Linear LED ‘revolutionizes’ retail, industrial lighting

02 May 2012

Cree integrates high efficacy, advanced optics and architectural design, to challenge linear fluorescent technology.

LED lighting developer Cree has launched the CS Series LED Linear Luminaire, which is designed “to deliver fast payback to low bay lighting applications”. Cree says the new high-efficacy suspended linear luminaire uses 40-50 percent less energy than comparable linear fluorescents and delivers a performance combination of up to 120 lumens per watt, 90 CRI and 75,000 hour lifetime.

“The CS Series LED Linear Luminaire is poised to revolutionize low and mid bay lighting applications just like the CR Series did for Troffers,” said David Elien, vice president, Cree lighting.

”With Cree’s MicroMixing Optics, the CS Series offers a combination of performance, aesthetics, optimal light distribution and affordability to situations such as grocery stores, retail, showrooms, schools, offices, warehouses and light industrial environments.”

“The Cree CS Series luminaire is unlike any other suspended linear lighting on the market today,” commented Jason Curtis, principal of Cardinal Gibbons High School, Raleigh, NC, US. “We researched the LED market extensively and Cree offered us a solution that delivered high-quality lighting and easy payback. Since the new CS Series is designed for 75,000 hours of life, Cardinal Gibbons High School can benefit from ongoing operational savings due to decreased maintenance and lower energy consumption compared to the linear fluorescents we replaced.”

LED luminaire test

Cree Technology Center Achieves NVLAP Accreditation

Cree has also announced the addition of the “TEMPO 24” testing process to its rangeof services for developing LED-based luminaires. The TEMPO (Thermal Electrical Mechanical Photometric Optical) 24 service combines IES LM-79-08 photometric testing with an extensive set of LED performance tests that the company says surpass other industry testing parameters and “can help ensure total system design and quality”.

Cree’s Durham Technology Center has been accredited by the US National Voluntary Laboratory Accreditation Program (NVLAP) and the company says this development “furthers Cree’s commitment to helping LED manufacturers overcome design challenges and bring quality products to market faster”.

“The LM-79-08 procedure has become a requirement for doing business in the solid state lighting market,” said Mark McClear, Cree’s director of global applications engineering. “TEMPO 24 includes a fully accredited LM-79 test, but goes well beyond this or any other current standards.

TEMPO 24 provides LED luminaire tests that are not offered by any other third-party testing facility. In addition to LM-79 testing which is an approved method for taking electrical and photometric measurements, TEMPO 24 testing includes binning and color point evaluation, chemical compatibility and TM-21 lifetime projection.

Energy efficiency

Cree and The Noun Project have released 15 new symbols for energy-efficient technologies, including LED lighting, which were designed during the recent Iconathon at the Cree campus in Durham. The symbols are now available for public download.

“By collaborating with The Noun Project, we now have a universal symbol that represents LED lighting, filling a significant void in the energy-efficient lighting landscape,” said Ginny Skalski, social media specialist, Cree. “As Cree continues leading the way for LED lighting adoption, this new icon will allow the public and the media to stop using antiquated Edison or swirly CFL bulb designs to symbolize lighting.”

The day-long collaborative workshop, led by The Noun Project co-founder Edward Boatman, included nearly 40 attendees who sketched new symbols for LED lighting and a variety of energy-efficient technologies.

All of the designs were discussed and critiqued to ensure the best iconic representation for each of the 15 energy-efficient technologies and concepts, including wind and solar farms and energy audits. The sketches were recently digitized and are now available for public use under a “Creative Commons” (free online sharing of resources) license.

“One of the core themes that emerged from the group discussions was that LED is a radically different light source from any of its predecessors,” said Boatman. “Therefore, we all felt it was appropriate and necessary to break free from any past ‘light bulb’ design elements. LED lighting needed to have its own distinct and identifiable mark.”

The Noun Project is a growing open sourced visual library of the symbols and icons that form the world’s visual language. The Noun Project organizes Iconathons around the country to collaboratively design new sets of civic symbols.

About the Author

Matthew Peach is a contributing editor to optics.org