED streetlight intelligent control system, noted LEDinside. The current intelligent control system adjusts the brightness of the LED streetlight according to the road conditions, such as whether pedestrians or cars pass by, thereby increasing the service life of LED streetlight and conserving energy. The intelligent system can be self-sufficiently powered by solar or wind power, without relying on municipal electricity, which is suitable for off-grid applications in remote areas. In future development, the intelligent system will automatically adjust brightness, color, and angle, and even allow real-time monitoring.

As for the policies, currently the most active countries in developing LED streetlights are China and Taiwan. However, both governments’ subsidy policies shifted in 2010. Taiwan government has accomplished the mission of supporting the development of LED streetlight manufacturers through several policies. Hence, the subsidies for the LED industry in 2010 will be shifted from LED streetlights to other LED applications such as road signs, traffic lights, and other related purposes.

China installed around 250,000 streetlights in 2009, and LEDinside estimates that China’s LED streetlight market will grow by 60%, reaching over 400,000 lamps. In 2010, the Chinese government's subsidy policies for the LED industry have also shifted from outdoor lighting to indoor lighting.

Unlike the situation in China, the United States government has not initiated a large-scale LED streetlight subsidy program. Each state government or power company promotes its own subsidy program. In terms of progress, the project proposed by Los Angeles in early 2008 was the most remarkable – an installation of 140,000 LED streetlights in five years. Los Angeles has up to 209,000 streetlights, which is the nation's second largest next to New York City. Since the initiation of the project in 2008, conventional streetlights have been replaced by LED streetlights at the rate of 30,000 units per year.

U.S Department of Energy Launches National Collaboration on LED Street Lights

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced today that Seattle City Light, Seattle's publicly owned power utility, has been selected to lead a national effort to guide municipalities in evaluating light emitting diode (LED) street lights. The Municipal Solid-State Street Lighting Consortium will collect, analyze, and share information and lessons learned about LED street-lighting demonstrations to facilitate the adoption of this energy efficiency technology.

Starting today, cities, power providers and others who invest in street and area lighting are invited to join the consortium and share their experiences through national and regional meetings, Webcasts, Web-based discussion forums, and other means. The goal is to build a repository of valuable field experience and data that will significantly accelerate the learning curve for buying and implementing high-quality, energy efficient LED street lights. This DOE effort is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

Interest in LED street lighting is rapidly increasing country-wide, fueled in part by cities aiming to replace existing street lighting with energy efficient LEDs, which can significantly reduce energy costs and greenhouse gas emissions. Many cities and towns are using Recovery Act funding distributed through DOE's Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grants Program to move toward their energy efficiency goals. "As communities look to this technology to cut energy consumption, reduce their carbon footprint, and lower operating costs, this national consortium will share valuable information so they can make smarter, more informed decisions about the equipment they buy," said Jim Brodrick, DOE Lighting Program Manager.

Edward Smalley, manager of streetlight engineering at Seattle City Light, will lead the collaboration. Joining Jim Brodrick and Edward Smalley for the announcement in Seattle were Mike McGinn, Mayor of Seattle, and Ed Ebrahimian, Director of the Bureau of Street Lighting for the City of Los Angeles, who signed on as the Consortium's first members.

LED TV backlights to drive escalation in LED production

Analysts forecast a ramp in LED-backlit LCD TV sales, but will LED makers be able to deliver the required capacity? MAURY WRIGHT reports.

There’s a very good chance that LED-backlit LCD TVs in all sizes will significantly boost LED production requirements immediately and over the next few years. Most indications—including analyst projections and product introductions at the recent Consumer Electronics Show— point to a faster uptake of LED backlighting than previously predicted. But can the LED suppliers handle the increased demand, and will consumers actually pay the premium for LED-backlit TVs? We can’t definitively answer these questions, but we can see an unmistakable trend toward LED backlighting.

Bruce Berkoff, chairman of the LCD TV Association, states “LED-backlit TVs are going to take over the industry.” Berkoff won’t predict when LED-backlit sets will take a predominant share of market, but he can tell you why. According to Berkoff, consumers care about three things in buying large-screen TVs—“image quality, WAF (wife acceptance factor), and green.” Berkoff states, “LED-backlit sets win in all three areas.”

Hilton Ocala Hotel gets greener, switches to LEDs

Not content to rest after being awarded a LEED Silver certification, The Hilton Ocala Hotel in Ocala, FL had a desire to become even greener and more energy-efficient. That desire led the company to install LED lighting in the lobby and other public spaces throughout the hotel.

As Ocala’s premier hotel, the management felt the need to lead by example by finding and using new technologies and products to conserve energy, reduce their carbon footprint and lower operating costs.

“After the intense process to get LEED certified, we decided that wasn’t enough. We felt we could do better, we wanted to do better” said Joe Shanks, General Manager, Hilton Ocala Hotel. “Our corporate office pointed us to Taft-Durst, Inc, an energy saving solutions organization that specializes in energy efficient products for the hospitality industry. It wasn’t long before we came to realize how mature the LED industry is becoming and how much money we could save by switching to LEDs.”

From an economics standpoint, LEDs make a lot of “cents”. Richard Jabara, COO of Meyer Jabara Hotels, the parent company of the Hilton Ocala Hotel made the requirements clear. “I want our hotels to be as environmentally friendly and responsible as we can make them, but we need to do it in an economically sound manner. I gave Taft-Durst our guidelines – give me a return on investment of 18 months or less.”

“That was the easy part” remarked Maura Taft, President of Taft-Durst, Inc. “LEDs are so energy efficient and last so much longer than any other lamp. The savings analysis demonstrated that the LEDs were going to provide Meyer Jabara Hotels with ROI’s of between 8 and 18 months and as little as six months in some applications.”

Taft-Durst performed an audit of the lighting needs of the hotel and suggested LED products that would not only reduce energy, labor and replacement costs, but do so with products that are much more environmentally friendly than CFLs, which if handled correctly and responsibly, need to be repackaged and taken to a recycling center.

In the lobby areas, 19 watt CFL’s were replaced with Fawoo 8 watt lamps. In the restaurant and elevators, 35 watt halogen MR16’s were replaced with Elation 4 watt MR16’s, and in the hotels hallways the 19 watt CFL’s were replaced with Philips 7 watt A19 globes.

“The consistency and quality of light in the hotel improved dramatically after the installation of the LEDs” remarked Randy Durst, VP of Sales for Taft-Durst, Inc. “LEDs don’t change color as CFLs do as they age. These LEDs are going to last for years.”

Randy Durst also pointed out that many LEDs are now dimmable, which is a must for the hospitality industry. Considering they don’t have mercury in them, nor is any mercury used in the manufacturing process, LEDs are greenest lamp on the market. LEDs typically last for 50,000 hours and are available in a variety of colors; warm, natural and cool white. LEDs don’t give off heat, so the HVAC systems aren’t constantly trying to compensate. And they are available in everything from a chandelier lamp to street lights. You name it, there is an LED for the job.

LEDs are the light of the future – today!

Valencia will replace 1000 streetlights with LEDs

Streets will be brighter, tourists safer, and electrical bills lesser in this Mediterranean resort region, thanks to 1,000 new energy-efficient and cost-effective streetlights using Seoul Semiconductor LEDs.

It’s all part of a program initiated by Revolution LED of Spain to replace existing light bulbs on streets and in public facilities throughout the country with high-quality, energy-efficient lighting.

One thousand street lights using LEDs from Seoul Semiconductor, the global-leading LED manufacturer, have been installed in the municipality of Rafelbunyol.

A year of testing by Revolution LED proved that Seoul Semiconductor’s long-lasting LEDs are up to the job. Seoul Semiconductor LEDs offer the world’s best luminous efficacy (100lm/W) from a single light source. They reliably deliver the necessary brightness and last three times longer than traditional street lights.

Revolution LED reports that energy consumption has been reduced 65 percent as a result of replacing 160 W light bulbs with Seoul Semiconductor’s. The lighting products used in street lights contain 56, 112 and 168 LEDs made by Seoul Semiconductor for three models respectively. The 56 W LED light bulb replaces the existing 160 W bulb and lasts three times as long. The performance of the light bulbs was verified by Polytechnic University of Valencia and the Valencian Institute of Technology.

The program is so successful, Sr. Vice President S.M. Lee of Seoul Semiconductor said, that 3,000 additional lighting fixtures soon will be installed throughout the Valencian Community. In addition, product testing is underway on the Atlantic coastal community of Jerez, Spain, where 23,000 street lights will be replaced.

What kind of lumino-consumer are you?

1 – For you, a bulb is rather:

▲a long-term investment

■ a consumable

● a bulb

2 – When you leave from your home:

● You switch on the entrance light to frighten robbers

■ Better than Versailles

▲Total extinction of lights

3 - The classic bulbs are going to disappear in 2012. It is time …

● to do nothing

▲to change our habits

■ to make stocks

4 - Which are your needs of choice for the purchase of a bulb?

▲the lifespan: the more it is long, the more it is good

● the same fitting and the same power as the one who burned out

■ The intensity: The more it shines, the better it is!

5 – When a bulb is dead:

●You grumble: “already!”

■ You throw it

▲You return it in store to recycle it

6 - For your inside, you are rather

■ A flamme with passion, that has to shine!

●Candles and kerosene lamp

▲Felted atmosphere and subdued light

7 – Switch on the light is for you …

■ A reflex, both day and night

●A budgetary heartbreak

▲A necessary evil

8 – Change a bulb it is for you …

▲An opportunity to save

■ An annoying task

●A dangerous movement, we can sometimes take a discharge



You have a maximum of ▲ :

→ you are lumino-malicious

You are concerned by the future of the planet and conscious of the energy-savings problematic. Obviously, LED and fluo-compact bulbs have no secret for you. You know their key points and their weak points, and you associate them according to your lighting needs and your desire atmosphere.

You have a maximum of ■ :

→ you are lumino-addict

For you, the light it is everywhere, all the time and with the maximum of intensity. Green speeches leave you cold, because you are convinced that your daily gestures have no impact on the global warming. So, why deny oneself!?

You have a maximum of ● :

→ you are lumino-has been

By conviction, you refuse any technical progress and you close the door on any domestic innovation. You prefer hundred times the dance glow of a candle to the diaphanous light of a bulb, and you switch on the neon of your living room only in case of extreme urgency.