Museums Are Using LED Lights To Preserve Their Paintings

LED lighting is continuing to become more and more common around the globe. With it's array of colors, ability to utilize less energy, and astronomically long life, it's not hard to see why so many businesses, cities, and personal homes are making the switch. What you may not know however, is that a lot of additional benefits of LED lighting are continuing to be discovered. Like how they can help priceless works of art last longer.

As museum technology has increased so has the realization that traditional lighting fixtures can take a toll on certain aspects of the painting, most noticeably color. This is due to the UV light, which is what causes sunburns, which damages these paintings over time. This is especially worrying for work of art made with pre-19th century oil on canvas works. This includes such masterpieces as Vincent Van Gogh's Sunflowers, and numerous works from artists like Monet, Renoir, Cezanne, and more. However, LED lighting has been proven to diminish these effects and will keep our works of art preserved for generations.

To see how, read the full article here: http://www.techtimes.com/articles/75898/20150811/museums-led-van-gogh.htm

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Another professional sports team has embraced the LED lighting revolution! ‪

As we covered earlier this month, many professional sports teams are looking into LED lighting for their arenas. In an article by Sports Illustrated, NHL teams have not only made the switch due to less maintenance, but the new lighting is actually making the game more enjoyable to watch. However, there are more leagues that just the NHL who have seen the light. (Sorry, I just couldn't resist that pun).  German soccer powerhouse Bayern Munich have recently installed a new 300,000 LED facade on their home at Allianz Arena. 

Phillips, the creators of this LED lighting system, says the display is capable of replicating over 16 million colors. The team has stated that the system will also help them produce better theatrics for their games and other events hosted at the arena. The new system should produce elegant and subtle color-changing effects, patterns, and movements. This can include waves, clouds, and many other programmable settings. 

What makes really makes this whole system worth it, is what Phillips is reporting the system will save in comparison with the old one. "the new façade uses 60 percent less electricity than the previous system, which was based on fluorescent lamps, and will save an estimated 362 tons of CO2 per year. Maintenance and operating costs are also expected to be lower." - Phillips

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Lighting Design Highlight- The Das Gerber Mall

When designing a new space, there are always a variety of different factors that go into making that space functional and practical. Unfortunately, many spaces fail to use lighting as a main factor of their design. This makes a lot of offices, businesses, and other communal spaces look and feel very similar. That is why it is so refreshing to see works like the Das Gerber mall in Stuttgart. They have used lighting to their advantage, and have seen dramatic results.  Below you can find images and a few insights into the overall design from RetialDesignBlog.com

"The interior was designed to position the GERBER as a key location and leading city address. Its main axes successfully negotiate the terrain topography and connect the city centre with its neighbouring quarters. The GERBER itself is more of an urban boulevard than a mall. A high-end design throughout makes it viable in the long term, while remaining a low-threshold location for those less interested in luxury. Trademarks of the mall include its high quality environment, easy orientation and spatial elements with a strong recognition value." - Retail Design Blog

" The positioning of these rings responds to the respective entrance situation. At the narrow, steeper entrance at the eastern corner, an interlocking, linear chain of rings accompanies the visitor upwards. While at the wider northern entrance, they explode across the ceiling in a wide arc. At the third, single-storey entrance, curved bands of light integrated into the ceiling adapt the theme while tracing the route that forks here. The theme of intertwining rings thus creates a signature address for each entrance. The light rings reach their pinnacle at the very heart of the mall where they entwine a column and extend upwards to form a tree of light piercing all three storeys." - Retail Design Blog

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Ikea to Replace All Lighting on Shelves With LED Bulbs

Experts in the lighting world have been predicting that big organizations will eventually make the switch to LED lighting options. We at City Lighting Products not only believe that this is a great option, but will soon become the norm. Unfortunately, many organizations still continue to make that eventually a next year discussion. With an increased initial cost, sometimes it can be hard to explain to shareholders or board members to make such an investment. Even though it can end up saving companies large sums over many years, the upfront cost prohibits many from taking the plunge. However, we are excited to say that IKEA has made news by announcing that they will replace all of their lighting with LED lights beginning on September 1st. They will also only sell LED bulbs in their stores, and continue to try and reduce their environmental impact in the next decade.

To read the full release from the New York Times, please follow our link here: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/11/business/ikea-to-replace-all-lighting-on-shelves-with-led-bulbs.html?_r=0

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Scientists demonstrate first color-tunable and first graphene-based LED

LED lighting is continuing to push the envelope when it comes to technological advances. Below you will find an excerpt from Phys.org on the first color-turnable and graphene-based LED lights are being produced. Read the full article 

"Currently, all light-emitting diodes (LEDs) emit light of only one color, which is predefined during fabrication. So far, tuning the color of light produced by a single LED has never been realized, despite numerous attempts.

So it's quite remarkable that in a new study, scientists have demonstrated an LED that not only can be tuned to emit different colors of light, but can do so across nearly the entire visible spectrum: from blue (450-nm wavelength) to red (750-nm wavelength)—basically all colors but the darkest blues and violets.

The key to achieving the color-tunable LED is making it out of graphene—the same material that has led to groundbreaking research in a number of areas, from batteries to solar cells to semiconductors. Despite graphene's success in these areas, graphene-based LEDs have never been realized before now, making the new device the first-ever graphene-based LED in addition to being the first color-tunable LED.

Applications of the new LED include high-quality, color-tunable LED displays for TVs and mobile devices, color-tunable LED light fixtures, and the potential for a variety of future graphene-based photonic devices."  Read the full article here

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Accuracy Matters! City Lighting Products Named 1st by BizSavers

One of the most cliched phrases in the business world is "time is money". Every startup, sitcom, and business professional is guilty at one point or another of using this phrase, and it is with good reason. Whether you're making up or losing time, the loss of working hours costs your business. That is why it is so important to account for this time, and maximize your productivity. That is why with great pleasure, we can announce that City Lighting Products has been named as BizSavers "most accurate in estimating their projects' completion dates!" See the full exert below: 

"As you know, you must include an estimated completion date for the project every time you submit an application. This date is very important because it ensures your customers will receive their incentives without a hitch. It also helps the BizSavers program by allowing for more accurate forecasting. Trade Allies that provide accurately estimated completion dates are also more apt to be selected as a Trade Ally All-Star in our newsletter or at the Annual Trade Ally Awards Banquet.

Check out the top five Trade Allies that are the BizSavers program's most accurate in estimating their projects' completion dates.

1.       City Lighting Products

2.       Kaemmerlen Electric Company

3.       D&S Sign Company/Canedy Sign

4.       Butler Supply/High Ridge branch

5.       Legacy Electric

Congratulations to these Trade Allies for their good and accurate work!"

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How Going Green with LED Lighting Can Help Your Business.

Businesses across the nation are always looking to get ahead. While there are a variety of ways in which to accomplish this goal, sometimes a solution that comes along that not only can help you save money, it makes your business look good too. Right now, that solution is going green. Saving on your energy consumption is a no brainier for businesses. You pay less, and people tend to think more highly of your store.

One great example of this recently comes from Kansas City, in which a car dealership who made the switch to green practices, including LED lighting, is going to save on their bottom line for the next decade. While many of the new procedures have helped, LED lighting had the single biggest impact.

"The biggest savings will come from the switch to LED lights, which are expected to shave 40 to 45 percent off the store's monthly electric bills. However, because of the high cost of the LEDs, he says the lights won't pay for themselves right away."

According to the US Department of Energy, LED bulbs can last between 25,000 and 35,000 hours, nearly 35x that of a normal bulb. That means less maintenance, and more efficient lighting.

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