Electical Contractor

Debate continues about whether LEDs have the output in lumens, the color consistency and the price point to replace traditional incandescent, halogen and fluorescent lamps in high brightness and general illumination applications. Is it finally time to end the discussion?

The many advantages of light-emitting diodes (LEDs) for general illumination have outweighed their limitations, except when it comes to dimming.

The LED revolution continues to promise many lighting benefits, such as compact size, energy efficiency, long service life with long mean time between failures, no mercury disposal, a resistance to shock and vibration, and no radiated heat or UV output.

It’s not often that an electrical contractor has the opportunity to sell a product line that saves a customer time, money and energy; promotes green sustainability; and reduces the load on the nation’s power grid. But that’s what industry observers say LED lighting sources can do.

Lighting fixtures are built around a given light source. In the case of LEDs, this task is more complex because LEDs are sensitive to heat and require special means to transfer it away.

A new design for thin-film solar cells that requires significantly less silicon and may boost the efficiency is the result of an industry/academia collaboration between Oerlikon Solar in Switzerland and the Institute of Physics’ photovoltaic group at the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic.

As if being an Internet giant is not enough, Google, the Mountain View, Calif.-based search engine company, is on to renewable power. In the span of little more than a decade, Google has transformed itself from garage start-up to an international corporation.

Light has both electric and magnetic effects, but until a recent discovery by physicists at the University of Michigan (UM), scientists believed the magnetic properties of light were so weak that it would be useless for practical applications.

Schneider Electric announced the upcoming launch of its EcoXpert program, intended to train electrical contractors in installing and implementing energy efficiency and renewable-energy products and solutions.