Notes from the Kichler Webinar for Nkba/July 2009

NOTES FROM THE KICHLER WEBINAR FOR NKBA/JULY 2009

QUICK HISTORY OF ENERGY EFFICIENCY:

• Our past helps us understand how we got here and where we are going.
• 1979 oil crisis: the law of supply and demand was telling us something
• The energy crisis: “The energy crisis is real. It is worldwide. It is a clean and present danger to our nation. These are facts and we simple must face them.” President Jimmy Carter, 1979

RISING COST OF ENERGY:

• Gasoline: from $1.40 to 4.10 over the last 12 months
• Natural gas: between 2002-3 and 2005-6 heating season: the average heating season costs went from $797 to $1096 (28%)
• Coal: 16.5% increase from 2004 to 2005
• Inflation: remained below 5% since 1991

ENERGY EFFICIENCY REALITIES:

• US population is shifting to areas that were previously occupied sparsely (Phoenix, Las Vegas, North and South Carolinas)
• Power-moving infrastructure is old, deteriorating and in need of replacement
• New power producing plants: not likely to come online any time soon
• American consumers continually add energy using equipment to their personal environments (think of all the new appliances and products that we use in kitchen and bath areas that we hadn’t thought of even 10 years ago)

DEMAND FOR ENERGY EFFICIENCY IS GROWING:

• Federal Energy Law and the President’s executive Order
• California & Washington State Building Laws: now a mandate Energy Efficient element
• Energy Star is growing in awareness
• Utility incentives

ARE INDIVIDUALS INTERESTED IN GREEN OR……

• Will spend up to $5000 on a new home to save $1000 annually

BUT…..

• 18% are willing to pay for “Environmentally Friendly” building
• 14% are “not concerned”
• 35% are concerned, but are not willing to pay for it
• 33% are concerned, but do not want the added expenses as an inceased burden at the time of new construction.

ENERGY USE IN RESIDENTIAL:

• In the US, we spend about 25% of our electricity on lighting; about $37billion annually
• In order of most use of energy:
• Air conditioning: 16.0%
• Refrigerator: 13.7%
• Space Heating: 10.1%
• Water Heating: 9.1%
• Lighting: 8.8%
• Misc.: 7.3%
• Clothes Dryer: 5.8%
• Freezer: 3.5%

ENERGY EFFICIENT LIGHTING OPTIONS:

• Fluorescents
• High Efficacy Incandescent
• LED’s
• OLED’s (organic LEDs)

LED FUNDAMENTALS:

• LED: Light Emitting Diode
• A semiconductor device that converts electricity to light
• Electrons change state within the semi-conductor device and release energy in the form of light
• Photons are the most basic component of light
• Changing the energy level of the light photons results in different color light
• Warm white is created by coating blue LED’s with a yellowish phosphor
• Changing the phosphor composition will change the color temperature

HISTORY OF LEDs:

• After experiments with electroluminescence dating back to 1907, the first visible LED (red) was created in the 1960s
• LED chips first became popular in watches and calculators in the early 70s
• Green and yellow introduced in the 80s
• Blue in 90s
• 2002: Nichia created a white
• Brightness has increased along with movement along the light spectrum

WHY IS LED A GOOD CHOICE?

• Long life
• Durability
• High efficacy/low energy use
• Compact size
• No UV issues

HAVE YOU HEARD ABOUT THE 100,000 HOUR LED?

• Incandescent and fluorescent testing:
• Life to 50% of failures shall not be less than value declared by manufacturer
• LED testing:
• Life to 70% of original lumen output is reduced to 30% below initial output

WHAT DOES 40,000 HOURS MEAN?

• LED chips do not suffer from catastrophic failure
• LED lumen output slowly degrades
• After 40,000 hours of use, the light output is 70% of original
• Will continue to operate at lower lumen output for an extended period of time

THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT 40,000 HOURS:

• Fixture is only as strong as the weakest link:
• chip @40,000?
• circuit board@40,000?
• driver@40,000?
• component@40,000?
• Fixture is designed at what ambient temperature?
• There are many ways for manufacturers to ‘play’ with the #’s

LEDs DURABILITY:

• Nearly impervious to vibration
• Unaffected by on/off cycles
• Operates reliably in cold environments and can operate well in warm, with proper design

EFFICACY OF TODAY’S LED:

• Like computer chips, LED chips improve with each new model and version
• Now, we can effectively create lumen output similar to 175W of incandescent light
• No UV or radiant heat issues:
• Do not emit ultraviolet (UV) rays; safe for use in light sensitive applications
• Do not radiate heat in the light beam; will not impact the temperature of the conditioned space
• Compact size:
• It’s small size allows it to be used in locations impossible with old incandescent and fluorescent technology

READY TO GOOD LED LIGHTING:

• A right and wrong way to engineer GOOD LED lighting
• Inserting an LED chip into the wrong enclosure is like pounding a sq pg into a round hole
• If poorly engineered, LED lighting:
• Inefficient
• Ineffective
• Waste of energy
• Requires more chips to make up for losses
• Suffers from an early demise

POINTS TO CONSIDER WHEN DEVELOPING AN LED FIXTURE:

• Thermal management
• Light characteristics: color temperature and color rendering index (CRI)
• Optics
• Electronics

THERMAL MANAGEMENT:

• What will prolong or hamper the life of an LED?
• Like the cold
• Thermal management is important to maintain the expected lifespan
• Failure will result in premature expiration
• LEDs do create heat
• Heat can affect the output

LIGHT CHARACTERISTICS: KELVIN & CRI

• KELVIN:
• The color of light is referred to as temperature
• Is measured in Kelvin (K)
• Regular incandescent light bulbs are between 2600K and 3100K
• 2700K fluorescents are most natural
• 2800K LED are most natural

• Color Rendering Index (CRI)
• How well does the light interpret the color?
• 100 is the top ‘score’; represents what you would see in daytime sunlight
• CRI in the high 70s are a good starting place

EXAMPLES OF LED: DIFFERENT COLOR TEMPERATURE AND CRI

HIGHER COLOR TEMPERATURE / HIGH COLOR TEMPERATURE / WARM COLOR TEMPERATURE
4000+K, low CRI <70 / 3500K, low CRI 70 / 3000K, high CRI >90

BRIGHTNESS:

• Wattage means energy consumer, NOT brightness
• Brightness is measured in lumens

Comparison of 800 lumens

60w incandescent / 13w fluorescent / LED are directional, so similar measurement are not viable or meantingful

OPTICS:

• Good optics bring out the best in a good LED chip
• LEDs emit light in a directional pattern
• Reflectors and lenses are critical to place light where needed in many applications
• Retrofitting LED can be challenging for this reason

ELECTRONICS:

• LEDs are run on DC power
• Precise control of voltage and current is needed to optimize the LED life
• Intensity is current driven, not voltage
• Dimming requires sophisticated electronics to merge into a system

THE REAL COST OF LED LIGHTING:

• Cost of electricity
• Cost of system
• Cost of maintenance
• Lifetime total cost comparison

ENERGY SAVINGS:

• Wattage is energy consumed
• Electricity is billed in kilowatt hours (kwh)
• 60 watt is 0.060 kilowatts
• Multiply the hours used X the kilowatts X the cost per kilowatt hour (11.36 cents is the national average)

COST OF ELECTRICITY

YEAR / AVERAGE RETAIL $ FOR
RESIDENTIAL USER / INCREASE OVER PREVIOUS YEAR
2002 / 8.44 cents/kwh / PRIOR TO 2002, PRICES WERE STABLE WITH MILD UP AND DOWN FLUCTURATION
2003 / 8.74 kwh / 3.55%
2004 / 8.95 kwh / 2.40%
2005 / 9.45 kwh / 5.58%
2006 / 10.31 kwh / 9.10%
2007 / 10.64 kwh / 3.10%
2008 / 11.36 kwh / 6.77%

2008 AVERAGE COST BY STATE

TOP 10 HIGH / AVERAGE RESIDENTIAL COST / BOTTOM 10 LOW / AVERAGE RESIDENT COST
Hawaii / 32.79 cents/kwh / Idaho / 6.99 kwh
Connecticut / 19.33 kwh / West Virginia / 7.04 kwh
New York / 18.43 kwh / North Dakota / 7.54 kwh
Rhode Island / 17.46 kwh / Washington / 7.58 kwh
Massachusetts / 17.41 kwh / Kentucky / 7.76 kwh
Alaska / 16.35 kwh / Nebraska / 7.85 kwh
Maine / 16.00 kwh / Missouri / 7.85 kwh
New Jersey / 15.97 kwh / Wyoming / 8.18 kwh
New Hampshire / 15.64 kwh / South Dakota / 8.25 kwh
Vermont / 14.61 kwh / Utah / 8.34 kwh

LET’S COMPARE AN ACTUAL KITCHEN INSTALLATION:

• 6 fixture project power supply
• Interconnect system
• Lamps
• Electricity
• 40,000 hours

CURRENT CABINET INSTALLATION

FIXTURE / WATTAGE / QUANTITY / SUGGEST LIST / TOTAL
1056NI / 36w / 6 / 134.00 / $804.00
10569NI / Switch / 1 / 63.00 / 63.00
10572BK / Interconnect cables / 5 / 18.00 / 90.00
10570BK / Wire module / 1 / 25.50 / 25.50
10574CLR / 10,000 hrs
4 x 2 / fixture / 48 / 4.80 / 230.40
Total / 216 watts / $1213.00

LED CABINET INSTALLATION

FIXTURE / WATTAGE / QUANTITY / SUGGEST LIST / TOTAL
1230NI / 7w / 6 / 198.00 / $1188.00
12350BK / Switch / 1 / 75.00 / 75.00
12342BK / Interconnect cables / 5 / 18.00 / 90.00
12353BK / Wire module / 1 / 180.00 / 180.00
Replacement lamps / Not needed / 0 / 0.00 / 0.00
Total / 42 watts / $1533.00

COMPARATIVE COST OF ELECTRICITY

CURRENT SYSTEM / EXPLANATION / LED SYSTEM
216 watts / 42 watts
0.216 kw / Kilowatts used per hour / 0.042 kw
8640 kwh / Multiple 40,000 hrs of operation by kilowatts used / 1680 kwh
$1243.30 / Multiply kilowatt hours used by California average cost of 14.39 cents/kwh / $241.52
$68.07 / Assuming no change in cost of electricity - $1001.78
($5483 savings/year) / $13.24 (yearly cost @6 hours / day)
$867.00 / Fixtures & Switch / $1263.00
$115.50 / Power Supply, Wires & Cables / $270.00
$230.40 / Replacement Lamps / $0.00
$1243.30 / Electricity / $241.52
$2456.20 / Total / $1774.52

LED life cost is $681.68 less

Cost is only one point:

• A decision to switch from incandescent to LED is foolish, if the light output is bad
• A decision to switch will be unsatisfactory if the color of light is wrong

USING LIGHTING IN YOUR DESIGNS:

• Light layering
• Cabinet lighting
• Placement
• Lamping options
• Average costs

LIGHT LAYERING:

• As a design element:
• Typically one source of light in the past
• No flexibility in the creation of the environment
• After: multiple light courses:
• Create multiple environment
• Pendants and Indirect pendants:
• Along with recessed lighting
• Under cabinet, over cabinet and toe kick lighting
• Cabinet lighting systems that mount at the front of the cabinet, or the rear
• Linear lighting to add accent over, under and in cabinets
• LED, Xenon or Fluorescent

SELECTING CABINET LIGHTING

• Placement – in and outside the box
• How many
• Where they go
• Which type to choose
• Wire/connection concerns

WHERE SHOULD I PUT LIGHTING?

• Under cabinets
• Over cabinets
• Inside cabinets
• Under counters
• Toe kicks
• Under tables
• Under benches
• UL listed as a portable light

HOW MANY SHOULD I INSTALL?

• Avoid dark spots
• At least 1 per cabinet
• Make certain length is commensurate with size of cabinet
• Less light can be used inside, under and over cabinets

WHERE DO THEY INSTALL?

• Modular
• Allows for front mounting
• Better light at working space
• Direct Wire
• Mounts along the back edge of the cabinet’s underside
• Less light at the front
• Plug-in
• Requires GCO

WHICH ONE DO I CHOOSE?

• LED
• Xenon Low-Voltage
• Xenon Line (120) Voltage
• Halogen
• Fluorescent

LED

+ PROS+ / -CONS-
Long life 40,000 hours / Price
Energy efficient / Must understand color temperature and CRI to effectively choose the correct unit
No/low maintenance / Vulnerable to overstated performance
VERY cool operation
Smaller size on some models
Can be Energy Star listed

XENON – 12V

+ PROS+ / -CONS-
Long life 10,000 hours / Warm (not hot) operation
Warm (not hot) operation / Transformer (typically included) needed for operation
Moderate price / 1” minimum depth
Very good light levels / Moderate price

XENON 120V

+ PROS+ / -CONS-
Price / Low lamp life (2500 hours)
Direct 120 v wire connection. No transformer included / 1-1/4” minimum depth
Lightweight

HALOGEN

+ PROS+ / -CONS-
Moderate price / Hot operating temperature
Good light levels / Usually needs more than 1” to operate at correct temperatures

FLUORESCENT

+ PROS+ / -CONS-
Long life / Must understand color temperature and CRI to effectively choose the correct lamp
Energy efficient
Lowest price of most cabinet lighting options
Can be Energy Star listed

SUGGESTED LIST PRICE

(5 – 22” fixtures + any/all accessories needed)

COST / SYSTEM
$1800 / LED Modular System
$1200 / LED Direct Wire Units
$907 / 12V Xenon Modular System
$697 / 120V Xenon Modular System
$660 / 12v Xenon Direct Wire Units
$594 / 120v Fluorescent Modular System
$405 / 120v Xenon Direct Wire Units
$360 / 120v Fluorescent Direct Wire Units

QUESTIONS TO ASK YOUR LED SUPPLIER:

• What is the Color Temperature & CRI of the chip?
• The chip is rated for 40,000 hours, what about all the other circuitry and components?
• What is the lumen output of the fixture on the countertop? Is it adequate for normal kitchen functions?

LED LIGHTING:

• Will change the way we light our living spaces, whether indoors or outdoors
• Is going to be as exciting as any transition that has taken place in the home in years

Compiled by Arlynne Wolf, CKD