Samsung 2011 LED TV prices and availability reeled out

It doesn’t matter whether the market is thronging with people hunting down an 18” LED TV or one that stretches to 55”. Samsung has them covered with a huge array of LED TVs including 3D-capable models. Most of these feature Smart TV capabilities, Samsung Smart Hub and the company’s One Design concept.
The 31.5” UN32D6000 and 40” UN40D6000 are available in the market for $899.99 and $1,099.99, respectively. The UN55D8000 and UN55D6000 sport 54.6” displays. They are attached with price tags reading $3,599.99 and $2,099.99, correspondingly. Also falling within this bracket in terms of screen size are the UN55D7000, UN55D6400 and UN55D6300 costing $3,099.99, $2,399.99 and $2,299.99, concurrently.
“The living room is the activity center for many people and the TV is an ideal media hub for the home. Our products make it easy for anyone to instantly access and share the content they want, when they want it,” remarked John Revie, senior vice president of Home Entertainment, Samsung Electronics America. “Together with new breakthrough designs, Samsung is encouraging people to take entertainment to the edge with our TVs.”   www.bgocled.com

Let there be light, and make sure it is energy efficient

Since the late 1800s, consumers have relied on standard incandescent light bulbs to illuminate homes and businesses at the flick of a switch, but this is about to change.
Due to provisions of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, also known as the Clean Energy Act of 2007, incandescent light bulbs will be phased out and replaced by more energy-efficient lighting, including halogen, compact fluorescent, or CFL, and light-emitting diode, or LED, bulbs.
General Electric Co., the last U.S. based manufacturer of incandescent light bulbs, closed its plant at the end of 2010.
According to GE, the Clean Energy Act requires that between 2012 and 2014, standard A-line 40- and 100-watt incandescent light bulbs must use 30 percent less energy, but produce the same light output as today’s incandescent bulb.
While consumers won’t be required to throw out existing bulbs, according to GE, “you may be surprised when trying to find the same replacements at the store. After 2012, you’ll find that these bulbs will have to be replaced with energy-efficient options, such as halogen, CFL and LED light bulbs.”
Richard Wilkins, operations manager for Ulster Electric in Poughkeepsie and Kingston, said that lighting technology is changing every day in an effort to meet demands for energy efficiency.
“There’s always something new coming out,” he said. “Lighting technology is going to change within the next 10 to 15 years,” he said.
LED lighting, for example, is currently somewhat expensive to purchase but is expected to come down in price, Wilkins said.
“LED lighting offers better light output with less wattage,” he said.
CFL bulbs, Wilkins said, draw a lot less energy but are more expensive to purchase than incandescent bulbs.
New construction projects benefit from tax incentives when installing energy-efficient lighting, Wilkins said.
“Architects are seeing rebates for using energy-efficient products in new construction, including commercial projects,” he said.
According to the United States Department of Energy, artificial lighting consumes “almost 15 percent of a household’s electricity use.”
Use of more efficient lighting technologies, according to the DOE, can reduce lighting energy use in homes by up to 75 percent.
The DOE’s EnergyStar website notes that one CFL bulb can save homeowners more than $40 in electricity costs over its lifetime.
CFLs use about 75 percent less energy than standard incandescent bulbs and last up to 10 times longer.
Consumers have been slow to warm up to CFL lighting due to factors such as a yellowish lighting tint, a slow warm-up time and traces of mercury in the bulb, according to a recent article in USA Today.
Manufacturers are addressing concerns by producing bulbs that use less mercury and produce brighter light.
With LED lights, according to the DOE, small light sources become illuminated by the movement of electrons through a semiconductor material.
LED lighting is more efficient, durable, versatile and longer lasting than incandescent and fluorescents lighting.
LEDs emit light in a specific direction, whereas an incandescent or fluorescent bulb emits light — and heat — in all directions.
LED lighting uses both light and energy more efficiently, according to the DOE.
A benefit of LED lights is that they turn on immediately, as opposed to CFL lights that take a moment to illuminate.
The American Lighting Association recommends CFL bulbs as lighting for laundry rooms, storage rooms, kitchen and baths.
LEDs, according to the association, are very efficient light sources for a growing number of applications, such as under-cabinet lighting, task lighting and outdoor step lights.
For tasks such as reading, however, the association recommends that incandescent bulbs are often still the best choice because of their brightness.
To be as energy-efficient as possible, the association recommends using halogen incandescent bulbs instead of standard bulbs.
Halogen lights are more expensive to purchase than incandescent bulbs, according to the DOE, but are less expensive to operate because of their higher effectiveness.
They are commonly used in reflectors such as indoor and outdoor flood lighting, indoor recessed and track fixtures, and floor and desk lamps.
Unlike many CFL bulbs, some halogen lamps are dimmable, and are compatible with timers and other lighting controls.
According to GE, “Halogen lamps provide a small, white light source with excellent color rendering. Unlike standard incandescent lamps, halogen lamps use a halogen gas that allows the bulbs to burn longer without sacrificing light output.”
As living green becomes more ingrained in our lives, LEDS will continue to light the way, said Jeff Dross, senior product manager of Kichler Lighting, who will introduce several new under-cabinet systems and landscape products with an ultra-efficient technology next year.
LED lighting, in addition to halogen and CFLs, offers energy conscious options to replace the incandescent bulb.   www.bgocled.com

Light bulb phaseout can’t dim Edison’s incandescence

Joel Bloom examines a small LED light bulb at Tropical Hardware in Fort Myers. Such bulbs are replacing traditional incandescent bulbs as a way to save energy. / Brian Hirten/news-press.com

Consumers may not all be aglow with the idea, but the government-mandated phaseout of incandescent light bulbs has reached all the way to the winter home of Thomas Edison.
Under a 2007 federal energy law, manufacturers must phase out incandescent bulbs in favor of more efficient bulbs such as compact fluorescent lamps, or CFLs, LED bulbs or new styles of halogen lights.
The law phases out 100-watt incandescent bulbs in January 2012, followed by the 75-watt version in 2013 and the 60- and 45-watt bulbs in 2014.
At the Edison & Ford Winter Estates in Fort Myers, the incandescent garden lights have been replaced, even though Edison is credited with making the first practical incandescent light.
“Edison would have been all for this, because he was always looking for a better way to do something,” said Chris Pendleton, CEO of the estates.
While CFLs use at least 75 percent less energy, some consumers complain the lighting is dimmer, doesn’t look as warm and takes a while to reach full brightness. Some also worry about disposal requirements, because the bulbs contain a few milligrams of mercury.
“Every time I go to the store, I pick up a few (incandescent) light bulbs,” said Kay Horn, 62, of Fort Myers. “I probably have enough light bulbs for the next 15 years.”
Jack Lurie, owner of Tropical Hardware in Fort Myers, said he hears customers complain about the phasing out of incandescent bulbs and he said their sales have increased.
“There is plenty of stock now,” he said, “but that will change.”
The American Lighting Association’s Larry Lauck hasn’t seen statistical signs of stockpiling but has heard anecdotal reports.
Such reports are common whenever a new standard is introduced, says the Natural Resources Defense Council’s Noah Horowitz. He says consumers will be able to buy incandescent, but new ones will have more efficient halogen capsules.
“Unless you prefer paying higher electricity bills, there’s no reason to hoard old incandescent bulbs,” Horowitz says.
Richard Downing, 81, of Fort Myers has been using CFL bulbs in his home for almost 10 years. He has been a fan of fluorescent bulbs for 30 years, since he installed them on a 40-foot ketch.
“They drew the battery down a heck of lot less,” he said.
He said he is concerned about the bulbs’ mercury content, mainly because he worries consumers will just toss them in their garbage.
“You aren’t supposed to do that, but you know people will,” Downing said.
Lee County’s recycling program won’t collect the CFL bulbs, but homeowners can drop them off at the Household Chemical Waste Collection facility, 6441 Topaz Court in Fort Myers.
While that sounds inconvenient, Downing said he can’t say whether it is.
“In 10 years of using those lights, I’ve never had to replace one,” he said. “They might cost just a little more, but you make up what you spend very quickly in the energy savings and longevity.”   www.bgocled.com

Do Your Gadget Lights Harm Your Health?

When I turn off my bedroom light at night, the room is still lit up like the bridge of the Starship Enterprise. No, I’m not some sci-fi fanboy, just a gadget-happy materialist.
In one corner, I’ve got a desk with a PC on it. Six button lights on my two monitors glow orange. The PC power button blinks bright green. The speakers have a red light near the switch. My desktop microphone has a shockingly bright green light that casts a circle on the ceiling, as if I’m calling Batman. It’s all plugged into a generic surge protector, which has a very bright red light on the toggle switch.
My wife usually leaves her work laptop, a MacBook Pro, and her personal laptop, a Dell Studio, charging in the bedroom. The Mac throbs with a blue-green light that gradually brightens, then dims, then brightens again like an airport beacon. Her Dell shines a small, dim light in the front. And the AC adapter has a light ring around the plug.
We also have a TV in the bedroom, and it has a cable DVR plugged into it. The DVR has a bright red light that’s pointed straight at the bed. The TV and the DVR each has a smattering of other lights.
We’ve got two more surge protectors, each with a bright red light. Our e-books have lights that remain on when charging.
Our bedroom has a door to a bathroom, in which our electric toothbrushes flash amazingly bright green lights. Even when we close the door, you can see the seam around and under the door flash green! green! green!
Even with the room lights off, it’s almost bright enough to read by the collective light produced by all of those status lights. And half of them are flashing. I’m supposed to sleep? Isn’t this how they torture inmates at Guantanamo?
I wrote a column in this space four years ago about how incredibly annoying all these gadget status lights are and demanded that device makers get rid of them.
I didn’t expect manufacturers to respond. And in fact, the problem is getting worse. The number of gadgets we use keeps growing, and each device seems to have more and brighter lights.
Since I wrote that column, new research has emerged that reveals how incredibly bad all of those lights can be for our health.
Lights on During Sleep Harms Health
New science has shed light on various health effects of sleeping in a room that isn’t dark.
Lights at night can make you depressed and fat. An Ohio State University experiment on mice led researchers to conclude that even dim light in a room during sleep may cause depression. In a different study, Ohio State researchers found that sleeping in a dimly lighted room increases the amount of hunger experienced during the day, which can contribute to weight gain and possibly susceptibility to diabetes.
Sleeping in a room with dim lights increases a woman’s chance of getting breast cancer, according to research conducted at the National Cancer Institute and National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. The reason is that the body produces a cancer-fighting hormone called melatonin at night during sleep. But this process is interrupted if the room isn’t dark.
Another study conducted at the Scheie Eye Institute at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine found that babies who sleep with a night light have an increased risk for developing short-sightedness, or myopia. Just 10 percent of babies who slept in the dark most nights needed glasses, compared with 34 percent who slept with night lights and 55 percent who slept with room lights on.
The bottom line is that the human body is designed to sleep in total darkness. All those gadget lights are lighting up our bedrooms at night and damaging our health.
LED Lights are Toxic
The little lights that are built into our phones, computers and other gear are made with a semiconductor technology called the light-emitting diode (LED). These lights are advertised as “eco-friendly.” But a recent study by University of California at Irvine’s Department of Population Health & Disease Prevention found that LED lights can contain hazardous substances, including lead, arsenic, nickel and more than a dozen other deadly materials.
According to a release by the university, “lead, arsenic and many additional metals discovered in the bulbs or their related parts have been linked in hundreds of studies to different cancers, neurological damage, kidney disease, hypertension, skin rashes and other illnesses.”
In general, say researchers, the brighter the light, the more poisons they’re likely to contain. Colored lights contain more lead than white ones. Red lights were found to contain up to eight times the amount of lead allowed by California law and about 35 times the amount allowed by federal law. That’s right: Red LED lights are so toxic they’re illegal.
Researchers say LED lights are generally safe unless they break, in which case they advise that you construct your own hazmat suit to deal with the toxic cocktail that spills out.
One major ongoing risk is car accidents. When cars collide, the LED lights built into the dash, as well as gadgets and computers in the car, can shatter, causing a release of toxic substances that experts say should be treated like any other hazardous materials spill. If LED traffic lights are damaged, it’s especially bad because those LEDs are so bright and numerous. Unfortunately, the risk is typically ignored, and emergency crews are routinely exposed to these hazardous materials without protection.
There’s also an environmental cost. Current law ignores the risks of LED lights, which are legally disposed of in landfills. The toxic metals in the lights, especially copper, can make its way from landfills into lakes and rivers, poisoning wildlife.
And when gadgets are discarded and “recycled,” they’re often handled by children in filthy Chinese processing centers who have to contend not only with the toxic materials required to make computer equipment function, but also the materials in the lights, which aren’t even necessary.
What Can You Do?
A single LED light on a single gadget is no big deal. But most people surround themselves with dozens of devices — all with their own lights — in their bedrooms, homes, offices and cars. These lights are incredibly annoying, damage our health and represent a toxic hazard both for people and the environment.
Worst of all: They’re unnecessary! Sure, a status light may alert you to an incoming e-mail, or tell you at a glance that something is receiving electricity. But we now know that benefits like those are vastly outweighed by the costs.
You can protect yourself to some degree by keeping as many devices as possible out of your bedroom. Put black electrical tape over the lights on those items you do keep in the bedroom.
And treat any broken LED lights with extreme caution.
Now that we know how toxic and dangerous LED lights can be, gadget makers have a responsibility to eliminate all lights that aren’t absolutely necessary. They waste electricity, annoy users, wreck health and pollute the environment.
Gadget makers love lights. But getting rid of them would be the brightest thing they could do.   www.bgocled.com