LED Lighting Replacement For Conventional HPS/HID Lights

Though far from an LED Grow Light and not fine tuned for the wavelengths required by plants, this could be a direct solid state lighting replacement for Indoor Gardeners that currently use HID or HPS bulbs.

After four years of extensive Research & Development, Remco Solid State Lighting Inc., a Toronto, Canada-based SSL Solutions Company, has broken through the barrier to replace conventional street lighting with its recently patented SSL technology and LED-based street light.

Its disruptive SSL technology utilizes the dynamic resistance of LEDs providing a LED light engine that is up to 98% power efficient – only a 2% power loss that enables optimal power and LED lighting efficiencies. IES certified photometric lab results and successful pilot field-testing conducted at Camp Borden military base have verified these industry-leading levels of performance.

A number of companies have ventured into the LED street lighting market with varying degrees of success. Now, Remco Solid State Lighting has delved into this market utilizing its recently patented power efficient light engine and prototyped an LED Street Light for a truly equivalent LED replacement of the conventional cobra head street light.

“Real LED-based lighting application replacements for existing light sources must be direct lighting replacement solutions - lumen for lumen and LUX for LUX, plus offer the benefits of energy savings and reduced maintenance cost," stated Ron Russell, Remco’s CTO and inventor of Remco’s patented LED light engine. Not only is it scaleable to all lighting applications but it also offers a significant competitive advantage in high power LED lighting applications.

Conventional street lights typically use a high-pressure sodium bulb. Even non-technical people can see the difference in the picture. The CTO also conveyed that, despite having retrofitted a cobra head street light fixture with Remco’s proprietary thermal management and LED light engine using a stock HPS cobra head lens, Remco’s LED Street Light was able to outperform and produce more light at a greater efficiency than the conventional high-pressure sodium street light.

Mark Matthews, Remco's President and CEO stated, “What we strive to achieve with our SSL technology and LED lighting applications is equivalent useable lumens utilizing LEDs to replace conventional lighting with significant energy savings. Our Light engine is up to 98% power efficient and this technology is the key, especially in high power lighting applications."

According to Alex Savu, Energy Manager at Camp Borden military base in Canada (where the LED street light pilot test was performed), conventional HPS street lights consume 138 watts (100 watt HPS bulb plus the ballast which consumes an additional 38 watts) and the Remco prototype (a light engine and LED fixture within a cobra head fixture) consumed only 111 watts to generate 4770 useable lumens – a direct lighting replacement.

Matthews explained that, “While the test confirms only a 20% energy savings at 40.1 lumens per watt, these results are excellent considering that we have incorporated our LED fixture within a cobra head fixture and lost 20% of the lumens output absorbed by the standard HPS cobra head lens; whereas, we could have generated approximately 5300 useable lumens without the HPS lens.”

“When we complete our commercial product to replace all models of 100 watt HPS street lights (Note: the ballast also consumes 38 watts) with our patented LED light engine, proprietary thermal management and optics, utilizing 100 lumens/watt white LEDs, the commercial Remco LED street light luminaire will achieve approximately a 50% energy savings at 72 watts.”

It is estimated that there are 50 million 100 watt conventional street lights in North America, and we would like to replace all conventional street lights worldwide with Remco’s energy efficient LED Street Light as a contribution to help reduce Global Warming.

Alex Savu reported that since performing the tests, he has seen the superior performance of Remco's LED Street Light. He said, "The light is phenomenal. Basically, it is superior. It looks good!" He explained, "We would have to change our current units ten times before changing one of their units. The way we operate our lights, their units will last 27.4 years." (10 hours per day, seven days per week.)

Savu added, "Once we put theirs up, there were no complaints whatsoever." “However,” he said, "most of the other street lights we tested received complaints; either they were not bright enough or there was something wrong with the light."

In addition to its power efficient light engine for street lights, the company has developed a fully integrated pendant linear SSL luminaire prototype to replace fluorescent lighting capable of 66% energy savings as well fabricating prototypes of Edison-based LED bulbs with brightness levels equivalent to the incandescent bulbs they replace at energy savings of 85% to 95%!

Remco’s new LED light engine technology and SSL luminaires are gaining attention. In 2008 the company was selected as one of Canada’s Top Ten Cleantech technology companies by the Ottawa Centre for Research and Innovation.

Remco is on the verge of setting new standards in the Solid State Lighting industry and is currently seeking capital and licensing to major global lighting/fixture organizations and/or international distributors to collectively take a commanding lead in high power LED lighting applications.

Photo cutline: Remco’s Bright LED Street Light is in the foreground and conventional HPS street lights in the background.