Plasma lighting, fiber optics, and daylight collectors: Toward the next revolution in high-efficiency illumination
- Columbia Univ., New York, NY (United States)
Combining three recently marketed innovations may provide the next revolution in illumination, making many other recent advances eventually obsolete. The first is plasma lighting, pioneered by Fusion Lighting Inc. of Rockville, Maryland, and first commercially applied by Hutchins International Ltd. of Mississauga, Ontario. This microwave-generated light source yields very high-quality light with efficacies at or beyond high intensity discharge (HID) lamps. The source uses no mercury, thus eliminating lamp disposal problems, and has no cathode, thereby providing very long lamp life. Using no phosphors, it also has very short start and re-strike periods, and is dimmable. The second innovation is in the distribution of light. Commercial developments in fiber optics and light guides now provide products that transfer light from a remote point and distribute it like standard light fixtures. Advances in fiber optic communications and applications to decorative lighting have supplied relatively economical systems for mounting and directing light from both electric light sources and the sun. The third advance is a result of efforts to harness daylight. Unlike architectural daylighting that directs sunlight into perimeter areas through glazing, daylight collectors are roof-mounted devices that supply light to interior and underground spaces through hollow columns and open chases. Aided by improvements and cost reductions in sun-tracking (i.e., heliostatic) controls that capture and concentrate sunlight, such collectors offer a source of free light to locations that might otherwise never receive it. When combined together, these three options could offer a centralized building lighting system that pipes lumens to distribution devices replacing many existing lamps and fixtures.
- OSTI ID:
- 46037
- Journal Information:
- Strategic Planning for Energy and the Environment, Vol. 14, Issue 4; Other Information: PBD: Spr 1995
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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