A major shift in the lighting world is closer than you might think. While LED technology does have a significantly higher initial expense than incandescent or fluorescent lighting, the environmentally cleaner manufacturing process, the lifetime ownership costs, reduced energy usage, and the reduced maintenance costs point to LED technology as a smarter decision for consumers.
Osram actually has already supplied a supermarket with an 18,000 LED lighting system - using lower output LEDs than their recently announced 1000 lumen platform. In a supermarket environment, there are even more reasons to choose an LED based lighting system - since the LED's emit neither UV rays nor heat - they have virtually no negative impact on grocery items, such as milk, fruit and vegetables, and meat. Taking into account the amount of heat that a typical lighting system produces, the store ends up with not just a significant direct savings on lighting power, but an indirect savings in regards to climate control as well.
The shift towards LED powered lighting will take some time - LED lighting will need to be effectively diffused, and that diffusion will reduce the output significantly. Additionally, LEDs gradually reduce their output lumens by half over the course of their life times. These problems can be overcome by using LED arrays, rather than single LEDs, and intelligent switching systems. Still there is research to be done before LED technology can be declared a clear winner as a lighting choice. There is also the concern about the color of light produced by LEDs, but again this can easily be overcome with a proper filtering/diffusion solution.
By producing the first 1000 lumen LED, Osram is positioning themselves to play a major part in all sorts of industries. Many different verticals can benefit from the ultra-portable, low power nature of LEDs.
Personally, I'm looking forward to the day when I can forget about changing my light bulbs for years at a time.
The Ostar Lighting LED will be launched as a consumer product this summer, assuming a smooth transition to mass manufacturing.
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