Cree LED Revolution Blog

Cree and LED lighting are starting a revolution

Posts Tagged ‘Habitat for Humanity’

Cree dedicates all LED-lit Habitat for Humanity House in Durham, NC

Monday, December 13th, 2010

It’s hard to believe that four months ago Cree employees were framing the world’s first all LED-lit Habitat for Humanity House.

A lot has happened since that August morning when Cree employees met at the home site in Durham, North Carolina to frame the house.  For starters, we broke a local record for fastest framing of a Durham Habitat home, completing the entire process in just a few hours.

Then we worked hard to build a three bedroom house for our family, the Rahlan-Ksors. The experience gave us the opportunity to learn new skills (if you need anyone to drill holes into the foundation of a home to anchor the frame, I’m your gal) and to help give a new family an energy-efficient home.

We gathered at the completed home on Saturday to celebrate with the family. As we set up for the dedication ceremony in their new driveway, Del Rahlan grabbed a broom and started sweeping away mulch that was kicked onto the sidewalk. I wouldn’t have even noticed the mulch if he hadn’t started sweeping. Then I realized how much pride Del truly had in his new home that he wanted every detail to be perfect for the ceremony.

As we stood in the family’s driveway with their church members and fellow Habitat volunteers, our CEO Chuck Swoboda announced that the LED lighting in the new home would save the family about $300 in electricity annually. It’s possible that Del and his wife won’t have to change a light bulb until their children graduate from college.

And while it was rewarding to help build this energy-efficient a home for Del and his family, we feel even better knowing that Cree’s commitment to Habitat for Humanity doesn’t end there. Nationwide, we’ve pledged to install two Cree CR6 LED downlights in the kitchens of every Habitat home constructed during the next three years. It’s a move that will help bring energy-efficient, long lasting lighting to new homeowners.

So as we celebrate the completion of the home for our Habitat family, I thought it would be fun to take a look back at the beginning. Here are some scenes from the ground breaking, way back on Aug. 7. Take a look at where we started and how it ended.

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The local newspaper highlighted the dedication ceremony as part of its 12 Days of Giving series. It was wonderful watching this house turn into a home.

JOIN US IN CELEBRATING (Twitter Contest)

This week we’re going to giveaway 2 Cree CR6 LED downlights to one lucky tweep in our Twitter contest. Simply join us in celebrating the completion of our all LED-lit Habitat house by tweeting us with the hashtag #CreeHabitat. We’ll randomly pick one winner to win the lights (which are the same lights we’re installing in Habitat homes throughout the country) at 4:30 p.m. EST Friday, Dec. 17. Not sure what to tweet, simply Retweet what we’ve posted here.

And, of course, our standard contest rules apply: Cree’s decisions are final and binding. The contest is limited to legal residents, 18 or older, of the 50 United States and District of Columbia.  Void where prohibited.  Void in Arizona, Florida, New York, and Rhode Island. Winners will be notified via Twitter and must claim prize within 30 days of email notification.

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Posted in LED Homes | 4 Comments »

Cree breaks ground on the world’s first LED-lit Habitat for Humanity home

Saturday, August 7th, 2010

Today we’re breaking ground on the world’s first Habitat for Humanity House lit entirely with LED lights. Cree employees are working with the Habitat for Humanity of Durham to build the home over the next three months. Cree is sponsoring the construction of the home, which will include our newest LED recessed light, the CR6™ downlight, as well as other LED products featuring Cree LEDs.

The LED lighting in this house is projected to save approximately $250 worth of electricity costs per year over traditional lighting. When it’s complete, this home will be a true example of the energy savings you can achieve when you ditch Edison’s ancient technology for energy-efficient LEDs.

The Durham home that we’re helping to build is part of Cree’s previously announced three-year, $1.5 million pledge to provide its high-efficiency LED downlights for all new Habitat homes built in the U.S. We hope to finish construction by October 2011.

This is the vacant site in Durham where Cree's Habitat for Humanity house will be built.

This is the vacant site in Durham where Cree's Habitat for Humanity house will be built.

We’re so excited to help build the first Habitat home lit solely with LED lights. The CR6 downlight will be one of the primary fixtures in the home. It’s a 10.5 Watt light that delivers warm light and is dimmable to 5 percent. It’s designed to last 50,000 hours, which means the family that moves into this home could leave the CR6 lights on for eight hours a day, seven days a week and the lights could last more than 17 years!

I’ll keep you posted on construction.

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Cree to provide LED lighting for kitchens in new Habitat for Humanity homes

Wednesday, May 26th, 2010

Cree LED lights will soon light up kitchens in thousands of homes built by Habitat for Humanity. Last week Cree announced its three-year, $1.5 million pledge to Habitat for Humanity International to provide our newest LED downlight for the kitchens in all new Habitat homes built in the United States.

Specifically we’ll be providing our CR6™ downlight, which is targeted to go to market this summer for about $60 each. This 10.5 Watt downlight is designed to last 50,000 hours, which means if homeowners use these lights four hours a day, they shouldn’t have to replace them for more than 30 years.

We’re very excited about this pledge because it can help reduce electricity costs for low-income homeowners. Habitat for Humanity already works to build homes that are more sustainable and efficient, and the addition of LED lights will help these homes save more energy.

In North Carolina, a Habitat homeowner should save almost $450 over five years by having the CR6 down lights installed instead of the currently-used halogens.* For a house in California, that jumps to nearly $600 in savings.*

A couple of weeks ago, I got to visit a Habitat home being built in Durham, NC. We delivered two of the CR6 downlights. My boss climbed up on a ladder to show the crew how to install the lights. All he did was take the trim off the existing fixture, unscrew the energy-wasting Halogen light and screwed in the CR6. Since I filmed him doing it, I was able to time him, and it took him 28 seconds! But you’ll have to take my word for it, because I’m not sure he’s ready to make his YouTube debut quite yet.

However, I also filmed the installation of the next CR6 by David Larkins, the construction director for Habitat for Humanity of Durham. I pulled him aside afterward to talk to him about the LED lights that were just installed. At the time he had no idea Cree was planning on putting these lights in kitchens at thousands of Habitat homes. Here’s what David had to say:

“We try to make a house that’s really easy to maintain, and energy efficiency is part of that,” he said. “A lot of the energy-efficiency improvements that we do just make a home that is smarter and simpler to maintain.”

Cree designed the CR6 specifically to make LED lighting more affordable for residential applications and we couldn’t think of a better residential application than inside homes for Habitat for Humanity.

*We came to this conclusion by using a North Carolina electricity rate of 9.42 cents per kWh and a California rate of 15.69 cents per kWh. We calculated four lights turned on 6 hours a day.

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