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Washington-based nonprofit wins five Cree LED lights in December photo contest

Posted by Ginny Skalski

Having your own office is pretty sweet. You get a door that you can close while you’re at work. An office provides a level of privacy many cubicle dwellers crave. So what if your cube was turned into your office? You’d probably be pretty happy, right? That’s what happened to Mark Wickman, who works for the nonprofit Opportunity Council in Washington.

Mark is the winner of the December Cree LED Lighting photo contest, winning five LED lights for his office. In Mark’s photo, he showed off his new office, which used to be two cubes, but they were torn out and converted into an office. The new construction meant he was “escaping dreary fluorescent ceiling tube fixtures” outside his office, but he really wanted some energy-efficient LED lights for his new digs.

Mark is the production manager for the weatherization department at the Opportunity Council, a nonprofit that helps homeless and low-income families learn to become self-sufficient. I asked him to describe the lighting in his office now and he wrote: “mostly ceiling fluorescent tubes – dreary – with a few CFLs which provide no better light quality.”

Mark says the only LED lighting he’s ever tried before was in Christmas lights, flashlights and his bike light. I can’t wait until Mark screws in his new Cree LED lights. He chose our LRP-38 lamps (see photo below), which have a color rendering index (CRI) of 92. The CRI characterizes light sources ability to render colors accurately and can be between 0 and 100. A higher CRI means that colors are more true and the light is perceived as more pleasant. The CRI of fluorescent tubes is often around 72. So Mark is in for a change!

A couple of other facts about Mark’s new LED lights … The Cree LRP-38 lamps are designed to last 50,000 hours. That means they could last 17 years if he keeps the lights on 8 hours a day, 7 days a week! And each LRP-38 uses 12 Watts of energy, but provides the equivalent light of a 50 to 90 Watt halogen bulb. So his new lights will also consume significantly less energy than traditional lighting!

Are you starting to get jealous of Mark? Don’t bother. Just snap a photo of bad lighting in your home or office and enter our January contest. We’ll be giving away five more energy-efficient Cree LED lights at the end of the month. You could win next!

One Response to “Washington-based nonprofit wins five Cree LED lights in December photo contest”

1. Tweets that mention Washington-based nonprofit wins five Cree LED lights in December photo contest « Cree LED Revolution Blog -- Topsy.com says:

   January 8, 2010 at 10:26 am

   [...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by GinnySkal, Cree Inc.. Cree Inc. said: Announcing Dec. contest winner: Washington-based nonprofit wins 5 Cree LED lights! See winning entry & how u can enter: http://idek.net/urf [...]