light bulbs | Pegasus Lighting Blog

Holiday Gifts For Your Favorite Techie

Dec 042012

Today, we’re continuing our series on helping you find those perfect holiday gifts. So far, we’ve offered unique ideas for those who love to read, cook, fix things, and adventure through the great outdoors. Now, let’s move on to those technology-loving techies…

Techies. We all know the type. They’re the ones always up on the latest gadgets. They love spending time just tinkering with machinery, making things work.

And, they’re the ones who we call on to help fix what’s broken – slow computers, malfunctioning toys, anything mechanized or electronic. So naturally, we want to return their kindness for the holiday.

Here are a few of our most innovative, fun, and helpful high-tech gift ideas:

The Techie’s Essential Light

It’s a glorious era in the lighting world for die-hard techies. LEDs, the most up-and-coming lights, are an electronic power source capable of so much more than older filament and fluorescent lights.

If your favorite gadget lover hasn’t jumped on the LED train yet, gifting them a few LED light bulbs to use around the house will satisfy their thirst for electronics, and even save them some dough on future energy bills. Shop, and learn more about LEDs right here!

Continue reading »

Share|

The Power of Silicon Comes to LEDs

Lighting News No Responses »

Nov 292012

PinExt The Power of Silicon Comes to LEDs

Light Emitting Diodes 300x198 The Power of Silicon Comes to LEDs
Silicon is amazing. We’ve all seen what those tiny silicon chips have done for computers in the past few decades – they’ve gone from mysterious machines to ubiquitous household objects capable of the stuff of dreams. Now, Bill Watkins, CEO of Bridgelux proposes silicon is about to do the same for LEDs.

Where Silicon Can Take Us

Silicon could revolutionize the solid-state lighting (SSL) industry. It has the potential to make light sources like LEDs faster, cheaper, and more functional.

Current SSL lights like LEDs have already come leaps and bounds ahead of older light sources like fragile incandescent lights, but with silicon, we could see them overcome the light socket completely, and become embedded in stairs, cabinets, and other household fixtures. They could also have added features like motion sensors or color changing abilities, so you can easily alter your home’s mood at will.

SSL Today

So technically speaking, why is silicon so great? Well, since the ‘60s, silicon has dominated high technology. It allows innovators many advantages in creating new digital products because it’s cheap to make, and holds structure well. You can shrink things like transistors without destroying their functionality with silicon.

Currently, light emitting diodes (the semiconductors that generate light inside SSL light bulbs and fixtures) are a rare digital technology that doesn’t rely on silicon. Continue reading »

Share|

Guiding Lights for the Great Indoors

Lighting News No Responses »

Oct 302012

PinExt Guiding Lights for the Great Indoors

bytelight 300x192 Guiding Lights for the Great Indoors

Image via ByteLight.com

Holiday shopping is already beginning – that time of year when we dart frantically from aisle to aisle trying to find just the right gifts for our friends and family, and to ready our homes for the season. But imagine with me for a moment what it would be like to have your own personal guide to help you map out an efficient route through the store. No more combing aisles to find that perfect shoe-rack, or having to book it the entire length of a Super Target to get that pair of headphones you forgot.

A new startup called ByteLight is working on an innovative new idea for an indoor GPS-like system with the help of LEDs and smartphones. The idea is to have an app or program for the phone that guides shoppers to find exactly what they’re looking for within a store (and even find discounts on products).

Instead of sending a signal out to space like a normal GPS, your phone would connect wirelessly with the LED lights in the store to guide you where you want to go.

For the system to function, the LED light bulb would blast a specially designed light signal to the camera of your smartphone to determine your location. The signal would consist of blinking patterns of light, too rapid for the human eye to notice. The technology would be able to detect a person’s location within one meter, and do it in less than a second.

To get the system to actually work for you, ByteLight’s software would need to be installed on your smartphone and the LED lights would need a special chip to send the signal.

The chip within the LED would be cheap to add, and would use the shopper’s location to help them find their way to the products they want, also delivering targeted ads. Any current smartphone camera would work with the system. Continue reading »

Share|

Pegasus Lighting Roundup: Getting Smarter

Pegasus Lighting Roundup 2 Responses »

Oct 292012

PinExt Pegasus Lighting Roundup: Getting Smarter

LIFX 300x225 Pegasus Lighting Roundup: Getting Smarter

Image via Kickstarter.com

In lighting news…

Over the past month, I’ve seen so many smart-controlled energy efficient light bulbs popping up on the market, growing what Forbes.com calls “The Internet of Things,” in which objects (and not just people) communicate over the web. Each light bulb has an Internet IP address that you monitor wirelessly with a smartphone, tablet, or computer. Some popular models include LIFX (featured on Light Reading earlier this month), and Philips’ Hue coming to Apple Stores tomorrow, October 30!

According to ThinkProgress.org, New York City was the first U.S. jurisdiction to publicly post energy efficiency information for its building stock last month. A series of mind-numbing spreadsheets might not seem so exciting at first, but this is a key step in establishing energy transparency in the real estate market.

In lighting tips…

EnergyStar Pegasus Lighting Roundup: Getting Smarter Speaking of energy efficiency, have you seen the new Home Advisor from EnergyStar.gov? It’s an online resource that gives you detailed information on just about every way you can save energy at home. All you have to do is answer a few simple questions (Where you live, how you heat/cool your home, etc.) and they’ll give you a list of everything you can do to save a little more power. Continue reading »

Share|

Not Your Average CFL

Light Bulbs No Responses »

Oct 252012

To be honest, I’ve always liked the look of CFLs. Yes, there have been mixed opinions about the quality of light they generate, but there’s something about that gentle swirl that I can’t help but enjoy. And of course, the CFL has come a long way from what was first out on the market.

See here:

Image via Plumen.com

You can imagine my excitement when I first saw the Plumen 001, winner of the Brit Insurance Design of the Year Award and you guessed it, a CFL. Continue reading »

Share|

Reliable LEDs: Fact or Fiction?

Buyer's Guides No Responses »

Oct 102012

LED Dimmable Reliable LEDs: Fact or Fiction?
50 years ago yesterday, Nick Holonyak Jr. demonstrated the first LED to General Electric suits. Back then, while the only existing LED emitted crimson infrared light, Holonyak predicted his invention would replace standard household incandescent light bulbs. Today LED manufacturers haven’t stopped being idealistic.

Since LEDs have only been around for half a century, the 20, 25, 30 year expiration dates on the brand new technology might be difficult to believe. Honestly, LEDs have barely been around long enough to find a niche in the market, let alone undergo 20, 25, 30 years of definitive testing. The claims and the benefits of LEDs are impressive, but how can we make sure they’re not a farce?

Enter the U.S. Department of Energy and their new Lighting Facts program, created to help you navigate the teeming sea of new lighting technology. The program addressed this issue of LED luminaire depreciation in depth, to help people like you and me know what we’re getting into.

How do manufacturers come up with these numbers?

Instead of traditional testing, where a large sample of lamps are operated until 50% burn out, developers must determine an LED’s rated life a different way. Since the LED doesn’t burn out, but dims gradually, the rated life comes from the estimated lumen depreciation, not accounting for other causes of decline.

What causes LED failure?

Other factors besides age that might increase the rate of gradual dimming include:

Exposure to extreme temperatures
Contact with moisture and humidity
Voltage and current fluctuations
Driver or other electrical component failure
Damage to material encapsulating the LEDs
Damage to any wire bonds connecting the LED to the fixture
Degradation of phosphors

Since very few of us live in sterile, mellow, laboratory-like houses, the entire light bulb’s rated life will not live up to the life span of its LED. Continue reading »

Share|

A New Kind of LED: Reinvented With Smartphones in Mind

Lighting News No Responses »

Oct 092012

PinExt A New Kind of LED: Reinvented With Smartphones in Mind

LIFX Control 281x300 A New Kind of LED: Reinvented With Smartphones in Mind

Photo via Kickstarter.com

Remember when clap-on, clap-off lights came out? It was the coolest thing to control the lights without leaving your seat. Well, what if you could control your lights to turn on and off, dim, change colors, and even respond to the beat of your iTunes library, all from the comfort of your favorite easy chair? That would take a lot of clapping.

Phil Bosua, creator of the LIFX smartbulb has decided to spare you the obligation (but not the desire) to thunderously applaud, allowing you to control his revolutionary lamp with your smartphone.

“It’s not like we get up to change the TV channel anymore,” said Bosua, “So why do that with our lights?”

The LIFX smartbulb is a self-contained LED light bulb, so all you need to do to utilize its numerous abilities is screw it into your light socket, and download the free app from iTunes or Google Play.

Installing the LIFX A New Kind of LED: Reinvented With Smartphones in Mind

Photo via Kickstarter.com

Bosua didn’t design this light with merely lethargy in mind – its technological advancements also have the potential to improve your wellbeing. Here are a few things you can do with the LIFX: Continue reading »

Share|

The Quest for Quality Light

Lighting News No Responses »

Sep 282012

Since the advent of the incandescent (and even before), quality of light has been on the tip of everyone’s tongue. Regrettably, that quality has mostly been unfortunate. When incandescent lights were the only choice, the early 20^th century population complained about the glare and the possible dangers of electricity.

Case in point: on an episode of Downton Abbey (Masterpiece’s smash hit about an elite family living on an estate in the early 1900’s), the prim and hilarious Dowager Countess laments the new electric lamps:

“Such a glare! I couldn’t have electricity in the house – I wouldn’t sleep a wink. All those vapors seeping about. Feels as if I were on stage at the Gaiety.”

Downton Abbey 1024x576 The Quest for Quality Light

The Countess shielding herself from the electric lights. Courtesy of Downton Abbey.

Not only were people of the time dissatisfied with the brightness of the lights, they also were afraid electricity was going to leap out of the walls and plug points and infect them!

Even when fluorescent and mercury vapor lights came along in the 1930s, their blue-green hues and poor color rendering indexes made them sorry alternatives. The people were left to compare the poor quality of gas-discharge lamps vs. the poor quality of phosphor-generated lights vs. the incandescent lights they had learned to live with.

Finally, according to the LIGHTimes Online, quality of light may be gaining a positive spin thanks to LEDs. Yes, like many of the lights before them, LEDs have provided their share of poor quality with cheaply manufactured lamps that claimed way more than they actually could deliver. But now, all the major LED manufacturers have incorporated quality of light into their daily vocabulary. Continue reading »

Share|

LEDs & Dimmers: From Star-Crossed To Power Couple

Thoughts on Light No Responses »

Sep 112012

PinExt LEDs & Dimmers: From Star Crossed To Power Couple

First, there was Romeo and Juliet. Then, there was Jack and Rose. Now, there’s the LED and the dimmer, and unlike the tragic couples preceding them, these two actually have a happy ending…

LED + Dimmer LEDs & Dimmers: From Star Crossed To Power Couple

It all started not too long ago.

First there was the irresistible dimmer switch, ready to help people save some money on their energy bills and make houses look nice. It was a simpler, easier time – every incandescent and halogen light bulb in the land quickly succumbed to the dimmer’s charms, and life was pleasant.

Then, along came a beautiful, exotic, energy-saving LED light bulb, and our usually smooth, collected dimmer just couldn’t handle it. The dimmer and the LED tried to make it work together, but they drove each other crazy. Unlike the elementary filament lamps, the LED’s outlandish yet attractive electronic construction baffled the dimmer so it couldn’t function properly, and the dimmer’s ill-informed advances cause the LED only pain and suffering (aka malfunction).

Strange, destructive things began to happen. Sometimes the LED would turn off before the dimmer reached its lowest setting (a syndrome we now know as “drop-out”). Other times, the LED wouldn’t turn on until the dimmer’s slider moved up (a syndrome we now know as “pop-on”). If that wasn’t bad enough, the toxic relationship reached the point where the LED would flicker, change colors (usually from warm white to cool white), and just refuse to light up. The dimmer couldn’t protect the LED from possibly damaging current spikes, and the stress of the whole situation even reduced the LED’s rated life!

Share|

How To Cope When Your Favorite Light Bulb Gets The Shaft: Fluorescent Light Bulbs

Light Bulbs No Responses »

Sep 072012

PinExt How To Cope When Your Favorite Light Bulb Gets The Shaft: Fluorescent Light Bulbs

This is the third installment of a three-part series on replacing EISA phased-out light bulbs – what’s leaving and why. You can read the first post on household A lamps here, and the second on reflector lamps here.

Discontinued Fluorescents

T12 fluorescent light bulbs have been around since the ’30s, and in light bulb years, that’s just too plain old. Technology’s potential for efficiency, for saving you time and money, has moved light-years since then. That’s why the T12 phase-out began in July this year. This phase-out affected nearly all T12s, with the exception of the cold temperature lamps and a few others. Most T12s now have gone the way of typewriters and VCRs, cassette tapes and rotary phones – delightful relics, but come on people, we’re better than this.

We’ve also listed one T8 lamp with the group. While T8s are much newer, and most are much more efficient than T12s, the lamps listed are the oldest and most basic of their kind. They have the least lumens and the shortest lives of all the T8s, so while they’re cheap, they’re simply not a good value.

Here’s how to update:

Lamp	Date Discontinued	Good Replacements	Great Replacements
Slimline F96T12 60W	July 14, 2012	800 Series Slimline F96T8 59W	Coming Soon
High Output F96T12	July 14, 2012	800 Series High Output F96T8 86W	Coming Soon
Rapid Start F34T12	July 14, 2012	800 Series T8 32W	800 Series Energy Saving T8 25W and 28W
U-Bend FB34T12	July 14, 2012	800 Series U-Bend T8	800 Series Energy Savings U-Bend T8 25W
700 Series T8 32W	2014	800 Series T8 32W	800 Series Energy Saving T8 25W and 28W

Share|

Older Entries Newer Entries