Is it a designers primary purpose to develop a vision for the lighting that works seamlessly with the architecture, enhance a function, or leave a lighter carbon footprint?
Does lighting limit opportunities or create them?
At Pure Lighting, we can answer these questions and challenge you to consider the many more possibilities.
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Pure Green News
Occasionally we come across articles or websites that may be of interest to those intriqued by green lighting. We share them here for our clients and visitors to enjoy.
Can't afford LED's? Lease them!
Brand Neue Corp. to Launch Innovative LED Leasing and Rebate Program;
'Lease on Light' Program to Offer Financial Incentives to Commercial
Power Consumers for Switching to LED Lighting
BENTONVILLE, ARKANSAS, Jul 29, 2010 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) --
Brand Neue Corp,
/quotes/comstock/11k!brnz
(BRNZ0.90,
+0.04,
+4.49%)
("Brand Neue" or the "Company"), as
the exclusive North American sales agent and distributor for Luma Vue
LED Lighting products and systems ("Luma Vue"), is pleased to
announce the launch of an innovative leasing and financial rebate
program. Brand Neue's 'Lease on Light' program ("Lease on Light") is
designed to offer commercial and industrial electric power users
financial incentives for switching to LED lighting. The Lease on
Light program will provide North American small and medium sized
businesses with an easy to calculate and implement program for
leasing an LED lighting package and securing financial rebates
directly from utilities companies. The program could offer a return
on investment in as few as eight months and ongoing annual energy
savings as high as 80%.
"Brand Neue's Lease on Light is the first program of its kind in the
industry aimed at small and medium sized businesses that may not
otherwise consider near-term conversion to LED lighting. These
businesses will now have access to a leasing rebate program that
allows them to install LED lighting with the cost savings that the
technology provides," says Kevin LaBranche, Manager of Marketing and
Distribution for Brand Neue. "Brand Neue has engaged a global
utilities corporation to conduct a month-long energy audit which will
determine energy cost savings. This audit is currently underway at an
established grocery retailer."
Traditionally, commercial, retail, agricultural and grocery industry
power consumers utilize a range of light sources and solutions
ranging from fluorescent tubes to halogen - many of them highly
energy inefficient and in some cases even counter-intuitive. Lease on
Light offers clients immediate relief as they prepare for a
government legislated transition away, beginning in 2012, from
energy-inefficient incandescent bulbs, and toward energy-efficient
alternative lighting solutions like LED (light emitting diode). The
US Department of Energy has a goal of reducing energy used for
electric lighting, by 50%, or $27.5B over the next three years.
Utilities companies advocate energy savings solutions that help
regulate power consumption during peak hours, when the companies
themselves have to purchase extra kilowatt hours of power from other
utilities companies at a rate in excess of that which they are
contracted or regulated to sell that same kilowatt hour for.
Cost-benefit analysis indicate that a stepped or wholesale conversion
from traditional lighting to so-called 'green' energy-efficient
lighting solutions like LED, have significant near and long-term
capital benefits to utility companies.
Brand Neue's energy audit will cover all categories of traditional
and LED lighting (tubes, floods, bulbs, warehouse, freezer and
refrigeration, showcase, display, office) as they affect direct power
consumption or savings, in-direct power consumption or savings (ie:
the ambient heat generated by halogens, incandescents, fluorescent
tubes and CFLs, pressure high-energy-consumption air conditioning
systems); the quality, temperature and colour of light as it affects
store finishes and merchandise; and the quality, temperature and
colour of light as it impacts perishables like produce, meat and
seafood. "Our new Lease on Light program levels the playing field for
potential clients, so they can make informed, intelligent decisions,"
adds LaBranche.
Details of the energy audit and the Lease on Light program will be
released as they become available. To be placed on a wait-list re
program details, or to speak with a Company representative re the
Lease on Light program, please contact Brand Neue Sales.
For more information regarding Brand Neue, please contact Brand Neue
Investor Relations at 1.866.922.7972 or visit www.brandneue.com.
Adam Joseph Lewis Center, William McDonough + Partners Voted Greenest Building since 1980
When covering Vanity Fair's World Architecture Survey
I asked "Where's The Green?" and wrote that there was a "profound
disconnect between the architecture shown and the problems that
architects have to solve today."
Lance Hosey, formerly a partner at William McDonough+ Partners and
now a writer at Architect magazine, thought the same but didn't just
whine, he organized his own survey, the G-list.
I asked 150 green building experts and
advocates--including architects, engineers, educators, and critics from
the U.S., the UK, Europe, and Asia--to name "the five most-important
green buildings since 1980," using whatever criteria they liked. The
first 52 responses (to mirror the VF survey) produced 121 projects, and
the 18 that received more than a few votes each offer a glimpse at the
canon of sustainable design. If Vanity Fair documented architecture's
A-List, consider this the G-List.
The top green building since 1980, that got the most votes, was the Adam Joseph Lewis Center (Oberlin, Ohio), William McDonough + Partners, 2001. In second place, and also the top green building since 2000 was the California Academy of Sciences, Renzo Piano Workshop. (See Jaymi's tour of it here)
See the whole list here; not a Frank Gehry building in the bunch. In fact, there are buildings that are on both lists. Lance concludes:
Sustainability, it seems, is not much on the minds of the
architectural elite. While green building has become increasingly
popular over the past three decades, the gap between standards of design
excellence and of environmental performance could be getting wider.
Late last year we reported that the US
Federal Trade Commission proposed a new label for compact fluorescent
lightbulbs that would show vital statistics like mercury content and
the light output in terms of lumens rather than watts, which would make
the brightness of CFLs, LEDs and other lighting technology more
comparable among consumers. Well word has just hit that the new system
has been approved and we'll soon see nutrition-facts-style labels on our
lights.
The FTC states, "Under direction from Congress to re-examine the
current labels, the FTC is announcing a final rule that will require the
new labels on light bulb packages. For the first time, the label on the
front of the package will emphasize the bulbs' brightness as measured
in lumens, rather than a measurement of watts. The new front-of-package
labels also will include the estimated yearly energy cost for the
particular type of bulb."
Watts is the old standard for lighting, but we've come to associate
the term with brightness, rather than energy consumed. We know a 60 watt
bulb is brighter than a 40 watt bulb, so we buy what suits our
brightness needs. However, new energy efficient bulbs can use as little
as 13 watts for the same brightness as a 60 watt incandescent or a 9
watt bulb can replace a 70 watt incandescent, so we need an apples
to apples way of comparing bulbs in terms of both brightness and energy
consumption. That solution is held within this new labeling system.
The FTC announcement shows what will be included on the label,
including:
* brightness;
* energy cost;
* the bulb's life expectancy;
* light appearance (for example, if the bulb provides "warm" or
"cool" light);
* wattage (the amount of energy the bulb uses); and
* whether the bulb contains mercury.
The new information will come to be handy as we start to navigate the
new lighting options, which are sure to shift even more in the coming
years as LED and even OLED lighting technology hits
mainstream retailers.
The new labeling will start mid-2011, according to the FTC.
