LED Technology for Energy Efficient Lighting

Last Friday I attended an ies Seminar titled “Energy Efficient Lighting Innovation, LED Technology Review”. There were four very interesting presentations, but I particularly enjoyed the “Lighting & Daylighting your way to zero Net Energy buildings” by Jim Benya from IESNA who emphasized that lighting designers have to be an integral part of the design team right from the beginning, especially when it comes to façade designs for daylight penetration.

Another great presentation was the “LED: The solution for all Lighting?” by Mike Grunsell from LDP who showed that even though LED can be used in some applications, it is still not very good when it comes to others e.g. road lighting where a recent research has shown that HPS is the most efficient way of lighting roads. It showed how the LED road lighting has got sharp cutoffs and very poor vertical illumination.

We ended the day with a forum discussing the re-building of Christchurch called “Re-build or Re-create?”. We agreed that as lighting designers we should be involved with the Urban designers from Christchurch right from the beginning and develop a lighting master plan for the “re-creation” of the lighting within the re-built Christchurch.

It was a great seminar. For more information about the seminar or how S&T can help with your LED lighting project, please call or email me at maziz@stephensonturner.com.

- Posted July 21, 2011