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Get il-LUMEN-ated with Lighting Facts: Knowing the Difference Between Lumens and Watts

Monday, October 17th, 2011

Cree is celebrating Energy Awareness Month with a series of blog posts about ways Cree and our products are helping save energy.

To help you become more energy aware, we’re going to drop some knowledge on you with what’s coming up in the wild and crazy world of lighting. As we’ve shared with you before here and here, beginning in 2012, you are going to start seeing new packaging and labeling on all household bulbs. The idea is that this information will help you save money by selecting the most efficient bulbs that fit all of your lighting needs.

Check this out…

Does that help? If not, maybe this breaks it down a little better…

light-bulb-chart2

Still confused? The National Association of Electrical Manufacturers (NEMA) also did an awesome job of explaining it in their The 5 Ls of Lighting – The Consumer’s Guide to Choosing Energy-Efficient Lighting.

Basically, forget everything you thought about when buying lighting products. Yup, everything. Erase it from your memory. You used to buy on watts, which measures the amount of energy required to illuminate lighting products. But with more energy-efficient lighting available, like Cree’s EcoSmart LED Downlight, you need to buy your lighting based on lumens, which measures the amount of light produced.

The more lumens, the brighter the light. For example:

  • 40-watt incandescent bulb = 450 lumens
  • 60-watt incandescent bulb = 800 lumens
  • 100-watt incandescent bulb = 1600 lumens

“Nutrition” Labels

Similar to the nutrition labels that you find on your food packaging, the new labels that will be coming in 2012 will have concise information about the bulb’s output and savings.

lighting facts label

Cree labels include:

  • Brightness (in lumens)
  • Estimated Yearly Energy Cost
  • Life-expectancy of the bulb
  • Light appearance and
  • Energy used

What Cree labels won’t include – Contains Mercury. That’s right, those other energy-efficient bulbs, you know the ones, the twisty-twirly CFLs contain mercury and will have to disclose that on their labels.

So now that you’ve been educated and you know how to shop, go out and get your Cree LED Lighting!

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Cree’s Silicon Carbide MOSFETs help improve efficiency of electronics

Thursday, October 13th, 2011

Cree is celebrating Energy Awareness Month with a series of blog posts about ways Cree and our products are helping save energy.

At Cree, we’re all about energy awareness and energy efficiency – from our LED components and fixtures to our power components. (Come on, haven’t you ever wondered how your iPod works? Or how electric vehicles drive with little to no gas?) That’s right, we take energy efficiency so seriously we even evaluate electrical processes – the micro level of electronics, if you will.

So what does this mean? It means our engineers continue to find ways to not only make LED lighting more energy-efficient, but also the power applications we rarely ever think about with products such as Silicon Carbide (SiC) Schottky diodes and MOSFETs.  No, a MOSFET isn’t a new type of spaces ship—it’s a metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistor.

Cree Energy Awareness Month

Cree has been a recognized leader in SiC power devices for more than 20 years. In fact, we announced earlier this year the industry’s first commercially available SiC MOSFET.  This is a revolutionary breakthrough in power electronics and paves the way for significant energy conservation.   Just imagine reducing the weight of an electrical vehicle or an airplane by 25 percent!  That reduction in weight might get you all the way to the North Pole (depending on your current location, of course) without having to recharge.   Like a hummingbird -this is accomplished by the much higher switching frequency possible with SiC technology.    

But for non-power geeks, let’s think of it this way.

You’re ready for your morning training run or gym session – but not without some rockin’ tunes. You turn your iPod on and your music starts playing through your headphones – let the workout commence.

ipug

Flickr photo by NOGG3R5

But let’s pause for a second. What really happened between that moment you pressed play and the music coming to your ears? No, it wasn’t magic (although we certainly like to think so!). Deep inside that iPod is a transistor that converts the data from the song into sound, creating those sweet tunes you’re enjoying. There’s also the loss of power during this process, that’s why you’ll need to charge your iPod after your workout.

Seems pretty simple, right? Cree’s SiC MOSFETs operate in a similar manner, but on a much more complex scale for use in industrial high-power applications. We’ll leave it the power engineers to take it from there.

As Cree continues to develop SiC MOSFET devices, who knows what big steps we’ll take next. One thing that is for sure, we will never stop in our quest to drive energy-efficiency.

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The Power to Do More: Cree Silicon Carbide-based Diodes Improve Efficiency of Power Systems

Wednesday, October 12th, 2011

Cree is celebrating Energy Awareness Month with a series of blog posts about ways Cree and our products are helping save energy.Today’s guest blog post is by Cree’s Chief Technology Officer, Power & RF, and Cree Co-founder, John Palmour, Ph.D.

As Energy Awareness Month rolls along and we continue to highlight energy-saving practices, it’s important to acknowledge the energy-wasting entities at work in the world around us.

That’s right – we’re talking about the little-considered systems that run modern life – from traffic control systems and cars to data centers and server farms.

As we go about our daily lives, these hogs are powering our trips to the grocery store, backing up our computer systems, running the Internet and demanding an extraordinarily high amount of energy.

Even though they are essential to keeping businesses and traffic moving (no pun intended!), we can put these energy-wasting electronics in their place with our semiconductor devices. I know…you don’t even think about server farms on a daily basis and now I’m going to take you deep inside one. But stick with me. One of the critical elements to any electronic device is the power system. After all, no juice, no processing. But power systems can actually be pretty inefficient—requiring more energy to produce less ouput. And what is the byproduct of inefficiency? Heat. And what can heat do? Kill electronics and run up A/C bills. Still with me?

Cree Energy Awareness Month

Simply put, using silicon carbide-based (SiC) diodes in power supplies and electric motors can make them more efficient and can simplify the design (and can make them cheaper). And these savings can pay dividends not just in less power consumption for the device, but less power needed to cool down a data center itself! Greater efficiencies mean fewer fossil fuels are consumed and that can reduce the amount of pollution in our environment.

In fact, we’ve done the math and SiC power devices have negated the need for eight coal-fired power plants worldwide already.  Wow! That means nearly 10 million tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) is not being dumped into the atmosphere every year because of our technology.

power plant

Flickr photo by roy.luck

If tons of CO2 are not your bag, then it is also the equivalent of taking about 1.7 million automobiles off of the world’s roads.

And this is just the beginning!

SiC diodes are only utilized in 3.3 percent of these energy-sucking applications. With Cree SiC diodes, we can revolutionize the smart grid, saving up to 8 percent of all electricity transmitted and enhancing electric plug-in and hybrid vehicles to further reduce greenhouse gases as well as our dependence on foreign oil.

When fully deployed, we anticipate not ever needing an additional 235 coal-fired power plants!

Needless to say, there’s much more to be done in the fight for energy efficiency and awareness, but we have the power to transform our current consumption. With innovative power products, we CAN do more to drive energy efficiency forward.

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Fist Pump! Rebate Gives New Jersey Residents Opportunity to Buy EcoSmart LED Downlight for $24.97

Friday, October 7th, 2011

Cree is celebrating Energy Awareness Month with a series of blog posts about ways Cree and our products are helping save energy.

We’re hitting you all month with Energy Awareness messaging – sharing a lot of information that is definitely worthy of a “fist pump.”

Take what is happening in New Jersey. Through New Jersey’s Clean Energy Program™ (NJCEP), established through New Jersey Board of Public Utilities’ Office of Clean Energy, New Jersey residents can visit any of the state’s 67 Home Depot stores and pick up some new LED lighting, specifically the EcoSmart 6” LED downlight for a mere $24.97.

NJ Clean Energy

As LED lighting savants, we aren’t surprised that you are on the cutting edge of “energy awareness.” But did you know that progressive states are too? In April 2006, the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities approved regulations expanding the State’s renewable portfolio standard, requiring utilities to generate 22.5 percent of their electricity from renewable sources by 2021. That’s pretty cool.

Cree Energy Awareness Month

For the 19th most populous state, where residential electricity consumption is the 8th highest in the country, driving down energy usage is critical. And fear not, New Jersey is equal to the challenge and leading the nation with energy awareness and energy conservation programs. You may also have heard that energy costs in the Northeast United States are some of the highest in the country—so the benefits of long-lasting LED lighting to consumers and businesses can put more cold hard cash in everyone’s pockets.

For those of you not in New Jersey, there are countless other savings opportunities. We already talked about a few of them earlier this week. So now it’s easier for many of us to jump on the band wagon and be the revolutionaries that our lighting environment so desperately needs.

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LIPA brings LED lighting rebates to Lucky Long Island residents

Thursday, October 6th, 2011

Cree is celebrating Energy Awareness Month with a series of blog posts about ways Cree and our products are helping save energy.

LIPA, the Long Island Power Authority, has been at the forefront of energy-efficiency for years. This forward-thinking, progressive utility, based in Uniondale, N.Y., has long promoted LED lighting technologies to customers and businesses in its service territory.  A non-profit municipal electric provider, LIPA provides electric service to more than 1.1.million customers in Nassau and Suffolk counties and the Rockaway Peninsula in Queens, and it is the third largest municipal electric utility in the nation in terms of customers served.

LIPA currently offers a wide variety of incentives on ENERGY STAR® and DesignLights Consortium (DLC) qualified LED replacement bulbs and fixtures, through its Efficiency Long Island Program. Efficiency Long Island is a 10-year, customer-funded energy efficiency program started in January 2009. The program offers a wide array of rebates and initiatives to its customers for energy efficient products and /or projects.

Cree Energy Awareness Month

After all, the only thing better than an LED lamp or fixture is a less expensive LED lamp or fixture! And, what’s good for customers (reduced energy usage and reduced costs) is good for LIPA (potentially preventing the need to build more power plants).

Through the Efficiency Long Island program, LIPA is aiming for a peak electrical demand reduction of more than 500 Megawatts by 2018. For non-power-plant experts, that is the equivalent of deferring or eliminating one large or two medium-sized power plants on Long Island.

According to LIPA, “The Efficiency Long Island program is the most cost-effective resource option currently available to our customers. It is estimated that implementation of Efficiency Long Island will reduce CO2 emissions by about 12 million metric tons compared to the CO2 emissions that would be produced from new power plants burning natural gas. This is equivalent to removing 2.5 million cars from Long Island roads.”

LIPA-logo-2

A number of big retailers, including The Home Depot and Costco, as well as smaller area stores participate in LIPA’s LED Lighting program, providing discounts on popular lights used in commercial applications, including downlights and directional lights, like PAR-38 bulbs. LIPA also has an online store where residential customers can easily purchase lighting from leading LED manufacturers. A LIPA resident can purchase Cree’s best-selling CR6 downlight at a discount of more than 50 percent off typical retail price. Talk about incentive to change!

So we at Cree tip our hat to LIPA. It’s great to have progressive utilities as LED Revolutionaries with us. Onward!

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Energy Awareness Month 2011: ComEd Offers Illinois Customers Major Rebates on Cree LED Lighting

Wednesday, October 5th, 2011

Cree is celebrating Energy Awareness Month with a series of blog posts about ways Cree and our products are helping save energy.

When you hear the phrase “LED Lighting,” what comes to mind? If you’re like many, you probably think, “expensive.” And that’s okay – just know we’re doing everything we can to change that.

But some utility providers are offering rebates that make Cree LED lighting even easier on the pocketbook.

Commonwealth Edison Company (ComEd), which serves more than 3.8 million customers across northern Illinois, or a whopping 70 percent of the state’s population, recently introduced major rebates on a host of Cree LED lighting products in an effort to help businesses and customers benefit from reduced energy costs.

Cree Energy Awareness Month

ComEd is offering rebates on Cree’s ENERGY STAR-qualified LR6 and CR6 six-inch LED downlights and the LBR-30 and LRP-38 directional spotlights. These rebates are part of the Smart Ideas for Your Business® Program, developed to help bring cost-effective energy-efficiency improvements to commercial and industrial customers. Each of these Cree LED lighting fixtures are designed to last 50,000 hours, and provide the high-quality light needed for conference rooms, office spaces and other common areas, while delivering higher efficacy than incandescent or compact fluorescent (CFL) lighting options.

Commercial and industrial customers can now receive a $15 rebate on Cree’s downlights and a $10 rebate on Cree LED spotlights! Considering the long-term, low-maintenance qualities of these LED lighting products, ComEd is offering its customers one heck of a deal!

Meanwhile, lighting-savvy homeowners can also save on high-quality LED lighting. If you truck on down to your local Home Depot store in ComEd territory, you’ll find the EcoSmart 6” LED downlight marked down to $29.97—thanks to ComEd’s incentive program.

So with more than just a golf clap, we applaud ComEd for its outstanding leadership in LED lighting rebates and hope it encourages more utilities to join the LED lighting revolution!

Want to find out more about utility rebates in your area? We have more information here.

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Energy Awareness Month 2011: Utility Companies Offer Rebates for Cree LED Lighting

Tuesday, October 4th, 2011

Cree is celebrating Energy Awareness Month with a series of blog posts about ways Cree and our products are helping save energy.

You can’t really blame utility companies for offering rebates that encourage customers to use mercury-filled fluorescent bulbs and tubes. That’s because back in the day, fluorescent lighting was pretty much the only option for energy-efficient lighting.

Thankfully, many of these same utility providers are staying hip to the now by expanding their rebates to LED lighting. This next generation of energy-efficient lighting products is winning support from utility providers that recognize LED lighting can offer improved light quality, longer life and better energy savings.

And many of those utility rebates are available for Cree LED lighting fixtures.

Rebates are now available for retrofit and new construction in utility territories across the United States. To see which utilities are offering rebates for indoor Cree LED lighting products, check out our rebates page.

Cree Energy Awareness Month

REBATE

Types of Utility Rebates

First a bit of Rebate 101. Utilities offer two types of rebates: Prescriptive and custom.

Prescriptive rebate programs provide a specific, predetermined dollar amount for each fixture replaced. These rebates offer extra savings potential since redesigns often reduce the number of fixtures needed.  Efficiency Vermont offers commercial customers prescriptive rebates of $30 to $40 off of Cree’s directional lamps, the LRP-38 and LRP-30, as well as $75 for the CR Troffer family. These incentives are Efficiency Vermont’s premium rebates and are only available to products that are qualified by either ENERGY STAR® or the DesignLights Consortium™. [Bonus – Cree’s fixtures are certified by both organizations!]

Custom rebates are based on the total energy savings for a specific project and are intended to provide rebates for approved fixtures not covered by a prescriptive program. The recently announced Cree CR Troffer Series is now part of custom programs from Maine to Florida. For example LIPA, NYSERDA and ConED (just to name a few), offer between $40 and $140 off per fixture when replacing T12 fluorescent tube lights, depending on watts saved and hours of operation.

Custom rebates can pay more than a prescriptive incentive especially in a 24/7 application when replacing incandescent fixtures. A ConED customer recently received $73 per fixture rebate under this program when replacing incandescent bulbs with Cree’s 4-inch downlight, the LR4.

Rebate Programs Develop Standards

Utilities in nearly every state offer some type of rebates on LED lighting, lowering the upfront cost of LED-based fixtures. These rebates are helping breakdown a key barrier for more widespread adoption of energy-efficient LED lighting in both commercial and residential settings. Additionally, rebates help promote quality fixtures, as each utility listed has developed stringent standards for the LED lighting products allowed in their respective programs.

We urge you to review the programs, listed by state, on the Cree rebate page. Check out your local utility and see what types of incentives they are offering to help businesses and homeowners make the switch to the most efficient type of lighting out there.

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