1 August 2011

Cree’s 1300lm, 152lm/W prototype exceeds DOE’s ‘21st Century Lamp’ L Prize requirements

LED chip, lamp and lighting fixture maker Cree Inc of Durham, NC, USA has unveiled a concept LED light bulb from its lighting R&D team that delivers more than 1300 lumens at a luminous efficacy of 152 lumens per watt (LPW) using Cree TrueWhite Technology. The prototype LED light bulb exceeds the performance goals set by the US Department of Energy (DOE) for the 21st Century Lamp, which is the third category in its L Prize competition.

“Not long ago, fixture efficacy of 100+ lumens per watt was impossible, but Cree is shipping fixtures at 110LPW today,” says Cree co-founder Neal Hunter. “We calculate that, if fully deployed, LED lighting at 150LPW could bring a 16.5% reduction in the nation’s electric-energy consumption, returning it to 1987 levels,” he adds.

LED lighting at this level of performance is only made possible by advancements across all elements of the LED lighting system – lighting-class LEDs, optical elements, drivers and power supplies, says Cree. Optimizing each element was critical in achieving the performance reached by the prototype LED lamp, the firm says. As an efficiency comparison, a traditional 75W incandescent light bulb produces 1100 lumens at only 14.6 lumens per watt.

Third-party testing by independent lab OnSpeX confirmed that Cree’s lamp delivered more than 1330 lumens and consumes only 8.7W. The lamp uses Cree TrueWhite Technology to deliver a color rendering index (CRI) of 91 at a warm-white correlated color temperature (CCT) of 2800K. Cree says that the project benefits from technology developed under DOE-funded contracts, which are part of the firm’s ongoing collaboration with DOE to advance the adoption of energy-saving solid-state lighting.

The Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 directed the DOE to establish the Bright Tomorrow L Prize competition. The 21st Century Lamp competition is the third category in the legislation, joining competitions to create replacements for some of the most widely used and most inefficient lighting technologies on the market today: 60W incandescent lamps and PAR-38 halogen lamps. The preliminary specifications for the 21st Century Lamp include: >1200 lumens, >150 lumens per watt, >90 CRI and CCT of 2800–3000K.

Tags: Cree LEDs LED light bulb

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