It’s hard to be inspired under bad lighting. Seriously, if you’ve ever worked in a place with dim, greenish or too bright lights, you probably know what I’m talking about.
But each month Cree tries to change that for one lucky person by giving away some of our beautiful LED lights in our monthly photo contest. The November winner is Dave Lynch, a Sacramento, Calif. business owner who has been putting with fluorescent lighting for over a decade.
He sent us this photo, where you can see one of his fluorescent tubes burned out above his head and wrote: “I’ve got these horrid fluorescent lights overhead, been here 13 years, and they’re making me old! What can I do??? Help!!!!”
Anyone who uses four exclamation points is probably at their wit’s end. Dave’s entry earned him five Cree LED lights. He chose our LRP-38 lamps. His new LED lights won’t reverse the aging he says his horrid fluorescent lights caused (sorry, Dave), but they will help him save energy while also making the colors in his store pop.
I e-mailed Dave to tell him he won and included some links about our lights. He quickly wrote me back, using even more exclamation points! Looks like he did his research (and has a future in marketing if he gets bored with his guitar shop), because here’s what he wrote me:
“The lamps, the LRP-38’s would give us a huge head start in creating the basis for a beautiful energy efficient and attractively lit shop lighting system worthy of the 21st century.”
I can’t argue with that. In fact, consider this:
- The Cree LRP-38 lamps he won are designed to last 50,000 hours, which means they could last 17 years if he keeps the lights on 8 hours a day, 7 days a week! Can you imagine not changing a light bulb for 17 years?
- 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!
- His new lights will provide beautiful, warm light and make the colors in the merchandise pop. Here’s why (be patient, I’m going to get a little geeky on you, but this is truly interesting and information you can later wow your friends with):
The ability to make colors look true – that is to have a tomato look like a tomato – is called color rendering. The color rendering index (CRI) characterizes light sources in view of their ability to produce “natural light” and can be between 0 and 100. A higher CRI means that colors are rendered more naturally and the light is perceived as more pleasant. The CRI of fluorescent tubes is often around 72, but the Cree LED light that Dave is receiving has a CRI of 92! His guitars can look stellar under his new true light.
After he found out he won, Dave e-mailed me some additional photos showing the icky lighting in his shop. Take a look:
I have to say it’s pretty exciting to give away LED lighting to someone who is so enthusiastic about it. You have a chance to win each month. Just submit a photo showing off bad lighting in your home or office.
