interiors Shedding light on innovation
Simon Shenton from lighting supplier Luceco describes how LED technology has permanently disrupted what was a stagnant market offering prescribed solutions for each sector, to provide the dominant solution for the future.
millennium, when I joined the lighting industry. Product ranges were a lot smaller, and different technology approaches divided the sector. Low level commercial lighting was dominated by fluorescent
T
technology, Cat 2 silver grill louvre was the only way to limit the glare on your computer screens, and retail lighting was CDM-T lamps. In the domestic sector, innovation never got past halogen and high level lighting for industrial applications or street lighting was High Intensity Discharge lamps in Son or Metal Halide. Back then, product development was relatively slow; moving
from T8 lamps to T5 was a big development but other than that innovation was few and far between.
A new leader
Although LEDs have been used as indicator lighting in a wide range of applications since the 1950s, it wasn’t until the process of making ‘white light’ was discovered in the 1990s that LED could offer a potential general lighting solution. It then wasn’t until circa 2005 when LEDs became efficient enough to consider using for general lighting. Now LED dominates the commercial, retail, domestic and
industrial sectors, and sales have seen a rapid rise in the last five years, so much so that by 2020 it is predicted that 90 per cent of all lighting sold will be LED. The technology has now settled down following its initial period of expansion, and consumer confidence is growing as prices fall. There are several compelling reasons to choose
LED. Product efficiency far exceeds any other technology. LEDs also offer instant light, which can be dimmed with a suitable driver, but also white, high quality light with low heat, no mercury and 50,000 hour lifetimes. Manufacturers are also offering five year warranties as standard.
The rapid growth of LED technology has also forced changes on the market, for the better. With LED’s weakness being its internal heat output, lighting manufacturers have been forced to advance their knowledge in the area of thermal management. Product development now includes thermal
he global lighting market has seen more innovation in the last 10 years than the previous 100. It is unrecognisable in 2016 compared with the turn of the
‘It wasn’t until the process of making ‘white light’ was discovered in the 1990s that LED could offer a potential general lighting solution’
71
Vodafone, Bracknell
simulations to ensure the LED junction temperature is kept at the right level. Luminaire designers are now finally designing products
to use LED technology to its best potential, rather than just retrofitting the technology into housings of historical fixtures. LED fixtures now use lenses to guide the directional light source, and diffusers to soften the glare. The overall footprint of luminaires is becoming smaller and thinner. Light output ratio can now almost be removed from
specifiers’ list of lighting concerns. Historically typical 5 ft twin luminaires all had the same lumen output because they designed around the lamp’s lumen rating; the light output ratio determined the amount of light emitted from the luminaire. With LED you cannot measure the source on its own accurately
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