Sparks Electrical News August 2021

LIGHTING

14

Ledvance wins Innovation Award for its home office luminaire and app Ledvance has been awarded with the German Inno- vation Award 2021 in Gold. The company received the highest honour at this award for its project, Lux@ Home, a floor luminaire which brings the standard- compliant light from the office into the home office in a simple and user-friendly way, as well as for the accompanying Lux-O-Meter app. The jury especial- ly praised the “consistently user-centred design” in the Excellence in Business to Consumer segment’s lighting category. tivity and health, even in the home office. According to a recent survey, three quarters of Germans are dissatisfied with their home office equipment. After connectivity (WiFi/laptop), light is the second most important factor. “What makes the luminaire so special is that its design is consistently user-centred, from start to finish, which means that the customer journey for standard-compliant lighting in the home office has been solved completely and in an exemplary man- ner -- from the practical app, with which the illu- minance can be measured quickly, easily and con- veniently on site, to the order (in just a few clicks), “We are honoured to receive the German Design Award for the second year in a row, this year in Gold. Lighting is more than just illuminating rooms – to us, it has to serve a purpose. Therefore, it is great to see that our HCL solution was acknowledged last year, and that, this year, we have been awarded fwor our efforts to support the numerous people working from home due to the pandemic, with our lighting solution,” says Dr. Oliver Vogler from Ledvance.” Enquiries: www.ledvance.co.za Ledvance developed its Lux@Home floor lumi- naire with the aim of providing the standard-compli- ant lighting conditions that are essential to produc- and the delivered product,” according to the jury›s statement.

Shuttle Lighting director Dr Marthinus Smit describes the lighting industry as “incredibly dynamic” and as one of the industries that have shown the most rapid growth over the past 20 years. “In 2010, we were still using CFL, halogen and in- candescent lighting technologies –discharge lighting which builds up an arc or corona to ignite the gas con- tained in the lamp,” he told Sparks Electrical New s. He says the progression toward the fundamentally differ- ent solid-state lighting technology of today happened in the proverbial ‘blink of an eye’, when compared to the development of other groundbreaking technologies. “In cell phone technology, for instance, the shift from analogue to digital technology was a fundamen- tal technological progression, but not much has hap- pened since – handsets were made faster and inter- net connectivity and apps were added, but there have been no fundamentally new developments.” LED filament An example of a ‘fundamentally new’ breakthrough in lighting technology is the LED filament lamp. “These lamps are beautiful by design and are re- placing the light fitting or luminaire. They are often seen in homes and restaurants and are available in great variety.” LED filament lamps are, however, tech- nically very complex. “They contain hundreds of LEDs arranged on glass cylinders (‘filaments’). For cooling purposes, the LEDs are immersed in a complex com- bination of pressurised gases responsible for thermal transfer away from the filaments.” The design of the LED filament lamp, however, leaves little space for a driver, which means the elec- tronics had to be designed small enough to be ac- commodated within the base of the lamp. “This technology is a fundamental development af- fording lighting designers, contractors and architects much more scope,” says Smit. When dimmed to 50% light intensity, discharge lamps still use between 60% and 70% of their energy supply. LEDs at 50% inten- sity, on the other hand, use half the energy. Energy savings “Of course, LED technology offers huge energy sav- ings,” says Smit. “For instance, in the past, warehouses, factories and shops relied on 400 W high-bay lights. These are now being replaced by 150 W LED lamps, with their extended lifetimes. “Many LED high-bay and large panel lights can be dimmed by means of 1 – 10 V dimming, which enables the user to connect 20 or 30 of these 150 W high-bay lights to a single dimmer and dim them down to 50% intensity, where the application allows. This, of course, leads to further energy savings and lifetime extension.” He says that, while the old tech- nology for dimming 400 W high-bay lights was very expensive, many overseas suppliers of LED high-bays today no longer even offer the option to dim and pro- vide these lamps in dimmable format only. Carbon filament Another ‘post-LED’ development is the resurgence of carbon filament technology as an alternative to incan- descent and halogen lamps. Carbon filament lamps, also known as ‘Edison’ lamps, contain a glass tube with fine tungsten filaments protruding from it. Like their LED filament counterparts, these lamps replace the luminaire and are seen as a progression from halogen and tungsten lamps. “Their energy usage is comparable to incandes- cent and halogen lamps,” says Smit, “and it offers the same decorative advantages as the LED filament counterpart, but provides the same warm glow as in- candescent and halogen lamps, when dimmed.” He says that, while the lighting industry has reached the stage where no further innovation was expected, the carbon and LED filament innovation took place “over the past three or four years”. “The lighting industry is constantly growing. A future lighting innovation may lie with the automo- tive industry: about three years ago, BMW produced a concept vehicle featuring white laser headlights. LED revolution not the last for the lighting industry

SPARKS ELECTRICAL NEWS

AUGUST 2021