作者：Blade

LED lighting brings new light pollution to Europe?

A new type of light pollution has become more prominent in much of Europe as LEDs are increasingly used in outdoor lighting, a team from the University of Exeter has found. In their paper published in the journal Science Advances, the team describes their study of photographs taken from the International Space Station.

LED lighting brings new light pollution to Europe?

Previous research has shown that artificial light in the natural environment can adversely affect wildlife and humans. For example, studies have shown that both animals and humans experience disrupted sleep patterns, and that many animals are confused by light at night, causing a range of survival problems.

In the new study, officials point out that officials in many countries have been advocating the use of LED lighting instead of traditional sodium bulbs on roads and parking areas. To learn more about the impact of this change, the researchers obtained photos taken by astronauts on the International Space Station between 2012-2013 and 2014-2020. These photos provide a better range of light wavelengths than satellite images.

Through the photos, the researchers were able to see which regions of Europe had converted to LED lighting and to what extent. They found that countries such as the UK, Italy and Ireland experienced significant changes, while others such as Austria, Germany and Belgium experienced little change. Since LEDs emit light at different wavelengths than sodium bulbs, an increase in blue light emission can be clearly seen in those areas that have been converted to LED lighting.

The researchers noted that they have found that blue light interferes with melatonin production in humans and other animals, which can interfere with sleep patterns, so increased blue light in LED-lit areas could negatively impact the environment and the people who live and work in these places. They suggested that officials had better study the impact of LED lighting carefully before moving forward with new projects.

Advantages of LED plant lighting

As life becomes more and more AI (smart), the flowers and plants that can always relieve stress and heal the soul are also very AI in planting. LEDs, which are indispensable in daily life, have expanded many new growth opportunities with the evolution of technology. , one of which is plant lighting.

Advantages of LED plant lighting

LED plant lighting has many advantages. For example, it can increase the growth rate of crops, save energy by up to 75%, and save water resources by 90%. , Both promote the development prospects of the plant and horticultural lighting market.

Plant lighting is very knowledgeable. Planters can use specific wavelengths to develop a single lighting scheme, such as blue light (420-480nm) and red light (620-670nm), or use multiple lighting schemes to form ideal light output with multiple LEDs. , to match the light required by plants at different growth stages, such as different light requirements for sowing, germination, growth, and flowering.

For the light in the red and blue bands, it has obvious effects on the cultivation of leafy vegetables, but the taste of hydroponic vegetables is still the key to improving the quality of vegetables, so the spectrum of white light plus red light is used, and other leafy vegetables and fruits, general-purpose types, etc. For example, the red light/blue light configuration of leafy vegetables is optimized to use 4:1, and the fruit such as strawberries or similar fruit economic crops should use 5:1 red/blue mixed light as the priority. For general-purpose plant growth aids, you can choose a 7:1 or 8:1 red/blue light ratio configuration.

UK agritech center to build urban vertical farms

According to official news, Current, a subsidiary of GE, provides Arize agricultural lighting solutions to the Stockbridge Technology Center in Selby, North Yorkshire, UK, and applies it to its new Vertical Farming Development Facility to help growers test and simulate their establishment of urban farm before investing.

UK agritech center to build urban vertical farms

It is reported that the new vertical farm research and development factory is located in the Stockbridge Technology Center and has received the support of the British Technology Strategy Committee (Innovate UK). Farm adoption of Current’s Arize agricultural lighting solutions will help businesses, growers and investors better understand the technical and environmental parameters needed to optimize crop yields before they start building their own vertical farms.

In order to promote commercial urban farming in the UK, the Vertical Farm Center provides a platform where potential investors and vertical farm growers can communicate and discuss with vertical farming experts. Additionally, with the help of Current’s LED lighting solutions, they were able to identify and test vertical farm setups to maximize planned harvest size, nutritional value, and visual appeal.

In addition, the vertical farm includes two identical growing rooms with a total growing area of?228 square meters, using a full range of climate control and circulating hydroponic systems. The crop racks have four tiers, all using Arize LED lights, which produce a balanced spectrum of red and blue wavelengths to help grow a wider variety of crops.

Malcolm Yare, development manager of GE’s Current Agriculture Division, said that lighting is a key factor for the successful growth of any crop. We will create more arable space in industrial and urban areas by combining the most efficient wavelengths with the best environmental conditions. Increase global crop production beyond conventional farming methods in a commercially and environmentally sustainable manner.

LED plant lights help French growers increase cucumber production

Both Jardins Réunis and Cheminant have installed LED Toplight and LED Interlight from the Philips GreenPower range in their new cucumber greenhouses in the Nantes region of France. The two growers were the first in France to grow wire cucumbers with LED lights, demonstrating their leadership as members of the Océane growers cooperative.

LED plant lights help French growers increase cucumber production

Signify pointed out that LED lighting can help increase crop yields. At the same time, because LEDs do not generate too much heat as the light increases, LED lighting also allows growers to control light and temperature. These features ensure year-round high-quality production of crops as efficiently as possible.

Cheminant co-owner Antoine (Antoine) said that LED lights provide a better balance of heat and light. Compared with high-pressure sodium lamps, LED lights can greatly promote production growth without generating heat. According to Signify’s calculations, Cheminant’s 20,000-square- meter semi-enclosed greenhouse is illuminated with LED lights, and the output will be 30% higher than that of traditional greenhouses without LED lights.

Vincent Olivon, co-owner of Jardins Réunis, said that Signify’s plantation experts can provide good advice and support. LED lighting will help companies improve energy efficiency and reduce production gaps, especially during the winter months when revenues are greater. This plays a key role in maintaining the company’s position in the market throughout the year.

It is reported that similar to Jardins Réunis and Cheminant, Eiffage énergie Systèmes, a Philips Horti LED certification partner in France, installed Philips LED Toplight (145 μmol/s/m2) and LED Interlight in its 25,000-square-meter greenhouse in November 2018. (67 μmol/s/m).

Scientists develop plants that glow green under LED lighting

Past work by the MIT team has created plants that send electrical signals when water is needed, spinach that can be used to detect explosives, and cress that glows in the dark.

Scientists develop plants that glow green under LED lighting

While the last item is interesting, its ability to emit light isn’t exactly bright enough to describe it – on the same scale as those plastic glowing stars that many of us stuck to the ceiling as children, it doesn’t help the end use case of passive lighting.

Now, researchers have boosted the brightness to a more practical level. The key is to switch the light-emitting components from luciferase and luciferin – the phosphor materials that make the fireflies glow. These materials absorb and store visible and ultraviolet light and slowly release it in the form of phosphorescence.

In this case, the team used nanoparticles made of strontium aluminate as phosphors and coated them in silica so that they wouldn’t damage the plants. These particles are then injected through pores in the leaves and eventually accumulate in a layer called the midlobe.

The plants will glow green when exposed to light from the sun or LEDs. The research team tested the technique on a range of plants, including cress, tobacco, basil, daisies and elephant ears, and found that just 10 seconds of exposure to blue LED lights made the plants glow for up to an hour. As might be expected, the light was at its brightest for the first few minutes, then dimmed for the next hour.

This light is 10 times brighter than previous technologies, and importantly, the implantation of the nanoparticles did not impair the normal functions of the plant, such as photosynthesis and evaporation of water through its leaves.

The ultimate goal, the team says, is to try to develop light-emitting plants that can be used to passively illuminate streets or other public areas, reducing the energy consumption required by street lights. The next step toward this goal is to combine the new strontium aluminate nanoparticles with an earlier luciferase enzyme, hoping to make the glow brighter and longer.

If living plants can be the starting point for advanced technology, plants could replace our current unsustainable urban electricity lighting grids, benefiting all plant-dependent species – including people. The research was published in the journal Science Advances.

Four important national lighting standards will be implemented from May 1, 2023

On the occasion of the World Standards Day on October 14, 2022, the following four important national standards under the jurisdiction of the National Technical Committee for Standardization of Lighting Electrical Appliances will be released, and the implementation date will be May 1, 2023.

Four important national lighting standards will be implemented from May 1, 2023

01 .GB/T 19258.1-2022 Ultraviolet radiation sources for sterilization – Part 1: Low pressure mercury vapor discharge lamps

GB/T 19258.1-2022 “Ultraviolet radiation sources for sterilization – Part 1: Low-pressure mercury vapor discharge lamps” replaces GB/T 19258-2012 “Ultraviolet germicidal lamps”, which regulates the relevant technical indicators of low-pressure mercury vapor discharge ultraviolet lamps And test methods, to guide and standardize the current market of double-ended, single-ended or self-ballasted ultraviolet germicidal lamps with various categories and different quality levels.

As a normative reference standard for the mandatory national standard GB 28235-2020 “Sanitary Requirements for Ultraviolet Sterilizers”, this standard effectively supports the implementation of the mandatory standard and serves the needs of prevention and control work such as the new crown epidemic.

02 GB/T 41787.1-2022 Ceiling mount interface for indoor LED lighting equipment Part 1: Specification for mechanical interface and electrical interface

GB/T 41787.1-2022 “Indoor LED Lighting Equipment Ceiling Installation Interface Part 1: Specifications for Mechanical Interface and Electrical Interface”, based on the patented technology of my country’s lighting enterprises, specifies the installation interface of indoor ceiling mounted LED lighting equipment, mainly involving the installation interface mechanical and electrical requirements, including terms and definitions, classification, technical requirements, marking, test methods, etc.

The implementation of this standard will effectively meet the needs of household consumers to easily and quickly replace common household lighting equipment such as ceiling lamps, and conform to the development trend of the lighting market led by consumption.

03 GB/T 42064-2022 General lighting equipment-Flicker characteristics-Light scintillation meter test method

GB/T 42064-2022 “Light Flicker Test Method for Flicker Characteristics of General Lighting Equipment” regulates the objective test method for the flicker characteristics of lighting equipment, and actively responds to consumers’ pain points about light flicker consumption in lighting. The test evaluation provides a fair and objective test evaluation basis. The stroboscopic phenomenon that consumers are generally concerned about is actually two aspects of “flicker” and “stroboscopic”. At present, “General Lighting Equipment – Stroboscopic Effect – Objective Test Method” has also been put on the committee’s standard project development agenda.

04 GB/T 24825-2022 DC or AC Electronic Control Gear for LED Modules Performance Specifications

GB/T 24825-2022 “Performance Specifications for DC or AC Electronic Control Devices for LED Modules” regulates the performance requirements of control devices used with LED modules. The application of LED as a lighting technology in the field of lighting has brought about changes in product form. First, the sub-categories of light sources such as LED modules have been added. With the deepening implementation of the green and low-carbon strategy, LED modules, as a typical product supporting resource conservation, will continue to highlight the importance of their market development. The control device for LED modules, as an important power supply component of LED modules, the implementation of this standard has a good standard and guiding role for the development of my country’s LED lighting market.

Using visible light communication to improve indoor positioning accuracy

GPS is the most widely used positioning technology in the world, but it is ineffective or inaccurate in indoor spaces. This is because radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted from satellites are blocked by indoor obstacles such as walls or ceilings of buildings. This shortcoming of GPS has led the industry to adopt other techniques for indoor location tracking, with varying degrees of success. IPS typically consists of two distinct elements – beacons and tags, where beacons are placed at different points in the building, and tags are carried by individuals or placed on objects that are being tracked by location. Some technologies used for location tracking include:

Using visible light communication to improve indoor positioning accuracy

Inertial Measurement Units: These units use multiple sensors such as accelerometers, magnetometers, and gyroscopes to provide information about the relative movement of the tags. An advantage of this technique is that it does not require the use of beacons, but the overall accuracy is poor (a few meters) because position errors accumulate rapidly over time.

Ultrasonics: They use sound as a communication medium, operate on time-of-flight (the time it takes for sound to travel from a beacon to a tag, and vice versa), and can resolve position to less than 1 meter, but suffer from interference from solid objects. This means that measurements are not always reliable.

Other RF technologies: The widespread availability of Bluetooth and Wi-Fi makes them well suited for use with IPS, but the main difficulty is that these signals behave very differently in the presence of obstacles and people walking around (due to reflections and multipath propagation). Ultra-Wideband (UWB) can penetrate materials such as concrete, glass, and wood, making it suitable for in-building applications (where the beacon’s line of sight is often obstructed as the tag moves around), but this technology is not yet widely used, and the power levels of some signal frequencies are limited by regulations on the use of the radio spectrum.

The methods mentioned above have certain limitations in usage and accuracy, meaning they are not ideal for IPS applications, while visible light communication (VLC) is emerging as a very promising solution to the accuracy problem. Visible light is the part of the electromagnetic spectrum (375-780nm) that the human eye can perceive, and VLC uses this bandwidth to wirelessly transmit data while illuminating indoor spaces. In a VLC system, the microcontroller modulates data onto an LED (beacon), which is received by a photodiode in the tag (e.g., a phone’s front-facing camera). Using light as a medium to transmit data requires little extra power than LED lighting requires, and installation costs are low because the lighting is already present in almost all interior spaces. While the modulated data inevitably causes the LEDs to flicker at frequencies that are imperceptible to the human eye, they are easily detected by the receiving device. By embedding a unique identifier in each LED and modulating it onto the LED driver, each light fixture (often called a light source) within a building can transmit a unique code related to its exact location. Using the identifiers received from the three luminaires, a triangulation algorithm can determine the location of the tag with an accuracy of 30 centimeters – an order of magnitude better than the best-performing radio frequency-based positioning systems.

Efficiency and compact size are two major challenges to face when designing VLC systems, and on semi’s NCL31000 advanced light engine addresses both issues by integrating all the functions that such systems require into a compact IC. It features a 97% high-efficiency LED driver, supports PWM dimming, and has an EMI-compliant DC-DC converter for driving other system components such as sensors. It also features an onboard analog-to-digital converter (ADC) that provides accurate and detailed diagnostics for the local MCU with a choice of integrated I2C or SPI bus. The NCL31000’s companion device, the NCL31001, supports multi-channel LED applications, while another IC in the family, the NCP31010, also integrates a Power-over-Ethernet (PoE) driver (still with an LED driver) into a single package, allowing data to be modulated directly to LED lights without the need for a separate Ethernet driver IC, and also allows lighting fixtures to be connected as part of a smart lighting solution. This is especially attractive to smart building designers looking to manage to light as efficiently as possible. By continuously monitoring room occupancy, lighting levels can be dynamically adjusted based on daily usage patterns. Using DC power provided by PoE drivers to power the luminaire eliminates the need for AC cables and AC/DC transformers in the luminaire, where temperature, humidity, air quality, and other smart sensors can be deployed. These ICs meet the requirements of the “yellow dot” luminaire certification program, which allows manufacturers to test and certify that their LED luminaires are interoperable with Philips’ indoor positioning technology, and is open to all luminaire manufacturers.

Indoor positioning systems have the potential to bring many benefits to managers of smart buildings, allowing them to greatly improve the user experience, safety and security of visitors to shopping malls, event venues, airports, and hospitals. GPS is not suitable for use in indoor environments, therefore, many different techniques have been tried in the industry to provide indoor tracking with varying degrees of success in providing the accuracy of location tracking. VLC overcomes the limitations and deficiencies of other technologies and can be implemented by using LED driver ICs such as NCL31000 in the design stage of LED lighting fixtures, so that the designed IPS can be used to track indoor objects and personnel positions with an accuracy of up to 30 cm.

Keelung City School Classroom Lamps Replacement LED Lamps

The Education Department of Keelung City Government said today that last year and this year, 16 million were allocated, and more than 20,000 lamps in the city’s schools were fully upgraded to LED lamps, and T5, T8, and T9 fluorescent lamps were replaced, and the problem of insufficient classroom lighting was improved. It is hoped that the rate of poor eyesight of students can be reduced, and electricity bills can also be saved.

Keelung City School Classroom Lamps Replacement LED Lamps

According to the Ministry of Education, statistics show that Taiwan has the highest proportion of myopic population in the world, with 9 out of 10 people being shortsighted, and nearly one million schoolchildren with myopia, which has become a major health problem for Taiwanese. Because the eye muscles are still developing in elementary and middle school students, the earlier they get myopia, the higher the degree of stereotypes in adulthood. Poor lighting is one of the important factors causing myopia, so we started to improve campus lighting.

The base city government has allocated 16 million yuan each in last year and this year, with a total of 32 million yuan in the two years, and fully updated 24,394 lamps in the city’s schools to LED lamps, and replaced T5, T8, T9 fluorescent lamps, and achieved classroom illumination. National illuminance standard of 500lux and blackboard illumination of 750lux.

According to the Department of Education, the information provided by the Energy Bureau of the Ministry of Economic Affairs shows that 0.554 kilograms of carbon dioxide will be produced per kilowatt-hour of electricity. According to the number of replacement groups in the city, the original use of traditional lamps of 30W for 8 hours a day, the school electricity cost is calculated at 3.52 yuan per kilowatt-hour. The school uses about 2,108,160 kWh per year, the electricity bill is about 7,420,000 yuan, and the carbon emission is about 1,167,920kgCO2. After changing to LED lamps, the city’s schools can save about 3.71 million yuan in electricity bills each year, and reduce carbon emissions by about 583,960kgCO2, each by about 50%.

Director of Education Lin Zhuli said that the lamps and lanterns purchased in the past two years are all in line with CNS regulations, and have the product certificate of luminous efficiency and energy-saving mark recognized by TAF. In addition to avoiding glare and improving illuminance by replacing the lamps in the classroom, it is also easier to maintain and replace the lamps in the school.

Buildings in Pingjiang New Town in Gusu District are replaced with LED lights of various colors

In the underground garage, the lights are on when cars come, and the lights are off when they are leaving; road light poles, the sun rises to store energy, and the sunset is self-illuminating. In Pingjiang New Town, Gusu District, many buildings have been replaced with various energy-saving lamps, including LED lamps with low power consumption and high brightness; lamps that can sense the flow of people and automatically turn off; and lamps that automatically store electricity with solar energy. These buildings greatly save electricity and cost by replacing energy-saving lamps.

Buildings in Pingjiang New Town in Gusu District are replaced with LED lights of various colors

Located on Pinglong Road, Pingjiang New Town, Suzhou City Life Plaza is a large-scale comprehensive office building integrating administration, business, office, catering, and shopping. Its underground parking garage is a multi-story duplex with more than 2,000 parking spaces. The property side of Suzhou City Life Plaza told reporters that dozens of government departments have settled in the Suzhou Administrative Service Center located in the office building, with 561 approvals, management, and service items, with an average of thousands of cases per day. “These clerks have the characteristics of relatively concentrated parking, and the traffic flow during lunch breaks and get off work hours is relatively small, so there is no need to set up permanent lights.” In October last year, in order to save electricity, Suzhou City Life Plaza changed about 1,400 permanent lights in the underground garage to induction lights. The lights will turn on when car arrives, and the light will automatically turn off when car leaves, which can save thousands of kilowatt-hours of electricity every month.” the property manager said.

In the Guofa Building, energy-saving lamps and lanterns have also been transformed. In May of this year, the B2-B3 parking lots of Guofa Building were all changed to LED energy-saving lamps, and the lighting effect was very good. “Compared with traditional lamps, LED lamps have higher lighting brightness, but the energy consumption is only 1/7 of the original, saving thousands of kilowatts of electricity every month. ”

In addition to the underground garage, some street lights in Pingjiang New City have also undergone energy-saving renovations. In Sushang Building, the street lights in the community were replaced with solar lamp heads. The reporter saw that all the street lights around this office building have a solar panel, which can store electricity during the day and continue to release it at night. About 10 hours of continuous lighting, each light pole uses about 220 kWh of electricity a year, and the property bought 17 solar street lights to replace the lamp heads on 17 light poles. The annual electricity consumption is about 3,740 kWh. “The person in charge of Sushang Building said.

Can UV-LED lights effectively kill the coronavirus?

Disinfection of contaminants remains an important public health measure to reduce the spread of various infectious diseases, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, researchers are also actively developing more efficient disinfection techniques, especially for high-traffic public places.

Can UV-LED lights effectively kill the coronavirus?

Ultraviolet (UV) light has previously been identified as a useful method of disinfection and has been shown to be effective in inactivating a wide variety of microorganisms. The advent of UV light-emitting diodes offers the advantage of ease of disinfection, as germicidal UV light can be provided using the same lighting units that provide standard white light to illuminate a room.

Scientists at the University of Toronto’s Scarborough campus have demonstrated the effectiveness and feasibility of UV light-emitting diodes as a means of purification by inactivating two different virus models: human coronavirus 229E and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Alternate between white light and germicidal ultraviolet (UV) light. With inexpensive retrofits, they can also be used in many standard lighting fixtures, bringing a “unique appeal” to public spaces, said Christina Guzzo, senior author of the study.

“We are at a critical juncture where we need to use every possible stop to get us out of this pandemic,” said Guzzo, an associate professor in the school’s Department of Biological Sciences. “Every mitigation strategy that can be easily implemented should be used.”

UV lamps kill viruses through radiation. Along with doctoral students Arvin T. Persaud and Jonathan Burnie, Guzzo first tested the lamp on bacterial spores known for their resistance to this radiation, known as Bacillus pumilus spores.

“If you can kill these spores, then you can reasonably say that you should be able to kill most other viruses that you regularly encounter in the environment,” Guzzo said.

Within 20 seconds of UV exposure, spore growth decreased by 99 percent.

The researchers then created droplets containing the coronavirus or HIV to simulate the typical way people encounter the virus in public, such as from coughing and sneezing. The droplets were then exposed to UV light and placed in a culture to see if any virus remained active. After just 30 seconds of exposure, the virus’s ability to infect was reduced by 93 percent.

When testing different concentrations of the virus, they found that samples with more viral particles were more resistant to UV light. But even with such a high viral load (which Guzzo called a “worst-case scenario”), infectivity dropped by 88%.

Although not included in the study, Guzzo and her students also compared UV light to two heavy-duty disinfectants used in the lab study. They found that the lights had a similar effect in their ability to inactivate the virus.