It’s reported that contractors for the Beijing Olympics considered fluorescent lighting for some of their key venues until they evaluated light-emitting diodes and found them to be a more colorful, lower-power route to illuminating their creations.
Richard Sy, president of Cree Hong Kong. Cree Inc. said they can control the specific wavelength of the color to provide a very even color with low power and are providing about 754,000 LEDs to light up the so-called Bird's Nest and Water Cube, which respectively house the opening ceremonies and water sports for the Beijing Olympics.
The Water Cube alone uses about 440,000 LEDs to illuminate its exterior. Each eight- to 16-LED module needed to be outfitted with unique optics to focus beams on the plastic film on the outside of the building.The red, green and blue LEDs average an output of about 16 lm/W. White LEDs currently in production emit as much as 99 lm/W and ones in the lab hit 120 lm/W. By contrast, fluorescent tubes deliver about 70 lm/W.
According to a Cree spokeswoman’s analysis, LEDs give off a directional light, provide a more consistent color than omnidirectional tubes and use less power and are more durable--they don't use filaments that regularly burn out--they are making inroads into consumer applications. Although LEDs still carry a price premium over traditional technologies, they are starting to replace fluorescent bulbs for directed home lights such as recessed lighting. Some 10 million new sockets are going into new buildings each year, and as many as 9 million sockets are already in place. Even if sockets require a retrofit for LEDs, the technology can pay for itself with lower utility bills in one to four years.
