Although LED lighting has its critics, a number of whom (see article ‘LED – panacea or marketing hype’, HEJ – February 2012) are concerned about what they claim are some manufacturers’ ‘exaggerated claims’ about lighting efficiency and lamp lifetime, Philips Lighting believes that, such are the advances being made in this innovative lighting technology, that LED’s overall share of the European lighting market will have risen from around 7% in 2008 to 25% by 2020 and that, a decade later, it will account for a remarkable 75% of lighting sales.
In the UK, Philips’ technical and design director for Lighting, Mike Simpson, told HEJ editor, Jonathan Baillie, healthcare estates and facilities managers are increasingly recognising the potential to save energy, reduce carbon emissions, and cut maintenance costs, using LED.
Meeting me recently at Philips UK’s impressive modern offices in Guildford, Mike Simpson made clear early in our discussions his enthusiasm for LED lighting in its many forms. He explained that, although Philips Lighting still devotes R&D effort and investment to improving the performance of its other lighting technologies, such as fluorescent and metal halide, it is now putting ‘a very substantial focus’ on LED. The figures on predicted growth in its takeup explain why. He said: “Our data suggests that, while in 2008, LED had around 7% of the overall European lighting market, by 2020 this will have risen to 25%, and, by 2030, LED will have captured as much as 75% of available lighting sales.” LED lighting’s claimed advantages are now well-publicised – not only, provided, of course, that the luminaries and LEDs are efficiently designed and assembled, can the lamps last anything up to 50,000 hours, but the lighting also reportedly consumes around one fifth of the energy of the tungsten halogen lamps widely used for many years, but which are to be officially phased out under EU law starting this year. LED light is also recognised at being especially effective in applications requiring good directional focus, and indeed the wide range of luminaries and fittings now available offers considerable scope for creating different ‘moods’ and effects, an important attribute in a hospital setting, where studies have shown that ‘good quality’ lighting can have a marked effect on recovery. In addition, there is no IR radiation or UV light in the LED beam, while, from an architectural/design standpoint (Philips Lighting claims), LED lights offer ‘vivid saturated colours, without the need to use filters’, have a solid state design, and are ‘robust and vibration-proof’. Due to better optical control, they also reportedly reduce light pollution. A considerable list of selling points then, but I was nevertheless keen to find out from Mike Simpson why Philips Lighting is so confident that LED will see such an inexorable growth in its use that, by 2030, the company expects some other lighting technologies to have been almost eclipsed.
Extensive experience
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