Research Tracker

Acuity Brands Lighting will develop an OLED luminaire that features DC current drivers integrated with each panel and advanced user controls. This advancement in OLED technology could lead to more-efficient OLED lighting systems and reduced energy use for building lighting.

Eaton Corporation will develop a new low-cost, high-efficiency LED architecture made possible by advanced manufacturing techniques which will enable both high efficiency and high color quality. Reduced material costs and optimized manufacturing could reduce the integrated light engine price from $50/klm at the project's inception to less than $4/klm.

Cree will develop a versatile, low-cost, low profile LED light-module architecture that facilitates the assembly of a variety of high-efficacy, broad-area LED luminaires. This lightweight architecture will be applicable to numerous high-efficiency, broad-area LED luminaires and will ultimately reduce the cost per lumen of LED lighting.

Cree, Inc. will develop a low-cost, high-efficiency LED architecture through modification to the conventional LED fabrication process flow. These new processes can be deployed in a variety of LED production lines, leading to reduced lighting energy use.

The project will transition the newly developed emitter materials from laboratory scale to pilot scale followed by comprehensive testing that will involve strategic manufacturing partners as part of the pre commercialization process.

In response to increased use of adaptive, exterior lighting products, and their potential for substantial energy savings, utilities are interested in creating a deemed incentive program focused on this technology. A simplified method is necessary to easily calculate expected energy savings and associated incentives. Energy savings for adaptive luminaires is clearly tied to occupancy patterns. To support a deemed incentive program, standardized occupancy profiles for a variety of nine key non-residential exterior spaces will be developed. These profiles may be used to easily calculate expected energy savings and associated incentives for a proposed adaptive exterior lighting project. Questions to address include: What is the occupancy/vacancy pattern for the nine building types? How does the rate vary across the different types of buildings? What are the variables that impact the occupancy/vacancy?

In this project, the Lighting Research Center (LRC) of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute will demonstrate and evaluate LED lighting and controls. The LRC will first evaluate a range of commercially available but currently underutilized control products and systems, from simple stand-alone controls, to fixture-integrated products, and more complex automated control systems. The LRC will review the features, operations, and protocols of each system selected and will analyze the operation of these control products with various types of drivers commonly used in commercially available LED lighting products. Once this review is complete, the LRC will down select two or more control systems to demonstrate and evaluate in different areas of an existing office building. The LRC will also select and install LED lighting fixtures to retrofit the existing fluorescent lighting in the building. Once the systems are installed and commissioned, the LRC will evaluate the operation of the control and LED lighting systems and compare their performance, operation, energy savings, and occupant acceptance to each other, as well as to the previously existing lighting system.

Activities under this project will advance the development and market readiness of Vital Vio lighting products. These activities include characterization and optimization of Vital Vios current prototypes, full scale design concepts, LED module requirements including design and thermal analysis, LED module for incorporation into final fixture designs, various testing and certifications, and pilot implementations.

Arizona State University will develop efficient and stable white OLEDs that employ a single emissive material. This advancement in OLED technology could lead to building energy use reductions.

This project will research, develop, and demonstrate blue-emitting layers (blue-EML) capable of overcoming the existing device efficiency vs. device stability tradeoff in blue-emitting OLEDs, and enable next-generation stable white OLEDs (WOLEDs).

The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, will develop new strategies for increasing the lifetime of blue phosphorescent OLEDs (PHOLEDs). Longer-life PHOLEDs could provide notable energy and cost savings.

Glint Photonics will develop a stationary, roof-mounted concentrator daylighting system that uses internal optics to track the sun without external movement. This daylighting system will offset 40%-70% of the buildings electricity used for lighting and could potentially generate a total impact of 0.93 quads by 2030.

RTI International will develop and validate a reliability model and accelerated life testing methodologies to predict the lifetime of integrated solid-state lighting luminaires. By improving testing methods, this project will give additional product information to manufacturers and SSL users who seek to justify higher first cost for SSL products over less efficient lighting technologies.

The University of California, Los Angeles, will develop components for the fabrication of OLEDs with improved energy efficiency and reduced manufacturing cost. This improved OLED technology could lead to lower-cost, more-efficient lighting options being available on the market.

This project will identify, quantify and evaluate the incremental costs and benefits of demand responsive (DR) lighting controls system requirements in the California Energy Code across existing, non-residential building stock. The project will focus on the incremental costs and benefits associated with adding the DR functionality to enhance general lighting upgrades in existing, non-residential buildings to enable them to act as DR resources.

This project will identify, quantify and evaluate the incremental costs and benefits of demand responsive (DR) lighting controls system requirements in the California Energy Code across existing, non-residential building stock. The project will focus on the incremental costs and benefits associated with adding the DR functionality to enhance general lighting upgrades in existing, non-residential buildings to enable them to act as DR resources.

Pennsylvania State University will develop a way to better understand and predict the occurrence of short circuits in OLED lighting panels, in order to reduce failure rates by means of new, more-informative panel diagnostics, a modeling capability to predict mean time to failure, and new anti-shorting strategies that address the root cause of the problem.