Scientists Turn Carbon Dioxide into Alcohol with a Single Spark

Source: Scientists Turn Carbon Dioxide into Alcohol with a Single Spark

Schneider Electric’s Energy Efficiency Claims

Jean-Pascal Tricoire, CEO & Chairman of Schneider Electric shared today how “megatrends” will drive a rise in energy demand. By 2050, there will be 2.5B people living in cities; industrialization will increase energy demand by 50% – while halving carbon emissions. This all translates to the need for innovations that can increase power efficiency by a factor of at least 3.

Read more the full story at: Manila Bulletin

With layoffs at Leeo and Wink for sale, is the smart home crumbling?

Lamp system helped keep Shields-Watkins Field in shape

The field lamp system Tennessee rented from a company in The Netherlands to maintain the grass on Shields-Watkins Field at Neyland Stadium for the 2014 football season cost the athletic department approximately $19,500 according to documents obtained through a public records request.

Athletic department spokesman Jimmy Stanton said the lights were used to extend the grass growing season and that it was much cheaper to rent them than to resod the field. The field quality waned somewhat at mid-season after a mild summer in the region, but the lamps helped maintain the field through the end of November.

Read the full story: Knoxville News Sentinal

Flagstaff Council Rejects Lighting Comittee

Several Flagstaff City councilmembers pulled the plug on a request from Mayor Jerry Nabours to put the idea of an ad hoc lighting committee on a future Flagstaff City Council agenda.

The item was a discussion topic Tuesday night, so Council did not take a formal vote on the issue. However, Nabours failed to get the support of at least three other councilmembers to put it on a future agenda.

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Craig DiLouie’s Interview with Hubbell Lighting’s Chris Bailey

I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Chris Bailey, LC, LEED AP BD+C, DDI, MIES, Director, Lighting Solutions Center, Hubbell Lighting, for an article I’m writing for TED Magazine about how solid-state lighting is impacting luminaire design. I’m happy to share it with you here.

DiLouie: How would you characterize demand for LED luminaires in indoor commercial building applications in the new construction market? What is current market share in the new commercial building construction market for indoor LED luminaires?

Bailey: The demand for LED luminaires for commercial building applications is very high in general. While our company does not disclose analytics for individual market segments (new construction vs. relight/retrofit), Hubbell Lighting’s overall adoption of LED luminaires is quickly approaching 50%. While this tremendous shift is somewhat influenced by the moderate recovery in the new construction market, in general the installed base of legacy technology in the market will remain the most significant market opportunity in the near future.

DiLouie: What are the most popular applications for LED luminaires in indoor applications?

Bailey: With typical energy savings of 30-40% in most applications, LEDs are quickly becoming the light source of choice for most interior applications. However, interior recessed lighting is a clear winner, followed by industrial and linear ambient luminaires. Going forward, as more contemporary energy codes are implemented around the country, the emphasis towards integrated lighting control solutions is increased. This results in a greater level of LED adoption stemming from the significant costs associated with legacy dimming ballasts. Whereas in many cases adding a dimming ballast can nearly double the selling price of a compact or linear fluorescent luminaire, most LED luminaires come standard with 0-10V dimming drivers. Some of which are capable of dimming below 1%. Another aspect at play is that for recessed down lighting applications, delivering greater than 6500-7000 lumens from a reasonable sized aperture can be challenging. This necessitated the use of medium to high wattage HID or high wattage halogen lamp sources in higher mounting height applications. Considering the maintenance and energy savings available for either scenario, the recessed lighting market has been quick to leverage LED technology.

Read the full article: Light Now Blog

Containing Ebola with Blue LED Devices

By late January, 1.4 million people in Liberia and Sierra Leone could be infected with the Ebola virus. That’s the worst-case scenario of the Ebola epidemic in West Africa recently offered by scientists at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC warns that  those countries could now have 21,000 cases of the virus, which kills 70 percent of people infected.

One of the big problems hindering containment of Ebola is the cost and difficulty of diagnosing the disease when a patient is first seen. Conventional fluorescent label-based virus detection methods require expensive lab equipment, significant sample preparation, transport and processing times, and extensive training to use. One potential solution may come from researchers at the College of Engineering and the School of Medicine, who have spent the past five years advancing a rapid, label-free, chip-scale photonic device that can provide affordable, simple, and accurate on-site detection. The device could be used to diagnose Ebola and other hemorrhagic fever diseases in resource-limited countries.

Read the full story: LEDInside.com

Can white PV panels do the same as blue LEDs?

Developing and commercialising the blue LED led to the ongoing revolution in the lighting industry, something research facility CSEM wants to emulate with the development of a completely white solar panel.

Presenting at the 9th ENERGY FORUM conference on the building skins of the future (‘advanced building skins’), researcher Jordi Escarre Palou and his team from the Swiss Center for Electronics and Microtechnology (CSEM) showcased an all-white solar module with claimed efficiencies of over 10%.

Escarre Palou said in a statement: “We achieve the highest efficiency level through a combination of crystalline high-performance solar cells with a film treated using nanotechnology, which only filters a particular wavelength of light through to the cell and reflects the visible spectrum as a diffuse illumination.”

Read the full story: PV Tech

How the smart home will evolve

The question on my mind with regards to the smart home these days is the following: Will software be abstracted from hardware? Or put another way, will hardware descriptions and communications protocols move to the software layer?

It’s a question that was debated at last week’s Structure Connect conference and one that has important implications for how quickly the smart home sees mainstream adoption.

Read the full story: Gigaom

Voices of the Arts: Lighting effects key to bringing story to stage

Everything these days is going wireless, even in the theater.

From lighting to sound and special effects, what you see is often a choreographed dance of traditional theater standards assisted by new wireless technology.
When I was initially asked to write an article about “production technology,” I immediately had a flashback to the first time Disney’s “The Lion King” visited Appleton. Bill, our contact with Disney’s lighting department, explained to us, “Lighting is an integral part of the show. You can do without sound.” Sound enhances, it makes it better, more real. To Bill, however, lighting was everything.

Now I won’t make any friends with the sound guys, but I have come to agree with the philosophy. Lighting creates mood, temperature, setting, depth and angles. Alfred Hitchcock proved in “The Birds” that a musical score was not necessary. Who likes to sit in front of a fireplace and cuddle with every light in the living room on? (Barry White playing on the stereo does seem to improve the mood!)

Read the full story: The Post-Cresent