Lighting Sciences Group becomes largest producer of LED bulbs in North America
I first heard of Lighting Sciences Group (LSG) back in 2007 as being the company that designed and built the LED replacement for the Times Square ball that drops on New Years Eve; I thought it was strictly an engineering design firm. And then its LED light bulbs started showing up in Home Depot stores. Last year at the Google I/O conference, LSG was the first company Google teamed up with for a Android@Home partner, specifically for intelligent lighting.
So clearly this is a company on the move. Yesterday the company announced it’s now the largest producer of LED light bulbs in North America, producing 4.5 million LED light bulbs in 2011. I immediately assumed that LSG sub-contracts its manufacturing to Asian companies, because that just seems to be the way it’s done these days, and asked the company where and by whom the bulbs are manufactured. The answer: LSG owns two production facilities, a smaller one at its headquarters in Satellite Beach, FL, with the majority done at its facility in Monterey, Mexico. All light bulb production workers, totaling about 700, are LSG employees, with another 300 employed in the US in engineering, research and sales.
It plans on opening another manufacturing facility in India, for sale of LED bulbs to both the subcontinent’s and Asian markets.
With manufacturing quality problems looming as the biggest obstacle to consumer adoption of LED bulbs, LSG apparently feels it must keep control of the whole design/manufacturing process to ensure mass-produced, quality products. True, at present most of the work is done in Mexico, but keeping initial production in the US is probably a small victory for US manufacturing going forward.
Contrast LSG’s approach, however, with Philips L-Prize bulb, which will have the majority of its US bulb manufacturing done in the US.
J.O. commented:
I live in a region where I must heat my home about 8 months of the year. The so called "waste heat" from an incandescent simply takes some of the load off of my furnace. Winter days are the shortest and I spend more time indoors then, so that's when my lighting load is the highest. The whole idea of "wasted" energy is pretty much nonsense for many of us in North America, most of the year. In the summer I have more daylight and spend less time indoors so "waste " from my lighting is real, but limited.
SemiPro commented:
Margery,
As mentioned previously, this company is on the brink of failure because while they may sell an LED bulb at Home Depot for $20, it costs them $23 to build it. They have a lot of press and patents but cannot currently be considered finacially viable. They moved a lot of production to Mexico last year andthat did not seem to cut enough cost out so maybe Asia next?
Engineer commented:
Re: "save the environment from the release of harmful chemicals"
Such as excess mercury released into our mutually shared atmosphere from excess power generation from wasteful use.
Hans J Weedon commented:
Hi everybody, I still miss the enviromental impact that a glowing filament lightbulbs has. We need light to keep working after the sun sets. Getting light at a 1% or less efficiency burns up energy that could be saved by using more efficient light sources. Since we, in general, use sequested carbon to produce much of our electricity we put fossilized carbon back into an atmosphere that algea took millions of years to remove. Lets not ruin the job that algea did several 1000 millions of years ago.
I am in favour of leaving the carbon in the ground by using more efficient light-sources. If we relly want to get carbon out of the fiossilized state please everybody switch back to candles. A standard candle produces about 1 lumen of light while generating about 100W of heat. we have hot wire lightbulbs that can produce about 1000 candles worth of light, bu efficient LED bulbs consume only about 20W to produce that same 1000 candles worth of light.
As far as I can see that is 5,000 times less carbon released into our atmosphere, I call that great progress that I am definitely in favour of.
HJW.
AM commented:
Just somehow in this whole mix, someone forgot to mention that LSG lost ~ US$300M last year 2010, with cost of goods sold higher than total revenue. Great business model...
Chris commented:
Suprise, suprise
QC is still required & the USA is the best at it
Stogiesaurus commented:
I've been using CFLs for years. I particularly like the soft start as it's easy on the eyes.
Mr. Rose commented:
Administrator - You really should moderate these comments better. It appears that there is only 1 or 2 coherent comments while the othes seem to be the work of cranks!
Andrew commented:
Engineer, RTFM.
Increasing CO2 level improves crop yield and helps feed the world. Are you against poor people having enough food to eat?
* homeharvest.com/carbondioxideenrichment.htm
Bibb lettuce
By adding CO2 to the atmosphere around the plant, a 40% crop increase was achieved. Whereas previous crops averaged 22 heads per basket, lettuce grown in the increased CO2 atmosphere (550 ppm) averaged 16 heads of better quality per basket.
Tomatoes
Work in experimental stations has shown that crop increases of as much as 29% have been obtained by increasing the CO2 concentration. More desirable firmness and more uniform ripening are also observed.
Andrew commented:
Engineer, you may want to check you information.
CFLs contain mercury, incandescent bulbs do not.
LEDs contain arsenic and gallium, incandescent bulbs do not.
People should use incandescent bulbs to save the environment from the release of harmful chemicals.
Andrew commented:
fBecker,
First, if I choose to spend my money on electricity, it is my money. You may think it is a waste, I may think it is a wise use of the compensation for my labor. It is OK to disagree as long as you do not force me to do something I do not want, and I do not force you to do something you do not want.
Personally I like continuous incandescent bulb spectrum. It is similar to the sunlight and flame and human eyes evolved in sunlight, so it is natural for us. Halogen incandescent bulbs are even better, since they use higher filament temperature. CFLs and LEDs, especially cheap one, have a line spectrum giving you an incorrect color perception on paintings and pictures.
Engineer commented:
And when Andrew captures all the extra CO2, mercury, and other pollution caused by his inefficient choice(s) and encase them on his property for perpetuity rather than have them come over into my family's breathing space, then he may have a point.
fBecker commented:
Andrew, Think about it a while, maybe you can understand why its is stupid to use incandescent bulbs. Just why do you want to waste electricity when its not necessary?
Andrew commented:
Jesse, you could do yourself a favor and start with Economics 101, especially section about division of labor and comparative advantage. After all it is the basis of modern civilization, it will be impossible otherwise.
I develop electronic controllers, get paid, then buy electricity from someone who can produce it much better then I can.
As long as I and electricity producer agreed on price I should pay, it is none of your, government or anyone else business what kind of light bulbs, water heaters, AC units, furnaces, TVs, PCs, DVD players, radios, fridges, microwaves, washers, dishwashers, dryers, ranges, soldering irons, signal generators, oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, power supplies and cellphone chargers I use.
It is an agreement between me as a buyer and electricity producer/distributor as a seller.
jesse lackey commented:
Andrew: when you run your 3% efficient incandescents with electricity you produce, do whatever you want.
Andrew commented:
I bought a nice box of good old 100W incandescent bulbs for the price of a few LED bulbs (with horrible spectrum and low reliability). This year I will stock up on 60W bulbs.
Also I started using halogen incandescent, they are much superior to every kind of CFLs and LEDs in term of reliability and spectrum quality, they do not contain mercury as CFls, or other harmful chemicals like LEDs.
Much better question.
Just who the hell Congress think they are to tell me what kind of light bulbs I can or can not use?
TNflash commented:
You failed to mention Cree Lighting in North Carolina, a US company. They have received engineering rewards for making the brightest LEDs and they are even recognized for high quality by the Chinese.
