Techlinea’s Ten Commandments of Customer Service

by Alfredo on June 21, 2011

  1. Know who is boss. We are in business to service customer needs, and you can only do that if you know what  your customers wants. When you truly listen to your customers, they let you know what they want and how you can provide good service. Never forget that the customer  makes your job possible.
  2. Be a good listener. We take the time to identify customer needs by asking questions and concentrating on what the customer is really saying. We listen to their words, tone of voice, body language, and most importantly, how they feel. Get t know know what three things are most important to your customer?
  3. Identify and anticipate needs. Customers don’t buy services. They buy trust and and solutions. Most customer needs are emotional rather than logical. The more you know your customers, the better you become at anticipating their needs. Communicate regularly so that you are aware of problems or upcoming needs.
  4. Make customers feel important and appreciated. Treat them as individuals. People value sincerity, it creates good feeling and trust. Think about ways to generate good feelings about doing business with you. Customers are very sensitive and know whether or not you really care about them. Your words and actions should be congruent.
  5. Help customers understand your services. Your organization may provide the world’s best services, but if customers don’t understand them, they can’t value them and won’t use them.
  6. Appreciate the power of “Yes”. Always look for ways to help your customers. When they have a request (as long as it is reasonable) tell them that you can do it. Figure out how afterwards. Look for ways to make doing business with you easy. Always do what you say you are going to do.
  7. Know how to apologize. When something goes wrong, apologize. It’s easy and customers like it. The customer may not always be right, but the customer must always win. Deal with problems immediately and let customers know what you have done. Make it simple for customers to complain. Value their complaints. As much as we dislike it, it gives us an opportunity to improve. Even if customers are having a bad day, go out of your way to make them feel comfortable.
  8. Give more than expected. Since the future of all companies lies in keeping customers happy, think of ways to elevate yourself above the competition. For example:  What can you give customers that they cannot get elsewhere?
  9. Get regular feedback. Encourage and welcome suggestions about how you could improve. There are several ways in which you can find out what customers think and feel about your services. Listen carefully to what they say. Check back regularly to see how things are going. Provide a method that invites constructive criticism, comments and suggestions.
  10. Treat employees well. Employees are your internal customers and need a regular dose of appreciation. Thank them and find ways to let them know how important they are. Treat your employees with respect and chances are they will have a higher regard for customers. Appreciation stems from the top. Treating customers and employees well is equally important.

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5 best business development tips

by Alfredo on June 21, 2011

Many of friends regularly ask me “how to do you market your firm, or better yet where do you find the time to market”The answers is I never market, but I’m always aware of the potential for business development and ways to  promote my image and promote my firm.

Over the last 20 years I’ve had the fortune of working for and with many extremely savvy and successful business people, I’ve absorbed  a lot that I’ve narrowed  down to what I think are   the 5  cardinal points for successful business development. And, just to be clear business development is not to be confused with marketing or sales.

1- Identify market:

Your market is who will buy from you, or who will you use your services. An effective business development plan will have a well defined market. For example,  our target market is the high   end home owner or better yet the pending new home builder, so we target  architects,  designers   & builders who specialize in providing their services to this clientele. . Based on our resources   and man power we can only provide the best quality design & service to this limited market so     no matter how tempting the offer we limit our  services to to those projects ( Market) that fit our project criteria.

2-Identify  niche:

Next is your niche which is not to be confused with your market. Your niche is what you do best. Our particular niche is to design architectural lighting, whole house entertainment, executive security systems and integrate these systems so that they provide our clientele with the ultimate experience in lifestyle, comfort, safety and energy efficiency.

3-Personal Presentation.

Presentation is the image that you offer your target audience. I seek to attract a certain clientele and a particular market, so image is extremely important. People may not tell you, but everyone notices how you speak and how you dress, and they make an instant opinion right or wrong about you based on how your present yourself unless you’re a super genius like Steve Jobs or or own a billion dollar company like  Mark Zuckerberg.

4- Web Presence & Social Media.

It used to be enough to have a business cards, stationary and a brochure. These days that does not even get you noticed.Then, a few years ago having a web page or web site moved you up, now even that is not enough. just having a website is passee. Today one MUST have a website, a blog and understand social media. I now understand that a website is really just another closed end sales tool, its like a digital magazine, one can look but not interact. Blogging if done correctly allows you to put your opinions and ideas out to be viewed, appreciated and critiqued.  Social media like Facebook, Twitter, and Linked in on the other hand are interactive mediums that allows you to promote yourself and socialize at the same time. You can develop legions of fans, and a potential client can see how you think and interact with others as well as see what you can do.

Share Resources and establish yourself as an expert

The last and strongest point is the concept that the more you give the more you get. I have always made myself available to my peers and associates. I gladly share my resources including my database and knowledge base. In fact I don’t just share it, I willingly make the connections when I think that  people will benefit from meeting each other. I also share my knowledge base. I regularly lecture and host seminars to my industry peers and professional associations: AIA, ASID, IES, NKBA and  IALD. Why ?  When I share a morsel of info that someone else can benefit from to solve a problem it elevates both us. As an industry expert I believe that the more our peers know the better they can educate their clients on the value of the technology and in hiring experts in the field.  In fact, that’s why I write this blog.

These 5 steps keep business potential aways swirling around us, and keeps our name present which helps me in my  sales  process.

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Myth: Dimming does not save energy

by Alfredo on May 8, 2011

How does a dimmer work?.

A dimmer works by interrupting the current flowing into the filament (the current is interrupted too fast for our eyes to see). When less current flows into the filament, the filament doesn’t get as hot, and it produces less light thus conserving energy,

Many ill-informed people will claim that a dimmer doesn’t actually reduce power consumption because it converts energy into heat. The truth is that the heat generated by a dimmer is a fraction of the amount of energy be used,  the heat is generated simply due to the fact that dimmers are  electronic devices, and all electronic devices suffer energy loss. New solid state dimmers are about 99% efficient. and incur even less power loss.

In the quest to conserve energy the first step is to use occupancy or motion sensors,  the next step is to use more energy efficient light sources. If you’ve read my previous posts you know that incandescent lights convert  95% of electrical energy to heat and only about 5% light.  Flourescent lights convert about 70%  of energy into light, so much less energy is wasted in the production light, and LED which convert 95% of electrical energy to light are even more energy efficient. The last step in saving energy is to install dimmers on all incandescent-halogen and LED light sources not controlled by occupancy sensors.

Dimmers come in a variety styles, colors, and load capacities: 300W,  600W, 1000W, 1500W and 2000W.  If you need 1500W or 2000W you’ll want to make sure the wiring can handle that much load.  The majority of wall box dimmers are rated at 600W and usually work with an existing 15 amp circuit.  If you require more capacity  you might need to upgrade the wiring to handle the additional load.  A typical lighting circuit is rated at 15Amp (1425 Watts) so if you have 1500W ( derated to 1300W) or 2000W ( derated to 1800W) of  lighting, chances are you’ll need to upgrade the circuit to  a 20 Amp circuit that can handle 1920W.

Also, higher wattage dimmers will usually require 2 gangs ( wall boxes) and  protrude from the wall about an 1/8″ as the heat sink that allows the heat to dissipate is thicker.

Next Blog- Wireless Controls

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Why does a light bulb blow out when you turn it on.

by Alfredo on May 6, 2011

Ever have a lamp burn out the minute you turn it on? I think wéve all experienced that, why does that happen?  Turning on a lamp is the main cause of lamp failure. In fact if you leave a lamp on, it will last indefinitely.

The reason that lamps fail when you turn them on is that when you turn on the switch it  sends 120 volts of  electricity surging through this hair thin tungsten filament at a mere 186,000 miles a second. Its a wonder  lamps don’t burn out more often. The older the lamp the less tungsten on the filament ( it burns off)  making the filament weaker and more likely to snap when you turn it on.

There is a lamp in a Livermore fire station that was originally turned on around 1905 then given to the fire station in 1973.  It’s called the Centennial lamp, and its so famous that they have even set up a web cam  at so people can log on  to see that its still on.   http://www.centennialbulb.org/cam.htm.  I think the switch is under lock and key to prevent it from being accidently being turned off.

So how do you prevent a lamp from blowing out the filament when turned on?  Use a dimmer;  newer  dimmers have a soft start technology that helps preserve lamp life because instead of slamming the 120 volts through the filament.  the soft start  ramps up the voltage allowing the filament to pre heat a bit before hitting full intensity, and then cool the filament down a bit as it turns off.  Dimming lamps also prevents the filament from burning at full intensity helping preserve more  tungsten on the filament.

Dimming fluorescent lighting does not provide the same advantages because fluorescent lamps don’t have a filament and prefer full voltage to vaporize the amalgam to keep the phosphors excited to provide maximum lumen output.

Incandescent-Halogen lamps that are rated to last 3000 hours can last years longer when controlled by dimmers. We have projects in the field with lamps that I installed over 10 years ago. Granted the lumen output has greatly depreciated, but that’s a topic for another day.

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Lighting Controls

by Alfredo on May 5, 2011

Last year I gave a 4 hour workshop at Light Fair on lighting control systems because I believe that the lowest hanging fruit in saving energy is managing consumption. I have been a proponent of  this for many years. In fact, we hardly ever design a lighting system that doesn’t include some sort of lighting management and control system.

There are loftier products like energy efficient fluorescent,  LED lighting, photovoltaic, wind energy, etc., but those require a serious investment of time and money. The following suggestions are cost effective and easy steps towards getting you some immediate  substantial energy savings. First and foremost, the absolute most effective way to reduce energy use is to prevent thoughtless energy consumption and one of the most cost effective ways to control this is to use motion and occupancy sensors.

1. Motion sensors:  These are devices that replace a switch and automatically turn on a light when they sense either heat or motion, then turn the light off after it no longer senses motion or heat. Some sensors have dual sensing technology that sense motion and sound or heat and motion which makes them more accurate.  The sensors allow you to set the delay ( the amount of time it will stay on  after it last sensed motion) so that you can adjust how long you want the lights to stay on after you leave. The reason for setting a delay is that you don’t want the light to go off too soon or be constantly going on/off.

Occupancy Sensor: In California, Title 24 Energy codes requires that in residential applications we use occupancy sensors instead of motion sensors. Why, because we only want the light to come on when its needed; a motion detector will turn the lights on anytime it senses motion whether you need light or not. An occupancy requires that a person manually turn it on, and it will shut off on its own after a preset amount of time. In California the delay may not exceed 30 minutes. Most occupancy sensors can be set to shut off after 5, 10, 15, and 30 minutes.

You can now also find dimming occupancy sensors, I think this is great because full on-off causes lamps to burn out sooner. If you dim your lights by 10% you will save energy and extend your lamp life by far more than 10%.

Also, since California’s energy code Title 24 requires occupancy sensors in all bathrooms and powder rooms if lighting is not an energy efficient light source such as LED or fluorescent, dimming occupancy sensors are a great solution. Nothing will wipe out your eyes at night like getting blasted by bright light when Occ-sensor turns lights on 100%.  With dimming Occ-sensor you can preset the brightness you want at night.

California 2008 Title 24 also requires that all other rooms in a residence use either energy efficient lighting, dimmers, occ-sensors or a lighting control system.  I recommend using energy efficient lighting AND  occupancy sensors be installed in hallways ( they make three way occupancy sensors) corridors, garage, storage rooms, closets, entry ways, pantries, mechanical rooms and laundry. There are several manufacturers,  below are some of the ones we use most.

WattStopper makes a whole line of energy management control devices from residential single gang wall box occupancy sensors and ceiling mounted motion sensors to commercial grade integrated and automated lighting control systems.


Lightolier makes an excellent dimming occ-sensor as well as a whole line of analog and digital dimmers.


Leviton known for high quality electrical,video and phone devices also makes a series of Occ-sensors, timers, switches, dimmers and control systems.

Lutron long recognized as a leader in lighting controls also produces a line of occupancy sensors, timers and dual function Occ-sensors for light and fans in a single device such as the one shown below.

All these devices are inexpensive and can easily replace an existing wall switch.

Posted in Energy management, Lighting, Lighting controls, Techlinea | 1 comment

Child Safety

by Alfredo on March 24, 2011

Everytime I read about a child being kidnapped or worse, I’m reminded of what a dangerous world childen live in.
One of my personal goals is to design and develop a child protection system that is connected to a global network that can be activated in minutes like a child GPS system to end this assualt on children.  But, until then I’ve written this guideline to help parents protect thier children. There are several ways that parents can help protect children from kidnapping and from being injured around their homes.

Security in the home:

The first step of course is to make your home an undesirable target; prevention and deterrence are always the best security.

  • Doors and ground level windows should clearly displaying security decals.
  • Door locks should sturdy dead bold type locks, with oversized bolts. Arrange to give a trusted neighbor a backup key in case children are locked out.
  • Exterior doors should be solid core, installed with reinforced jambs.
  • Install auto-closing (spring loaded) gates with manual locking or electronic lock.  You can install an alphanumeric keypad or biometric door locks to open the gate or enter the house.
  • Install window locks on sliding doors and pins on the frame and sliding door to prevent the sliding door from being lifted out of its track.  Add door contact switch that is either RF or hardwired to an alarm system.
  • Motion or PIR sensors to control lighting around perimeter of the home.
  • Keep shrubs around the perimeter of your home trimmed so that someone can’t hide in them.
  • Install planters with shrubs and Un-friendly foliage around ground windows.  Shrubs should be lower than the windowsills; they should not block the windows.
  • Teach your child the alarm arming code; teach them how to use the panic button.
  • Sensors installed in children’s rooms or around the perimeter of those rooms. For example children’s rooms can have detectors on doors that beep, turn a hallway light, or a light in the parent’s room when someone enters or exits a child’s room.
  • Window locks that limit that ability to fully open a window, or security screens on windows that allow ventilation but don’t allow entry or exit without sounding an alarm.
  • Electronic window guards, allow windows to be open yet providing an electronic security barrier, these provide both security against abduction and safety from a child falling out of an open window.
  • There are windows with glass panels so small that even if broken aren’t big enough to climb through.
  • Never leave ladders outdoors.
  • Install a telephone interface system that allows a child to answer the door without exposing themselves to a stranger.  Additionally, companies such as Aiphone and Seidle offer predefined door phone systems that have a camera/ doorbell/ call box, and a video monitor that allows a person to answer the door and see who is outside without exposing themselves.
  • A low-tech solution is to install a peephole that the child can access, for front, rear, and side doors.

Security around the home:

  • Play areas, pool areas, driveways, can have video surveillance tied to standard home televisions so that those areas can be viewed from any area that an adult needs to be.
  • Some counties require that any door leading to a pool area produce an audible tone when that door is opened.
  • Many security systems produce a tone when the front door is opened.  New security technology systems allow a wav file to be attached to a door switch at certain doors to verbally announce or create a distinct sound to alert that a person is entering or leaving the house.
  • Some counties require a fenced /gated perimeter around pools.  For additional safety, have gates controlled electronically from exterior or interior locations.
  • Some counties accept automatic pool covers, with electronic switches located within view of pool area.
  • Cameras can be even installed in the pool, very much like a pool light.
  • There are sensors that float in the pool and emit an alarm when the water is disturbed.


Away from home:

  • Make sure that you are advised any time your child fails to show up at school.
  • Make a list of those responsible adults who are allowed to pick up your child; keep a copy at home, one at work and make sure the responsible person at the school has a copy.
  • If your child is in preschool, try to find one that has net video cams so that you can check in periodically.
  • Child abduction alarm, device worn by the child and the parent, sounds if the child gets farther than the pre-defined distance from the receiver.
  • Child’s best chance of avoiding an abduction is to make noise “a lot of noise”. Scream, kick, and shout their name out, anything to cause a commotion.
  • Never let a child go unattended to a public bathroom and advise children not to play near them.

Additional protection measures:

  • Another important step is to have a serious, “not scary,” but serious talk with your child and give them a strategy for their own security.
  • Be aware of and identify the closest fire dept, police, dept. and hospital around your home and the child’s school.
  • Identify safe houses that the child can go to for help, a local store, a neighbor’s house.
  • Never tell a stranger that they’re alone when answering the phone.
  • Never answer the door when alone.
  • A child should never let a stranger in the house when home alone.
  • Make sure your child knows how to dial 911.  Take your child to visit the local police dept, or fire dept. so that they’re not frightened by uniforms, police cars, or fire trucks.
  • Have a photo of your child taken every year; with digital cameras and computers,  it’s easy to archive recent family photos.  Catalog your child’s particular physical characteristics, keep current dental records and have your child finger printed.  Store these together in a safe place, a place that you can reach quickly even if you’re in a total state of hysteria.
  • Personal protection devices- Pager type device that a child can wear on a belt, and when activated shrieks at up to 125 decibels. Once activate it shrieks and flashes a strobe and can only be turned off by the owner. If activated and dropped in a car it could cause the abductor to be so confused and disoriented that he might stop long enough to allow the child to escape.
  • Install GPS app on cell phones that allows parents to track child’s location.
  • Anti abduction jewelry – Child wears a necklace or a watch that has a postage sized  microchip that can be activated if the child goes missing, it is then linked to a GPS tracking system to pin point the child exact location.

Posted in Techlinea | 4 comments

Safe Rooms

by Alfredo on February 9, 2011

Safe Room

The concept is simple…it’s a room within the interior of the home where the family can safely retreat during a home invasion, a physical threat, or even a natural disaster. We have designed these types of rooms for high profile personalities and executives.

Safe rooms can be a fortified room, series of connected rooms or whole floor.  A typical safe room is a box with only one opening and is meant to delay an intruder long enough to summon the police or emergency services. Any homeowner can create such a room with relatively little effort and expense. The most common reason the average person would want a safe room is fear of assault from a home invasion, robbery or to help survive a natural disaster.

In new construction more elaborate systems rely on fortifying a core section of the home or building by adding more and more barriers until you reach one totally isolated re-enforced room.  The logic is that a fortified core will give the occupants more time to reach the safe room while the intruders are hampered by a series of structural obstacles and barriers.  Some very elaborate rooms also serve as vaults and are used to store and conceal cash, valuable jewels and collections.

Safe Room Construction

To create a simple safe room in any existing residence, just select an interior room or large closet with no windows or skylight. Install a solid core wood or steel door and ideally hang it so it opens outwards, reinforce a wooden door jamb with a steel plate that is between an 1/8 to a 1/4″ thick along the length of the door  and or reinforce the door jamb with steel angle iron, this makes it impossible to kick the door in or pry it open. The door jamb steel plates and hinges are installed with embedded tamper proof hardened bolts.  Next install heavy-duty locking system with multiple locking points that are embedded into the steel doorframe and casing. I also highly recommend eliminating air-gaps to prevent the intruder from spreading or prying and defeating the locking system.

Building a safe room in new construction requires more planning and allows more sophisticated design and security features. First and foremost, a safe room should be designed discretely. Don’t announce intentions to build one, and don’t show plans to anyone other than those professionals involved in its construction. This is not a room you want to brag about.

The safe room should be fortified around all six sides of the box and have a single door leading into it. I’ve designed safe rooms that were built like bunkers yet looked a like an elegant dressing room or an art gallery, and others that looked very much like a bank vault with steel re-enforced concrete walls and a steel vault locking door. Typical construction for lower level floors is to reinforce the walls, floor and ceiling with heavy grade wire mesh, steel sheeting, reinforced concrete. On upper levels where weight might be a concern sealed Kevlar, plastics and other light materials are used to prevent an intruder from breeching any part of the room perimeter yet  allow the room to survive a natural disaster.  Some people can’t tolerate the feeling of being enclosed so we’ve designed rooms with offset bullet proof and explosion proof glass windows and skylights. Someone with this type of wealth or exposure would likely be known to the local police department so emergency services would probably reach the residence in less than 20 minutes.

Room Design

I prefer to create a room that is invisible and known only to the homeowners, This type of room has seamless doors without visible latches. Part of the security of the safe room is that its secret, once you’ve hidden yourself an intruder should not be able to detect you even though you’re concealed only inches, remember stealth and time is on your side. From within the room you can monitor what’s going in the house call the police, open gates and electronic doors, or turn lighting on or off.

Locking mechanism

I recommend a keyless Grade-1 manual or electronic deadbolt to prevent losing access to keys in an emergency or in a panic.  On higher end designs I recommend doors with built-in multi point locking systems like Sargent’s internal 4 point locking mechanism that secure the door with top, bottom and side pins along with a multi-pin mortise lock.  As I already noted the best approach is a room with a completely concealed entry with discretely installed but easily accessible access controls. For example some safe rooms use stealthy technology to unlock a concealed door; yet once inside the locking mechanism has manual locking and safety overrides systems.

Infrastructure

A well designed safe room should have an emergency back up system like a UPS -uninterruptible  power supply and communication system in order to survive comfortably while waiting for help.  For communication, an internal cell site for a cell phone as well as an analog landline phone hookup.  A safe room should also have independent lighting and ventilation systems along with an  IP based security system that can monitor surveillance system. Some local police departments act as the monitoring station for security systems; we strongly recommend taking advantage of police monitoring services.

Security lights, gates, exterior emergency strobes, and sirens should also be controllable from within the safe room. A house that can create a visible and audible commotion while you’re safely concealed will increase the chances that the assault end and that the police can find you faster.  A video feed and a radio are a good idea too.  All wiring in and out of the safe room should be installed in rigid pipe conduit to prevent intruders from cutting and disabling power or communications systems.

A safe room should be stocked with fully “charged” rechargeable flashlights, cell phone charger, first aid kit, food, water, a portable radio, emergency disaster kits and personal hygiene needs.  This is an ideal room to install the family safe with personal records: photos, passports, health records insurance policies and any other vital personal info that you’d want in an emergency.

With current integration home technology we’re looking at integrating security systems with lighting systems that during a security violation can turn off all interior lighting while setting off randomly placed ultra bright LED diodes that strobe along with alternating high pitch sirens. We can add WAV files to internal audio system that can mimic a dog’s threatening growl or other threatening sounds that will disorient, confuse and frighten an intruder.  Some ultra secure homes and businesses have smoke generators that can envelope a room or an entire floor in a smoky fog within seconds making it impossible to navigate, creating extreme anxiety for an intruder. All of this can be controlled & monitored from the security the hidden safe room.

Family Security Plan

Once you create a safe room, here is some advice:

  • Don’t announce that you have a safe room
  • Have a family plan for when and how to use the safe room
  • Have non-threatening practice sessions with children
  • Create safety code on cell phones to alert household members
  • Keep safe room stocked with emergency supplies
  • Keep a flashlight, portable phone and radio with fresh batteries
  • If possible try to escape first and summon the police
  • Once in the safe room call the police and don’t exit until they arrive
  • Refuse to come out of the safe room until you can confirm that the police have arrived
  • Remain calm and keep thinking

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Home Security

by Alfredo on February 7, 2011

We regularly protect our client’s homes; in this series I’ll share some of our  recommendations and security tips. First, be proactive, develop a home security plan and talk about it with your family and neighbors; with a plan, the chances of getting a positive response and getting help are greatly improved.

However, prevention is the key; never allow the situation to develop in the first place:

  • Never open the door to a stranger
  • Never allow a stranger at your door to see you when you can’t see them.
  • Don’t expose yourself or allow being overpowered by a possible intruder or assailant.

Be suspicious of someone claiming to be making a delivery that you did not order or other tricks to get you to open the door.  Having a door call station and a camera are ideal solutions so that nobody knows where in the house you’re talking from (or if you’re even home) make sure you can see behind the door or the street before you answer.

Exterior Lighting:

When protecting a property we start with the exterior because exterior lighting gives you the first advantage; lighting controlled by motion sensors or IR beams automatically protect the perimeter of your property and home, that’s the first line of defense, to eliminate an intruder’s sense of security.  Lighting exposes a possible intruder to you and anyone else who can see your home. Plus, you can remain hidden in the background while monitoring what is going on outside.

However, the key to good exterior security lighting is to light the property because an intruder does not want to walk or stand in light. We usually see security lights aimed away from the property, mostly lighting the street, or going on when people walk in front or when cars drive by, right? but once you get past them the house itself is usually not illuminated. A better solution is to light the structure, that way the closer someone gets to your home the more visible they become because they will be silhouetted against the bright background and there won’t be any dark corners to hid in.

Landscaping

We recommend landscaping as part of perimeter protection, plant thorny prickly plants and shrubs around ground level windows. Examples of thorny shrubs include Barberry, Hawthorn, Holly, Fire Thorn, Bramble, Currant, Locust and of course the lovely rose shrub.  Pick ones that are right for the landscaping of the property as well as the security of the home. Trim planting so that they don’t block windows, if you can’t see out, an intruder will have a place to hide. Also cut back lower branches and limbs on trees that are adjacent to the house to prevent anyone from climbing up the tree to reach adjacent upper level window.  Cut back any branches that hang over the roof to prevent intruders from getting onto to the roof and access to second level.

Surveillance

Security cameras allow you to see what’s going on without alerting that you’re there. An added value is that they record the event for the police, but the ideal is to use them as a prevention tool.  Security cameras can serve 3 functions:  deterrence, detection and protection.  Intruders will try to avoid getting in a position where their actions can be prematurely detected.  New IR LED technology in surveillance cameras allows cameras to see in the dark and function as motion detectors so they not only see and record what’s going on,  they can also turn on lights and even trip the alarm.  More sophisticated digital surveillance cameras have features like safety corridors that allow you to program areas within the view of the camera that will trigger an alarm while other visible areas will not.

With the advent of IP ( Internet) based surveillance systems you can monitor your home from remote locations or from smart phones, ITouch or IPads. You can also have cloud based DVR storage that protect the recordings form being taken by intruders.  IP based security systems can even send you an email or text informing you of a security condition at your home or office, or, send an image every time they detect someone at your door or gate.

Doors

Adding a deadbolt lock helps but it wont stop a determined intruder, for that you’ll need  to harden your home or apartment perimeter with reinforced doors. We also recommend installing 14 gauge cold-rolled steel plate on the doorframe and adding tamper proof door hinges. This will give the deadbolt a solid support that is embedded in the doorframe structure  and will prevent the door from being kicked in, forced open, or pulled apart.  If you don’t have a surveillance camera outside the door,  the final step  is to install wide-angle peephole ( if you have small children add one at a lower height so that they can look out too)  and instruct everyone in your family not to open the door to strangers.

For higher grade door security, there are re-enforced doors with internal 4 point locking mechanism that secure the door from the top, bottom, hinge side and a multi pin mortise locking system.

For the ultimate in door protection there is a level 3 armored door with a 10 point locking system than can be opened through a chip coded key, a remote control system. A biometric print reader allows arming or disarming your home security system with the door remote control. When the door is closed an impact sensor locks the multilock system  There is an  optional integration of the door with an IP camera, which makes it possible to have emails sent with a picture of who’s at the door everytime the doorbell is rung or the door is opened. Its made in Bogota Colombia, I wonder why?

Locks & Entry Access Systems

Multi pin mortise locks, biometrics and electronic entry access systems are very convenient and provide excellent security. With multi pin locks you get an extra level by adding more points of contact fro the door to the door frame.  Some multi pin locks use chip coded keys that cannot be copied without a serial number. With biometrics you can use finger print readers to unlock doors and gates. The advantage is that there are no keys or codes to loose. Biometric systems can also log and track who and when somebody has entered your home, great for tracking kids and household help.

Key fob, card type or keypad entry access systems give you the same security and convenience but are a little less secure since a fob can be lost or stolen and codes can be compromised, but if that were to happen its easy to disable the individual fobs  or reprogram keypads.  Biometric and entry access can not only provide entry but also disarm security and turn on lighting. A key fob is a device that carries programmable security data that you can hang on your key-chain

Windows

For lower level vulnerable window areas I recommend installing shatter proof film and glass break detectors. The shatter proof film will delay and prevent easy entry through the window, and the glass break detectors will alert that windows have been compromised.

Upper level windows often get overlooked because height gives homeowners get a false sense of security. Many homes have been broken into via second story windows. We recommend security screens that prevent intrusion even if the window is open, or add security pins that prevent opening the window more than a few inches. This works for security as well as for child safety.

Garage Doors

Garage doors tend to be weak points, new random code devices makes it difficult for burglars to figure out the remote access code. We recommend adding a security contact on the doors, a shut off switch that disconnects the power when you’re away for long periods and security pins that lock the door in place preventing it from being pried open.

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How do LEDS work

by Alfredo on January 22, 2011

LEDs are light emitting diodes; everyone seems to know that right? But how or why do they emit light? An incandescent lamp produces light when electricity flows and heats a filament in a gas sealed lamp.  Fluorescent lamps emit light when voltage is transmitted by electrodes that allow electrons to excite phosphors as they pass from one end of a tube vacuum to the other, but what about LEDS?  If there is no gas, filament, phosphor, vacuum or arc, how do they produce light?

 LEDs produce light in a very unique way; they produce light via a process called Electro-luminescence, huh…..? 

Electroluminescence is a rather complex process that starts by turning a semi conductor material into a conducting material.

We know that many metals like copper conduct electricity so they are known as conductors,  and there are materials that never conduct, rubber for example does not conduct electricity, so it is known as an insulator, but there are materials known as semi conductors that under normal conditions don’t conduct, but under the right circumstances can conduct electricity

 Let me give you a very simplified explanation of how and why semi conductors conduct electricity.  I apologize in advance to any quantum physicist or PHD Electrical Engineer who may object to this over simplification of a very complex process;  like one of them is going to read my blog, right.

 Everything in the universe is made up of atoms, and atoms have a positively charged nucleus and negatively charged electrons. Some atoms have more electrons and others have less.  For example,  an LED  semi-conductor atom  is typically a silicon crystal that has 4 electrons and all of the atoms bond perfectly to their neighbors, leaving no free electrons (negatively-charged particles) to conduct electrical current.  But, when you dope the silicon material by introducing an impurity that changes the balance, either adding free (extra) electrons or creating gaps (holes) where electrons can go, either of these additions make a semi conductor material conductive.

 A semiconductor with extra electrons is called N-type (negative) material, since it has extra negatively-charged electrons. In N-type material, free electrons can move from a negatively-charged area to a positively charged area. Remember, opposites attract! 

A semiconductor with extra holes is called P-type (positive) material since it has extra positively-charged gaps called holes. When excited with current the negative electron leaves its atom and the P-type material’s positive attraction draws the free negative electron into its hole, and the hole also moves toward the electron, so on and so forth.  As an electron travels to a hole, it carries energy, but in order to fit into the hole it must release any extra energy, and when it does, the extra energy is released in the form of a photon (light).

To understand this, imagine a metal marble being drawn between two different materials towards a magnetic hole that is also moving towards the marble, and when the marble gets to the hole it creates a spark (light) as it falls in to the hole.   When we maintain a steady flow of electrical current to the diode, it continues the process of allowing electrons to flow from the negative charged material and fall into the positive charged holes which maintains a steady stream of light out of the LED.

 

AZ

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How we see light

by Alfredo on January 10, 2011

Lets start with the sun, it releases billions of waves of electromagnetic radiation which includes photons ( light). These waves of photons that bombard the planet are measured in nanometers. The human eye can perceive only a tiny amount of the entire frequency range: between 450nm-750nm (from extreme violet to bright red) which is called the visible spectrum of light. The rest of this electromagnetic field is called: near or far radiation. Near radiation includes X-Ray, Gamma Rays, and Ultraviolet rays. Far radiation includes Infrared, Radar, FM, TV and AM waves. That’s why radio and television broadcast is said to be over the airwaves.  If we could see just a little more of the near radiation  (350nm) we would be able to see Infrared light, and if we could see a just little more of the far electro-magnetic spectrum (800nm) we would be able to see heat.

This light frequency stimulates a specialized region at the center of the retina called the fovea which is saturated with millions of specialized photoreceptor cells known as Cones which are used for high visual acuity. The peripheral area of the fovea is lined with other specialized cells known as Rods, these only work in dim light.
The retina contains a blind spot ( that’s where the milk always sits when I’m looking for it in my refrigerator) the blind spot is where the optical nerves go from the retina to the brain.

If you want to find your blind spot (look for something really important) or, draw a solid 3/8″ star on the left side of a piece of paper, then draw a solid 1/2″ circle about 5- 1/2″ to the right of the star, got it?  now focus (or line up) your right eye on the star (on the left) while holding the paper about 20″ away and slowly move your head closer to the piece of paper. As you focus on the star, the circle (on the right) will suddenly disappear, you just located your blind spot.

As light hits the cones they absorb color; there are three types of cones, one that absorbs blue wave lengths (450nm)  one absorbs greenish yellow (530-600 nm) and the third absorbs red orange frequency ( 700-750 nm). These cones are what allow us to see in color which is called photopic vision. When someone is color blind, it means that some of their cones are not responding to the frequency stimulus of light. Being color blind does not mean you see no color at all, ususlly its the red-green rods that are not functioning.

When there is not enough light to stimulate the cones they shut off almost immediately and the rods take over, but because rods only work in dim light they can only perceive black, white, and shades of grey; this type of sight is called scotopic vision. Its takes several seconds for rods to activate; notice what happens when you go from bright light into a dark room, it takes a few seconds for them to start detecting shapes and forms but not color.

As light stimulates the cones and rods, they release a specialized chemical molecule that travels from the photoreceptors to nearby nerve fibers which produce an electrical impulse that stimulates the part of the brain that interprets this stimuli as color (photopic) or black & white (scotopic) vision… Cool huh.

This leads to the age old question:  Why is the sky blue:  As sunlight passes minute particles of matter in the atmosphere, particles the size of air molecules scatter the light, primarily the blue wavelengths. As other colors pass through these particles the blue wave length is reflected all over the sky, this causes the sky to appear blue. However, if you look toward the horizon the blue sky is paler than it is overhead.  As sunset arrives, the sky changes color changes to orange-red, because as the sun drops to the horizon and sunlight has more atmosphere to pass through and has lost most of its shorter blue wavelengths.  Orange and red which are longer wavelengths (700-750nm) make up more of the sunlight at this distance so they are more visible as they too are scattered by the air particles. The most dramatic sunsets are seen when we have more particles in the atmosphere like after a really smoggy day.  In outer space astronauts see blackness because outer space has no atmosphere so light has nothing to reflect.

AZ

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Lamp vs Light Bulb

by Alfredo on January 8, 2011

In this blog I’ll give you little terminology lesson and description of the incandescent and halogen lamps that you’ll encounter in most residential applications because these are terms unique to the lighting industry. It will save you alot of frustration, you ‘ll soon see why.

Lamp: a device that produces artifical light which the general public refers to as a “light bulb” we ( lighting designers) call a table lamp a portable luminaire and light fixtures are luminaires, but Ill continue to use the term light fixture because luminaire requires too many brain cells to type correctly. We use the term: lamp (for light bulb) because not every lamp has a bulbous shape, right? in fact, lamps come in a variety of shapes, sizes,volts and watts. Every lamp has its own common designation. For example, the general service lamp known by you as the light bulb,  I know it as an A-19, so when I go into a light store and ask the clerk for a 75W A-19IF, the clerk will instantly recognize that I am a man not to be toyed with, and he’ll bring me my lamp.

You on the other hand will go in and ask for a light bulb; the clerk will instantly realize that you don’t know the secret lingo, so he’ll ask you:

What kind, incandescent, halogen or fluorescent?
How many watts… ?
What voltage… 120v or low voltage, if so, 12v or 24v ?
What kind of base… Edison base, candelabra, minican or bi-bin?
What shape,…S, round, flame tip or tubular? frosted or clear?

Then you’ll give him or her your best deer in the head-lights look and grumble off saying “damn, why does everything have to be so difficult” and most likely go home and say “honey …  they’re out of light bulbs ” I’ve actually heard this conversation at the lamp store several times, its hysterical. The reason its so hard is you don’t know the secret lingo…

A – Standard “Pear Shaped” light bulb. Typically used in table lamps and enclosed ceiling fixtures:
R – Reflector. Typical used in recessed fixtures and  track lights
C – Candelabra base. Typically used in chandeliers . Lamp shapes can vary including flame tip or torpedo.
G – Globe type bulb. Typical used in vanity light fixtures.
T-  Tubular shape. Typical installation is display lighting, accent lighting and sconces.
PAR – Parabolic Aluminized Reflector. Typically used in recessed cans and exterior fixture
MR – Halogen Miniature Reflector typically low voltage

A-19 lamp: This is a general service household lamp that you can find in any store. Its called a general service lamp because they fit in most common ceiling mounted light fixtures, wall sconces, table lamps, in troublelights (mechanic’s light) etc. they come in wattage from 25w-150.  there are other versions; A-21 and A23 that can provide up to 300w. Imagine that, one lamp producing 300w of light. Best application is in very large open in-direct pendants.  They fail very fast in enclosed fixtures.

A-Represents: the shape of the lamp:

19 represents the diameter of the lamp which is measured in 1/8 of an inch ( I don’t know why), so an A-19  measures 19-1/8ths of an inch, or 2 3/8″ in diameter. By definition it uses a medium base socket and is typically available in 120V-130V. The wattage can vary between 25w -150W. IF means inside frosted. Frosted means you can’t see the filament, clear means it will sear your eyeballs when lighted. A lamps are now available in halogen versions. Phillips and GE make very good ones; you can find the Phillips Halogena version at Home Depot

PAR Lamp is a reflector lamp that has a thicker body & lens so it can be used outdoors, and are the ubiquitous exterior garage motion detector floods light that mar the night-time landscape. It comes in a few beam spreads designated as NFL (No, not National Football League) NFL= Narrow Flood, WFL= Wide Flood, FL = Flood and SP= Spot. They come in four sizes and are available in  120V with an Edison base. All are available in either incandescent or halogen and some with new IR technology. (I’ll discuss IR later)

PAR 38 45w-150W   5″
PAR 30 75W             3 3/4″
PAR 20w -50w         2 1/2″
PAR 16  40-75W      2″dia.

There is another dying member in this family of PAR lamps: PAR 36This lamp was the work horse of accent lighting in the 70s and 80s due to its tight beam spread and warm color but has lost viability since the MR-16 came into vogue. The reason is that that PAR36 is big, has a relatively short lamp life and sings like crazy when dimmed unless you use a true 0-120 volt Variac dimmer ( no wave chopping). There is a replacement by Phillips: the AR-111.  Its built around  metal platform uses a quartz Halogen lamp, lasts 3000 hours and produces 3500k with 100 CRI and it doesn’t sing when dimmed but there aren’t a lot of light fixtures made to support it.

The singing was the worse part of the PAR 36 lamp, I’ve had female clients call me asking for a solution of a design that used a houseful of PAR-36 lamps, the noise was driving them crazy.  Believe it or not, women tend to here the singing while many men can’t.  (I’ve been told that lamps sing in the same frequency as women’s voices so men can’t hear them, hahahha.) But the reality is that as men age (I’m not that old yet) they loose their ability to hear certain high frequencies, The halogen AR-111 drastically reduces lamp noise.

Grrr.. ok side bar here.  When I started this blog, I promised myself  that if I ever had a blog crash,  I would delete that entire blog and move on to another topic.  I was 100% through with this Blog and while spell-checking WP crashed and I lost everything from this point forward. The only reason I continue with this particular blog is that I really believe in the info and I think I caused the crash so I’ll proceed and work around the bite marks on the keyboard.

R lamp is a reflector lamp that has a reflectorized surface in the lamp that allows light to be focused as a flood or spot. Advantage is they’re cheap and provide a nice warm light. Disadvantage; they’re incandescent, short lamp life, and they sing reallly loud when dimmed. These lamps are available in four sizes and can be easily replaced with halogen PAR Lamps.

R-20  50W
R-30   75
R-40   100-150W

Flame tip: These use a smaller screw in base called candelabra base and are usually found on chandeliers and low output decorative sconces. Flame tip lamps can also be found with Edison base and mini-can ( mini candelabra base).  These lamps are available in 120v, wattage between 7W-to75W.

G-lamps: these are typically round globe shaped lamps usually found on vanity lights known as clown lights or hollywood light strips. They use a either a candelabra or Edison base, require 120v and can be found in 25w-60w. I’m glad to see these go because they’re really not very useful and give off a lot of heat. Fluorescent and LEDS will eventually take these off the market.

T lamp: usually a tubular shape or linear shape lamp. Its available in in low voltage: 12v-24v and line voltage (120v). They can be very small speciality lamps using several types of bases, but the most common T6.5IF  can also be found in display lighting, some step lights, undercab. lighting and some types of sconces. The T6.5 lamp is not used in very many applications any more because there are a series of  new 120v halogen and  low voltage lamps that are smaller and more efficient. The family of T Lamps are available between 5w-300W. There are too many shapes and sizes to choose one single image to represent them here.

Festoon Lamps: these lamps have a double end configuration and look kind of like a fuse. They are mostly found on low voltage strip lights using 12v/24v and usually are 5w,10w,20w. They can be either incandescent, halogen or Xenon and produce light between 2900k-3500k and last between 1000-10,000 hours. 

MR-16:

Pronounced M..R..16, not Mr. 16, (I heard that once) This lamp has been the bonafide work horse in the lighting industry because it’s extremely versatile and uses its energy very well, but not well enough to be considered energy efficient. The reason I say they use their energy efficiently is that they typically operate at 12V and due to the design they can focus all the light intensity in one direction, this is known as candlepower, so with this lamp you get a tremendous amount of light out of a small relatively low watt (20w) and low voltage 12v light source.

To understand this, think a of flashlight; it uses 2 D cell batteries and a tiny little lamp, yet it produces a tremendous amount of light that can be aimed in one direction. The reason it can do that is because all the light is focused out of the flashlight by a mirrored reflector. If you unscrew the top of the flashlight and remove the reflector you’ll have the same amount of power going to the same lamp but you’ll get a useless amount of light out it.  MR-16 use a similiar mirrored reflector technology, however, the multi faceted reflector allows these lamps to be produced with many different beam spreads, from 9°-55 ° allowing us create a myriad of lighting effects. down lighting, wall washing, accent light, flood lighting and spot lighting. They’re usually found in two voltages:  120v, 12v, and the typical 12v MR-16 uses a GU5.3 (Bi-pin) base, but they are available in 5 different bases:

Bi-pin     Edison base   Candelabra    Gu-10       Bayonet

So, this is the typical household line up (excluding fluorescent).  Now that you know the secret lingo you too can stride confidently into any lamp store and ask the clerk for your exact lamp… or, you can just bring the old one with you.

AZ

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In Sympathy

by Alfredo on January 5, 2011

I dedicate this exerpt of a William Shakespeare poem
to a dear friend who just lost her mother…


 

“and when she shall die,
take her and cut her out in little stars,
and she will make the face of heaven so fine
that all the world will be in love with night
and pay no worship to the garish sun”

William Shakespeare

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Incandescent Lighting

by Alfredo on January 5, 2011

As you’ve noticed by now, I’m passionate about LED lighting, but there are other light sources that we’ll still be using for quite a while since it will be a few years before LEDS take over the world…buah hahaha.

Incandescent lamps are wonderful light sources due to their ability to create ambiance and warmth, particularly when dimmed. This is unique to incandescent technology; no other light source does that. The reason for this is that the filament glows white hot as electricity flows through it, but when you dim the light source the filament  cools down and glows less intensely, it glows warmer and warmer until it produces a very warm yellow glow.

The science behind this is that as you heat the filament ( technically a black body radiator)  An incandescent tungsten filament is very dark, and approaches being a black body radiator. But as it gets hotter it goes through series of temperature changes: from red-hot to glowing white, the visual changes are known in the lighting world as Kelvin temperature. The maximum temperature that an incandescent can reach is around 2800K.  We love candle light because of it’s a warm glowing light, around 1900K; perhaps it stems from the days that we depended on fire for safety, comfort, and protection.

This lovely glowing filament is what makes incandescent lighting such an inefficient light source as well. In reality it is a better heater than a light source.  Approx. 95% of energy consumed by an incandescent lamp is turned to heat. As a lighting designer I try to use incandescent lighting as judiciously as possible. I’ve noticed that in a lighting design scheme less is more. For example, when we layer different light sources a little bit of incandescent lighting in a room with fluorescent lighting adds the sparkle and focus to the lighting scheme.

Another beauty of the incandescent lamp is that in comes a huge variety of sizes and shapes, fits a variety of light fixtures and uses 120V  household electrical current, or you can use 12/24 volts known as low voltage lighting, and it’s very easy and cost effective dim.

One of the ways we achieve this warm glow is by dimming the light source, but remember that dimmers work by varying the voltage supplied to the lamp. When a lamp is dimmed below its full potential, its filament is not as hot, and it produces less light. The reduced temperature of the filament also reduces the color temperature.  A light dimmed to 10% is considerably yellower (warmer) than one at 100%.

The other problem with incandescent lighting besides being inefficient is that since the filament is long (relative to the size of the lamp) and suspended by support wires in a vacuum sealed gas filled glass enclosure, it makes noise when dimmed, actually it sings.  Why, Because forward phase and reverse phase dimmers vary the voltage by chopping the sine wave on/off  for a given percentage 60 times a second, this on off process causes the filament to vibrate which creates audible harmonics; the more you dim the louder the harmonics.  People who complain about the noise of incandescent lighting don’t realize that its the dimming process that causes the noise, not the dimmer itself.

So the conclusion is that although not a prefect light source, it has served us well for  about 140 years and some lamp manufactures are still working feverishly trying to increase the efficiency so that it just meets the minimum energy standards so that we can keep using them before they’re phase-out, which is to begin with the 100-watt bulb in 2012 and end in 2014 with the 40-watt.

Lets see how it goes, although this whole issue may become a mute point if the world comes to end on December 21, 2012  (I forget the time)

Speaking of endings, if I win the Mega Lotto ($355 million) tonight, you’ll never see me here again.

Nitey nite.

AZ

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10 Cool Residential Products For 2011

by Alfredo on January 4, 2011

1- Lucifer LED Step lights

Lucifer’s new SSL-ALED Stealth Interior and exterior step lights using 3W LED- 3000k 12volt LEDs to provide excellent dimmable path and stair lighting. It measures only 2.59″ x 2.75″ and this product is Title 24 Compliant.  This month Lucifer will be releasing their new adjustable LED accent light. This product will not be title 24 compliant yet, but I have no doubt that they will get there very soon.

2- Cold Cathode Fluorescents:

These light sources are making inroads and may replace many of the standard incandescent lamps. They provide excellent light, save considerable energy and are easily dimmable. The drawback is that they usually very low wattage. They work great in any area that doesn’t need a lot of light. 

 3- Maxlite Under cabinet lighting 

New residential Title 24 allows 20w per linear/ft. of any light source for lighting the interior of kitchen cabinets , this additional wattage does not impact the 50% high efficacy rule.   MaxLite’s dimmable light bar uses only 2.4W per linear foot.  It’s a 120V product so it requires no remote transformer or external power supply. 

One of the advantages of LED under cabinet lighting is their extremely low profile, some as thin as 1/8th.  of inch; another huge advantage is they produce very little heat so the shelves won’t heat up. In the past our clients complained that they couldn’t store chocolate on the bottom shelf because the lights were so hot.  Another concern has been that Halogen lights were so hot that they could cause the bottom of the lower cabinet to warp. Those concerns are resolved with LED under cabinet lighting. Linear leds are available in 120V, 12V and 24V and most are dimmable.

 4- Lutron Radio RA2

Lutron has upgraded its wireless RF dimming control system. RadioRA has been around for about 10 years and has been a very reliable product. RadioRA 2 is a wireless light control system that provides convenient control of lights, shades, audio-visual devices, and temperature in a single room or throughout a whole home. It installs easily, programs quickly, and continues to operate reliably.  The use of plug-in appliance modules save energy by turning off standby power to appliances and other non-lighting loads such as computers and audio/video equipment. The appliance module receives commands from sensors, dimmers, switches, or keypads. Conveniently control and monitor your RadioRA 2 system from your iPad with the Lutron Home application, you can customize your system’s energy saving, keypad, thermostat, and time clock programming.

5- Lightolier Occupancy Sensors

California Title 24 requires that residential light sources in bathrooms that are not energy efficient most be controlled by occupancy sensors. I’ve always disliked these on/off devices especially for bathroom or powder room because if you get up at night to use the bathroom and need some light, an  occupancy sensor turns light on to full brightness which jars you fully awake.  Lightolier has developed a dimming preset occupancy sensor. This device allows you to preset the brightness so it only comes on the level of brightness that you need, and it ramps up slowly instead of popping full on.

The IntelliSight sensor switch is rated for a 1000 watt load to control incandescent, magnetic/electronic low-voltage, magnetic/electronic fluorescent, cold cathode, general inductive, and LED loads when used in 120VAC or 277VAC applications.

6- Solia White SSL Down lights

Renaissance lighting has introduced their new White Light LED down lights that are available in 4″round/square and 6″round/square. Most models are Energy Star qualified. They are available in color temps between 2700k-4100K.  The vivia series is a family of color changing models that have the capability of individually addressing each fixture with a Bluetooth controller and have the capability of producing 16 Million colors.

7- Xicato Light Engine

Xicato is a Silicon Valley based LED manufacturer. They produce the first genuine LED equivalent for halogen with no compromises: not aesthetic or light. Two ranges are available, a standard range with a high efficacy and an Artist Series range with higher color rendering properties which are on a par with halogen and unique in the world of LEDs.  Xicato OEMs the light engine for some of the top lighting manufactures in the world. I’m looking forward to seeing this LED in more products and eventually as an individual lamp for retrofit applications.  

8- Bocci Devices

Bocci is a line of contemporary products including lighting and electrical devices.
The electrical devices include outlets, phone jacks, and video jacks are unique in that
each piece is a modular device requires no trim plate and mount flush to a surface. 

9- No.8 Recessed lighting

This is a line of Premium grade down lights and accent lights. The LED version uses the Xicato LED light engine and provides lighting at 3500Kwith a CRI 0f 95.  No. Eight Lighting’s 1.75” and 2.75” apertures accommodate interchangeable low voltage tungsten halogen or fluorescent lamp modules, requires no tools for lamping and aiming, and trim assembly is magnetic and is easy to remove and replace without marring finishes. The Flush-to-the-ceiling trim assemblies provide a crisp clean appearance on most ceiling applications: 

10- Savant

Savant is the only apple based home automation system that unifies the whole house including: lighting & controls, security, climate, and internet using Iphone or iPod touch. The tap of a button deactivates home security and turns on specific lights throughout the house and your favorite music starts playing.  Another tap closes a privacy curtain and dims the lights for watchig a movie, control the whole house from key locations or from a remote location.

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LED Myth #5

by Alfredo on January 2, 2011

Led lighting is too expensive:



This is the most interesting myth and the only real debate in these 5 myths because the truth is somewhere in the middle for now.  The fact is an LED as a retrofit light source is in fact dollar for dollar more expensive than your typical incandescent, halogen light bulb or fluorescent light source.  But for this argument there are a lot of other factors in the mix: big, huge factors.First, one must consider that lighting is going through a paradigm shift, and we need to look at light sources more like a long term investment such as  carpets, flooring, furniture and appliances instead of like a disposable commodity.  If these light sources are going to last ten years (as projected) they will be around longer than some people stay in a single home, and certainly longer than most people keep their cars.   Some of you with pre-teen children will have sent them off to college before you need to replace your LED lighting, that’s either a grim or exhilarating thought.

For this discussion I’ll compare a typical Halogen MR-16 with an LED MR-16 ($40.00) light source.  A 12V 20w wide flood MR-16 -3500k - 100 CRI – 3000 hours costs about $ 6.50.  Three thousand hours over 6 hours a day means that this lamp on average will last about 1-1/2 years. But, that’s not the only factor to consider.  Unless you buy high quality Constant Color MR16 lamps, the average MR-16 will shift color from white to pink or worse, to green in a matter of months, in fact this can happen in as short a time span as 600 hours.  That means that even though the lamp has not burned out, it’s no longer producing acceptable or usable light so they’ll need to be replaced in a shorter period of time than the stated 3000 hours.  Also, 3000 hours of lamp life does not mean that you will be getting the same initial lumens for the entire life of the lamp; because as it ages carbon drops off the tungsten filament and falls onto the glass envelope causing the lamp blacken and produce less and less light. (When you replace a light bulb ever notice how the bottom of the bulb has blackened) then dirt on the lens also degrades the output of the lamp. Your lamp may continue to work but the light level that you’re getting will be completely inadequate high brightness tasks.

In all honesty this is a dicey argument because in residences I’ve designed we’ve seen MR-16 last as long as 10 years; they’re not as bright as when new, but adequate considering that we normally don’t drive them at full brilliance anyway.  This is longevity is not the norm and it really has more to do with dimming and type of dimmers used, I’ll discuss that in future blog.

A 4W medium flood LED MR 16, 3500K – CRI 85 and costs about $ 40.00 and is rated approx. 50,000 hours which means if you use them for 10 hours a day you can expect to have them working for about 10 years, I’ve factored in lamp and fixture depreciation in this conversation so I’ve lowered the projected lamp life from approx. 15 years to 10 years.  There is no carbon build up and if engineered correctly no real heat build-up.  There may be some color shifting but the effects are still not known, although I doubt they’ll be as radical as MR-16

Using an example of 50 light bulbs costing $6.00 means you will spend approx. $300.00 x 6 (re-lamping cycles) over 10 years ($1800.00) 50 LEDS x $40.00 cost $2000.00. The major differences between these are:  for the most part zero projected LED replacement and maintenance over 10 years.  LEDs are  4-5 times more energy efficiency (in today’s energy dollars)  and for very large installations lower cooling demand on your HVAC system  because LEDs don’t generate much forward heat compared to incandescent.  And if you’re a real financial stickler, factor in your time and gas cost for the 6 or times within those ten years as well projected energy cost increases. I think the weak link for SSL will be the drivers.  Drivers like transformers and ballasts do and will fail.  But I don’t think that the failure rate will be more than the acceptable 10% ratio.

So that was the retrofit lamp analysis, now let’s talk about my market…We don’t really work with retrofit technology much since for the most part our target market is the high end new construction residential market. Our service is to design and specify the full lighting and control package for a house using correct product for the application, within the given budget.

For example, we specify architectural grade, high quality halogen adjustable recessed light fixtures (nothing out of home depot) so the fixtures are going to cost between $150-$250 per can. If we use premium grade recessed light fixtures they will cost between $200-300.00 per can, ultra high grade cost $450-$550.00

Many quality grade SSL recessed cans cost between $200.00-$300.00 so the fact is we’re already paying equal to or just slightly more for this more efficient technology.  In some cases about they’re about 30% higher in cost, but if you want the ultra cutting edge technology you can expect to pay as much as $550.00 per can.  But again when you factor in energy x maintenance x cooling savings LEDs are still a better investment. Also keep in mind that these prices will drop as SSL gets more acceptance and makes more in roads into the retail market. Remember the cost of the first CD player or plasma TV?

When using indirect light sources such as under-cabinet, cove lighting or over-cabinet lighting,  quality low voltage Halogen strip lights or high output low profile dimmable fluorescent fixtures vary in cost between $40.00-75.00 a linear ft. SSL linear lighting is within that price range too,  no “huge” price difference here.

Step lighting and exterior lighting also fall roughly in the same price range, so again, when dealing architectural grade lighting products the cost factor is not really as large as people think, and at the consumer grade the difference can be made up very quickly with energy and maintenance savings.

Now here is where it gets fun…We metered our office and determined that just the lighting portion of our energy bill is $180.00 per month, so  so we did a comparison analysis for our office to replace all incandescent, halogen and fluorescent light sources with LED.  Using existing halogen and fluorescent light sources re-lamping costs will be about $750.00. Re-lamping with LEDs, and the cost shot up to $2,300.00…”gasp” right?  Ok, get up off the floor and stay with me…

We discovered that just in energy savings our ROI (return on investment) would be within 13 months ($180. x 13= $2,340).  After that I would have a net savings of $180.00 a month or $2,160 a year ($180. x 12 =$2,160) and factoring savings from lamp costs (750.00 X 4 over ten years $3000.00), maintenance labor (500 x 4=$2000.) and cooling savings (?).  Over 10 years we will have saved approx. $26,000.00 in today’s dollars.

I’ve tested this model using three different energy calculators and the outcome has been within 10%.  With all this in mind, are LEDS more expensive? There are those who will continue to argue yes, but in my mind its pretty clear; for new construction the economics make sense now and will make better sense sooner than later.  For the retrofit market there is still a little ways to go before the consumer understands the value.

In conclusion, We need to make decisions based on knowledge and not accept current myths without digging deeper. LEDs are not a perfect light source and not suitable for every lighting application but as we struggle with green house gases, lowering our carbon foot print, dark sky concerns and increasing energy costs.  I think SSL is an excellent technology that continues getting better on an almost quarterly basis better.

AZ

Posted in Techlinea | 14 comments

LED myth #4

by Alfredo on January 2, 2011

LEDS Not Title 24 Compliant:
As of 2010, SSL can be used and specified in Title 24 and LEED projects as long as they meet the minimum lumen output as specified by the Title 24 standards:

15W             < 40 lumens/watt
15–40W      < 50 lumens/watt
40W            < 60 lumens/watt

 And, the fixtures must be certified by the California Energy Commission to prove that the product is designed to maximize the efficiency of the SSL technology and Meet LM 79, LM80 IESNA Standards.

LEDs undergo a process called binning, it used to be done by hand but now it has  gotten more automated.  The process of binning starts at the plant. LEDs are created on a wafer that is coated with various materials to create the semi-conductor which forms the heart of the blue LED. It is then sliced into extremely small rectangles (die). Conductors are inserted and the phosphor is added within the enclosure. The assembly is then enclosed to create a finished white light LED package.

Manufacturers sort the LEDs by lumen, color and sometimes voltage and LEDS are categorized  into bins. This allows lighting manufacturers to select only those LEDs that meet performance ranges that meet their criteria. LEDs are binned to meet the following criteria: Lumens, Chromaticity, Forward voltage, and Efficacy.

Once these parameters are met the LED chips and die sets are sold to lighting manufacturers who install them in their fixtures. In order to be sold as energy compliant or 24 Title compliant lighting they must meet further criteria as a complete luminaire. This criteria requires that the fixture be tested as a complete assembly that includes:

  • Housing
  • Driver
  • Transformer
  • LED engine
  • Heat Sync
  • Optics
  • Trim

Once  tested as a complete assembly the CEC (California energy Commission) certifies them as a compliant product. Not all SSL manufactures have submitted their products to meet this certification yet, but if they want to sell Title 24 Compliant fixtures in California they will eventually.

Even though LEDs are extremely energy efficient, the warmer LEDS 3000k – 2800K don’t all meet the LPW ratio that Title 24 requires, so they’re not compliant. As lighting consultants we must do our due diligence to ensure that the product that we specify meets these standards. Additionally the Department of Energy uses criteria set forth by IESNA called LM79; LM80

 LM79 Covers measurements of:

• Total luminous flux (lumen)
• Luminous efficacy (lm/W)
• Chromaticity, CCT, CRI
• Luminous intensity distributions

LM80- Tests color and lumen maintenance, in particular that LEDs will still produce 70 % of their lumen output after 35k hours of use.

If LEDs meet these criteria the lighting manufacturer must include specifications that include CCT and CRI technical data with their product.  Once all these parameters are met SSL fixtures can be used and be considered Title 24 Complaint.

Additionally if you want to get Energy Star Certification, SSL must also produce a minimum of 75 CRI and be designed to be used with automatic shut off systems such as timers or automated lighting controllers.

Posted in Lighting, Techlinea | 11 comments

Dimming LEDS

by Alfredo on January 1, 2011

Note: there are 120v type LEDs but they are currently not very efficient because LEDS don’t light when AC reverses direction, so they go on and off as the current alternates direction so some users may perceive strobe effect.  There are solutions for this:

1 – They add a bridge rectifier to the array of LEDs to simulate D/C, but this does not help maintain the constant current so they vulnerable to voltage fluctuations, as I mentioned LEDs are extremely sensitive to fluctuations in current and voltage: too high they burn out “fast”, too low and they simply they go out.

2- They assemble the array of LEDs in opposite directions so that no matter what direction the cycle of current is flowing there will be an array of LEDs getting power.
This is inefficient because you’re using twice the amount of LEDs to get the same level of light and they’re still subject to voltage fluctuation.

LED manufacturers are diligently working on developing quality 120v LEDs  because it will make it easier and more cost effective to retrofit them in existing light fixtures thus achieve mass acceptance.

Back to the topic of dimming,; the point of all the preliminary info was to get to the meat of the matter.  LEDs are dimmable and there are lots of different dimming types on the market.

If you use a low voltage magnetic transformer for your system you should make sure that your dimmer is an MLV type ( magnetic low Voltage) dimmer, If you’re using an electronic transformer then use ELV ( Electronic low voltage) dimmer. For off the shelf mass production 120V LEDs like strip lights or rope light you can use an inexpensive incandescent type dimmer.

Why use PWM dimming?

  • LED specification sheets provide info about the LED characteristic, such as color and energy efficiency (in lumens per watt). These characteristics vary based on the forward current. For example, the color temperature may be 3000K at 700mA of current, but only 2700K at 350mA. A PWM driver will only run the LEDs at the rated current level or zero, this prevent these characteristics from changing as the load is dimmed.  This means that the same color temperature is maintained throughout the dimming range.
  • PWM based drivers also provide a very precise output level, since the LEDs are always on at the same current intensity.
  • PWM is considered a superior method of dimming because strings of LED bulbs can all be driven with the recommended forward current, the dimming achieved by turning the LEDs on and off at high frequency – so fast the human eye cannot see the strobing effect. The longer the on periods are relative to the off periods, the brighter the LEDs will appear to the observer and they can achieve 0-100% dimming.

The major dimming manufacturers make all of these type of dimmers for mass distribution wall box dimmers, Lutron and Leviton come to mind. But there are many others out there. You can dim LEDs with more sophisticated dimming systems like
multi room controllers, digital control systems, wireless RF based ( Mesh) and microprocessor based systems like Lutron Homeworks, Crestron, Vantage Controls, Litetouch, Lightolier and others.

One thing we’ve noticed in our design and specifications is that since the load is so low some dimmers have trouble controlling them, most dimmers like to see at least a 25W load, so we sometimes add a resistor or come up with creative electrical solutions to make sure our dimmers see at least 25w.

Think about it, why would anyone want non- dim LEDs in a residential application? I can understand Non Dim LEDs for stop signs, some commercial and industrial applications, but other than that, to me Non-Dim LEDs would be like going back to fluorescent lighting, so this Myth is definitely toast!

AZ

Posted in Lighting | 17 comments

LED Myth #3

by Alfredo on January 1, 2011

LEDs Don’t Dim:

Before I talk about the third myth you need to know a bit about how LEDs work.
LEDs don’t operate like incandescent or fluorescent lighting in that they don’t use a filament or an arc excited by gases sealed in a vacuum tube.  Leds emit light via the process known as electro luminescence.  Photons (light particles) are released when electrons pass through layers of +/- charged layers semi of conductor materials.

LEDs operate best with 12/24v DC (direct current) like that of a battery  vs. AC  (alternating current) like we have in our homes. They also operate at a lower voltage 12/24,  as such they require a transformer to reduce the voltage from 120V household current down to 12/24 volts. Once the voltage is reduced it needs to be regulated, this requires a driver. The drivers job is to maintain the power at a constant maintained current. If the current gets to high the LED heats up and dies premature, if it drops too low the LED stops simply stops working.

So when we talk about  dimmers we’re really concerned with matching the dimmer to the correct driver because LEDs have a non-linear relationship between power and light output, which means that at lower power levels LEDs actually provide more lumens per watt.  Actually,  leds dim, but not all drivers dim. So again it’s the responsibility of the system or lighting designer to ensure the drivers are dimmable and correctly matched with the dimmers to work with either MLV-Magnetic Low Voltage, ELV- Electronic Low Voltage or PWM pulse width Modulation.

Forward Phase Dimming:



Commonly known as “Triac Dimming or  phase control dimming, Forward Phase dimming control is the most common form of dimming. It uses a silicon device, usually a Triac, to turn
the main waveform on part way through its forward cycle.

By varying the point at which the waveform turns on, the amount of power delivered to the lamp is altered thereby dimming the light source. The advantages to forward phase dimming is that it’s cheap, reliable, and well proven having basically works best with incandescent light sources.. The disadvantages of forward phase dimming include audible noise, electrical noise (harmonics) and inefficiency.

Reverse Phase Dimming

Reverse phase dimming takes the opposite approach to forward phase dimming and switches the sinewave off part way through the cycle. Some architectural loads perform better this way, such as some magnetic, electronic low voltage and low voltage fluorescent ballasts. It is very important when dimming a non-tungsten load to determine whether forward or reverse phase dimming is appropriate. Usually this information will be listed in the manufacturers datasheet.

Digital Dimming or PWM:

Digital dimming switches the LED on and off at a frequency higher than human eyes are can detect, the time that the light is on is called the duty cycle. This modulation scheme maintains the average duty cycle or signal density in a specified time period can be used to dim LEDs most efficiently. These modulation schemes are popularly known as Pulse Width Modulation (PWM). PWM signals have a relative signal density that corresponds to the amplitude of the analog signals; in plain English this means that PWM dims smoothly similar to analog dimming from 100% to 0 %

Revers phase and PWM are the best ways to dimming 12/24 DC LEDS, Forward phase is typically used to dim the more inefficient 120V LEDs  The illustration below shows an example of 20,50, 80%  duty ccycle (dimming)

Color Temperature Control: LEDs can be controlled with a variety of interfaces and most interestingly open the option of color temperature control by the user when working with color changing system like DMX and Dali controls. With these LED controllers we can create amazing color schemes and effects that were simply impossible a few years ago like the New Years Ball…

HAPPY NEW YEAR

AZ

Posted in Lighting, Techlinea | 10 comments

Introduction

by Alfredo on December 31, 2010

Alfredo

 

To all who have commented on my site, the design,  navigation, and quality of the info in the blogs,  thank you very much for the positive input.   We worked hard to create it and look forward to communicating with you all on a routine basis.  To all you spammers; sigh… Really?

Some of you have recommended that I create a forum or ask why I’m not more higlhy SEO rated on search engines, well… the truth is I’m an expert at lighting and home integration technology but a total neophyte at web stuff so I’m just learning the steps to creating a presence online, but I”m working on it. Any adivce will be greatly appreciated and put to use.

A little about me, I guess I should  have opened my blog with this, but honestly,  I didnt expect anyone to find me for awhile.  Frankly, I thought it would only be read by people I personally directed here like friends or potential clients.  I’m blown away by the amount  traffic and comments I’ve gotten so far.

‘My name is Alfredo, I am a professional lighting consultant,  residential technology specialist  and a proffesional speaker/lecturer on the topics of lighting design and smart home technology including: Electrical Systems, Audio Video systems, Home Theaters, Security- Surveillance, Systems Integration,Telecom-Data and Energy Management.  I’ve been in the electrical, lighting consulting and smart home design industry for 30 years.

My goal here is to help educate my peers and friends on the  the wonderful tools we have at our disposal to enhance our lifestyle while treading lightly on the planet.   I’ll gladly answer any questions or write about any topic than I can speak to intelligently in the areas of my expertise.

Please note, I”m not an expert writer so you will find typos from time time, a dangling participle or two, and I have a sticky space bar key than will occasionally cause runonwords.  I also have a quirky (dark- pointed) sense of humor that you will soon discover.  I can be found on Linkedin, Facebook, and you can always write me here.

In closing,  I hope you all have a terrifc and safe New Year Celebration tonight,  and I wish you all a healthy love filled,  prosperous 2011.

AZ

Posted in Techlinea | 32 comments

LED lighting Myths Part 2

by Alfredo on December 31, 2010

MYTH #2 LEDS aren’t bright enough:

Since perceived brightness relies on a combination of time, contrast, and focus or direction of light, the use of reflectors, optics and glare control are very important in the engineering and manufacturing of any light fixture, but this is particularly important for SSL due to the unique LED chip design.

Brightness is the bi-product of lumens (light output) from watts (energy consumed).  I predict that very soon we will be seeing 100-150 lumen per watt LEDS at Home Depot.  Imagine that, 100-150 lumens per Watt.  Why is that important?  Well, the generic household light bulb only produces about 17 lumens per watt (LPW), and the most energy efficient 29W compact fluorescent produce about 75 LPW, while a 14W Led can produce 71 LPW so consider this, if you have (10) 50W light bulbs producing 17 LPW you are using 500W to produce 8,500 lumens, but if you use (10) 14W LEDs that produce 71 LPW, you would consume 140W to produce 9,940 lumens. In other words you’re using a about a 1/4 of the energy and get 10% more light.  Now imagine this formula using 1w LEDS producing 100 LPW, or better, 150 lumens per watt.  

Although not a perfect light source SSL Technology has reached the point where it is viable for many architectural lighting applications including: accent lighting, ambient lighting and task lighting. Many high quality recessed down lights are producing between 1000-1200 lumens using only 18w of power.  Due to their low heat output SSL are great for under-cabinet and in-cabinet lighting applications. They are also excellent for indirect and cove lighting. Many lamp manufacturers are producing LED light sources to replace the A lamp, Festoon lamps, decorative lamps and Par lamps.

Posted in Lighting | 12 comments

The five Myths of LED Lighting Part 1

by Alfredo on December 30, 2010

LED lighting is making huge inroads into the architectural lighting world but as with anything new we’re  hearing a lot the negative info about solid state lighting.  Before I proceed, let me make this clear; I totally understand that Solid State Lighting (SSL) is not a perfect light source and it’s not the solution for every lighting situation, but neither are incandescent or fluorescent lighting.  

That being said, SSL is getting better and better where as incandescent and halogen appear to have reached their limitations in terms of lumen output and energy efficiency.  For those reasons I believe that SSL will ultimately be the light source of the future.  Too many lamp manufacturers have committed to them and most major lighting manufacturers are retooling to support this light source, so unless something unforeseen comes flying in out of left field, SSL is destined to be the light source for the immediate future.

Over the next few days I will updating my blog with the newest info about this exciting new technology and
hopefully debunk the 5 most common myths about Solid State lighting, but first let me explain the three basic  criteria we use to define artificial quality of light.

 CCT- correlating color temperature is the index that we use to determine how warm or cold a light source is perceived.  For example candle light (1700 Kelvin) is considered warm and romantic because it is very low on the CCT scale, whereas lighting on a cloudy winter day (6500 Kelvin) is considered cold. So, the lower the CCT the warmer the light, however this index has to be used in conjunction with the Color Rendering Index.

CRI- Color rendering index describes how a light source makes the color of an object appear to the human eye and how well subtle variations in color shades are revealed. The Color Rendering Index (CRI) is a scale from 0 to 100 percent indicating how accurate a light source is at rendering color when compared to a “reference” light source, Daylight for example is considered 100 CRI. Light sources with a CRI of 85 to 90 are considered good at color rendering. Light sources with a CRI of 90 or higher are excellent at color rendering.  Anything below 75 is considered low color rendering. Unfortunately in most cases the lower CRI the more efficient the light artificial light source. Low pressure sodium for example: Those horrid yellow/orange roadway lights. It’s almost impossible to discern color under that lighting but they are incredibly energy efficient.

An incandescent light source is considered a 100 CRI light source, for most conditions this is an excellent rating, however anyone who has ever tried to sort navy blue against black knows that incandescent light is not a good light source for this task, which can be done easily in day light or even “gasp”…under fluorescent lighting, so, we need to balance both these indexes to ensure the best quality of light for the given situation.

LPW- Lumens Per Watt- This defines how energy efficient a light source is.  LPW is determined by dividing the manufacturers stated lumens (light output) by the amount of energy (watts) it takes to produce those lumens.   The more lumens per watt the more efficient or energy efficient the light source,
sort of like miles per gallon.

For example a 100 watt general service lamp (light bulb) produces 17 lumens per watt.  A 26w compact fluorescent produces approx. 70 lumens per watt, this is why we consider fluorescent a more energy efficient light source than incandescent or halogen lighting.

MYTH #1

LEDS are too blue:   LEDs can be blue-ish IF one is not careful in choosing the color temperature.  Anything above 3500k does produce light that is bluer than we’re accustomed for residential light applications.  But if you stay below 3500k, you won’t have issues with bluish light.

 Initially LEDs were too blue because white LEDs are in fact blue diodes, and manufacturers hadn’t figured out the correct technique or combination of yellow phosphors to convert the light to white.  Also, from a production standpoint it’s more expensive to produce a 2800k LED (warm) than a 4200K (cool) LED so some ‘lamp manufacturers have chosen to stay in the 4200K range. Cooler lighting works well in an office space where you want people to be alert and efficient, but it’s not a good temperature for relaxation or a sense of comfort. 

As SSL is getting more acceptance in the architectural lighting industry manufacturers are producing better and better light sources and now produce truly crisp white light sources. The holy grail of SSL is to produce a true stable 28ook light that looks warm & natural, is title 24 compliant, and cost effective. The good news is that some manufacturers are very close to reaching that zenith. 

 As we adopt SSL lighting we need to rely on products that are made using high quality LED   chips and light engines.  We also need to specify only products that have undergone Department of Energy testing to meet standards called LM 79, LM80 , these tests ensure that the lighting is within the CCT, CRI, LPW and projected lamp life that the manufacturers claim. 

Lighting manufacturers are developing interesting new color mixing techniques to ensure the best light output from their lighting products. One initial complaint when introducing SSL lighting products is that instead of a light bulb some manufactures have introduced fixtures that show the light source as a small yellow square, this look is disconcerting to some. Other manufacturers cover the chip with a yellow phosphor lens and this looks like a yellow egg yolk on the ceiling.  Newer color mixing technology allows fixtures to redirect the color corrected light through a frosted lens that looks more like what we’re used to seeing when looking at a light source. 

 

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Posted in Lighting | 37 comments

LED: The Tiniest Giant

by Alfredo on December 29, 2010

 

If you’re remodeling or building a home, you know that California has some of the toughest energy codes in the nation, and getting tougher every couple of years.  From a lighting perspective that means that lighting must be highly energy efficient.

Luckily, we have a tiny new player in the world of lighting: Solid State Lighting (SSL) better known as LED lighting. SSL has taken the lighting industry by storm and will soon knock out inefficient contenders such as incandescent, halogen and many fluorescent lamps by providing warm, dimmable, long lasting energy efficient light.

SSL is the best lighting innovation to come along since the Edison lamp, in fact, there is nothing on the horizon that can compete with this light source for the next 20 years, and SSL is projected to get better and better in 6 month cycles.

Why? Because SSL produce light via an extremely energy efficient  process called electroluminescence thereby eliminating the need to heat a filament in a gas filled vacuum tube like incandescents, or exciting gases in an arc chamber as in florescent lighting, both of which are inefficient ways to produce light.  

Instead, SSL only have to move electrons over a tiny distance to produce light. The LED chip itself is extremely small and requires very little energy to produce huge amounts of light.  Currently, a 1 watt LED is only about 1/8” square and can produce over 150 lumens per watt (LPW) of usable light.  By contrast, a 100W incandescent lamp only produces approximately 17 LPW, and fluorescents generate between 50-100 LPW – energy efficient, but still not as efficient as SSL.

This light source which until recently was considered too blue and too expensive for residential applications, now easily produces excellent color temperatures rivaling the purest white light from halogen lamps, outclasses any fluorescent light source, and is falling closer and closer to an acceptable price point.

When considering the cost of SSL, one must accept a paradigm shift in how you calculate lighting costs and its associated value. Historically, lighting cost was determined purely by the cost of the fixtures, and lamps were considered a disposable commodity.  With SSL lighting there are more criteria to consider: fixture cost, energy consumption, lamp efficacy, demand on cooling systems and lamp life. These parameters were given only marginal considerations by homeowners in the past, but going forward they will be given a bigger consideration especially since lighting is one of the highest energy consumers in the home.

SSL is not a disposal commodity; you can expect to use a typical SSL source for over 15 years. That’s longer than most people keep a car, or most appliances, so this product should be given the same consideration that one gives to choosing big ticket items such as flooring, appliances and surfaces.

From a green perspective, SSL are considered very environmentally friendly; in fact, they are environmentally friendly from production, through usable life, to disposal.

Posted in Techlinea | 14 comments

Leed Gold Residential project

by Alfredo on November 29, 2010

We’re very please to be part of the team designing a LEED Gold home in Atherton. Even though there are no LEED requirements for residenctial projects “yet” ,  this client has decided to maximize energy efficiency and create a home with  minimal carbon Footprint.

For our part we’re designing the lighting system using:  all new fixtures will use either energy star rated lamps, LED lighting or retrofit GU-10 LED MR-16 connected to a lighting control system integrated with a photovoltaic system.  All decorative fixtures will be retrofitted with Energy Star fluorescent lamps or LED -SSL light enngines.

We continue to strive to be leaders in providing luxury lighting design that is energy efficient and responsible.

Posted in Techlinea | 20 comments

Welcome

by Alfredo on December 11, 2009

Techlinea’s Blog Coming Soon!

Posted in Techlinea | 8 comments