by 
MONTREAL — A new white paper providing guidelines for developing high-performance solid state downlights is now available from Future Lighting Solutions. The paper, titled “Enabling LED-Based Recessed Downlight Applications,” describes the considerations and components for implementing LED-based downlight fixtures that meet market needs as well as ENERGY STAR® requirements, including light output, efficacy and longevity benchmarks.
Topics covered in the paper include component selection, how to determine the corrected drive parameters, and the role of optical, thermal and power solutions in producing reliable solid state downlighting.
Examples provided utilize Philips Lumileds LUXEON® Rebel LEDs, NXP dimmable IC drivers, and Future Lighting Solutions simpleLED® light engines that accelerate time to market by providing LEDs, secondary optics and onboard connectors already mounted on circuit boards. The simpleLED off-the-shelf assemblies also include UL recognition that eliminates the need for a full in-system LED component investigation to obtain UL Listed status for new luminaires.
The paper provides a road map for implementing a Future-developed 4” and 6” reference design for recessed downlight systems.
The attention to downlight applications reflects the fact that downlighting accounts for up to one-fourth of the lighting energy used. LED-based downlights reduce energy consumption by 45% to 80% over conventional luminaires. They also significantly reduce bulb replacements costs because they have longer hours of operation compared to traditional light sources, provide a green RoHS-compliant, and enable far more flexible designs because of their small form factor.
Thanks for the solid article, Joanne, you touch on a lot of interesting points. Of particular interest to me is…
China’s real estate markets are still on shaky ground. We’re all familiar with risks associated with uncontrolled growth in financial and real estate markets.
It is somewhat fascinating to me how different the Chinese real estate market is. For example, in certain provinces, the government has restrictions on the number of homes and real estate one is allowed to purchase. Obviously, this is a practice which could never happen in the states!
I'm very interested to see how things shake out.
Very interesting, Joanne. Do you have any ideas in mind for what can be done to try to keep China's growth stable and not repeat the types of crises experienced in the past?
Thanks for a well-researched, balanced article. China is in the news a lot, but you hit on the areas most crucial to the supply chain. I have a question: The world economy is tied to China's growth, but China seems to want to keep itself detatched –at least in the currency markets–from global economics. What are your thoughts?
I think it will be interesting how all this plays out. One major aspect of all this to watch is China’s increasing influence in Africa. In recent years, economic activity in Africa has surged by China becoming a large investor in many African nations. This is no coincidence as these African nations are also rich in natural resources. Yes, China will be a major player in REE exploration and mining, but will Africa become the new battleground due to its vast and untouched resources? Keep your eyes on Africa’s future role in the REE supply chain as well.
Barbara, China is after stability, both economically and politically. That's why it must keep its currency relatively stable. Have you seen what the herd of currency speculators can do to a defenseless currency? You can bet they would like to start a run on the Yuan right now and are putting aside the resources to take on China's currency if it is ever allowed to float. This does not mean it is in China's long-term interest to keep its currency on a tight leash, however. The rest of the world won't stand for it and will eventually kick hard enough to get their points across and influence change in China.
China's economy grew 6.9 per cent last year, according to official figures released on Tuesday, the slowest pace since 1990.
Adam Hochfelder