BG Luceco LED Lighting

Maybe your lightbulbs burned out over the winter, or maybe you just made a New Year's resolution to upgrade to LED lighting - who knows? But if you're disposing of old and expired lightbulbs, there are a lot of complicated recycling guidelines. Some can be thrown out with the rest of the rubbish; others need to be collected. In this article, we hope to dispel some of that confusion. When a lightbulb is recycled, it gets sent to the reprocessor where it is crushed. 98% of the material (glass, plastic, and metal), can then be reused. It's the circle of life. Incandescent Lightbulbs Incandescent lightbulbs are non-recyclable and should be disposed of along with the rest of the household waste. These bulbs are made of a different type of glass than bottles - and the fine wires in the processing are very hard to filter out. Compact Fluorescent Lamps (CFLs) Fluorescent light fittings are Waste Electrical & Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Category 5, and must be collected separately for disposal or dropped off at collection points. The handy site Recolight provides a map of the nearest collection points to your postcode. If you have a house full of CFL lightbulbs and a trek from the nearest collection point, it's probably best to wait until you have a collection of expired bulbs - just make sure they don't smash! Fluorescent Tubes Fluorescent tube lights fall under the same regulations as CFLs above: drop them off at your nearest collection point. For larger projects like commercial refitting, you can request a lamp collection. Halogen Lamps Halogen lightbulbs cannot be recycled with regular glass and should be disposed of with regular household waste. Metal Halide BulbsAs with energy-saving lights, high-output metal halide lamps should be recycled in the same manner as CFL bulbs. Light-emitting diodes (LEDs) LED bulbs contain no harmful substances and individual LEDs can be disposed of in household waste. However, it is advisable to check the disposal guidelines for the housing and equipment in which they are housed, which often contain plastics. Photo by phozographer on Flickr (Creative Commons)

The LEDs are a fast evolving technology, from small lamps to higher wattage lamps. They will eventually get to the point where they will replace the high incandescent lamps and even the fluorescent lamps. But not yet. Not this year, but most likely soon, the LED lights will be THE LIGHTS people will use (unless someone develops a better technology for lighting). There is a continual need for innovation in this domain, and it is foreseen that the LED lights are to be the new technology as far as illumination is concerned. LED Lighting Continues to Improve We wrote an article a while ago introducing some of the advantages and disadvantages of LED lights, and someone recently commented rightly on it saying that CFLs and T5 fluorescent lamps can offer a better CRI (color rendering) illumination output. In the beginning, people loved LED lights because of the light effect they offer, and not the color rendering, the illumination effect. Especially the small, tiny LED lights, offer more lighting effect, giving out the light but not yet matching what we used to have with a dichroic lamp, a CFL, or a fluorescent fitting. The light output is not as crisp, as good, and as useful for general lighting as the lighting solutions we are used to have. But now with the latest LED technologies out there, you can have COB LED lights (Chips on Board). This technology allows multi-LED chips to be packaged together as one lighting module, and when it lights up, it looks like a lighting panel (see more here).COB LED Lights at Sparks The Latest LED Technology - COB Halers LED lighting were the market leader in affordable LED lights approx. 6 months ago, but now it is the COB technology for the LED lighting. The CREE Chip is also good, the "Rolls Royce of LED Chips", offering brightness and reliability for power LEDs (plus efficient, environmentally friendly LED lights) - read more via cree.com. Note: the Halers LED lamps are no longer available at Sparks. The COB technology will allow the LED lights using it to be dimmable to almost 0 (not 25-30%, as many LED lights do today), and they offer an improved lighting output quality, bringing it more to the color rendering we are used to in the older light bulbs (CFLs, compact fluorescent, etc). Here are some of their advantages: Higher quality. Since the entire PCB (including the LED portion) is all machine-produced at the same time, the end result will be more uniform in construction. Increased thermal dissipation. Better thermal management, because the LED is directly attached to the PCB, giving it more surface area to pass heat away from the LED die. Fewer solder joints. Less soldering means a lower risk of a loss in performance due to a bad solder joint. Larger LED surface area. The better control of the cooling, the larger LED emitters can be built. What's Next for LED Lights? The LED technologies are in continual development, and we don't know what the future holds for the space of lighting in general. Would we use LED lights in all the lighting applications? Not yet, maybe not in all general lighting applications, because they are still expensive and the light they offer is not refined to be what we need... But as time gos on, as the LED technologies evolve, the LED lights become better and their price is not that high. For now we can recommend you the latest technology of LEDs incorporated in the ELAN range of IP65 fire-rated LED downlights available at Sparks for as low as £39 + VAT. Very affordable. They include many of the latest technologies like COB, fire protection, IP rating, energy saving, etc. Also, they come in the Fixed or Adjustable version (fixed or tilting), and each range offers you either Neutral White or Warm White light, in a White or Brushed Nickel finish. Check these out for yourself!The latest LED lights at Sparks

A while ago the BBC reported on a new plastic lightbulb that apparently gives a better quality of light than modern fluorescent bulbs and twice the energy efficiency. The research behind the "FIPEL" technology is now online, ahead of publication in the peer-reviewed journal Organic Electronics (thanks to R&D for the link!). The lighting industry is a technological wonderland lately! "Glowing Layers of Malleable Plastic" FIPEL (an acronym for Field-Induced Polymer Electroluminescence) bulbs were developed by Dr. David Carroll at Wake Forest University in North Carolina. The science is outlined in the Organic Electronics paper above, but in brief: the lights are made from layers of polymer containing nanomaterials that glow when an electric current is passed through them. It sounds like it should generate some heat, but reports say it doesn't. FIPEL also offers a few other, rather futuristic advantages over current tech. The Advantages of FIPEL FIPEL is primarily pitched at the market for fluorescent lighting, such as offices and high-bay warehouses. The most salient advantage is that they don't hum or flicker like contemporary lights, which should bring some joy to office workers. The plastic lamps are also malleable, so they can be arranged into whatever shape you like, and shatterproof. The composite materials can be made to a range of specifications such as ceiling-mounted "sheets."Buy Energy Saving Lighting Wake Forest are hopeful that the technology will later be adopted in the retail market. In terms of colour temperature, these lamps are closer to natural daylight than anything available on the consumer market. Fluorescent lamps tend to be "warmer" than the ideal level; LEDs are generally cooler. This means they're great for indoor workers! To stave off concerns about longevity, Carroll claims that he's had a prototype running in his office for close to a decade. But whether FIPEL poses a real threat to fluorescent lighting remains to be seen. PureLux, Wake Forest University's commercial lighting technology arm, are set to bring FIPEL to the consumer market in 2013. There's still no word on pricing - and pricing has been one of the major obstacles for energy-efficient lighting. Until then, why not take a look at the LED light fittings available at Sparks?

On Tuesday, the UK government announced plans to reduce household energy bills by regulating the tariffs on offer by energy companies. Back in April, Nick Clegg said that seven out of ten people were on the wrong energy tariff, and paying too much as a result. Energy prices have more than doubled in the last decade due to wildly escalating fuel costs and currently stand at an all-time high. The forthcoming Energy Bill aims for the fairer treatment of consumers. Essentially, it's reducing confusion: by 2014, energy companies will offer four core tariffs. A standard variable rate, a fixed rate, and two further tariffs of the providers' choice - kept in order to promote competition and consumer choice. About 85% of customers are on either a standard- or fixed-rate tariff, and the bill ensures that they are easily comparable between providers. This cuts the number of available plans down from the literally thousands on offer from the "Big Six" energy companies and their competitors. Energy providers will also be required to automatically switch their customers onto the lowest tariff available to them. The New Energy Bill: The Basics  Energy companies will offer four 'core' energy tariffs of each kind of fuel available They will be required to offer a single price for each of the four tariff types No prohibition on 'dual fuel' discounts or discounts for lower-cost payment methods "Dead" tariffs - those no longer available to new customers - will be banned Customers will be informed of the cheapest available tariff and will be switched over automatically Ofgem's original proposals are available in their press release, so you can see for yourself how these were upheld in January after the government is finished deliberating on the proposals. The bill could come into action as soon as summer 2013; the government hopes that the move will be complete by the summer of 2014. Under the current proposals, households will stand to save up to £300. Worries and Criticisms Sadly, this doesn't necessarily mean lower bills - not at the speed energy prices are rising. And the cheapest tariff isn't necessarily the best choice - there are concerns that this move will shunt out the niche, tailored energy plans on which many people rely. There's also the risk that this could mean the end of experimenting with new energy-conserving plans and new technologies. For example, with no loopholes for pilot schemes, there will be no tariff for the forward-thinking consumer who drives an electric car. Reducing confusion can only be a good thing for the average consumer, but there is a fine political line between offering the best deals and reducing or even eliminating the element of choice. But more importantly: what do you think? Does the Energy Bill mean a better deal for consumers? And what could it mean for the electrical industry? Further Reading BBC News Guardian Image by Brian Talbot on Flickr (Creative Commons)Energy Saving Lights at Sparks