Apartment Lit Solely by LEDs 529
(eternal_software) writes "A company called Vos Solutions created what they call 'a blueprint for future living' named The Vos Pad. The Vos Pad is the world's first apartment solely lit by LEDs. There are some images of the place up on their website."
Well... (Score:5, Funny)
Just goes to show, Not for everybody.
Re:Well... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Well... (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Well... (Score:4, Informative)
I dunno about the large scale bit, it depends on the deal you can get. As for "long haul": If I left every light in my 2 bedroom apartment on 24/7, the portion of my electricity bill corresponding to the cost of the lights would only reach $50,000 by 2138. So if I make it to 150, I could rest easy knowing that I saved myself some money...except that utilities are included in my rent. I imagine if one lived in California, they payoff time would be shorter.
On the other hand, compact fluorescent bulbs are 35 times cheaper, and 50%+ more efficient than LED bulbs (Even using coloured LEDs. Using white LEDs, fluorescents are 3 times more efficient) Some company has said that by 2005 it will be producing white LEDs that are as efficient as compact fluorescents...
Until then, however, compact flurescents are the way to go for saving power OR money.
Re:Well... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Well... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Well... (Score:5, Funny)
Don't worry about me, honey, I created my own account.
Re:Well... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Well... (Score:5, Funny)
OK, LEDs add a nice atmosphere to this place, but the Spiderman poster and the life-size cardboard Xena cutout have to go. And I don't believe there's such a thing as "load-bearing pizza box", so get shovelling.
Re:Well... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Well... (Score:3, Funny)
A MIRROR (with the images) (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Well... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:LED lit (Score:3, Interesting)
With 4 diodes (at a few cents each) you can build a full wave rectifier that will let you connect an LED to AC power without flicker.
Jason
ProfQuotes [profquotes.com]
Re:LED lit (Score:3, Insightful)
It'll still flicker at 120 Hz without a filter capacitor!
Re:LED lit (Score:3, Insightful)
With a full wave recrifier, it will be off for tiny amount of time between pulses; almost certainly faster than the LED can turn off, and it will be on fully twice as much. Also, the human eye can't detect a 120Hz flicker, the limit is around 48Hz.
If it bothers you, spend the 10 cents to add a filter cap
Jason
ProfQuotes [profquotes.com]
Re:LED lit (Score:4, Informative)
Because they're not LEDs, they're LCDs.
LCDs are a totally different technology. They lag because, well, jeez, I explained this once before but it slips my mind (It's early here! Give me credit! Please!). Basically, it has to do with the fact you're asking a material (crystals) to twist and bend when power is applied; then you take the power off them (or reverse it) to try to force them back to their original position. This takes time.
Re:LED lit (Score:5, Informative)
Re:LED lit (Score:3, Informative)
But an electronic ballasted compact flourescent that screws into a standard lamp base flickers at 25-40kHz. The compact flourescent technology causes no visible flicker, is smaller than the old magnetic ballast (which operated at the frequency of house wiring, 60Hz), and improved efficiency overall, losing less energy to heat in the ballast.
One reference [compactflu...-bulbs.com]
Another reference. [nrc-cnrc.gc.ca]
Re:LED lit (Score:3, Informative)
Oops, the first sentence was copied from a previous poster, but I did the blockquote tag wrong and didn't notice it on preview. Sorry.
Also, when purchasing a compact flourescent bulb, be sure it is electronically ballasted. It'll last longer, turn on quicker, provide no noticable flicker, and work in colder temperatures.
what? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:what? (Score:5, Informative)
informative ?!? (Score:5, Funny)
(meaning: there arent any)
Re:informative ?!? (Score:5, Informative)
Link describing various methods of backlighting. [lxdinc.com]
HTH.
Re:informative ?!? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:what? (Score:5, Funny)
Warning! Geek Crossing! Nerd Ahead! LEDs Lit!
Would do wonders to my social life. No thanks!
Re:what? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:what? (Score:5, Interesting)
Mind you I didn't use them as a replacment for normal lighting as we know it. I used them more like a high tech oil lamp or candle so most people might have found the system lacking.
Japanese style lanterns make particularly lovely LED lamps. Quick, cheap and easy to make if you just want a little mood lighting without the fire risk of the real thing. Or try the old punch some holes in a coffee can trick.
Soon the lure of the light switch called though and I returned to using conventional electric lamps and conventional oil lamps. It was an interesting experiment though. I still keep a couple of LED paper lanterns on poles about the place for fun.
If I were going to build off the grid (like that boat or the cabin in Montana) I wouldn't have any hesitation about lighting it with a combination of LEDs and oil (never put your eggs all in one basket).
KFG
Re:what? (Score:5, Interesting)
Thank you. Thank you very much.
You saved money. Good for you. Most people in your position live a bit above their means and end up with all sorts of payments they can't make when the job goes away. You're ahead of the game already and show evidence of the sort of thinking that might make it off the grid.
An Adobe hut in Mexico is a lovely way to live. I spent a few months in a couple back in the late 60s. $20,000 should last you about 20 years if you live a bit American. You can live off the interest damn near forever if you aculturate. Yes, it really is that cheap to live there. Adobde is absolutely delightful to live in in the appropriate enviroment (desert}. Hell itself in the wrong one (rainforest). I've tried both. I enjoy it for a time, the desert is lovely, but I'm from the northeast mountains and start longing for trees and meadows after awhile. A bit of ocean doesn't hurt either.
Books. Lessee. There really aren't too many good ones. Most of them are written by "back to nature" types. There's a difference between back to nature and off the grid. One is a philosophy (generally propounded by city folk), the other is just living. Just living, on the whole, works better as a philosophy of living than a "philosophy of living" does. The trick is to adopt the proper mindset and adapt yourself to the life, rather than trying to force the way of life into some preconcieved notion of "the way things should be."
On the whole "nature" doesn't give a shit about "the way things should be" and just goes about her business as usual. If you get squashed along the way, well, that's natural.
The people who actually live like this don't normally write books about it. It's just normal life to them, why write about it?
But there are some exceptions and a handful of books not overtly intended for off the grid living that can be invaluable.
First off there's Walden of course, if only for inspiration, but there's a fair amount of very practical advice on living in there. Remember, the whole point was an experiment in living. Throw in Life Without Principle. If you read this and say "Yes! That's what life is all about" you'll probably have a shot at living off the grid. Anybody contemplating any sort of nonconventional living ought to read these. They're both available on the web.
One of the most valuable books you can possibly own if you're going to build any sort of shelter, from a shed to a mansion on the edge of town is Rex Robert's "Your Engineered House." If you've read my posts much you've heard me mention this one before. It's a must. Written in a conversational style that you can read like a novel and illustrated with his own crude pen drawings this book is a marvel. He covers everything in this book and will leave you wiser about home building than an entire library shelf full of other books.
***BUY THIS BOOK***
Did I make myself clear?
It's out of print. You'll pay at least triple it's original cover price to acquire it used (I'm not the only one who reveres this book. Last time I looked there were copies available on Amazon), maybe double that if you want a really clean copy with dustjacket. Pay whatever you have to. Diamonds aren't cheap.
Square Foot Gardening. How to grow the most food, the easiest. Forget everything you know about farming. Conventional farming is medieval ideas about how to grow food en mass for the masses. You want modern ideas about how to just grow food for you. This one will get you started. Supplement with any book about container gardening that catches your eye.
I'm afraid I've never seen a single book beyond the technique of growing food off the grid that was worth a crap though. Honestly, they're all pretty much garbage. You can cherry pick them for bits of info though
Re:what? (Score:3, Funny)
That scares me as to what you've run into that *is* "back to nature". I get a vague image of PETA meets the Amish or something.
Re:what? (Score:5, Funny)
It was, as he stated, an experiment in minimalist living, and the form it took was that of a gentleman farmer and scholar reduced to the barest essentials. He also happened to love nature.
No, I've never met a "back to nature" person who PETA would want to have much to do with. PETA isn't much for slaughtering livingstock and keeping milk cows and hunting. PETA are the very antithesis of the back to nature folk and can only exist in cities. The Amish are religious Luddites, not back to nature people, perfectly civilized and like it that way and very effective capitalists. They tend to think of the back to nature folk as city loons, and they're right.
The back to nature folk are sort of a cross between hippies, survivalists and new agers.
They're not only anticapitalist, they're antimoney and often antitrade. They have some vague romantic notions about "being one" with nature and try live totally and completely self sufficiently, by farming mostly, with some hunting and gathering thrown in, and making absolutely everything themselves, eschewing everything they perceive as technology (without any apparent realization that farming itself is a technology, as is a house and a candle and a steel hoe). They can't quite make up their minds about whether they want to be hermits or communists. They virtually all come from cities (country folk think of them as city loons, and they're right) and they virtually all fail.
You can do mountain man/hermit just fine if you want. A good knife and you're set. A gun is really, really nice to have though, and matches make life easier. Every one I've known also has some product to sell now and again, even if it's only racoon hides. But then a good knife is actually pretty high technology. A gun is even higher. You're not going make your own of either out in the woods or on your little farm thingy. You have to buy them.
The only back to nature folk I've ever met who "made it" were the ones that eventually realized that the way you make a living from a farm was by being a farmer. You grow crops in excess of your needs. You sell them and then you spend the money on things you need. Things that other people make in excess while you're farming. Things like oil lamps, plough blades, maybe a radio, or a knife, or an electric generator, or, gasp, modern medicine ( 'cause those natural herbs just didn't seem to do the job after all on little Johnny's appendicitis).
Because farming is a technology of civilization. Go figure.
Thoreau sold crops and taught school. For money. To buy things with. Things he couldn't make himself. Like flour (remember I said don't grow grain?) paper and ink. His family owned a factory in town that made pencils.
I only know of one way to go completely back to nature that works. Full blown late stone age living. It can be done. There are certainly at least a few people living like that right now, although fewer every year (The knife and the T-shirt seem to have made it nearly everywhere now). I've tried it as an experiment (just because it's the sort of thing I do sometimes for fun. Really). I can do it. Others less suited for it than I have managed with a little extra to work with. Selkirk, for instance. It isn't what most people would call "fun." Oh yeah, don't get sick.
City person. In the woods. Naked.
Riiiiiiiight.
They don't even know how to make a proper pointy stick.
KFG
Re:what? (Score:5, Funny)
You misspelled "parent's basements".
Please use google cache, already slow... (Score:5, Informative)
Please use this:
Google cache for the pictures [216.239.41.104]
And this:
Google cache for the website [216.239.41.104]
Re:Please use google cache, already slow... (Score:5, Informative)
Here's what I get... It's not slashdotted at all. (Score:5, Funny)
site (due to its being listed on Slashdot), we have had to take
the unusual step of temporarily disabling the content of the
site until things calm down
that this may cause.
Re:Please use google cache, already slow... (Score:3, Informative)
Slashdotted! Mirrors collected below! :D (Score:5, Informative)
"Because of the absolutely phenomenal number of requests for this site (due to its being listed on Slashdot), we have had to take the unusual step of temporarily disabling the content of the site until things calm down :-) We apologise for any inconvenience
that this may cause."
Mirrors that were grabbed from the slashdot thread: Consider using these mirrors.
mirror 1 [digitalsushi.com] :D
mirror 2 [pg.gda.pl]
Karma whoring at its finest
I guess the Vos Pad is now lit by,,, (Score:5, Funny)
Nightclubbing (Score:4, Interesting)
Also, it appears that the apartment is not lit entirely by LEDs as ACDC lighting systems are providing cold cathode lighting as well.
Re:Nightclubbing (Score:2, Funny)
Aaarrgh! For those spelling/grammar nazis out there, I've been writing vision research grants all day, so sight should be site. Forgive me.
News? (Score:2, Funny)
Big deal... (Score:5, Funny)
PURPLE!!! (Score:2, Insightful)
Hint to lighting designers: the human body has evolved over millions of years to expect sunlight. Lighting should either look like direct or diffused sunlight.
Costume (Score:5, Funny)
Perhaps it's just that my interior decorating tastes aren't up to date :-)
Any ideas? (Score:2, Interesting)
The site reports that that led lights are up to 10,000% longer lasting and can produce up to 10 times more light than incandescent bulbs.
The site also states that led's use less power and are less expensive.
Re:Any ideas? (Score:5, Interesting)
I believe an LED the size and lummen output of a 100watt bulb for example would be a fair bit costly in contrast to a typical 100watt bulb.
I have no site to back this up, don't know where to buy a big ass LED, but let's look at radioshack
http://www.radioshack.com/product.asp?catalog%5
5mm White LED $4.99
3.6V 20ma
http://handyman.everything-warehouse.com/PID-3E
GE Mazda 100W Edison Screw LightBulb 9004100198514
1000hours $0.99
120v
Now, I don't know how many 5mm white LEDs = the lumen output of one 100watt bulb... but at $5.00 a pop, in the short term the traditional 100W bulb costs less.
So you can either replace your bulbs at 99cents a pop, or construct a led solution that would likely cost $5.00 per unit, multi units to equal the light level of that one bulb.
I'm sure the LED would save you money, but people are lazy.
Re:Any ideas? (Score:5, Informative)
Tim
Re:Any ideas? (Score:3, Interesting)
I used Radio Shack as a reference as it indeed is a place where one can go out and buy something, rather then a mailorder website. It's fair to compare with something you can buy NOW.
But since you objected...
http://www.lc-led.com/View.jsp?idProduct=141
1 0 mm Big Super White (30 Deg.) 3.3V
30-99 pcs : $1.42 USD
100-199 pcs : $1.04 USD
Assuming you can use a rectifier and a set of 36 of these in series, and
Re:Any ideas? (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.lumiled.com/luxeon/products/luxeo
This are the babys for serious room illumination. http://www.lumiled.com/luxeon/products/luxeonIII_
3.xV, 1000mA. And around 3-5 times the lumen efficency of your traditional bulb. And its only 30$ or so (if i remember correctly). So this is around 15 times more power/money than your example.
Sure, more expensive in the beginning, but in situations where broken bulb does not only mean 1$ for a new bulb, but working time to replace it, or simply a room being dark that SHOUDNT be dark, the 100.000 hour lifetime should be quite a bonus.
Especially considering that LEDS dont "break", but fade. If not electrocuted, they become slowly dimmer. The 100.000h usually means the time where they are only at 50% or so output. So even a long time after that, it would still produce light, even if its not a lot.
Those are NOT feasable! Use flourescent. (Score:3, Insightful)
To give you an idea, the average 60w light bulb gives off 860 lumens. Those LEDs you linked to only give off 80! You'd need 10 of them just to get close to a 60w bulb! If each of those LEDs are $30 as you say (there are no prices on the website), that's $300 per 60w bulb!!!
Those 15w mini-twister flourescent bulbs give off 900 lumens. They also last for 6000 hours. Seems to be the reasonable way to go for now...
Re:Any ideas? (Score:5, Informative)
Cost? (Score:2, Interesting)
LCD TV above the stove? (Score:5, Insightful)
-B
Re:LCD TV above the stove? (Score:4, Insightful)
You're supposed to go "OOooooooo! Ahhhhhhhh!"
But mostly you end up saying "Well, That's kinda dumb. What kind of clueless moron thought that up?"
In the end what really sells a new technology is showing how it can mold into your existing conventional home completely unubtrusively.
What would really be impressive is a picture of a 1920's farm house kitchen with a caption:
"This home is completely lit by LEDs -- and you can't even tell!
KFG
Re:LCD TV above the stove? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:LCD TV above the stove? (Score:3, Informative)
Bah (Score:2, Funny)
This just in (Score:4, Funny)
too bad it's inefficient (Score:4, Insightful)
plus it's a bitch to find a LED area lamp.
LED's are ok for small point task lighting, they completely suck at area lighting that is typically used in a home in both electricity used and lumens of light output.
Re:too bad it's inefficient (Score:3, Interesting)
My electric bill dropped under 30 bucks as a result. Not bad, eh? And, that's keeping a couple of lights
Re:too bad it's inefficient (Score:4, Insightful)
Besides, it's all relative. If cost efficiency was the defining goal behind everything, we'd all be eating no-name brand macaroni and Ramen for food, riding bikes to the office, and wearing sweats and t-shirts...
Re:too bad it's inefficient (Score:5, Funny)
I was just thinking "Now what kind of dumbass would do all that just to save a buck?" as I ate the last bit of my store brand macaroni while sitting here in sweatpants.
Re:too bad it's inefficient (Score:3, Informative)
(incidental fact)
In many woodshops, you are definately looking at fine detail, frequently measuring to 1/64 of an inch or so. The reason why woodshops like flourescent lights is because with wide area lights like that, the shadows are reduced. It's much easier to work in three dimensions without strong shadows that might confuse percept
FPS (Score:2, Funny)
One LED I'm sure is up... (Score:2)
Horrible spot for the LCD TV. (Score:2)
Pretty Dark (Score:2)
I just don't see what's so special about this (Score:4, Insightful)
Costs vs Bennies (Score:4, Interesting)
Off topic, but I gave a bunch of these really cool LED flashlights for Christmas: http://www.techass.com The Elite is really nice and very bright.
Re:Costs vs Bennies (Score:3, Informative)
For usage like room illumination, only the lumiled luxon star leds would be well suited. They are not cheap, but not too expensive compared with halogens either (especially because they can be switched infinitly and not overdriven they should last for many years). You can get 100W equivalent in luxon stars for arond 100-200$. 10 of these should be enough for a normal sized appartment (60-70 m^2). You have to consider th
Well.. where does he live? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Costs vs Bennies (Score:4, Funny)
What, didn't you get that memo?
Server (Score:2)
LED lighting is the future....Not now (Score:2, Informative)
Their server room is certainly lit by LEDs now... (Score:5, Funny)
As there is no way (Score:3, Funny)
I think that having that many lights strobing would have a great effect, when I invite the door to door Mormons in and convince them I gave them LSD.
Otherwise - I'd like to see a little more white light; I'm not Prince, so I don't need that much purple.
Kenny Roger's Chicken (Score:5, Funny)
Reminds me of the Seinfeld where Jerry has trouble sleeping because of the red glow of the neon sign from the Kenny Roger's Chicken across the street.
Your colour vision would go all out of whack as you move from room to room with the different colour schemes never mind what will happen when you go outside for some sunlight (that rat fur hat might even look good).
During the day? (Score:3, Interesting)
Sweet (Score:5, Interesting)
So the question is when will prices really come down? Isn't the big problem making blue LEDs [cheaply]? When will the masses wake up and upgrade?
Tagline (Score:5, Funny)
Disappointing (Score:4, Informative)
Despite the bad example (and color scheme, ugh.) this site shows, LEDs really are coming into their own for uses in lighting and will be a very interesting technology to watch in the coming years. The LED Museum [ledmuseum.org] has a great listing and reviews of LED based lighting products, from flashlights to Xmas lights.
I do believe LEDs can be effectively used for lighting. I was given a 1 watt Luxeon Star-based flashlight this Christmas and after using it in instead of an incandescent flashlight, I have to say I am very impressed. The Luxeon puts out a pure white light (very similar to HID headlights) which makes objects being illuminated appear more clearly and it projects an even beam with no dark shadowy spots. If for nothing else, this article should be a reason to check out what's available in LED lighting - you might be pleasantly surprised.
slashdot my BOX, now ;) (Score:5, Informative)
In the New York Times (Score:4, Informative)
The article noted that the apartment's lighting system cost an estimated $50,000. That probably accounts for the lack of popularity of LEDs for home lighting.
An alternative to LEDs are Organic LEDs, a much cheaper, plastic-based technology. Unfortunately, they are not yet ready for prime time.
*Sigh* Designers w/o common sense - again (Score:5, Interesting)
Once again, designers make a laughing stock out of themselves by refusing to use common sense. As a result, their "prototype" has obviously never been lived in for even a few hours. Three glaring points:
- LCD TV. Above the stove. So it can catch the oil crackling in the pan, the smell when something gets burned, as has occasionally been known to happen and the condensation when cooking something in boiling water. Yeah, right! No way anyone's going to hang an expensive LCD there.
- The bed. In the middle of an open square, so it takes maximum space. This is a bit so-so as they might have thought of a couple. The whole room gives off a rich-bachelor feeling to me, though. Most bachelors I know have the bed pushed up against one wall to conserve space.
- The sinks in the bathroom. They're round bowls with no shelf space in sight. Where do you put toothbrush, toothpaste, hair gel, combs, shaver, soap? Well, I'm sure the tooth fairy will be ready to hold them for a while.
As you can see, I don't think that what is shown in the pictures has anything to do with an apartment, which is made up of connected rooms where and this is important! people need to live, and need to want to live.Cloud City (Score:3, Funny)
Look past the colors (Score:3, Interesting)
That said however, I've ordered a bunch of of Luxeon LEDs in various colors - mostly the "warm whites" - to play around with. I think if you did this in a decent house or apartment with colors that didn't induce vomiting you could end up with something pretty special.
Designed by the decorator from Beetlejuice (Score:3, Funny)
One thing I noticed was the LCD display over the range. At first I thought it was stupid because why would you want a tv there. Then I though well maybe you could use it as a internet appliance recipe book. But then I realized that having electronics hanging above steaming pots really is a bad idea after all. It should be moved to counter space where you would be doing cutting and mixing. You also need better task lighting in a kitchen unless you want to slice your finger off.
Having the sconces with their beams of super bright light reflecting off the wall and providing indirect lighting is very cool and is like a fusion of 21st century modern with 19th century retro since it is similar to gas lamps or candleholders. I couldn't help but be reminded of all those dungeons my 24th level Magic-user had traipsed through. However, it appears the sconces are below eye level. It doesn't take an 18 intelligence to know that is a bad idea.
The LEDs in the floor of the kitchen look like the emergency lighting in the aisles in a passenger jet. It might be useful if your apartment ever crash lands and you need to crawl to the exit through thick smoke. And I won't even go into the colors because so many people have already commented about it that it would just be redundant.
I know someone with a LED basement (Score:5, Informative)
Know someone who has an LED basement.
She has an extreme case of porphyria and she can only tolerate light in the 585+ NM wavelengths.
BTW, 585 is exactly the wavelength of those ugly yellow street lamps you occasionally see. I think those lamps are some type of sodium vapor lamp and they are ultra efficient also.
Since incandescants, etc. were literally cooking her from the inside out I built her an LED lamp.
Her lamp has 50 LEDS connnected in 10 parallel circuits. I also slapped on ten switches with one master on/off switch.
Thus, she could turn on as little as 5 or as many as 50 bulbs simultaneously.
It works great for her. She's still very sick, but at least she has some light she can tolerate.
LED's emit a very narrow wavelength of light. You can get them in small bulk packages at the following address:
www.TheLEDLight.com
That store also has a whole bunch of Super Cool LED flashlights etc.
Also, my friend's porphyria is a really rare and strange disease which means she is akin to a vampire. She has the EP variety. Only approximately 300 more like her in the US.
She has been stuck in her mom's basement now for two years, at the age of 34. Such a tragedy!
Re:I know someone with a LED basement (Score:3, Interesting)
Is this different than Xeroderma Pigmentosum? That's the condition I am more familiar with. (The children in The Others are afflicted with Xeroderma Pigmentosum. There was also a very touching story on NPR several years ago about a night-camp for children with Xeroderma Pigmentosum, since they couldn't go to daycamp. That was the
another site killed by /. (Score:4, Insightful)
before a small site gets listed on
One more try... (Score:5, Insightful)
This story, the resulting Slashdotting of their site, followed closely by the need to take the site down, is yet another indication that the powers that be at Slashdot need to learn the simple courtesy of *ASKING* the people behind websites like that if they want a story about them on Slashdot. Or at least allow them time to prepare for the devestation their servers are about to undergo.
When stories about spammers and such ilk are posted, we show our feelings by Slashdotting their site, thereby either costing them tons in bandwidth charges or crashing their server.
When stories about things we like are posted on Slashdot, we show our approval by doing the same damned thing.
Quite frankly, I'm surprised that in this day and age of litigation-while-you-wait no one has sued Slashdot for getting their server hammered.
I'll stop now so that the moderators among you can show your ignorance by moderating this post as "off topic" or "flame bait".
LED light is cool but the Vos Pad is silly (Score:5, Interesting)
The colors are bright and pure when you want them to be, and significant progress has been made towards (simulated) full-spectrum light. The lights are cool and run on low voltage, are much more efficient than fluorescents and have very long lifetimes.
Cost is coming down (slowly) and eventually LEDs will be reasonable replacements for ordinary lightbulbs, with similar light characteristics except for added features such as optional color control and the like.
The Vos Pad is silly because like so many posters have pointed out, it's as uninhabitable as the star trek apartment that other guy built. Plus, it looks incredibly gay with those colors. Just an immensely complex concept piece demonstrating how not to use LED light fixtures. The Vos Pad appears dark and spooky, a movie set rather than a home. And the light beams coming from the floor will be incredibly annoying. But all this don't mean the technology itself is invalid.
LED lit homes can conveivably be every bit as practical as ordinary types. LEDs can be fitted into whole new kinds of fixtures that wouldn't be possible to make with conventional technologies. The LEDs are so versatile they can be built into anything and arranged in any pattern or configuration imaginable. Thin panels or stripes of light could be fitted under shelves or hidden in the ceiling so as to provide advanced discrete lighting without the hassle of bulb replacement.
As a test project a little while I ago I drew up a fancy model for a dream bathroom in a 3D program, accurately picturing discreet LED illumination with color accents and proper work surface brightness and no nasty point lightsources burning out retinas.
The render engine used was precise enough using photon maps, global illumination and caustics, that you could get a reasonable estimate of the number of LEDs on any given spec you need to light a room properly. You can pretty much go in with a virtual light meter and measure how much light hits any given simulated surface point and add more lights until you have the desired brightness. (As a photographer I have a nice digital spot lightmeter, and was able to calibrate the model using a handful of Nichia superbright white LEDs for reference.)
Turns out you need hundreds of LEDs to get an equivalent brightness to just a few 25 watt halogens. But if I had the cash to splash I'd definitely consider it for my new apartment!
When in Tokyo, visit Roppongi Hills and witness the glorious displays of LED illumination in and around the plaza at the base of the skyscraper complex. There's even LED illumination in the stairways and sometimes in the trees around the plaza too.
LED retrofits (Score:5, Informative)
LEDs aren't all that efficient (Score:3, Informative)
A high-efficiency white LED puts out something like 15-20 lumens/watt. A good halogen bulb puts out ~15 lumens/watt.
LED's seem impressively bright because they throw all their light in a fairly narrow beam.
I believe that florescent lights are more efficient that LEDs, though that will likely change. Appearantly their will be white LEDs in production with effiencies reaching 60 lumens/watt by 2005.
It's my contrary nature again... (Score:4, Insightful)
The material I've read on SAD, and my own direct experience, have shown me that both broad-spectrum (approximating daylight) and high intensity (again, approximating daylight) are important in combating the condition. We live far enough north (Puget Sound region) where the short days and extended periods of cloud cover during the winter do indeed have a noticeable affect on my moods.
Considering that I grew up in California, which averages 328 sunny days per year, this came as no great surprise.
What I ended up doing for our home was installing full-spectrum flourescent tubes in the flourescent fixtures, and bright halogens in my work area. Both have done wonders for my mood in the winter months.
Unless someone has come up with a full-spectrum LED, I don't think this kind of lighting is going to see wide adoption outside of perpetually sun-drenched areas, and then only as a "Gee Whiz" item because of the high cost.
Looks like Miami Vice (Score:3, Funny)
They must draw LOTS of power (Score:4, Funny)
Good idea, lousy concept... (Score:3, Insightful)
I asked my other half, she wouldn't use the bathroom for all the rice in China. Point-blank no way. "How could I work out my makeup in that light?" was her first question.
I am thinking about the kitchen. How do I get a meal looking right in those ghastly hues? How can I enjoy a steak when it will look like a Quake gib under that light?
So while this is a noteworthy effort, it may have set the cause of LED lighting back by years... (kidding, okay? I'm pretty sure other architects and designers will see the advantages and adopt them pretty quickly...)
Which is sad because the idea of using LEDs to light a living space (or indeed a workspace) is sorely needed in view of the air pollution that our thirst for light and convenience creates.
I read somewhere that a 100W consumed for a year produces a cupful and a half of pollutants in that year. (I.e. collect all the pollutants and scrunch 'em together, bingo, 1 1/2 cups of waste...)
That means that for every 100W lightbulb in your place, which stays on for an average of a quarter of a day or so, over a quarter of a cup of crap per year... The average home has seven lightbulbs, that's over two cups of pollution per house per year.
If you could reduce the amount of power required to produce the same amount of light to around a fifth or less, you'd reduce that contribution to pollution due to light from two cups to a quarter cup.
That has to be worth going for...
Re:i wonder what wavelengths you get... (Score:2)
Tim
I'm not sure it's American (Score:3, Informative)