Ligtht Fair - Color Kinetics White Downlight

[Victor Roberts]

I guess I'll be posting snippets instead of one big message.
It's just easier that way.

Color Kinetics was showing a white LED downlight that was
labeled a prototype. It is rather big and heavy looking, you
will see why. The info presented by Color Kinetics was that
the fixture had the same light output as a 26-watt
triple-tube CFL in a "typical" downlight fixture. They gave
the fixture efficiency of the "typical" CFL fixture they
used but I didn't write that down. No matter, the 26-watt
CFL was assumed to be operated from a ballast with 2.6 watts
of ballast loss for a total input power of 28.6 watts, well,
actually a bit less since the 26-watt CFL is rated at 60 Hz
but operated at high frequency. (They didn't give the actual
CFL ballast input power. There was an epidemic of missing
data from other companies also - as usual.)

The Color Kinetics white LED downlight used 55 watts for the
same amount of light. I asked the Color Kinetics rep why I
would choose to use a fixture that needed 55 watts when I
could get the same amount of high quality light from the
CFL-based fixture while using only 28.6 watts or less. He
didn't have any answer other than the longer life of the LED
lamps.

I will have nice things to say about other products

--
Vic Roberts
http://www.RobertsResearchInc.com
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[Victor Roberts]

And at that, I'd want an absolutely cast-iron guarantee about lumen
maintainance, and lifetime...

Was this a 'white' fixture, or did it use RGB to make white?

It was a "white" fixture. I'm at the airport and don't have
ready access to my notes, but I think the fixture used six
clusters of LEDs, each with 6 to 12 LEDs, and the clusters
were two different colors. I had expected to see Color
Kinetics use RGB to make white since color is their game
and RGB would allow them to adjust the color on demand.
However, if they were using small clusters or RGB LEDs it
was not obvious.

--
Vic Roberts
http://www.RobertsResearchInc.com
To reply via e-mail:
replace xxx with vdr in the Reply to: address
or use e-mail address listed at the Web site.

This information is provided for educational purposes only.
It may not be used in any publication or posted on any Web
site without written permission.

 

[Paul Hovnanian P.E.]

[snip]

It was a "white" fixture. I'm at the airport and don't have
ready access to my notes, but I think the fixture used six
clusters of LEDs, each with 6 to 12 LEDs, and the clusters
were two different colors. I had expected to see Color
Kinetics use RGB to make white since color is their game
and RGB would allow them to adjust the color on demand.

And patent it.

:-/