Lighting Competition

Anne L. Fischer

The 2008 “Lighting for Tomorrow” competition, organized by the American Lighting Association, the US Department of Energy and the Consortium for Energy Efficiency, recently was announced. This year’s competition is inviting solid-state lighting entries in a new “Future LED” category that is open to designs with a minimum LED luminous efficacy of 90 lm/W.

The Future LED competition is for those in the residential sector, not for those in the commercial, industrial or institutional markets. Participating LED device producers must provide task, space or object lighting, and those that are purely decorative will not be considered. Entrants must submit working prototypes. Also required is an LED data sheet showing, at minimum, luminous flux, forward voltage, drive current and color data for preproduction devices, along with information on drivers used.

Evaluation will include an initial screening, in-person judging and verification testing of finalists. Winners will be announced during an awards ceremony at the American Lighting Association’s annual conference in September in Washington, and winning products will be promoted through articles, press releases and a traveling exhibit.

Other categories in the competition include fixtures that meet the Energy Star for Solid-State Lighting standard and others that use LEDs with a luminous efficacy of at least 50 lm/W.

The solid-state-lighting division of the competition is in its third year. Last year’s grand prize winner, chosen from a field of 40 entrants, was LED Lighting Fixtures (LLF) of Morrisville, N.C. Finelite Inc. of Union City, Calif., won in the portable desk/task and undercabinet categories. Progress Lighting of Spartanburg, S.C., won in the outdoor category.

The deadline for entries is April 30. More information is available on the Lighting for Tomorrow Web site.