With new lighting regulations going into effect in 2012, the FTC is doing their part to help educate consumers by developing packaging standards for lighting manufacturers. Currently, consumers use watts to figure out what type of light bulb that they need to purchase. However, with new technologies coming onto the marketplace every day that consume less power, this unit of measurement is not really an accurate depiction of how much light a bulb is going to put out. Having terminology such as “60 watt equivalent” is helpful, but confusing at the same time because a consumer isn’t aware of the energy savings that they are getting from that light bulb. The new standards from the FTC will focus on lumens and not watts to help consumers determine what type of bulb they need to purchase. But, the big question is the difference between a watt and a lumen.
Let’s first start with the definition of a watt. A watt is defined as the power needed to move a one kilogram object at the speed of one meter per-second against a force of one newton. More simply put a watt a measurement of how much electrical power a device consumes. When looking at lighting and watts, you are not looking at how much light a bulb puts out when looking at watts, but how much energy a bulb uses to put out that amount of light.
Now moving on to lumens, a lumen is a measurement of the amount of light that is contained in a certain area. The technical definition of a lumen is one candela multiplied by one steradian. A much simpler definition of a lumen would be that one lumen is equivalent to the amount of light put out by one birthday candle when you are standing one foot away from it. If a light bulb puts out 100 lumens, imagine standing one foot away from a cake with one hundred birthday candles on it.
Lumens are more accurate way of measuring the amount of light a particular bulb is putting out, because lumens are a direct measurement of light output. Wattage, even though it is what people have become accustomed to seeing on packaging and measuring how much light they are seeing, it is not really an accurate way to measure light output. Just because a light bulb uses a particular amount of energy to run, does not mean that it directly correlates with the amount of light that is put out. With a variety of energy efficient CFLs, LEDs and Halogen lamps coming onto the market on a regular basis that do not use nearly the same amount of energy as incandescent bulbs it makes sense for people to move away from thinking about wattage when they purchase a bulb and start thinking about lumens.
TCP is proud to have participated in the rennovation of one of Boston, Massachusetts’, most notable landmarks – the Paragon Carousel. TCP supplied the light bulbs for this project. According to the Partners in Preservation web site,
“The Carousel, built in 1928 as part of Paragon Park, is one of just 150 hand-carved historic carousels left in the U.S. Now the centerpiece of Nantasket Beach, the carousel is the only ride from the Park left in Massachusetts”.
Web site visitors have from now, until May 18, 2009, to cast their vote for the landmark they think should be the recipient of a grant. As of this date – the paragon Carousel is in 1st place! So cast your vote today!
Last week, a TCP delegation was proud to travel to Washington, DC, to accept the 2009 ENERGY STAR® Partner of the Year for Lighting Product Manufacturer.
Presenting the award (left) is Richard H. Karney, DOE ENERGY STAR Program Manager. Accepting the award on behalf of TCP is CEO, Ellis Yan (center), and Melissa Obradovic, TCP Energy Star Program Manager (right).
TCP, Inc has been an ENERGY STAR partner since 1999 and will be honored for its leadership in manufacturing CFL’s, Residential Light Fixtures and LED’s that earn the ENERGY STAR, the government backed symbol of energy efficiency. In 2008, TCP introduced over 140 new ENERGY STAR qualified CFL’s and 25 new ENERGY STAR qualified LED Decorative Light Strings.
The Office of Healthy Ohio (OHO) recognized 27 Ohio businesses, including TCP, for healthy worksite practices.
“Out of all the companies that applied for this recognition, TCP is thrilled to have been chosen among the winners,” exclaimed Christine Reda, TCP’s Human Resources Manager.
More than 70 companies, cities and townships applied for the 2008 awards which recognize Ohio employers that demonstrate a commitment to employee health through comprehensive worksite health promotion and wellness programs.
As I have mentioned before in this blog, TCP is excited to be teaming up with EcoZone Media and CBS to launch a new program entitled the EcoZone Green Schools Initiave. Earlier this week, Ellis Yan, CEO of TCP, was in Miami, Florida, to officially kick off the program.
One winning school in each targeted city will receive a green makeover valued at approximately $250,000 in products and services and overseen by a professional “green schools coach.” Miami is the Initiative’s first market.
Interested students, teachers and administrators can enter the Green Schools Initiative by submitting a creative response that expresses what “being green” means to them, as well as filling out an application at http://www.ecozonemedia.com/greenmyschool/. Winners will be chosen by a committee consisting of members of EcoMedia’s Advisory Board and members of the CBS Corporation, and will be announced in January 2009. In addition to the grand prize, a sustainable environmental program will be provided to all participating schools through Miami non-profit Dream In Green.
There’s a new web site – loseyourexcuse.gov – aimed at getting tweens and teens to actively look for ways to help save energy around their homes. It’s cute, check it out.
We found another fun web site on Planet Green – part of the Discovery Channel’s network – called Battleground Earth. Battleground Earth is an online game – the objective is to shoot as many incandescent lightbulbs as possible. Good luck – it’s kind of addictive!
And finally, for those of you old enough to remember Schoolhouse Rock, you’ll enjoy this :60 second video for Gulf Power. This nostalgic piece encourages viewers to switch to CFLs. Enjoy!
Last year as part of a corporate sustainability initiative, TCP implemented OnBase – an enterprise content management software that combines integrated document management, business process management and records management in a single application.
By allowing TCP to digitize and electronically store documents in OnBase, TCP managed to reduce the amount of paper it uses, reduce storage of records and make those documents searchable and readily available to the rest of the company, and improving service levels.
You can check out the TCP Case Study on the OnBase web site.
You may be wondering why a light bulb manufacturing company would have interest in being on a video sharing website. Being on YouTube provides an opportunity for TCP, Inc. to broadcast ourselves to over 79 million users!
So stop on by TCP’s YouTube page – http://www.youtube.com/user/TCPnetwork and check out our videos we have posted as well as some of our favorite videos posted by others.
The energy efficient
lighting experts at TCP are pleased to have "Bright Point" as a forum for
sharing their knowledge on lighting, industry trends, and new products from
TCP.
With new lighting regulations going into effect in 2012, the FTC is doing their part to help educate consumers by developing packaging standards for lighting manufacturers. Currently, consumers use watts to figure out what type of light bulb that they need to purchase. However, with new technologies coming onto the marketplace every day that consume less power, this unit of measurement is not really an accurate depiction of how much light a bulb is going to put out. Having terminology such as “60 watt equivalent” is helpful, but confusing at the same time because a consumer isn’t aware of the energy savings that they are getting from that light bulb. The new standards from the FTC will focus on lumens and not watts to help consumers determine what type of bulb they need to purchase. But, the big question is the difference between a watt and a lumen.
Digg
TCP is proud to have participated in the rennovation of one of Boston, Massachusetts’, most notable landmarks – the 
Last week, a TCP delegation was proud to travel to Washington, DC, to accept the 2009 ENERGY STAR® Partner of the Year for Lighting Product Manufacturer.
You may be wondering why a light bulb manufacturing company would have interest in being on a video sharing website. Being on YouTube provides an opportunity for TCP, Inc. to broadcast ourselves to over 79 million users!
