NOTES FROM THE KICHLER WEBINAR FOR NKBA/JULY 2009
QUICK HISTORY OF ENERGY EFFICIENCY:
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Our past helps us understand how we got here and where we are going.
1979 oil crisis: the law of supply and demand was telling us something
The energy crisis: “The energy crisis is real. It is worldwide. It is a clean and present danger to our nation.
These are facts and we simple must face them.” President Jimmy Carter, 1979
RISING COST OF ENERGY:
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Gasoline: from $1.40 to 4.10 over the last 12 months
Natural gas: between 2002-3 and 2005-6 heating season: the average heating season costs went from
$797 to $1096 (28%)
Coal: 16.5% increase from 2004 to 2005
Inflation: remained below 5% since 1991
ENERGY EFFICIENCY REALITIES:
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US population is shifting to areas that were previously occupied sparsely (Phoenix, Las Vegas, North and
South Carolinas)
Power-moving infrastructure is old, deteriorating and in need of replacement
New power producing plants: not likely to come online any time soon
American consumers continually add energy using equipment to their personal environments (think of all
the new appliances and products that we use in kitchen and bath areas that we hadn’t thought of even 10
years ago)
DEMAND FOR ENERGY EFFICIENCY IS GROWING:
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Federal Energy Law and the President’s executive Order
California & Washington State Building Laws: now a mandate Energy Efficient element
Energy Star is growing in awareness
Utility incentives
ARE INDIVIDUALS INTERESTED IN GREEN OR……
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Will spend up to $5000 on a new home to save $1000 annually
BUT…..
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18% are willing to pay for “Environmentally Friendly” building
14% are “not concerned”
35% are concerned, but are not willing to pay for it
33% are concerned, but do not want the added expenses as an inceased
burden at the time of new construction.
ENERGY USE IN RESIDENTIAL:
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In the US, we spend about 25% of our electricity on lighting; about $37billion annually
In order of most use of energy:
o Air conditioning: 16.0%
o Refrigerator: 13.7%
o Space Heating: 10.1%
o Water Heating: 9.1%
o Lighting: 8.8%
o Misc.: 7.3%
o Clothes Dryer: 5.8%
o Freezer: 3.5%
ENERGY EFFICIENT LIGHTING OPTIONS:
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Fluorescents
High Efficacy Incandescent
LED’s
OLED’s (organic LEDs)
LED FUNDAMENTALS:
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LED: Light Emitting Diode
A semiconductor device that converts electricity to light
o Electrons change state within the semi-conductor device and release energy in the form of light
 Photons are the most basic component of light
 Changing the energy level of the light photons results in different color light
 Warm white is created by coating blue LED’s with a yellowish phosphor
 Changing the phosphor composition will change the color temperature
HISTORY OF LEDs:
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After experiments with electroluminescence dating back to 1907, the first visible LED (red) was created in
the 1960s
LED chips first became popular in watches and calculators in the early 70s
Green and yellow introduced in the 80s
Blue in 90s
2002: Nichia created a white
Brightness has increased along with movement along the light spectrum
WHY IS LED A GOOD CHOICE?
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Long life
Durability
High efficacy/low energy use
Compact size
No UV issues
HAVE YOU HEARD ABOUT THE 100,000 HOUR LED?
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Incandescent and fluorescent testing:
o Life to 50% of failures shall not be less than value declared by manufacturer
LED testing:
o Life to 70% of original lumen output is reduced to 30% below initial output
WHAT DOES 40,000 HOURS MEAN?
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LED chips do not suffer from catastrophic failure
LED lumen output slowly degrades
After 40,000 hours of use, the light output is 70% of original
Will continue to operate at lower lumen output for an extended period of time
THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT 40,000 HOURS:
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Fixture is only as strong as the weakest link:
o chip @40,000?
o circuit board@40,000?
o driver@40,000?
o component@40,000?
Fixture is designed at what ambient temperature?
There are many ways for manufacturers to ‘play’ with the #’s
LEDs DURABILITY:
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Nearly impervious to vibration
Unaffected by on/off cycles
Operates reliably in cold environments and can operate well in warm, with proper design
EFFICACY OF TODAY’S LED:
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Like computer chips, LED chips improve with each new model and version
Now, we can effectively create lumen output similar to 175W of incandescent light
No UV or radiant heat issues:
o Do not emit ultraviolet (UV) rays; safe for use in light sensitive applications
o Do not radiate heat in the light beam; will not impact the temperature of the conditioned space
Compact size:
o It’s small size allows it to be used in locations impossible with old incandescent and fluorescent
technology
READY TO GOOD LED LIGHTING:
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A right and wrong way to engineer GOOD LED lighting
Inserting an LED chip into the wrong enclosure is like pounding a sq pg into a round hole
If poorly engineered, LED lighting:
o Inefficient
o Ineffective
o
o
o
Waste of energy
Requires more chips to make up for losses
Suffers from an early demise
POINTS TO CONSIDER WHEN DEVELOPING AN LED FIXTURE:
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Thermal management
Light characteristics: color temperature and color rendering index (CRI)
Optics
Electronics
THERMAL MANAGEMENT:
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What will prolong or hamper the life of an LED?
o Like the cold
o Thermal management is important to maintain the expected lifespan
o Failure will result in premature expiration
LEDs do create heat
Heat can affect the output
LIGHT CHARACTERISTICS: KELVIN & CRI
o
o
KELVIN:
o The color of light is referred to as temperature
o Is measured in Kelvin (K)
o Regular incandescent light bulbs are between 2600K and 3100K
o 2700K fluorescents are most natural
o 2800K LED are most natural
Color Rendering Index (CRI)
o How well does the light interpret the color?
o 100 is the top ‘score’; represents what you would see in daytime sunlight
o CRI in the high 70s are a good starting place
EXAMPLES OF LED: DIFFERENT COLOR TEMPERATURE AND CRI
HIGHER COLOR TEMPERATURE
4000+K, low CRI <70
HIGH COLOR TEMPERATURE
3500K, low CRI 70
WARM COLOR TEMPERATURE
3000K, high CRI >90
BRIGHTNESS:
o
o
Wattage means energy consumer, NOT brightness
Brightness is measured in lumens
Comparison of 800 lumens
60w incandescent
13w fluorescent
LED are directional, so similar
measurement are not viable or
meantingful
OPTICS:
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o
o
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Good optics bring out the best in a good LED chip
LEDs emit light in a directional pattern
Reflectors and lenses are critical to place light where needed in many applications
Retrofitting LED can be challenging for this reason
ELECTRONICS:
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o
o
o
LEDs are run on DC power
Precise control of voltage and current is needed to optimize the LED life
Intensity is current driven, not voltage
Dimming requires sophisticated electronics to merge into a system
THE REAL COST OF LED LIGHTING:
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o
o
o
Cost of electricity
Cost of system
Cost of maintenance
Lifetime total cost comparison
ENERGY SAVINGS:
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o
o
o
Wattage is energy consumed
Electricity is billed in kilowatt hours (kwh)
60 watt is 0.060 kilowatts
Multiply the hours used X the kilowatts X the cost per kilowatt hour (11.36 cents is the national average)
COST OF ELECTRICITY
YEAR
2002
AVERAGE RETAIL $ FOR
RESIDENTIAL USER
8.44 cents/kwh
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
8.74 kwh
8.95 kwh
9.45 kwh
10.31 kwh
10.64 kwh
11.36 kwh
INCREASE OVER PREVIOUS YEAR
PRIOR TO 2002, PRICES WERE STABLE WITH
MILD UP AND DOWN FLUCTURATION
3.55%
2.40%
5.58%
9.10%
3.10%
6.77%
2008 AVERAGE COST BY STATE
TOP 10 HIGH
Hawaii
Connecticut
New York
Rhode Island
Massachusetts
Alaska
Maine
New Jersey
New Hampshire
Vermont
AVERAGE RESIDENTIAL COST
32.79 cents/kwh
19.33 kwh
18.43 kwh
17.46 kwh
17.41 kwh
16.35 kwh
16.00 kwh
15.97 kwh
15.64 kwh
14.61 kwh
BOTTOM 10 LOW
Idaho
West Virginia
North Dakota
Washington
Kentucky
Nebraska
Missouri
Wyoming
South Dakota
Utah
AVERAGE RESIDENT COST
6.99 kwh
7.04 kwh
7.54 kwh
7.58 kwh
7.76 kwh
7.85 kwh
7.85 kwh
8.18 kwh
8.25 kwh
8.34 kwh
LET’S COMPARE AN ACTUAL KITCHEN INSTALLATION:
o
o
o
o
o
6 fixture project power supply
Interconnect system
Lamps
Electricity
40,000 hours
CURRENT CABINET INSTALLATION
FIXTURE
1056NI
10569NI
10572BK
10570BK
10574CLR
Total
WATTAGE
36w
Switch
Interconnect cables
Wire module
10,000 hrs
4 x 2 / fixture
216 watts
QUANTITY
6
1
5
1
48
SUGGEST LIST
134.00
63.00
18.00
25.50
4.80
TOTAL
$804.00
63.00
90.00
25.50
230.40
$1213.00
LED CABINET INSTALLATION
FIXTURE
1230NI
12350BK
12342BK
12353BK
Replacement lamps
Total
WATTAGE
7w
Switch
Interconnect cables
Wire module
Not needed
42 watts
QUANTITY
6
1
5
1
0
SUGGEST LIST
198.00
75.00
18.00
180.00
0.00
TOTAL
$1188.00
75.00
90.00
180.00
0.00
$1533.00
COMPARATIVE COST OF ELECTRICITY
CURRENT SYSTEM
216 watts
0.216 kw
8640 kwh
$1243.30
$68.07
$867.00
$115.50
$230.40
$1243.30
$2456.20
EXPLANATION
Kilowatts used per hour
Multiple 40,000 hrs of operation by
kilowatts used
Multiply kilowatt hours used by California
average cost of 14.39 cents/kwh
Assuming no change in cost of electricity $1001.78
($5483 savings/year)
Fixtures & Switch
Power Supply, Wires & Cables
Replacement Lamps
Electricity
Total
LED SYSTEM
42 watts
0.042 kw
1680 kwh
$241.52
$13.24 (yearly cost @6 hours /
day)
LED life cost is $681.68 less
Cost is only one point:
o
o
A decision to switch from incandescent to LED is foolish, if the light output is bad
A decision to switch will be unsatisfactory if the color of light is wrong
USING LIGHTING IN YOUR DESIGNS:
o
o
o
o
o
Light layering
Cabinet lighting
Placement
Lamping options
Average costs
LIGHT LAYERING:
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o
o
o
As a design element:
o Typically one source of light in the past
o No flexibility in the creation of the environment
After: multiple light courses:
o Create multiple environment
Pendants and Indirect pendants:
o Along with recessed lighting
Under cabinet, over cabinet and toe kick lighting
o Cabinet lighting systems that mount at the front of the cabinet, or the rear
o Linear lighting to add accent over, under and in cabinets
o LED, Xenon or Fluorescent
$1263.00
$270.00
$0.00
$241.52
$1774.52
SELECTING CABINET LIGHTING
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o
o
o
o
Placement – in and outside the box
How many
Where they go
Which type to choose
Wire/connection concerns
WHERE SHOULD I PUT LIGHTING?
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o
o
o
o
o
o
o
Under cabinets
Over cabinets
Inside cabinets
Under counters
Toe kicks
Under tables
Under benches
UL listed as a portable light
HOW MANY SHOULD I INSTALL?
o
o
o
o
Avoid dark spots
At least 1 per cabinet
Make certain length is commensurate with size of cabinet
Less light can be used inside, under and over cabinets
WHERE DO THEY INSTALL?
o
o
o
Modular
o Allows for front mounting
o Better light at working space
Direct Wire
o Mounts along the back edge of the cabinet’s underside
o Less light at the front
Plug-in
o Requires GCO
WHICH ONE DO I CHOOSE?
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o
o
o
o
LED
Xenon Low-Voltage
Xenon Line (120) Voltage
Halogen
Fluorescent
LED
+ PROS+
Long life 40,000 hours
Energy efficient
-CONSPrice
Must understand color temperature and CRI to
effectively choose the correct unit
Vulnerable to overstated performance
No/low maintenance
VERY cool operation
Smaller size on some models
Can be Energy Star listed
XENON – 12V
+ PROS+
Long life 10,000 hours
Warm (not hot) operation
Moderate price
Very good light levels
-CONSWarm (not hot) operation
Transformer (typically included) needed for operation
1” minimum depth
Moderate price
XENON 120V
+ PROS+
Price
Direct 120 v wire connection. No transformer included
Lightweight
HALOGEN
+ PROS+
Moderate price
Good light levels
-CONSLow lamp life (2500 hours)
1-1/4” minimum depth
-CONSHot operating temperature
Usually needs more than 1” to operate at correct
temperatures
FLUORESCENT
+ PROS+
Long life
Energy efficient
Lowest price of most cabinet lighting options
Can be Energy Star listed
-CONSMust understand color temperature and CRI to
effectively choose the correct lamp
SUGGESTED LIST PRICE
(5 – 22” fixtures + any/all accessories needed)
COST
$1800
$1200
$907
$697
$660
$594
$405
$360
SYSTEM
LED Modular System
LED Direct Wire Units
12V Xenon Modular System
120V Xenon Modular System
12v Xenon Direct Wire Units
120v Fluorescent Modular System
120v Xenon Direct Wire Units
120v Fluorescent Direct Wire Units
QUESTIONS TO ASK YOUR LED SUPPLIER:
o
o
o
What is the Color Temperature & CRI of the chip?
The chip is rated for 40,000 hours, what about all the other circuitry and components?
What is the lumen output of the fixture on the countertop? Is it adequate for normal kitchen functions?
LED LIGHTING:
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o
Will change the way we light our living spaces, whether indoors or outdoors
Is going to be as exciting as any transition that has taken place in the home in years
Compiled by Arlynne Wolf, CKD