Christmas Twinkle in New York

Not exactly close to home but the Rockefeller Centre Christmas tree has gone all ‘Eco’.

A main attraction of the Centre in New York, the tree normally consumes a vast amount of energy due to all those tiny lights. This year the tree will be illuminated with 30,000 LED lights which use much less energy and are expected to reduce the consumption from a previous 3,510 kilowatt hours per day to around 1,300.

That saving, it seems, is the equivalent to the amount of electricity used by a small house in a month!

[ Via Engadget.com ]

Wind Powered Sculpture

This weekend saw the very brief appearance of the Aeolian Tower, a 15 meter sculpture clad in wind powered LEDs, on the South Bank of the Thames in London.

Designed by the Jason Burges Studio, it was located outside the British Film Industry building as part of the onedotzero_adventure in motion festival. We have featured this studio a couple of times before because of their innovative use of alternative and eco lighting.

The tower was clad in 1,200 miniature wind powered turbines which power tiny red LEDs. As the speed and direction of the wind changes so the brightness of each LED changes providing a shifting luminous representation of the ‘turbulence’ we a often unaware of.

The miniature wind turbines have been used previously in work by Jason Burges Studio and are now available to purchase, individually, from lighting specialist Mathmos.

More details about the Aeolian Tower at www.jasonburges.com

Solar Powered Urban Lighting

There are solar powered garden lights in many garden which collect energy during the day to power a small LED light during the evening. Generally they are low power and often ugly.

Enter the solar Sunflower. This elegant design works in a similar way to current garden solar lighting but on a brighter, larger, scale. During the day the solar cells, on the top of the stem, collect energy then use it at night to power the bright LEDs built into the head.

Designed for easy attachment of directional signs or display banners this might just be a simple solution to keeping us illuminated and informed.

[Via Ecofriend]

Wind-up lantern

Remember Trevor Baylis? He invented that wind-up radio 15 years ago. Well, his company has been at it again and has come up with a wind-up, weather proof, lantern just in time for those long summer evenings outside and the camping/festival season.

It contains 5 LEDs and is charged by you ‘winding’ the device. One full wind will give around 4 hours of continuous light. It also has a standby mode which illuminates just two of the LEDs for some gentle ‘night light’ action and will last for 48 hours.

You can stand it on a surface, use the included folding handle to hang it or fix it with recessed lugs onto a wall.

If you don’t have the energy to do any winding you can also recharge it by plugging it into the mains or a car.

Available from a number of eco suppliers for around £24.95. Have a look at www.the-green-apple.co.uk

Solar Powered Video Screen - XXL

Video walls are now part of many major cities - used for advertising, information and, sometimes, art. Beijing is about to officially switch on what is thought to be the world’s largest.

Located on the entire side of the Xicui Entertainment Complex building in Beijing, China, ready for the Olympics, the GreenPix-Zero Energy Media Wall is made up of energy efficient LEDs, can show 2,292 individual colours and is equivalent to a monitor screen covering 24,000 square feet.

The entire screen is solar powered using photovoltaic panels built directly into the structure. During the day they collect energy, which is stored ready for powering the screen at night. The wall was designed by architects Simone Giostra & Partners, New York, with the lighting design and facade engineered by Arup in London and Beijing.

The building will open to the public this month, with a specially commissioned program of video installations and live performances by artists from China, Europe and the US.

More details at images at www.greenpix.org

Hi-Tech Paper Lanterns

One of the problems about solar garden lighting is that many people just do not like the ‘modern’ design so, for your traditionalists out there, you might like to have a look at these.

The Chinese style lanterns have LEDs in them which are powered by small solar panels and have an in built sensor which switches them on when it gets dark. All you have to do is hang them up!

Each pack contains three red lanterns and three white. The white ones have colour changing LEDs in them so they slowly fade through a variety of colours. Simple and practical - no installation and no cost for power. You not only have a chance to decorate your garden but save some Co2 at the same time!

Available for around £29.95 from Firebox.com

Recycled Traffic Lights

So, LED technology is producing more eco friendly lighting and this includes traffic lights.

You might have noticed that many city traffic lights are now using LED clusters instead of coloured glass shades over a white light bulb.

These are appearing all over the place now – you don’t have to replace them so often, they are bright and use less energy.

The downside is that thousands of old light fittings are being thrown away as cities upgrade to the new technology. In the USA truckloads go to landfill. An American company, based in San Francisco, is taking advantage of this and reclaiming them to make stylish, retro, light fittings.

Take a look at their inovative (retro) designs by visiting: www.greenlightconcepts.com