I put together some clips from Vice President Biden’s trip to Cree last week. The video features some of his remarks, along with interviews from employees who got to meet with the vice president and comments from our CEO Chuck Swoboda:
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Archive for the ‘Videos’ Category
Video recap of Vice President Joe Biden’s visit to Cree
Monday, March 22nd, 2010California city once known as a getaway for Hollywood stars turns focus to sustainability
Tuesday, March 9th, 2010Most people who visit Indian Wells, California, are probably drawn in by the four world class resorts, the spas and the lush golf courses. The resort community in the southern California desert became a retreat for celebrities after Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz opened the Indian Wells Hotel in 1958. Since then, city officials have worked to make Indian Wells a premiere destination in the Coachella Valley.
These days, city officials are keen on sustainability, and energy-use reduction has become a key goal for the city. I had the “tough” job of visiting Indian Wells last month for an LED City® Council meeting, and while I was there I had the city’s management analyst Susan Weisbart give me a tour of some of the city’s LED lighting installations.
Indian Wells was the first California city to become an LED City. The LED City program helps municipalities speed up the adoption of energy-saving LED lights by connecting them with information they need to make informed decisions about installing LED lights.
One of the first LED lighting installations in Indian Wells involved swapping out incandescent lights that lit the outside of city hall and other municipal buildings with 12 Watt Cree LR6™ recessed lights. It’s a change that city officials say saves nearly $7,000 a year in energy costs. That’s not counting the maintenance savings of not having to replace burned out bulbs, since the LED lights they installed are designed to last 50,000 hours – or 17 years if they’re on 8 hours a day!
The city also has plans to replace the 50 Watt halogen lights illuminating the signature palm trees lining city streets with 11 Watt LED lights. Get this: The city estimates it can save $10,095 in energy costs per year once the project is complete!
Watch my LED tour and interview with Susan to see what Indian Wells is doing to save energy and money:
How an engineer’s 21-minute YouTube video on LED Lighting and Thermal Design wiped a sour look off my face
Monday, January 11th, 2010If you told me a week ago that I would be thoroughly entertained by a 21-minute YouTube video featuring an engineer talking about thermal design, I would’ve shot you one of these looks:
But that was before I was introduced to David L. Jones’ vlog. The title caught my attention right away: “Solid-State LED Lighting, and How Thermal Design Sucks.” Please note, he doesn’t say Solid State LED Lighting sucks. 
Dave is an engineer who lives in Sydney, Australia. Armed with a video camera and a heck of a lot of enthusiasm, Dave decided to attach some Cree LEDs to a piece of aluminum to light up his new outdoor deck. For the record, Cree didn’t know he was doing this. I say this because even though he doesn’t like the act of calculating the junction temperature of each LED (hence his blog title … “How Thermal Design Sucks”), he ended up loving the results he achieved with our LEDs. And because he’s so enthusiastic and sincere, I actually sat through the entire 21-minute video and watched him fill up his whiteboard with calculations that are way over my head.
If you don’t have 21 minutes to spare, here are some highlights:
Watch the first four minutes for context. Tune in again at the 17:15 mark to hear his declarations about why his calculations are a waste of time. Then skip to 19:20 to hear him describe the difference between efficacy and efficiency (don’t be fooled by their similar spellings, there is a difference) and then stay tuned for the rest of the video to see what all his hard work went toward.
Dave tells video viewers not to bother writing in and telling him that his model was wrong. So I won’t go into whether his calculations make sense, but stay tuned to the 21 minute mark and you can see that regardless of whether his model was right or wrong, his homemade LED lighting system sure looks sharp.
North Carolina’s first green McDonald’s uses LED Lights (and cotton, bamboo, recycled glass and more)
Tuesday, January 5th, 2010Take a quick look at one McDonald’s in Cary, NC, and you might not guess that it’s different than every other McDonald’s in North Carolina. But step inside and you’ll see why this McDonald’s in the Saltbox Village shopping center is making history.
The restaurant is the first green McDonald’s in the state, on track to receive its LEED certification from the U.S. Green Building Council later this month. (Take a look at the 25+ year-old McDonald’s v. the new one. Approximately 99 percent of the debris generated by the demolition process was diverted from landfills by either being reused or recycled).
I recently visited the restaurant to chat with franchise owner Ric Richards about why he chose LED lights to light up 97 percent of the store. Turns out the LED lights in his store consume 78 percent less electricity compared to a standard lighting package at other McDonald’s restaurants.
The restaurant was designed to take advantage of natural light and uses a fully automated, intelligent lighting-control system that combines light from Cree LED lighting and daylighting from Solatube skylights. There’s even a photo sensor to maintain the proper light levels on work surfaces. So, if it’s rainy and overcast outside, the LED light levels are increased to compensate. And since the system is automated, it’s not up to an employee to notice the changing light levels and fool around with the switches. How cool is that?!
Of course, there are many other neat steps taken to use green technologies, and there’s even a touchscreen video kiosk at the front of the store that shows off some of technologies. Here’s a video featuring some of the neat building materials used in construction and my interview with Ric about the energy-efficient LED lights:
Stay tuned, we’ll be updating you soon on the official LEED certification of Ric’s franchise.
Tips for buying energy-efficient LED Christmas lights
Wednesday, November 25th, 2009It’s that time of year. When you work in the LED industry, come November your friends inevitably start talking to you about LED Christmas lights. (Look what one of my friends recently wrote on my facebook wall):
Cree does not make LED Christmas lights. We do make itty-bitty LED chips that could end up in Christmas lights. But we make billions of chips and high brightness LEDs. So it’s possible our chips are in some LED Christmas lights you buy at the store, but I can’t say for sure. But don’t let that stop you from energy savings.
LED Christmas lights are more energy efficient than their incandescent counter parts. A recent review of LED holiday lights by Consumer Reports found that the LED lights they tested used between 1 to 3 kWh of energy versus 12 to 105 kWh of energy for incandescent lights. The LED versions tested were also more durable, longer lasting and they didn’t get as hot, according to Consumer Reports.
Keep this in mind when shopping for LED Christmas lights:
- Try out the LED displays: Some stores will have a display area showing off the lights. Take a moment to look for the display and get a feel for the colors/brightness the lights will put out.
- Pay attention to color temperature, particularly if you’re buying white holiday lights. Look for a label on white LED holiday lights that declares what shade of white they are. Anything that’s marked plain ‘white’ is probably going to have more of a bluish hue compared to warm lights, which should have more of a candlelight appearance. And when you’re buying multiple strings, make sure they all match!
- Find out if any stores near you are offering trade-ins on your old incandescent lights. You might be able to save a few dollars when you upgrade.
Here’s the full video that Consumer Reports put together on LED holiday lights:
Take a look at this article on the Licken County Courthouse in downtown Newark, Ohio, which is switching to LED holiday lights this year. Officials told the Newark Advocate that before they switched to LED holiday lights, it used to cost $10 an hour to light the courthouse, ringing up a $4,000 bill during the holiday season. They expect to see an energy savings of 75 percent or more this year.
And if you’re not ready to replace your incandescent strands yet, you can always try something smaller like an LED votive candle. Happy decorating.
How LED lights made my “solar-powered lucky owl” come to life
Monday, November 23rd, 2009When I was visiting San Francisco last year, I took the ferry to Sausalito to explore for the afternoon. I came across an eclectic gift shop and bought a “solar-powered lucky owl” to remind me of the trip. The light, hitting a small solar panel, was supposed to make the owl hypnotically shake its head from side to side.
But when I got back to North Carolina and took my “lucky owl” out of the package, I found out mine was broken (or so I thought). I set it on a windowsill in direct sunlight and the owl didn’t give a hoot. He remained perfectly still. I put him on my refrigerator, only a few feet from the fluorescent bulbs that lit up my former apartment, and he still didn’t shake his head.
I packed the owl away when I moved out of my apartment (he was too cute to get rid of, even if he didn’t work). Then, a few weeks ago, when I was looking for some decorations to spruce up my cube, I came across the owl. I took him to work and before I knew it, the frozen owl was shaking his head from side-to-side!
Could it be that my owl prefers bright and beautiful LED lighting to the fluorescent lights in my old kitchen or the sunlight the beamed down on him from the window? Watch how active he is now:
I’m not sure what the deal is. All I know is that my owl hasn’t stopped shaking his head since he moved into my LED-lit cube. And that makes me happy.
Here’s what the servers at Denny’s in Colorado Springs think about the LED lights
Monday, November 9th, 2009In my hometown, Denny’s is one of the only places open after 10 p.m. So when I was in high school, the 24-hour restaurant became a late-night home base for me and my teen-aged friends. At the time, it never occurred to me how much energy my hometown Denny’s must be using to keep the lights on 24-hours a day. At 16, I had more pressing issues to worry about (gas money, prom, etc.).
Nowadays, I think about energy consumption a lot. And restaurants that stay open 24-hours-a-day are using a lot of it. Pete LeBarre knows this. Pete recently bought five Denny’s restaurants in the Colorado Springs, Colorado area.
One of the first things Pete did was install LED lights in the dining rooms. Specifically, he installed approximately 400 Cree LR6 six-inch LED downlights (which are the same lights we’re giving away on our LED Revolution site, click here to enter). Those lights are saving Pete about $15,500 a year in energy costs, he said. More about the lighting he had installed and the energy savings here.
And, as a bonus, servers and customers say the new LED lighting is better to look at. A Cree employee visited one of the restaurants after the installation. We asked him to take a flip cam and get some reactions from the staff. I love this video (which I edited together) because it really shows how you don’t have to be a lighting geek to appreciate LED lighting. Here’s what some Denny’s servers told us about the lights:
