LEDs Magazine Newsletter 20 November 2019 - Editor's Commentary

Nov. 19, 2019

Welcome to the LEDs Magazine weekly newsletter for Nov. 20, 2019. Last week we had a news item about two separate groups filing suit against the US Department of Energy (DOE) for rollback of LED lamp efficacy regulatory policy. Those suits will take months to work through the courts system, but already there has been more activity questioning and protesting the DOE’s actions.

Our Carrie Meadows covered the latest actions in a blog post last Friday. Not surprisingly, California will move forward with stricter efficacy standards. Indeed, California has previously adopted efficacy policy either earlier chronologically and/or more stringent in efficacy, relative to the rest of the US, although the Trump administration has fought California over such actions in cases such as automotive fuel efficiency. But the attack against Trump’s DOE in this case is much broader than California, with senators from many states protesting the DOE’s actions.

As I’ve promised previously, we have more details for you on the upcoming Strategies in Light event set for Feb. 11–13 in San Diego, CA. Conference co-chair Bob Steele has written an article that previews the four keynote presentations and also provides some additional highlights.  Bob will also return to his roots as one of the co-founders of the event and of Strategies Unlimited, and make a Plenary Session presentation on the LED and solid-state lighting (SSL) sectors. Given his long experience, that presentation will surely be very educational and will also offer a summary of the latest market projections from Strategies Unlimited.

We’ve had some interesting product and business news of late. Cree Lighting made its first major announcement since the company was acquired by Ideal Industries. The announcement covered a partnership with Synapse Wireless covering the use of the SimplySNAP wireless platform in Cree Lighting products intended for outdoor, parking, and high-bay-industrial applications. Cree Lighting has long offered its SmartCast wireless scheme for applications such as offices, schools, medical facilities, and other indoor settings. Now SimplySNAP will complement SmartCast.

In the packaged LED space, Lumileds has launched three new sets of chip-on-board (COB) LEDs under the Luxeon CX brand. Lumileds said the new products deliver 14% improvement in flux compared to prior-generation LEDs. The product families also have models intended to maximize center-beam candle power and models that perform on or below the black-body curve.

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You will find many more stories of interest in the body of today’s newsletter. Please note my relatively new email address below. And always feel free to contact me to discuss content we post or to pitch a contributed article.

- Maury Wright, (858) 748-6785, [email protected]