By Deb Lovig

Heavy snow heaped over large portions of the U.S. this winter spurred some seriously negative media attention on the performance of LED traffic signals. Reports of snow covered signals being blamed for traffic accidents in snow storms appeared all over the media.

Some of the folks in participating cities of the LED City® initiative got a little concerned this negative coverage might spill over and somehow affect their ability to move forward with LED street lights. Street lights are a different animal so we mostly tried to stay out of the way of the negative traffic signal stuff.

At the LED City Council Meeting in Indian Wells this week, the question of whether the LEDs should be deep-sixed for not being hot enough to melt the snow on traffic signals came up. Speaking up in defense of LED traffic signals was Bruce Kinzey, who works at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory for the Department of Energy and was one of the expert presenters at the meeting.

One of his colleagues had the misfortune to be in Washington, D.C., during a recent heavy snow dump. Here’s the photo he took of an incandescent-based traffic signal there.

‘Nuff said. And, if you want to take a look at Bruce’s informative LED City Council Meeting presentation, you can access it here.

By Deb Lovig

The next informational LED City® Council Meeting will be held Tuesday in Indian Wells, CA. For some of us, this will be the first warm, sunny weather we’ve seen since October…. I highly recommend that if you live in the middle or eastern part of the U.S. that you come west to learn more about the concrete and aesthetic benefits of LED lighting for the municipal setting – in Indian Wells.

The purpose of LED City Council Meetings is to share the experience, expertise and excitement of LED lighting as it is realized by cities that participate in the LED City program.  The Department of Energy is also presenting at some of our meetings as well as some local utilities. It’s a jam-packed day of all things LED lighting – geared for the municipal or university.

Feedback on the quality and scope of the information presented at the first two meetings has been extremely positive. And, we offer the opportunity for attendees to meet with LED light fixtures makers who set up demonstration tables at the events.

For more information about these meetings, and to find one near you, visit: http://www.ledcity.org/attend_meeting.htm

By Deb Lovig

From what we see in development right now, we LED industry folks are expecting the arrival in the next 12 months or so of a brand new, better performing crop of LED “bulb” products. Many companies, big and small, are working fast and furiously to bring better quality, longer-lasting and brighter/better color LED bulbs in a variety of flavors into the market. This is important for commercial and institutional use, but it also brings along anticipation for the home market.

My family and friends are asking, “When and why would I buy LED lighting for my home?”

You are the CFO for your household, right? Well, okay so maybe your spouse is the CFO, but one of you puts on that hat and says “let’s consider LED lighting and how it might make sense for our household.” The question is where can LED lighting save you money or pain?

Let’s start with the concrete benefits of LED lighting and how that might guide your switch.

Significant energy savings. A reduction of 40-80 percent is what we are going for here. Paying too much for electricity? Might want to switch to LED lighting for those fixtures you use the most.

Long life. As long as 10-25 years depending on how many hours they are on. Seriously. You’ll likely renovate or tear down and rebuild before you have to change out some LED fixtures or bulbs. That’s why I advocate using the word “fixture” even when the LED light looks like a bulb. You know that vaulted ceiling in your entry way or great room? Might just be the right place for LED lighting, especially if you fear heights.

No mercury. Extremely important for kitchen, food and kid areas of your house. As our good friend Steve DenBaars out at UC Santa Barbara has suggested, a shooting champagne cork unintentionally aimed at that fluorescent bulb over  the island in your kitchen or dining table makes a n-a-s-t-y layer of mercury-tainted glass shards over the area in which you prepare or enjoy food. Last I heard mercury doesn’t mix all that well with broccoli.

Durability. As a mother of two active boys (read: extremely active) I might consider putting LED lights in any fixture that could have a face-to-face meeting with a basketball, shoe or tossed brother. Experience and pocketbook talking here… While I’m on this particular benefit, durability, if you are prone to drop bulbs or fixtures while climbing a ladder, I can attest to the fact that LED lights take a beating and keep on lighting. Myth Proved.

Where would you NOT want to switch to LED lighting in your home?

Our buddy Tom Helbig Jr. up at Madison Area Technical College is moving as fast into LED lighting as he can at the college. He’s also trying them out at home. His new LED light made it painfully clear that his master bath needs a fresh coat of paint. Busted!

What about those eye-ball spot lights aimed at the amazing painting over the mantel that you never remember to turn on unless you are dusting at night (who dusts at night, really)? If you don’t actually ever use the light, you probably don’t need to switch it to LED.

Call me fickle, but that gorgeous Murano glass fixture or okay, Swarovski Crystal chandelier in your grand entry way? NEVER, EVER replace that. Unless of course you break it while changing those tiny little glass bulbs…or you can’t get up the ladder without dropping them. Hey, you can always rent a lift.

By Deb Lovig

A while back I got an email from Jean Ronel, an entrepreneur and visionary based in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. He and a colleague realized that the one thing that would help so many Haitian communities, even those painfully remote mountain villages running on generator-power, is solar-powered path and street lights.

They got some heavy-duty training and mentoring in the U.S. and set off back to Haiti to try to build solar panels and LED street lights, by hand, that could be affordable and useful for any Haitian community. They ordered up parts from the web, messed around with a few different designs and came up with a great solution at an amazing price.

He sent me some photos – they tell an amazing story. Take a look and be prepared to be humbled and astonished and excited.

We talked to him via telephone a few weeks ago and his team at Enersa, the name of his organization, had grown to hundreds of young people now skilled in the art of handcrafting solar panels and LED lights, attaching them to poles and selling them at the amazing affordable price. Read more about their efforts and see photos here.

Business was booming and cities and villages throughout the island were finding ways to purchase one to three lights at a time. Turns out, a single solar-powered LED street light mounted at a key path intersection can do a world of good for safety, flexibility and transportation of people and goods at night. Has any community in the U.S. EVER considered the purchase of one single street light?

We originally wanted the world to know of Jean Ronel and Enersa and we wanted to rally the LED industry around his efforts. We had big ideas of major media coverage, new funds supporting his effort and the villages he is serving. On the morning of Jan. 12, as we stopped to notice that there is a lot more going on in the world than LED lighting…we started to wonder, then worry.

I emailed Jean Ronel in the aftermath of that first terrible earthquake. “Are you and your team okay? Is there any way we can help?”

Jean Ronel responded, “I was very lucky. I’m OK, my family also is OK. All the ENERSA employees are OK, only the plant was destroyed. We are thinking about how we can restart. Right now it is very difficult, since Gvt does not exist. Every Gvt buildings are destroyed. Thanks you for your help, we will let you know very soon.”

If even one of Enersa’s LED street lights is operational at this time, his vision is true. To reach Jean Ronel and Enersa directly, email  Enersahaiti (at) gmail (dot)com.