Sunday, March 6, 2011
Apple Turnovers and ActiveLED™ Are a Good Mix at Brothers Bakery
Marble Falls, Texas – Brothers Bakery is well-known in and around Central Texas for its treats, but what may not be apparent is how the café is illuminated in a state-of-the-art and environmentally-friendly way.
The owner, Ryan Malamud, recently installed super energy-efficient, mercury-free LED panel lights in the café after learning about them from his frequent customers, Tony Sieli , LED Lighting Consultant and CEO Klaus Bollmann. Sieli and Bollmann are both local to Marble Falls, so they offered the LED lights as an alternative to Malamud’s conventional T-12 fluorescent lights.
Ringdale, headquartered in Georgetown, Texas, is a leading manufacturer of commercial LED light fixtures for indoor and outdoor use. www.ringdale.com/lighting
Ringdale suggested the 48-watt, 2’ x 4’ Ringdale ActiveLED™ lights to Malamud as a demonstration to other patrons that LED lights are a better light source over conventional fluorescent lights. LED lighting uses far less electricity than fluorescent, incandescent, high-pressure sodium and other conventional light sources and lasts much longer.
“Customers have been very impressed with the LED lights,” Malamud said. “The bright, yet soothing white light of the LEDs improves the ambiance in the cafe as well as the look of the art hanging on the walls.”
Malamud was changing fluorescent lights every three to six months. Sieli said the café can expect to save at least 50% in energy and maintenance costs using Ringdale ActiveLED lights. Now that’s a lot of dough
LED Lighting Market Has Room for Less Fancy
Tom Griffiths - Publisher
August 12, 2010...In a pair of May editorials (Driving down the costs - Part 1 & Part 2) we talked about some of areas where cost will be driven out of LEDs and solid state lighting solutions. In both, we discussed how we might hit price floors that the industry will settle on and simply add features to, similar to how laptop PCs have stubbornly clung to something around a $500 price point as the floor for something fairly full featured. That doesn't mean everyone will head to the low point with their products. There is going to be plenty of room for varying levels of quality and engineering that will reflect as "commercial" versus "consumer" or "feature rich" versus "base model". There will also be examples of products that are thoughtfully designed to be commercial grade, without having to be particularly pretty, for the job they do. How many of us have marveled at the artfullness of the gymnasium lights?... Fair to say 'none'?.As an example of cost-optimization, we're seeing some interesting examples play out in the virtual aisles of Home Depot. Back in the May/June time frame, Home Depot added an A19/Edison type incandescent replacement under the EcoSmart brand name (their in-house private label brand), courtesy of Lighting Sciences Group. I haven't seen it show up in my local Home Depot yet, but it does show up online as a "40w equivalent" for $19.97. LSG hasn't commented that I know of, but the industry consensus is that we're looking at the same product as their Definity A19 3000K model that puts out about 430 lumens on about 8 watts (54 lumens/watt). Interestingly, while it's priced for less than $20 at Home Depot, it sells for substantially more inside the commercial lighting channels. It looks like a good placeholder product that LSG would presumably plan to cost engineer, and perhaps "feature down" as time passes, while "featuring up" the commercial versions to justify the higher selling price. One can only guess if LSG is making any money on the EcoSmart version, given that Home Depot needs some margin in order to carry the product. Survey says... well, it doesn't seem to be a hard guess. Keep in mind, cell phones are all sold well below cost in order to make it up in service, so as long as your plan includes making money "with the business model" it can all work out.
In another move at Home Depot, Cree has apparently cut a deal to add the giant as a retail channel for their CR6 downlight. The CR6 was announced a bit ago as a cost-optimized approach to compliment their popular LR6 which was the original "good enough for prime time" commercial market entry product acquired as part of the LLF deal. There hasn't been an official announcement yet, but Cree President, Chuck Swoboda, let it be known in their recent earnings conference call that the CR6 would be stocked under the EcoSmart brand, and selling for less than $50. As Chuck said, Cree's goal is to, "...challenge people's addiction to inefficient lighting," and this looks like a good way to move that agenda forward. The product has shown up on Home Depot's website, and according to the statement on the call, it should be in the stores this fall.
Since their conference call, Cree's stock price has been punished for forecasting $270M - $280M in revenues next quarter, when the analysts were averaging a guess of $284M. How dare they... They did turn in a 48 cents a share net (up 400%+ from a year earlier), which came in short of analysts expectations, and they aren't getting much credit for 56 to 59 cents a share forecast beating the 54 analysts say they expected. The stock market is a fickle mistress, no doubt, and one suspects the analysts either didn't hear, or didn't much care about the Home Depot deal. Of course, this is all reported by folks that can miss on their interpretations of "the why" in probably the same way they might make a small goof on "the who" (cached version of "supercomputer maker Cree..."). Oops, that would be C-R-A-Y. Personally, I think it's a jittery market that is looking for excuses to to explain bits of irrationality, or "guilt by association" when it shows up. Cree, LSG, and Nexxus are the only publicly traded LED/SSL fairly pure-plays, so you're never sure what "the street" really thinks they are, and what success is going to look like.
On the other track, regarding "engineered but not fancy", we had a chance to visit a rare local-to-Austin SSL manufacturer named Ringdale. It was an interesting visit, with their facility located in the not-fancy area of nearby Georgetown, right next to the airport, in an unassuming building that is being remodeled with their own solid state lighting and controls. It was difficult to pin down exactly what Ringdale's expertise was ahead of time, as LED lighting is a new avenue for the 30+ year old company. We had the pleasure of spending some dedicated time with Klaus Bollmann, who is CEO and head visionary for the company. Klaus has been "extracting light" from things for a similar 30+ years, going back to days at the epitaxial level with semiconductor lasers. What we saw was some non-glitzy common sense engineering that appears to be backed up by results. A big part of their ActiveLED product line is built around a custom implementation of Nichia die and phosphor that they have packaged (not by Nichia) into a neat 4x9 array that is mounted to their secondary heat sinks with clips that allow the metals to expand and contract without stress as you would find in other bonding approaches (they have the IP on that trick). They have also designed their extrusions that reflect and direct the light to take advantage of the natural imperfections that come any time you have light passing through materials, whether it be lenses or simply air. By harnessing imperfection, they are able to get the light where they want, without having to take "exotic" or "perfect" approaches to get it to do that.
They've also taken a general approach of not eeking out every bit of performance into the smallest package, and lo and behold, the "relaxed" system isn't pressing the envelope of anything. Big, nearly mil-grade capacitors were selected for their highbay's power supply so that getting to rated life wasn't going to need to be a 'hopefully' proposition. How long do lightly-taxed power LEDs run when you keep the junction temps at a sane level? The answer is 'a long time' (ask again after the ActiveLED luminaires been running for 10 years and we'll probably have an even better estimate of how much longer they'll go for). Ringdale also developed their own controls, taking advantage of lessons they learned from years in the printer protocol and networking environments. The wall control is intuitive and simple, with high and low settings, as well as motion sensor timeouts all easy to program, at a price that appears easy to swallow. The control itself typically connects to the fixture nearest the switch (which is usually battery backed-up with nearly a week of runtime), and then the rest of the fixtures wirelessly sync levels with whatever the master has been set to. The controls and back-up side has set them up to take advantage of solar systems, including incorporating an approach that slightly dims the lights as the battery state slowly declines. That results in radically extending the useful amount of light without taking the batteries to the levels than can impact their lifetime.
They've got some artsy products as well, including a nice shiny walkway bollard, but even that uses the same simple building blocks, without having to get fancy. There's always room to bring common sense to the party. www.ringdale.com/lighting
University of North Texas Health goes with Ringdale ActiveLED
University of North Texas Health Science Center Lights Up Parking
Garage With LED Fixtures: Reduces Energy Usage by 67%
FORT WORTH, TX – LED Lighting Group (LLG) announces the retrofit of a
five story parking garage for UNT Health Science Center with LED light
fixtures. State of the art 52 Watt LED fixtures replaced existing
fluorescent fixtures, providing an energy efficient sustainable lighting
solution.
The installation at UNT / HSC of 101 Ringdale LED garage fixtures reduced energy
consumption by 67% while improving the distribution of light and
increasing light levels. The project (materials, installation and rebate) will
payback in less than two years and reduce CO2 emissions by over 1.5
million pounds over ten years.
"Quality lighting is very important in this garage. LED products have
reduced energy consumption and improved the safety and ambience of the
garage," said Robert Short, Project Engineer, University of North Texas
Health Science Center. "The LLG fixture outperformed other LED fixtures
which we tested while offering an impressive payback."
“Energy producer rebates and federal tax incentive programs are in place
to support the replacement of less efficient lighting fixtures with LED.
These programs have followed the most strict product guidelines
established for LED product. That holds the LED to a very high standard - a
point of pride for us. These incentives have helped move LED lighting
solutions to a mainstream market position which opens a much greener
lighting alternative to the market.” Said Stephen Thomas, a partner in LED
Lighting Group.
LED Lighting Group offers lighting products for commercial, industrial and
manufacturing facilities that save energy and reduce maintenance costs.
“We offer lighting products that enable users to better control their
operating costs. A mercury-free product, LED is ideal for an organization’s
green positioning, and over its long life it is the most economical solution
for general lighting,” said partner Mark Angle.
LED Lighting Group offers consultation and energy efficient lighting
solutions for municipalities, school districts and industry.
Friday, February 25, 2011
Ringdale ActiveLED Renovates Headquarters in Georgetown
Ringdale Renovates Headquarters with ActiveLED Lighting
Austin, Texas – Ringdale, Inc., a global leader in commercial LED lighting, announces a major renovation of its U.S. headquarters incorporating green building practices, replacing all lighting with its ActiveLED™ fixtures. The revamped facility, which more than doubles the existing production area, enables Ringdale to meet its growing customer demand while saving a comprehensive 85% in lighting energy costs using its LED technology.
Ringdale’s ActiveLED product line encompasses the industry’s largest variety of LED luminaires for interior and exterior commercial applications, including streets and roadways, parking structures, building exteriors, warehouses, offices, retail spaces, restaurants, billboards and architectural accents. The ActiveLED fixtures can be combined with Ringdale’s Net-Zero Solar Solution to provide off-grid powering in cases where electricity is not available or where a 100% free energy, carbon neutral design is preferable.
ActiveLED fixtures deliver better illumination and 50-95% less energy usage than any conventional lighting source. Ringdale integrated its own patented solid-state lighting control and thermal management technology with the best LED element available to develop the ActiveLED product line. The mercury-free, solid-state lights are easy to install and use. All of the products are developed, manufactured and tested by Ringdale in its facility in Georgetown, Texas.
For advanced lighting control capabilities in applications with intermittent use such as parking structures, conference rooms and stairwells, ActiveLED luminaires can be interconnected with Ringdale’s own intelligent controller, Light Space Manager™, to save an additional 10-25% in energy usage. Light Space Manager combines the capabilities of a light switch, dimmer and occupancy sensor in a single, easy-to-deploy wall or ceiling unit and is a fraction of the cost compared to other lighting control mechanisms in the industry.
“Our lighting retrofit is an example of the significance of our advanced LED lighting in terms of sustainability and economic performance,” said Klaus Bollmann, CEO, Ringdale Inc. “It also proves that Ringdale LED lighting can be applied across all applications for improved lighting and control.”
ActiveLED Lighting fixtures are backed by a ten-year warranty on LED elements and fixtures and five-year warranty on the power supply. For more information, contact Ringdale in the United States at 512-288-9080 or in the United Kingdom at +44-1444-871-349.
About Ringdale
About Ringdale
Ringdale focuses on helping organizations incorporate “green savings” into their business environments. Ringdale provides ActiveLED™ luminaires with patented, solid-state lighting control and thermal management technology as well as a wide range of secure document output management, access control and document workflow solutions. Ringdale Inc. is based in the United States and United Kingdom with offices in France, Germany, Japan and Singapore. It is part of the Network Technology PLC Group of Companies (NTY) listed on the London Stock Exchange. Visit Ringdale at www.ringdale.com/lighting .
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Ringdale and Clean Technology Solutions Announce First Sale of ActiveLED(R) Lighting Fixtures in Latin America
Ringdale and Clean Technology Solutions recently signed an agreement to have CTS exclusively distribute the ActiveLED product line to the rapidly emerging green building market in Latin America.
"We are excited that our partnership with Ringdale to bring ActiveLED to Latin America quickly resulted in the completion of a sale that will significantly lower our customer's energy costs," said Adolfo Salume, CEO, Clean Technology Solutions. "ActiveLED, which offers the broadest range of commercial indoor and outdoor LED lighting products in the industry, will benefit Latin American businesses eager to implement energy efficient solutions in almost any application scenario."
Ringdale's ActiveLED line includes fixtures for streets and roadways, parking structures, billboards, building exteriors, warehouses, offices, retail spaces, parks and restaurants. The fixtures deliver better illumination and use 50-95% less energy than fluorescent, incandescent, high-pressure sodium and other conventional light sources, and last far longer.
"We are pleased to have Clean Technology Solutions help us expand our global range of customers," said Klaus Bollmann, CEO, Ringdale. "We hope to leverage CTS's relationships in Latin America to accelerate sales of ActiveLED in the region."
About Ringdale
Ringdale focuses on helping organizations incorporate green savings into their business environments. Ringdale provides ActiveLED(R) luminaires with patented, solid-state lighting control and thermal management technology as well as a wide range of secure document output management, access control and document workflow solutions. Ringdale Inc. is based in the United States with offices in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Japan and Singapore and is part of the Network Technology PLC Group of Companies. Visit Ringdale at http://www.ringdale.com/lighting .
About Clean Technology Solutions
Clean Technology Solutions LLC is the premier distribution company for leading edge, environmentally friendly, alternative technology solutions in Latin America, the Caribbean and Europe. Through CTS' affiliation to Sail Venture partners, CTS has access to deep and wide technical capabilities and a substantially large network of subject matter experts that provide technical and business advice both in the company selection as well as in market penetration stages. CTS' mission is to identify and develop markets for new and non-conventional solutions and bring practical improvements to their clients in the fields of Building Efficiency, Automotive Efficiency, Clean Water Solutions and Cellular Technology. CTS promotes the use of clean technologies in Latin America, Caribbean and European enterprises by reducing costs and maximizing resources, thereby lowering their carbon footprint.
Ringdale(R) and ActiveLED(R) are registered trademarks of Ringdale Inc.
Contact:
Tony Sieli
Ringdale, Inc.
Direct: +1-512-288-9080
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