DISTEC is highly committed to explore new ways of reducing energy consumption while keeping quality standards in illumination and other issues. Surely LED’s are making big noises on the market and having big advantages in terms of lifetime and maintenance but they are not yet there to replace all other standard lighting technologies. LEDs have enjoyed a tremendous growth over the last several years with new applications ranging from automotive lighting and VMS (Variable Message Signs) to traffic control devices. Much of this is due to the ever-increasing levels of brightness being achieved with new materials and better fabrication processes as well as the advances in optical design. Several of the most significant areas of expansion however, have resulted from the introduction of the blue LED in the early 1990's. An additional factor that must be considered is the useful life of the light source being utilized. Lamp life for incandescent and compact fluorescent is usually defined as the time at which 50% of the test samples have "burned out" or failed to properly operate. LEDs, however, do not generally fail catastrophically but decrease in output over time. Therefore, the life of an LED is commonly considered to be the time at which 50% of the initial brightness remains. It is generally assumed that LEDs have an expected lifetime of 100,000 hours or more if operated within the specified parameters, however, this is not always the case. The lifetime of an LED is dependent on many factors including drive current, type of material used environment, packaging and assembly. Since the white LED is relatively new and process improvements are being made at an extremely rapid pace, there is very little long-term data available. Currently, lifetimes of 10,000 hours or greater can be obtained from well-made white LEDs. This is likely to improve greatly over the next several years, closer to the 100,000 hour level typically expected from LEDs. The future for solid-state white lighting is very promising. New methods for achieving the required luminosity and efficiency are constantly being introduced. These include increasing the size and shape of the semiconductor device, improving phosphor performance and clustering a number of individual LED devices together. LED`s need to produce approximately 100 lumen/watt to effectively compete in the general illumination market which will take some time longer but We are currently doing several projects, for example replacing fluorescent-lamps with LED`s, like Billboard illumination systems. The 6-sheet single-sided box on top of the page is equipped with roughly 800 small LED’s and a power consumption of approx. 100 watts. The illumination is even and acceptable. But to reach the same results with a double-sided box of that size you will need to double the watts which won’t make sense at all . Years ago we developed an energy saving system for a double-sided box of that size which takes only 110 watts – bright and even, with two standard fluorescent-lamps! So, as you can see, the key is always to identify the best solution by comparing all available technologies. DISTEC is your creative partner for all needs in that field and you are welcome to discuss with us your special requirements. You’ll never get “NO” as an answer. Promised!   DISTEC 6-sheet box Hybrid system with full LED illumination (~100 watts) and solar panel An edge-lit frame, 25mm depth, LED all around, 116 watts