Traditional method of energy saving

The latest hype about energy saving has motivated me to think about different ways of saving energy. All we hear about is latest light fixtures and solutions that save 30% of energy....everyone of us is geared up to save energy and inturn save the earth.....

but looking back into the past i have realised that there are other methods of saving energy and paying back to mother nature.

I still remember the day when my dad was planning on building a house....all my mom wanted in a small house with few windows easy to clean and maintain....whereas my dad had some other plans. he wanted a medium size house but huge windows. He was planning for a duplex house and wanted an entire wall to be a window....mom was so mad at him. she freaked out about cleaning..as we all know how men are, he promised my mom that he would clean the windows but was adamant on not changing his plans....he won and i ended up cleaning the windows. today when i visit my house during day time it is filled with light so bright and warm. I hardly recollect switching on lights during the day time other than when it is dark and gloomy outside..Ofcourse it helps being in a tropical place like southern india to have so much sun light. you might wonder what it would be like in summers. we might end up wasting lot of energy on AC but not really the ceiling of our house is elevated so high that by the time the hotness of the sunrays come to the floor they are cooled. also good flooring helped in keeping the house cool and yes extreme hot conditions i guess everyone turns on their AC and we deserve to burn up some energy for all the saving we do....

some advantages of having proper ventilation is:

good sunlight

fresh air

healthy lifestyle

unseen germs and bacteria will be killed by the sunlight

saving energy, less electricity bill

so all those people who are planning to build a house be flexible with your windows and ventilation you would be doing a big help to mother earth.

Save the earth save yourself.

amazing stuff

The sustainable smart street light design

http://www.inhabitat.com/2010/02/26/sustainable-city-street-lights-by-phillips/

While browsing websites the other day i found this really interesting design by Philips that could be good help to developing or poor tropical places where street lighting is a need but electricity is not affordable.

The concept here is that of a flower. The shape and look of the street lamp is like a flower. During the day time the petals open up and take in sunlight sufficient enough to store and hold. Incase there is not enough sulight and the weather seems windy the petals rotate to generate wind energy that is stored. During night time the stored energy is released to provide light. The Leds (light emitting diodes) are used in this concept as they require little amount of energy to light up and are energy efficient compared to other light sources. The other feature in this concept is dimming. The pole has sensors which will record the number of people on the street. If the number of people are very few the light output is dim to account to the small group of people saving energy. If there are more number of people then more light output is given. By this way the energy is balanced as during night say from 9pm to 6 am the number of people fluctuates.

Philips digital drawing, canvas of lighting.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPWU9-auhxU&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DLUDGc493c

Children and adults at Mercy hospital in Arkansas are now able to enjoy a tension free relaxed atmosphere while their loved ones are recovering . the concept of art on a light canvas is really laudable. The whole concept eases tension out of the minds of the little children who are rather nervous about visiting hospitals. The whole idea is to divert their attention from what bother them to making them happy by providin g a huge touch sreen illuminated canvas and i have to agree on this even adults whould love to sketch on this beautiful canvas.

The little intro

The definition of light in a dictionary is given as something that makes things visible or affords illumination. Encyclopedia states that light is a visible electromagnetic radiation. It is that part of an electromagnetic spectrum that human eye is sensitive to. Light has a multiple definitions and i would like to define it as a medium that helps me realise and enjoy the beauty of nature. A medium between human beings and nature that without which life would be unimaginable. Like air, water and food, light play an essential role in human exsistence.

Sun the star of the solar system is the main and natural source of light. But man being a genious has come up with so many different forms of light sources and lighting solutions. Although none of them can be compared with sun the brilliance of human intellect can be surely appreciated and wowed.

Starting with the invention of a light bulb by Edison, light sources have now evolved to a point were apart from merely giving light output it has got a million different features right from saving enivronment and human health to making life interesting, luxurious and comfortable.

While working at an international light manufacturing company i noticed that my collegues always talked about light sources and fixtures and power and so on and soforth. It was as if they always talked about work. But after working for 3 years i realised that i became a part of the discussions and all of a sudden it never felt as if we were talking about work. It was all about passion for the work that we did. I really started enjoying the conversations. I was a design engineer for LED drivers. Most of us might not know what LED drivers are, so to give a brief idea.

If you take a light source such as fluroscent light bulb the complete package includes, fluroscent tube or bulb, fixture, power chord, ballast (it is called driver for LED light). The input to the lamp is AC alternating current. If AC current is directly allowed to the lamp we will notice flickering of the lamp and during power surges or voltage fluctuation conditions the filaments of the lamp might loose their life. Inorder to provide direct current to the lamp and avoid surges and protect the lamp a circuit is designed such that it converts AC supply to DC and protect from surges. This circuit is called a ballast or a driver. Additionally the driver can be incoorporated with additional features such has having a proper feedback system to maintain stability in the light output as well as dim the light output or max it out.

When it comes to LED light sources. The driver plays a cruicial role as even minor instablity can cause lot of flicker in the light output. Also LED lighting being highly energy efficient the design of the driver should be equally efficient to provide better results.

Coming to my interests it was not just limited to designing LED drivers but it outgrew to various other concepts and what always cuaght my attention was the latest lighting sources and lighting solutions, their applications.

I started this blog to put up information on what are the latest light forms avaiable in market and i would request everyone to freely comment or post to the site information they come across about any new lighting sources or solutions be it from the latest to traditional forms of fixtures, bulbs, drivers or designs.