“LED, follow, or is something in the way?”

Energy efficiency is such an amazingly broad and dynamic field that even experts struggle to keep up with it. Nowhere is this more evident than when a primary change agent shares the majority of its technological DNA with the semi-conductor and power-electronics industry, as in the case of Solid-State Lighting (SSL).

Colloquially known as LED lighting, SSL is disrupting conventional understanding about interior/exterior space and task illumination. Thanks to staggering amounts of private and public investment recently, adopting new SSL technology occurs on an ongoing and ever-accelerating basis. Today, exterior lighting, in particular, is one area that is both economically viable and functionally alluring in a greater number of applications.

If you are a city or regional planner looking for unbiased and up-to-date guidance on SSL opportunities to reduce energy costs while delivering better quality light, then you may benefit from a newly developed set of guidelines. Collaboratively produced by the nonprofit Midwest Energy Efficiency Alliance (MEEA) and the Department of Energy’s Technical Assistance Program team, this playbook covers:

  • SSL fundamentals: technology basics, historical progress, and myths
  • Standards and specifications: how to choose and compare products
  • Design considerations: spatial distribution/direction, power quality, etc.
  • Next steps: a collection of resources and references

The guidebook offers a thorough review of SSL technology and applications (including traffic signals, street and parking lot lighting, safety lighting, and accent/effect lighting), and in clear and accessible terms, explains the rigorous technical aspects of the various product classes. For instance, the LM-80 is a standardized report for SSL products that reveals how operating temperatures can significantly degrade a product’s lifetime and light output. This variable shows why it is not advisable to use a rule-of-thumb approach when estimating how long SSLs may perform.

One aspect of this variable is how some producers of SSLs have reduced heat-sink componentry to cut packaging costs, which can compromise product life. If you were not familiar with the trade-off, and just assumed that all LEDs last “tens of thousands” of hours, you’d be less likely to evaluate the variable of products’ estimated lifetimes when conducting product comparisons, and could end up making a costly mistake. Similarly, some products might perform better in different regional climates than others, which provides another reason to evaluate these temperature variances. 

Whether you’re a skeptic who suffered when trying to incorporate those dim and very blue LED solar-powered garden lights that first came out a decade ago, or if you’re an avid SSL enthusiast who has been looking for a way to take advantage of the tremendous technological advances, check out the playbook for information on how you should move forward with SSL technology.

For future reference, you may also want to bookmark these additional resources on SSL:

Content for this Blog post courtesy of Nick Lange, Vermont Energy Investment Corporation