Starbucks gets a ‘green’ light; Pop. Sci. picks a winner

November 12, 2009

It’s a marquee week for two of GE’s consumer innovations. On one hand, coffee powerhouse Starbucks has embarked on a massive project to help reduce its global environmental footprint — and as part of it, has begun converting to GE’s LED lighting systems at company-owned stores in the U.S. and Canada. On the other, a GE technology that just jumped from the drawing board to the production line has caught the eye of the tech gurus at Popular Science magazine, which today gave GE’s new hybrid water heater its “Best of What’s New” award in the Home Technology category.

In 2008, Starbucks wanted to substitute incandescent and halogen lighting with LED lighting to conserve energy, but found no commercially available product that met its needs. They reached out to GE, which developed a highly energy efficient LED product that complements Starbucks store design and fits its existing fixtures.
Coffee mates: In 2008, Starbucks wanted to substitute incandescent and halogen lighting with LED lighting to conserve energy, but found no commercially available product that met its needs. They reached out to GE, which developed a highly energy efficient LED product that complements Starbucks store design and fits its existing fixtures.

Starbucks has completed installation in more than 1,000 U.S. locations and will expand the program to international markets in March 2010. The switch is part of Starbucks goal to achieve a 25 percent reduction in energy use by the end of 2010.

In addition to its work with GE, Starbucks announced that it has entered into the construction phase of the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED pilot program, which is an internationally recognized green building certification system. Over the next six months, Starbucks will build or renovate a minimum of 10 pilot stores in six different regions around the world. The goal is to achieve LEED certification for all new company-owned stores worldwide beginning in late 2010.


And the winner is… “The Best of What’s New Award is the magazine’s top honor, and the 100 winners – chosen from among thousands of entrants — represent the highest level of achievement in their fields,” says Mark Jannot, Editor-in-Chief of Popular Science.

Meanwhile, the December issue of Popular Science names GE’s Hybrid Water Heater the “Best of What’s New” in the Home Technology category. It’s the fourth time that GE’s products have won an award in that category.

Each year the editors of Popular Science choose the top 100 tech innovations of the year in 11 categories: Automotive, Aviation & Space, Computing, Engineering, Gadgets, Green Technology, Home Entertainment, Security, Home Technology, Personal Health and Recreation.

GE’s Hybrid Water Heater uses heat pump technology in combination with traditional electric elements to pull heat from surrounding air and then transfers it to the tank. The innovative process can reduce energy expenses up to 62% — which translates into a savings of up to $320 a year when compared to a 50-gallon standard electric tank water heater.

* Read Starbucks LED lighting announcement
* Learn more about Starbucks environmental commitment
* Learn more about GE’s LED systems
* Read “Hey, what’s your sign? At AT&T it’s GE’s LEDs” on GE Reports
* See a video: “GE’s OLED research: I saw the light — and it bends!
* Read today’s Popular Science announcement
* Learn more about the hybrid water heater
* Read “GE’s new KY deal marks a great time to be in hot water” on GE Reports
* Read “HD Supply deal pumps new hybrid water heater rollout” on GE Reports
* Read “Introducing the zero energy home” on GE Reports


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  • Tim

    Where can we purchase the LED lights developed for Starbucks?

  • Randolph Fritz

    Tim, the lamp pictured is apparently one of the PAR20 lamps shown on the following page:
    http://www.gelighting.com/na/business_lighting/products/led/general_lighting.htm

  • ysaias

    I very informative that technology

  • neil

    can you dim these lights

  • Where is more info on GE’s Hybrid Water Heater

    I want to know where I can buy one and what it would cost to install. I want to save as much as energgy as possible.

  • tunji ogunmuyiwa

    want to know more about LED lights in film making

  • Megan Robison

    For additional information on the new GE hybrid water heater, please visit http://www.geappliances.com/heat-pump-hot-water-heater/.

  • Donald King

    I wish GE’s website was ” interactive “- -
    have been trying to get info on LED Display cases – pricing etc – where available –
    as I have a need for at least 40 and have contacts all over the US that have similar needs – particuarily with the demise of incandescent bulbs in 2011 or 2012

    Which spectrum frequency is best for jewelery etc and do the come with a power pack or are they 120 volt ac powered ?individually or in groups ?

  • John Wood

    Heard you can get info here about led lighting displays and it seems the sight changed or they gave the wrong link. Either way. Here is this for jingles. You want us to go green? You want us to save? Well why go green when it is cheaper to not? I can get a light stran of 100 lights for $1.87 or less with regular but for single lights it’s a 50 stran for $5.00.. Now if you want to light up your house entirely for cheap and do it in 1 year which would you do? Right the regular. LED may save over time but for most of us why save over time when it is cheaper just to buy regular? Encourage me to change over and I will. Until then screw it I will just get dinged by electric bills.

  • tony

    i think it os a wonderful thing that you are doing ,i was think about it also,i know it will help the world

  • Bill Kerst

    I want to use led lighting in my kitchen at home. i would like to use solar panels for a supply. how involved will this be and how costly cuold it be.where would i get the componets to light my kitchen

  • Dale Jacobson

    I am looking for a solar light with an approx 8″ globe.

  • John Five

    John Wood: If you’re interested in cost alone, it takes a pretty long time for the LED Christmas lights to pay for themselves in reduced energy costs. If you run the lights 8 hours a day for 30 days, the traditional incandescent lights (at around 25 watts per 50 bulb strand) will use 6 KWh of electricity, or 60 cents if you pay 10 cents per KWh. The same LED strand will use around 5 watts, so it will cost you 12 cents to run for the same amount of time.

    So, you’d have to run them for over 8 seasons to make them pay themselves back if a 50 LED strand set costs $4 more than traditional lights.

    Of course, LED’s have other advantages like cooler operating temperature and much longer lifetime, so you could save money by being able to reuse the LED lights for many seasons without the bulbs burning out. (though if you use them outside, the LED strands will likely fail as quickly as regular strands since corrosion will affect cheap consumer strands at the same rate whether they are traditional or LED lamps)

  • simon

    I am looking for a reliable supplier for HID kits for a reasonable price, reasonable minimum quantity orders, good customer service, and Paypal payment method.

  • David Wegelin

    does anyone out there have a wiring diagram for LED christmas lights. I have a 70 string that is not working and I wanted to try to fix it.

    thanks

  • Bob Robertson

    David W,
    Most likely you have one led either burned out or not making proper contact. I had a string that did not work straight out of the package and the problem was fixed when I found the very first led in the string was not making contact. Pull the led out of the socket and check the wires. Make adjustments to the wires to make sure they do make the proper contact. At Sears I traded in all my old lights (got 10% off new leds)during a sale and got another 10% off for a total of 20% discount from the regular price. The lights work wonderfully and hardly use any power. My old strings had a warning not to use more than 3 strings hooked together. The new leds say not more than 84 strings together. Duh!! thats quite a power savings. Yep, costs a bit more but the color, light, coolness and power savings makes it all worth while. As a matter of fact I am replacing all my bulbs in the house with leds. Their color is better than the compact Fluorescent, they are cooler (no heat), last much longer and hardly use any power (a led that puts out the light of a 60 watt incandescent and only uses 5 watts is a no brainer. Good Luck

  • axel hoefer

    Donald King, 2 simple solutions.
    One, find a display case that uses MR11 lamp holders
    (G4 sockets).Instead of normal halogen 10W or 20W MR11′s, use high-power LED MR11′s with a color temperature of 4,000K to 6,500K. They use as little as 1 watt and they are very directional The light is ideal for clear (diamonds) or subtly colored or silver and platinum jewelry. For gold or warmer colored gemstones a lower color temperature is probably better, but there is no perfect light for all types of jewelry.
    LED lamps do get warm or even hot (there is a reason the PAR20 lamp shown has an extensive aluminum heat sink), but they do not project this heat along with their light as incandescent/halogen lights will.
    However, the total heat emitted in a single display case will be radically lower.
    The life of these LED MR11′s should be around 20,000 hours if the mfr claims are to be believed.
    Most of the time, the same transformer that powered the halogen lamps will power the 12V LED’s as well.
    In summary:
    GOOD: = High lumens per watt, relatively low heat, very long life, interesting color choices.
    BAD: Very high cost ($25-$50 retail), transformer compatibility.
    VERDICT: If you can afford them, you must.
    I haven’t bothered to check if GE has an LED MR11 yet, but I guarantee you, they will in the near future.

    Two, you can also now buy linear LED “sticks” with a square cross section of about .75″. Most will require a “driver” (12-24V DC transformer), and some might now be 120V plug-in versions.
    Since LED’s are typically “lensed” already, you will get good directionality from these bars as well, but you can only rotate the bar around one axis.
    Good: Availability, ease of installation.
    BAD: Cost, lack of individual adjustability.
    VERDICT: This might be your thing.

    By the way, in case the standard 12V AC transformer in a halogen lighted display case won’t work with the retrofitted LED lamps, DC drivers are commonly available for $15-$50.

    Even LED’s will require some kind of lamp holder, as bare LED’s are typically soldered into place on a circuit board, or they will need some kind of attachment other than dangling leads.

    However, if you want to see current state of the art display cases, find a SWAROVSKI” crystal dealer.
    Their display cases use a single light 4,000 Kelvin “engine”. often a 50W-150W GE metal halide lamp (10,000 -20,000 HOURS) in an optically sealed but fan ventilated box.
    This light is routed via a number (10-100) of fiber optic conductors to just as many little adjustable tiny light “fixtures” all over the case.
    It looks and works fabulously, but it also is not a perfect solution.
    GOOD: No heat or electricity at the point of light emittance, great light quality, tremendous flexibility in light placement.
    BAD: High price for the engine and hardware, degradation of glass fiber transmittance and lamp light output over time.
    VERDICT: Good current compromise of cost versus function if you can afford the whole set-up.

    Now I know you asked what time it was, and I told you how to build a watch, but here is one more opinion on incandescent lamps:
    Do you think GE, which perfected the light bulb as we know it, is going to let it die just like that?
    I don’t.
    I think they are working on improving the efficiency of the standard lamp.
    Some methods are well known and proven already, but GE being GE, I think they will come up with an additional trick or two to extend the life of this very popular lighting technology.
    To paraphrase their slogan: “They’ll bring good light to things”
    Many people will never warm up to fluorescents, and not everyone loves the quality of LED lighting either.
    I assume they will keep any mayor innovation close to their vest until ready for a sensational, GE style new product roll-out.
    Axel Hoefer

  • Bruce Lang

    I am a electrical contractor in Cleveland , Ohio.
    I wish to expand into the LED lighting market.
    Please send a suppliers list for your LED lighting products

  • DENNIS

    I OWN A LIGHT POLE COMPANY AND WISH TO EXPAND INTO THE LED BUSINESS. PLEASE SEND ANY AND ALL INFO FOR CONVERTING PARKING LOT LIGHTING OF H.I.D. INTO LED. THANKS, DENNIS OF MLP MICHIGAN

  • Anonymous

    I wish you would respond to your comments, GE. Please do — that is how social media works, even if you have to break the news that a product is not available or other unsavory announcements. The site says your comments are moderated, so why not have the moderator respond to commentors? A blog is not a broadcasted press release. It’s supposed to be interactive, a discussion. Thank you.

  • Led Bulbs

    Very exciting?! I was wondering if you are interested in KW.

  • Ramachandra

    I am in India, Bangalore. I would like to buy one sample of 8W for house use to see its performance. Please let me know where I can buy. If it is not awailable in India, Can you send a samle to me?
    Please respond.

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