RANGE REVIEW: LIGHTING & ELECTRICAL E OF LIGHTING? present for retailers? Kiran Grewal sheds light on the prevalence of light-emitting diodes in the sector.
LED in gardening Freelance horticulturist and best- selling author, Nick Bailey gave a talk at Glee this year highlighting emerging trends and developments in the garden industry, and one of the key takeaways from this was the prevalence of LED lighting. Not only is the technology used inside of the home and outdoors as decorative lighting but it has taken off as a way to grow hydroponic plants indoors, Nick Bailey says: “There have been 10 times more LED lights sold this year than three years ago”, indicating this to be a trend in lighting that is set to escalate further. Smart Garden Products managing
director, Jonathan Stobart, agrees with Jegs Electrical and believes more attention needs to be paid to simpler branding and correcting misused terms when it comes to lighting, he says: “We ensure all products have clear messaging, and pay particular focus on trying to deliver a better-performing product to the customer in a way they can easily understand.
contribution to the EU’s efforts to develop a sustainable, low carbon, resource efficient and competitive economy.” A report from the United Nations on energy-efficient lighting says: “Electricity for lighting accounts for approximately 15% of global power consumption and 5% of greenhouse gas emissions. High- efficiency lighting technologies offer up to an 85% improvement in energy efficiency compared with conventional lighting technologies, while providing an equal or better quality of light.” “By 2030 these policy measures would reduce electricity demand for lighting to 2,160 terawatt’s (TWh) per year, saving up to 640 TWh of electricity,” according to the UN Environment model. “These slight savings are in step with such a large increase in lighting service is due to a widespread shift from conventional lighting technologies like incandescent, halogen and fluorescent lamps to lighting products based on light-emitting diodes.”
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“So, for example, as brightness is measured in lumens (and not watts, which was the standard term used for lightbulbs until recently, incorrectly…), we are educating customers by showing the lumen number (brightness) on every product along with one simple message: ‘The higher the number, the brighter the light’.
“This range of brighter lights is also separately branded Super Bright. The easy-to-understand message has resulted in a sharp increase in sales of brighter lights.” He concludes: “LED lights are becoming the norm, whether powered by solar, battery or mains. The efficiency of LEDs is increasing fast, whereby it is possible to generate more brightness from LEDs using less relative energy. Since LEDs have a very long lifespan, use a fraction of the energy of other traditional light sources and will become cheaper over time, the take up and diversification of further products using LEDs is inevitable.” Although solar lighting is a popular choice amongst garden owners, Mr Milliken thinks more information in utilising solar needs to be given to the consumer: “Solar works fairly well in gardens but people have not got the
concept of the fact that it has to be outside in the sun for part of the day. We had one by the door that people loved and would buy but they were putting them in porches and it’s not going to get any sun there.”
Is LED changing connectivity? LED has been crowned ‘the future of lighting’ by a number of people in the industry. However, in the future, it may even be used alongside traditional methods like wifi, as a high speed, bidirectional and fully networked wireless communication of data. This initiative is called Lifi, which comprises multiple lightbulbs that form a wireless network. Speaking at Lux Live, Pure Lifi director of marketing and communications Sarah Scace says: “Our vision is that every bit of light has two purposes: creating light and transmitting data. It is also more secure than wifi. I could draw a curtain around this exhibition stand and it would be secure. Light doesn’t travel through walls.
“It is safe and secure, each light has its own IP address and you can even introduce safety measures like ‘the kid’s lights will go off at 8pm’ and that means no connection either.
“Each light has its own bandwidth and own access point, so you’re not sharing data. It’s not like traditional wifi, where lots of devices are sharing the same thing. It is as secure as a wired connection, so any data you feel happy sending over a wired connection, you can send safely over lifi.
“If someone was to try and
access that information, they would have to hack both the light and the system and they would have to be standing right next to you while they do it, so you would see them. In 2020 we expect there to be something like 20 billion connected devices. ”For retailers, there’s the option to use lifi for location services. You can use the lights in store to track the movements of your customers. You can also adjust your ads based on that information.” The UN report for energy
efficiency in lighting concludes its LED section as follows: “LED’s offer unique characteristics that make them a compelling source of light. They are compact, have long life, resist breakage and vibration, offer their best performance in cold operating environments, are instant- on and some models are dimmable. “LED lamps and luminaires are rapidly expanding into general illumination applications all over the world. As LED technology improves in performance and becomes less expensive, this market expansion will accelerate, replacing traditional light sources with more efficient and better performing LED technology.” There is clearly an opportunity
for retailers to embrace the developments being made with LED technology, as evidence shows that demand for this type of lighting appears only to be growing. Just be sure to have enough clear information at point of purchase to support customers and back that up by asking the right questions to help them make an informed choice.
KEY QUESTIONS TO DETERMINE CUSTOMER NEEDS
24 NOVEMBER 2017 DIY WEEK 19
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