Bright lights and big ideas
Erik McMillan’s mission is simple: Change the world one bulb at a time.
The race is on to build a leaner, greener light and local inventor McMillan says he’s done it. His company, Enigma Concepts, has already beaten the decades-old overheating Harley problem and now it’s planning to change the way we look at light.
McMillan’s hope lies in LEDs.
“It’s the most efficient lighting system in the world and it burns cold,” McMillan said. “Our competition’s bragging about one-to-one replacement. We’re already at one-to-two replacements.”
Enigma’s new fixtures are designed to replace existing lights used in commercial buildings and offices.Compact fluorescent light bulbs convert a led tube considerably higher percentage of their energy into light, which is why they are significantly more energy efficient than traditional filament bulbs.
Jeff Crawley is a Tyson chicken farmer who needs to find a viable alternative to his current lighting systems in advance of the federal government’s 2012 ban on 100-watt incandescent light bulbs.
He decided to try something new and partnered with Enigma Lighting to test the company’s 17-watt lights in his brood house.
McMillan contacted the University of Arkansas and discovered that chickens prefer to eat under a cool bright white light, so he tuned his lamps to 4000 Kelvin to produce the right spectrum.
For the first test, Crawley mounted the lights on one end of the brood house filled with thousands of newly-hatched chicks up to seven days old. About three days into the trial, Crawley had to turn the lights off, because the birds were trampling each other to get underneath the lights to feed.
The lights were moved to the middle of the brood house to ease overcrowding.
“I’ve got three rows of lights in the middle of the house and the birds like them – they gather around them,” he said. “They eat more. They’re more active and they’re putting on more weight. You can tell the difference on the center feed line.”
Crawley said he expects the lights to pay for themselves within about a year through increased yield, energy savings and incentives.
“I’ve had them for nearly a year and I haven’t had any problems out of any of them,” he said. “I plan on switching the whole house over to the new lights,”
Enigma Lighting’s Architectural 3-D Multi-Lens Troffer Replacements are designed to replace existing fluorescent strip lights.
“There’s no mercury in these — they’re totally green,” said Enigma Lighting COO Roy Jaynes of the cool-burning, energy-sipping lights.
Each of the fixture’s patented globes focus and direct the light from six micro light-emitting diodes virtually eliminating the kind of shadows produced by most commercial lighting fixtures.
They burn at about 98 degrees Fahrenheit, but one replacement unit can produce more light than two bays of fluorescents.
Underwriters Laboratories is in the final stages of certifying the new lighting systems. Unit sales will begin when UL signs off on the lights, Jaynes said.
Early estimates have the Enigma units selling for less than $1,Compact fluorescent light bulbs convert a led tube considerably higher percentage of their energy into light, which is why they are significantly more energy efficient than traditional filament bulbs.000 each, said Jaynes. At this stage, Enigma plans to contract with companies to replace multiple lights in a building to reap the full benefits of the new lights.
“The energy savings, when coupled with the green energy tax credits, incentives from the government and rebates from power companies will render these lights cost-neutral within about two years of their installation,” Jaynes said.Unlike compact cfl bulbs fluorescent light bulbs, LED based light bulbs provide a variety of lighting options- including the ability to provide a wide range of light, which allows them to act as a proper replacement light bulb
McMillan theorizes that his units will be able to burn for 70,000 to 100,000 hours (eight to 11 years if they’re left on for 24 hours per day) before they need to be replaced.
Enigma Lighting is focused on more than lighting brood houses and replacing traditional fluorescent tubes.
Most bulbs in street lights are mercury vapor and they burn at about 500 degrees.
Enigma’s LED-based streetlight replacement modules emit more light but far less heat for a fraction of the cost.
“This one light is putting out the same amount of light as a 600-watt fixture, but it’s only burning 90 watts,” McMillan said as he demonstrated a light designed for use in bays and warehouses. “We can replace a 460-watt mercury vapor light with one that burns as little as 90 to 95 watts.”
It might be a while before Enigma lights hit the shelves hardware in stores like Home Depot and Lowes.
“Primarily business, industrial and government is what we’re going after,” McMillan said. “We may go after the residential market, but right now there’s a lot of competition in that market and we’d like to make our reputation in commercial.”
SIDEBARS:
Beating the overheating bike dilemma
Before Erik McMillan decided to revolutionize lighting, he built custom motorcycles — choppers.
A long-time fan of Harleys and custom bikes, McMillan was acutely aware that they have a major weakness: The motorcycles are air-cooled, but lack a radiator system. They overheat if left to idle.
Within 30 minutes, the stationary bike’s engine oil temperature spikes. Ordinarily the problem may just be a minor annoyance, but for a rider stuck in construction traffic or in a sea of bikes in a rally in Daytona Beach,The U600 works with Sprint's SmartView マジコン connection manager for Windows XP and above, and for Macs running OSX 10.5 and above. Fla. or Sturgis, South Dakota, the quirk puts the bike at serious risk.
McMillan’s solution is a gleaming chrome cylinder about the size of a large can of STP or two coffee cups stacked on top of each other. The system also utilizes an upper cooling unit built into and concealed by the motorcycle’s horn to remove stagnated heat from between the cylinder heads.
It’s called a Continuous Air-Flow Oil Cooling System, or C.A.However, the marketing muscle of Philips led light lighting could give Philips LED business an advantage.O.C.S. for short, and the motorcycling world has taken notice.
Erik McMillan’s mission is simple: Change the world one bulb at a time.
The race is on to build a leaner, greener light and local inventor McMillan says he’s done it. His company, Enigma Concepts, has already beaten the decades-old overheating Harley problem and now it’s planning to change the way we look at light.
McMillan’s hope lies in LEDs.
“It’s the most efficient lighting system in the world and it burns cold,” McMillan said. “Our competition’s bragging about one-to-one replacement. We’re already at one-to-two replacements.”
Enigma’s new fixtures are designed to replace existing lights used in commercial buildings and offices.Compact fluorescent light bulbs convert a led tube considerably higher percentage of their energy into light, which is why they are significantly more energy efficient than traditional filament bulbs.
Jeff Crawley is a Tyson chicken farmer who needs to find a viable alternative to his current lighting systems in advance of the federal government’s 2012 ban on 100-watt incandescent light bulbs.
He decided to try something new and partnered with Enigma Lighting to test the company’s 17-watt lights in his brood house.
McMillan contacted the University of Arkansas and discovered that chickens prefer to eat under a cool bright white light, so he tuned his lamps to 4000 Kelvin to produce the right spectrum.
For the first test, Crawley mounted the lights on one end of the brood house filled with thousands of newly-hatched chicks up to seven days old. About three days into the trial, Crawley had to turn the lights off, because the birds were trampling each other to get underneath the lights to feed.
The lights were moved to the middle of the brood house to ease overcrowding.
“I’ve got three rows of lights in the middle of the house and the birds like them – they gather around them,” he said. “They eat more. They’re more active and they’re putting on more weight. You can tell the difference on the center feed line.”
Crawley said he expects the lights to pay for themselves within about a year through increased yield, energy savings and incentives.
“I’ve had them for nearly a year and I haven’t had any problems out of any of them,” he said. “I plan on switching the whole house over to the new lights,”
Enigma Lighting’s Architectural 3-D Multi-Lens Troffer Replacements are designed to replace existing fluorescent strip lights.
“There’s no mercury in these — they’re totally green,” said Enigma Lighting COO Roy Jaynes of the cool-burning, energy-sipping lights.
Each of the fixture’s patented globes focus and direct the light from six micro light-emitting diodes virtually eliminating the kind of shadows produced by most commercial lighting fixtures.
They burn at about 98 degrees Fahrenheit, but one replacement unit can produce more light than two bays of fluorescents.
Underwriters Laboratories is in the final stages of certifying the new lighting systems. Unit sales will begin when UL signs off on the lights, Jaynes said.
Early estimates have the Enigma units selling for less than $1,Compact fluorescent light bulbs convert a led tube considerably higher percentage of their energy into light, which is why they are significantly more energy efficient than traditional filament bulbs.000 each, said Jaynes. At this stage, Enigma plans to contract with companies to replace multiple lights in a building to reap the full benefits of the new lights.
“The energy savings, when coupled with the green energy tax credits, incentives from the government and rebates from power companies will render these lights cost-neutral within about two years of their installation,” Jaynes said.Unlike compact cfl bulbs fluorescent light bulbs, LED based light bulbs provide a variety of lighting options- including the ability to provide a wide range of light, which allows them to act as a proper replacement light bulb
McMillan theorizes that his units will be able to burn for 70,000 to 100,000 hours (eight to 11 years if they’re left on for 24 hours per day) before they need to be replaced.
Enigma Lighting is focused on more than lighting brood houses and replacing traditional fluorescent tubes.
Most bulbs in street lights are mercury vapor and they burn at about 500 degrees.
Enigma’s LED-based streetlight replacement modules emit more light but far less heat for a fraction of the cost.
“This one light is putting out the same amount of light as a 600-watt fixture, but it’s only burning 90 watts,” McMillan said as he demonstrated a light designed for use in bays and warehouses. “We can replace a 460-watt mercury vapor light with one that burns as little as 90 to 95 watts.”
It might be a while before Enigma lights hit the shelves hardware in stores like Home Depot and Lowes.
“Primarily business, industrial and government is what we’re going after,” McMillan said. “We may go after the residential market, but right now there’s a lot of competition in that market and we’d like to make our reputation in commercial.”
SIDEBARS:
Beating the overheating bike dilemma
Before Erik McMillan decided to revolutionize lighting, he built custom motorcycles — choppers.
A long-time fan of Harleys and custom bikes, McMillan was acutely aware that they have a major weakness: The motorcycles are air-cooled, but lack a radiator system. They overheat if left to idle.
Within 30 minutes, the stationary bike’s engine oil temperature spikes. Ordinarily the problem may just be a minor annoyance, but for a rider stuck in construction traffic or in a sea of bikes in a rally in Daytona Beach,The U600 works with Sprint's SmartView マジコン connection manager for Windows XP and above, and for Macs running OSX 10.5 and above. Fla. or Sturgis, South Dakota, the quirk puts the bike at serious risk.
McMillan’s solution is a gleaming chrome cylinder about the size of a large can of STP or two coffee cups stacked on top of each other. The system also utilizes an upper cooling unit built into and concealed by the motorcycle’s horn to remove stagnated heat from between the cylinder heads.
It’s called a Continuous Air-Flow Oil Cooling System, or C.A.However, the marketing muscle of Philips led light lighting could give Philips LED business an advantage.O.C.S. for short, and the motorcycling world has taken notice.
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