Does this make sense???

[manuellynch]

At New Years the new ball that is probably lit for a few minutes or maybe even a few hours is upgraded to an LED system for $1.1million!!!

Lets see - next time they will use it will be next year....so they run it for a few hours and how much power do they really save??? Lets not forget the power of all the controllers that change color etc.

Dont get me wrong - there are applications for LEDs that make sense, but not everywhere. The $1.1million light bulb.

NY Times Square ball 'goes green'

The New Year's Eve ball in New York's Times Square is celebrating its 100th birthday by going green, after being revamped with energy-efficient lights. ...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7165467.stm

Or better yet, how about the DOE's challenge to lighting companies to make a 110 Lumen Per Watt light bulb and they will get $10million prize. Nowhere in the DOE proposal does it say how much the light bulb can cost....I though about using a few hundred of Nichia's highest output LED and only running it at 1/10th the rated power so I could get 120 Lumen Per Watt rating and meet the spec....it would also cost about $250 to replace the 60 Watt bulb.

Lets see - the economy might be headed for a recession and America is leading the world in using products made in China because we want everything to be low cost.

So who will read the story above and decorate their Xmas tree next year with $1.1mil in LEDs or who will walk down the aisle at Home Depot and buy a $250 LED light bulb sitting next to a $0.50 incandescent. Or more importantly - will Home Depot even buy a product like that and stick it on the shelf? From experience, no.

Why cant people focus on making a new whiz bang great energy efficient product that cost the same as the products the inefficient products they replace?

It seems Green is going a little overboard.

This just doesnt make sense to me - any comments on this???

Edited January 3, 2008 by Manuel Lynch

[Erik Sine]

It's a marketing tool to play on hysteria and guilt, sort of like the Y2K. I think in the past 6-8 months I get rejects calling me about "green" eco friendly ink for ink jet printing with the whole "good for the environemnt" BS. As you can imagine it's a broad band of goods to be sold not just in lighting and ink all with the stamp of "Green"

As you can guess California, especially No Cal ( ) always seems to be the ground zero for these campaigns.

Edited January 3, 2008 by Westcoast Sign Guy

[manuellynch]

Agreed 100% on No Calif - I was very involved with that. It is the trendy way to be.

I really think the GREEN phenonmena is just a fashion craze that will be replaced with more meaningful and sustainable technologies.

For example - I think you will see new technologies entering the market that not only save energy, put produce energy and make you money while using them, and at the same time are environmentally safer.

There is an article in a magazine I read recently that discusses some of the untold harmful implications of going Green.

As always - new technologies that are fashionable shake out and the meaningful ones persist.

But then again - that is just my opinion.

[TelfordDorr]

Agree with all the above - it's all just hype & publicity.

On a side note, Home Depot does sell CFL's in three colors. The middle one (red labels) is 3500K white, which I like much better than the 2800K and 6500K (at least for use in the house.) Naturally, if I like them, then they're doomed to be discontinued...

Anybody have a easy source for dimmable CFL reflector floods?

TD

[manuellynch]

We make a dimmable 18Watt CCFL PAR38 Style Lamp and we also make a "recessed" downlight system that does not use a recessed can but uses a standard blue plastic 2 hour fire rated Carlon outlet box.

See the PAR38 at http://www.axiompowercorp.com/Bulbs-CCFL/C...Bulbs-PAR38.htm

See the "Recessed" product at http://www.axiompowercorp.com/Fixtures/RRLCCFL.htm

Manuel

[derf]

Hmmmm,,, I'm from N Cal... and I'm a green company! what company does not want to be green! did you not see al Gore's Movie!??? An Inconvenient Truth... hello we are all going to DIE if we don't go green!. LOL

When I say green I really am talking about the money! LOL I like the green stuff.. I wish I could get more green.. I don't think I have enough green in my wallet either so I want to get as green as possible..

OK seirously.. I'm down for ways to improve producats and efishicy because power consumtion will be an issue we will face one day BUT.. Give me a break there is a point were common sense should be used..

[manuellynch]

I could not agree more. Green is Yesterday, Sustainable technologies are today and tomorrow.

A lot of "green" technology companies took the momentum to capitalize on a market move to the "new".

It seems ridiculous to me that most all the LED technologies that are available to replace neon are much much more expensive. As I have stated before, if you can make a product that is more efficient, easier to install, can bypass the needed mark up of distributors, and can save companies not only money in power useage but in the cost of material and the cost to install - it is a no brainer.

For example - Pulte Homes has taken our surface mounted CCFL light and discovered that by eliminating the recessed cans in a home they can now offer recessed lighting in every room of a home now and actually save $1800-$3000 over the low cost incandescent recessed cans they use to use. So in these rather bleak times for the residential construction market, any technology that is "green" and saves you money - it is a no brainer.

Some of our new AXIOM LED systems for signs (white) are also the same performance as neon, lower cost than neon per linear foot, and are now almost 10X lower power so that means you use less power supplies - in a recent study one sign company estimates that they will save $500K per year by the switch they made to our systems.

So I agree - lets use this board to share information about technologies that can make us all more money.

TEASER - a new clear overcoat paint that cost $0.15 per square foot, when exposed to daylight it is a self-cleaning system (for up to 20 years) so it reduces maintanenance and service and keeps signs always looking brand new....but it also is the GREENEST technology I know because it breaks apart CO2!!!