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The latest news in energy efficiency
December 20, 2011
Featured Content
Lighting efficiency legislation -- Not the holiday gift we were expecting
Lighting naysayers got a surprise last week with the delay until October of efficiency regulations that would have effectively banned 100-W incandescent bulbs. Now the question: What to do with all the 99-W bulbs they'd bought as stocking stuffers to skirt the new regulations.
If you'd like some holiday reading, try the digital edition of our Nov.-Dec. issue: viewer.zmags.com/publication/72bdb8ad
Happy holidays and as always, send your energy efficiency news to us at [email protected]. - Leland Teschler, Editor
Next hot technology: EV motors
The U.S. has a new electric motor maker: General Motors. A GM pilot plant is building prototype manufacturing equipment and processes that will eventually move to a mass production facility near Baltimore, Md. in 2013 for building 85-kW motors going into the Chevy Spark EV, also due out that year. But with the numerous high-quality electric motor makers domiciled in the U.S., you might wonder why GM thinks it needs to build its own. GM execs say this strategy has nothing to do with a not-invented-here syndrome.
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Batteries for stop-start vehicles
One of the fuel-saving technologies soon to hit U.S. shores will be stop-start, or micro-hybrid, vehicles that turn off at stop lights to get about 15% better mileage. But your conventional lead-acid battery can't handle this sort of frequent use without losing its charge.
Getting the costs out of LEDs
Electrical engineers who attended school during the early 1970s may be able to recall their first exposure to light-emitting diodes (LEDs). It was often in a circuits lab where the instructor wired up a single LED on a breadboard — mere undergrads were generally not allowed anywhere near the novel and expensive components. Students huddled around the instructor were astounded to see a dim, red light coming from a tiny spot on the circuit board.
Inverters go on a diet
An electric vehicle is like a competitive runner in one regard: Every pound it must carry is a pound that forces it to consume more energy. No surprise, then, that there is a concerted effort in industry today toward coming up with EV components and systems that are as light as possible.
New Products
Tiny power management ICs feature power-saving deep sleep mode
Texas Instruments Inc. (TI) announces a family of tiny, single-chip, power management integrated circuits (PMICs) for powering the supply rails in solid state drives (SSDs), hybrid drives, and other Flash memory management applications. The new LM10504, LM10503, and LM10506 PMICs improve reliability and reduce system cost and development time. Additional features include a power-saving deep sleep mode, built-in current limit and thermal protection, and power-down data protection.
Asymmetrical lenses suit LED lighting
LEDiL announces an addition to its STRADA Series to include the new STRADA-F Series lens family, which are asymmetrical lenses that direct high-quality, low-power LED light in a forward pattern. Lighting designers no longer have to tilt the PCB or fixture to achieve proper light distribution, because the new lenses project light forward to create efficient lighting solutions from wide streets to odd-shaped parking lots.
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