Whole house LED lighting

[Chooie]

My wife and I are in the process of developing a plan/design for our dream home, and I am dead set on having full dynamic control in each room - from barely candlelight for nighttime navigation to a full noontime sunshine any time I want. Right now, the LED technology to enable this is in its infancy, with high CRI power LEDs just coming onto the market. I've seen the photos of Don Mcleish's (McGizmo) home, and what he has done is great - but would just be the tip of the iceberg in 10 years time.

I'd love to see other implementations of LED lighting, or hear what you're planning.

[LukeA]

I did the nightlight in the bathroom fan/light with a warm white Cree at 350mA. That's plenty of light to do anything in the bathroom at night.

[idleprocess]

I expect that using LEDs for interior lighting will require rethinking some assumptions about lighting in general and light fixtures in specific.

Given that LEDs are solid-state devices with relatively long lifespans, they would probably best be designed into the structure as permanent fixtures - much like electrical outlets or faucets. This would be advantageous for heatsinking since there are power limitations with the "LED drop-in replacement bulb" that has nowhere to sink the heat in a typical Edison screw fixture. Perhaps heatsinking will be built in to the structure of the building or efficiencies will increase to the point that heat dissipation won't be such a concern.

I also expect that LEDs will need to be deployed in greater quantities than common incandescent and florescent bulbs/tubes, so a typical small room illuminated by LEDs may have dozens of emitters scattered across the ceiling. These could be fairly low-profile since LEDs are quite small themselves are small and the great quantity will mean that trying to cover a large fraction of the room is not necessary.

Given the eerie color rendition of common white LEDs, I expect that general-purpose LED lighting will incorporate RGB elements and be adjustable. Maybe walls will become combination OLED displays and light sources, replacing the big screen TV in the living room.

[McGizmo]

Chooie,
Thanks.
I think we are a good ways off from good off the shelf products and my concern is that if the market is too price driven that we will fall short of what could be available.

With LED's now capable of 100 lumens with good efficacy to boot, and considering how they only get better, under driven, at a minimum and quite satisfactory (IMHO) I would like to see them driven constant current and in a simple UI set up of a three speed. I.E. a low of 1-2 lumens, medium of 10-15 lumens and high at 100 lumens. I have played with a very simple and clean UI that works based on the duration of power off between on cycles. If the power off time is short enough, the drive level will advance to the next level up until it reaches high and then back to low.

If I had access to a UL approved driver like the Xitanium drivers which had such a UI integrated, I would really try to bring some simple but robust and quality fixtures to market. I think the after market for replacement fixtures is really big and what I have proposed above would allow for a fixture only replacement (no fancy new wiring or dimming circuitry needed). You could replace a 150 watt incandescent lamp fixture with a 15 watt (on high level) LED fixture and enjoy similar illumination with the added bonus of dimming down to a moderate and then low level.

I agree with your dream house concept and in new construction, you could enjoy a full dynamic range of illumination as well as savings on less copper providing power to your light sources. Most of us though need to deal with existing wiring and fixtures.

[Manzerick]

Don's old house was really amazing with the LED lighting!!!!



I wish i had the know how to do 1/1,000,000,000 of it!!



I think i'm gonna like it here!!!!

[Darell]

Here is Darell's bit of home fixed lighting (with some lanters thrown in for good measure). Most of it inspired by Don, of course.

http://darelldd.com/light/0_fixed_lighting.htm

[AndyTiedye]

Cree-Bars are easy. The Shoppe has everything you need.
The Cree-Bar is a massive heatsink, so no worries about heat.
You can get a strip of Cree or Rebel LEDs pre-mounted on a
PC board that is made to fit the channel in the Cree-Bar.

For vastly improved CRI you can load up a "Cree-Bar" with
Nichia 083s (like what's in the McGizmo Sundrop).
The 350ma Xitanium driver is a good match for those.
McGizmo is selling 083 LEDs on MCPCBs.

[Chooie]

This has gone from a mere fascination for me to a research paper for one of my classes - and a project to boot. I hope to work something out soon to replace the kitchen area lighting with Seoul 93 CRI P4s - these are simply gorgeous in their tint and color rendering, and are fairly inexpensive to boot.

[idleprocess]

I used some random-bin XR-E's for a small lighting project and can say for certain that conventional "cool white" LED's produce light that is clearly lacking in red/yellow spectrum. The light doesn't have that ghostly blue tint most people associate with cheap white LED's, but it's just surreal ... kind of like old floro tubes that have tinted heavily pink or yellow.

Perhaps it would be better if I had chosen a premium tint or tossed in a few warm whites or a red emitter.

Ah well, it's mostly night lighting and most of what I do in that room is sleep ... with the lights off.

[Chooie]

Originally Posted by idleprocess

I used some random-bin XR-E's for a small lighting project and can say for certain that conventional "cool white" LED's produce light that is clearly lacking in red/yellow spectrum. The light doesn't have that ghostly blue tint most people associate with cheap white LED's, but it's just surreal ... kind of like old floro tubes that have tinted heavily pink or yellow.

Perhaps it would be better if I had chosen a premium tint or tossed in a few warm whites or a red emitter.

Ah well, it's mostly night lighting and most of what I do in that room is sleep ... with the lights off.

So how does your low/high/off switching work? Do you need to flick the light on low, then off, then on high? Does it default to the low level?

EDIT:

I saw the DPST switch in the diagram - can you take a picture of how you have that mounted (i.e. what the finished switchplate looks like with both switches on it)? Thanks!

[idleprocess]

Originally Posted by Chooie

So how does your low/high/off switching work? Do you need to flick the light on low, then off, then on high? Does it default to the low level?

EDIT:

I saw the DPST switch in the diagram - can you take a picture of how you have that mounted (i.e. what the finished switchplate looks like with both switches on it)? Thanks!

ON/OFF and brightness selection are independent switches. Switching the brightness with the power off does nothing, obviously...

Please excuse the horrible cameraphone pictures - they were expedient.

Mounted


Looks like an ordinary light switch.

Top switch is on/off, bottom is the brightness selector.



Faceplate removed


I chose to use a bracket rather than a switch/outlet box because my circuit is low voltage.

The switch I used is a mildy-specialized model designed to fit standard duplex outlet faceplates. It combines a standard on-off with a "3-way" (SPDT) switch. It's pricier than buying two separate switches, but also more compact.



In/out side


The top connection is +12VDC from my power supply. The wire nut is the ground from the power supply connecting to the ground from the arrays.

The bottom two connections are the outputs from the brightness selector switch.

Two resistors in parallel connect the two poles of the brightness selector switch together; the positive lead going to the arrays only connects to one side. With this arrangement, the resistors do nothing on high but on low current must pass through them to complete the circuit.



Loopback side


+12VDC from the power supply passes from the on/off switch (top) to the brightness selector (bottom).

[usLEDsupply]

Here are some of the ones i have installed
(i wish they were my own houses but they aren't)



This one all the Flex Strips are 24v RGB (full color) as most of the runs are 180' long
the can lights are Cree 11 watt and have a nice light (but they aren't dimmable) :-( but we did put some nice dimmable screw in replacement ones in the living room



this is the outside also RGB each puck is 3 watt (1w/color)


this is 40' of the cool white 12v flex strip on a 96 watt transformer



a hallway that the small 1w pucks you see in the ceiling are wired in rows of 3 in series running at 350mA but they come on as you walk down the hallway in the same direction you are going then turn off one row at a time behind you


same thing only different color
if i remember the hallway was 40' long



This is the Control Panel for all the lighting
the buttons control the UPB light switches while the toggle switches control the power supplies is each area on/off/timer (dusk to 11pm)
the touch screen color wheel outputs DMX that is then connected to the DMX decoders running the led strip lights in each zone
and the music system is a nuvo whole house system running an ipod

i just took pictures of one of the other jobs we did but they are still on my laptop so i will have to add them later

[Darell]

Your site is getting better and better. I'm starting to lust after the white strips. I'm trying to come up with some unique way of lighting my new "bike port" that I'm finishing up. Trying to do it on a budget is getting in the way of my creativity, however.

A question on your 16' strips... do they need to be mounted to a heat sink to run at full power (I assume)? Any specs on how much sink is needed?

[usLEDsupply]

no the led's are mounted far enough apart that the copper flex strip is enough of a heat sink even if you leave them rolled up they won't get hot just warm to the touch in most cases we mount them on drywall or under cabinets

[JakeGMCHD]

I like the 40' of the cool white 12v flex strip on a 96 watt transformer that looks real good. Looks like some interesting lighting projects.

Very tempting to buy the cool white flex strip.

[usLEDsupply]

Here is another one
these are 9w RGB LED Puck Lights controlled via DMX









here is our booth



This is 5' of Warm White Flex Strips installed Under a Cabinet (it uses less then 10w of power and can be dimmed)



This is a 5' strip of the RGB installed under a Chair Rail




This Room has 10x 12' strips of RGB Flex Strips installed in between the trim on the beams
the owner wanted a diffused light so we put a strip of clear flexible 3/8" water line on top of the strip to diffuse it







we ran control cable from each strip to above the tv so if he later decides to make it so each strip can be different colors it will be simple to do

[JakeGMCHD]

The counter top and room lighting in the above pictures looks great. Could make for an interesting kitchen remodel.

Wonder how the warm white strip lights would work for lighting up the garage? How many lumen are these lights? From the pictures above it looks like you could read a book on the couch with no problem.

[usLEDsupply]

someone used the natural/cool white ones to light their garage and i think there was one on every other rafter so they would have been every 4' and the ceilings were something like 10' tall it was bright but they were going to put another one over the work bench area to make it even brighter
(it was an unheated garage and the florescent lights were taking to long to "warm up" and there were too many shadows, he also had 2x 150w bulbs in the front so after he was done the 6x strips used around the same power as one of his old bulbs and came on instantly even in the cold

[theforester]

Great job on those installs, they look fantastic! I imagine that, should the mass public realize that this is possible with current tech, interest in LED lighting would increase 10-fold overnight.

[usLEDsupply]

here is one of my new favorites (I just finished it tonight)
there is about 200' of 24volt LED RGB IP-68 Flex Strip installed here (like rope light only better)
I just used large coated wire staples to hold it in place and ran 2x runs (one down each side of the big peak) of 18-4 wire to the basement where the power supply and controllers are.
I just connected one of our RF Remote Controllers to it for now until I get around to installing the DMX Controller and programming the year long calendar for different colors and fades for each season and holidays.
I couldn't believe how far the controller went it was installed in the basement and I went over 800' away all the way out to the street and it was still working (I may have to make a note on the website that if anyone on your block has the same one they will be able to control your lights)
here is the best part
the whole 200' only uses (hmmm I should have guess how much power it uses contest) xx Watts at the low setting (that I like for a nice outline) and xx watts at the bright setting that lights up the whole yard (but is quite catchy).
ok maybe I will see if anyone can guess the actual power usage (measured with a kill-a-watt) if someone guesses even close witch you won't I’ll be happy and maybe even give ya something?























ok this is on dim maybe 10% (one of the ones to guess)



and this is medium






and this is bright (another one to guess)




i was going to use 2x power supplies but after hooking it up and seeing how much power it uses i think unless they are going to be using it on bright a lot it doesn't need the 2nd one so i haven't hooked it up


have fun guessing (never mind the watermarks they kinda take away form the pictures but i just linked to them on the site)

[Joe.Smith]

Hi,

Very nice LED solutions indeed. I also find LED strips and high power LEDs generally good. At LEDcentre I bought strips and high power spots, both are brilliant, and I use some of the strips as main lighting as well in my living room, corners of the ceiling. I try to avoid fluorescent, unless I need them urgently.

[easytim]

Heres some information that could help

WWW.LED-guy.com

[easytim]

Originally Posted by Joe.Smith

Hi,

Very nice LED solutions indeed. I also find LED strips and high power LEDs generally good. At LEDcentre I bought strips and high power spots, both are brilliant, and I use some of the strips as main lighting as well in my living room, corners of the ceiling. I try to avoid fluorescent, unless I need them urgently.

Hey Joe, I would sure like to see some pictures

[Darell]

Originally Posted by easytim

Heres some information that could help

WWW.LED-guy.com

Hey, I'm famous!