FEB 19

Lighting consumes as much as a third of the energy budget of industrialized nations. This amounts to massive carbon dioxide emissions, and high expenses. Cutting even a fraction of these costs seems an attractive option.

LED lighting has arisen as a potential challenger to these older designs. It features a high efficiency, using less than 60 percent of the power of incandescent lighting and sometimes even less than fluorescents. And while costs of LED lighting are currently high, key breakthroughs have helped to send prices dropping into the realm of affordability.

For businesses that currently have fluorescent tube lighting looking to jump on the LED trend, there is a commercial option at last -- well, if they're in Japan, at least. Toshin Electric Co Ltd, a Japanese firm has released the Bikei LED tube lamp.

The tube lamp is designed as a drop-in replacement for fluorescent tubes (not to be confused with compact fluorescent bulbs, aka. CFLs) and features a long silicon substrate with lots of LEDs mounted on it, enclosed in a glass tube. The unit is be a bit pricey at $306 compared to around $14 for a fluorescent tube. However, the rated life is 40,000 hours, nearly 8 times the normal life of a standard fluorescent tube. Another perk is that the LED tubes are mercury-free, while traditional fluorescent tubes feature toxic mercury.

The LED tube also consumes only 20 to 24 watts, about half of what similar fluorescent bulbs its size do. It outputs 370 lumens, which is less than a traditional fluorescent tube, but has superior color quality to the emitted light, something office workers will, no doubt, appreciate.

Toshin plans to market the tubes to factory and store owners as well as local municipalities which employ fluorescent lighting in train stations and tunnels, or in street lamps. If you're a business owner in the U.S. and are as geeked about LED lighting as we are, unfortunately you'll have to wait for now. However, the market is growing fast, so it shouldn't be long before these designs hit the States as well.

Seen at GoodCleanTech

Comments (19)

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Price
written by Clint, February 19, 2009

While they are a step in the right direction, until the price comes down to around $120-$150, they aren't economically feasible. The cost now is over 21 times that of a normal flourescent tube light. Even with the amount of energy savings, a business would never recoup the cost of these lights.

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written by Andrew Portela, February 19, 2009

I've been seeing the LED stuff around and it's really interesting, but I am a little bit skeptical about it taking over fluorescent bulbs.

waystosavetheplanet.wordpress.com

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Price
written by Michael Cochran, February 19, 2009

I've been seeing LED drop in replacements for T8 and T12 bulbs selling for $240 - $360 (per set of four). The bulbs are advertised to last 50000 - 100000 hours and consume 14 - 20 watts of energy. The most effiecient I've found was at goodmart.com. It is rated for 100000 hours and 14 watts. Assuming continuous usage, the payback period is approximately 7 years.

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Ballast?
written by Luke, February 19, 2009

Am I wrong in thinking that the ballast is the inefficient part of a fluorescent tube light? I've certainly touched a few hot ballasts at times.

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Ludicrously inefficient
written by Chris, February 19, 2009

Something has got to be wrong, because that's only 18 lumens/watt. My electronically ballasted T-8 bulbs get 92 lumens/watt. (That is, at 32W they produce 2950 lumens.) And these are sunshine bulbs, i.e. they have a balance of phosphors which give variety in the output spectrum.

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written by jvr, February 19, 2009

bioleds have the future...

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Is it worth it?
written by shek, February 19, 2009

I'm assuming that someone checked to see if there is a long term savings to having these drop in lights which are still connected to a ballast. Would it be better/more efficient/save money to simply make fixtures that could easily be swapped out for flourescent fixtures (so that they fill the same typical area in a ceiling tile grid).

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For commercial applications need to cons
written by Shawn Lancaster, February 20, 2009

Labor costs for install need to also be included in the cost/benefit analysis. These reduced labor costs may affect the timing? How many MTA employees does it take to change a lightbulb? How much does that cost? :)

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Cannot be swapped
written by ugottawonder, February 20, 2009

Ok, why are they trying to make it look like a fluorescent tube? The whole benifit of the fluorescent tube is that you get a full 360 degree output and can therefore design the accompaning reflector system to suit. This LED cuts out some of that spectrum. Am I missing something?

Also, superior colour quality to fluorescent? C'mon, you can get high CRI fluorescent lamps in a variety of Tk color temperature ranges. The colour argument over fluorescent has been dead for years.

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Not just "less" light-- way less, >8X di
written by Carl, February 20, 2009

It's not an equivalent "drop-in" replacement-- you have to consider the light output. This LED light gets 370 lumens, but the normal T-12 bulb is >2800. So as Chris writes, this LED light is >4X less efficient than a normal bulb. If you simply take out one of a pair of bulbs, you get the same savings in energy, but 4X more light.

This LED light is so dim that you can get almost the same effect as just turning off the light.

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I can only second that
written by Chris, February 21, 2009

My company develops LED street lights, which save up to 40% energy compared to gas discharge lamps and also live three to four times longer. LEDs hold an enourmous potential in reducing energy costs for all kinds of lighting purposes. I my best estimate, LED technology is currently at a breakthrough point: In four to five years, we'll see much more LEDs being used for interior as well as exterior lighting purposes.

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written by Jeffrey Augustine, March 02, 2009

There has always been some smoke and mirrors to LED marketing. In terms of the smoke in the Bikei copy, Bieki has claimed that a conventional fluorescent lamp has a 5,000 hour life. Bikei is comparing apples and oranges here. Small, old fluorescent tubes used on magnetic ballasts such as an F4T5, have a 5,000 hour life. IMO, Bikei needs to benchmark its product against a modern T8 or T5 fluorescent lamp used with a high frequency electronic ballast. Current T8 systems reliably deliver 36,000+ hours @ ~2700 mean lumens and thus would force Bikei to restate it's ROI. If you look at induction sources (RF excitation of mercury and phosphors), the life pushes to 100,000 hours.

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Would you like to write an article about
written by neoseikan, March 06, 2009

I am neoseikan, the producer of Neofab Legion II, the brightest single LED flashlight. It has 742~748 real torch lumens.
Would you like to write an article about these kind of strong light LED flashlights?
If you are interested, here is the link: http://www.cpfmarketplace.com/...p?t=191371
Thank you!

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written by Rocky, March 23, 2009

www.worldportables.com provide new technology SMD 5050 LED fluorescent tubes .. surprising price :$37 MSN: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it '> This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it skype: huangyan32 Length 1200mm-50W 2000lumen

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written by Rocky, March 23, 2009

sorry, 1200mm-20W :2000lumen

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LED 60 cm tube at 11$
written by Peter Calka, May 23, 2009

I have a great tubes with 5050 smd at 11$ and if w go above 5000 we can get at 10.25$ and 10000 at less than 10$.
It is matter of time before they will come to 5$. I cannot see how flourescent can compete with this

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ROI
written by jim, August 04, 2009

Sounds great until the LED burns out in the first 12 months, then you can throw away all your calculations and hunt for the old fluor tubes, which hopefully you have saved!

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Truth
written by Hugh, August 17, 2009

I am a chinese.As a manufacturer of various LED products such as LED tube&LED bulb.I know these fluorescent tubes are not cheap ,but maybe not so expensive!If someone is interested in these products,please feel free to have a talk with me.
My MSNasis19870509@live.

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Retrofitted my office to LED, love it!!!!!!!!!!!!
written by erika, July 27, 2010

I am really glad people are catching on to retrofitting their homes and offices to LED lighting. I recently completely got rid of all my flourescents in exchange for LED lighting. My cost in finances for energy has already decreased. I own my own small business, so when i was trying to construct the best and cheapest plan,, I was stumped! I ended up hearing out a Motion Sensor Savings Calculator. It helped me out with finguring out the pros and cons of lighting to go with! BIG HELP for me, but might not be ideal for everyone, but I am all for sharing the wealth.

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