SMALL STORY ON PAGE A17 OF TODAY'S LA TIMES
small story with large ramifications
The Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree is going "greener" with energy-saving lights replacing old fashioned bulbs.
The 84-foot spruce will be covered with 30,000 multicolored light-emiting diodes, or LEDs, strung on five miles of wire.
THE DAILY SAVING IS EQUAL TO THE AMOUNT OF ELECTRICITY CONSUMED BY A TYPICAL 2000 SQUARE FOOT HOUSE IN A MONTH.
END OF STORY
BUT
THIS STORY IS THE TRUE BEGINNING OF A LIGHTING REVOLUTION
All the talk and all the efforts by those of us involved in trying to teach others about the world of LEDs will now seem pale compared to information that is generated from one Christmas Tree. I admit it's a rather large tree....but it's a Christmas Tree and on the night when they light the tree (Nov 28) there will be more public interest generated in LEDs than all the previous efforts put forth.
It will be televised on NBC and the next day from Iowa to Oregon to Florida to Texas....there will be people sitting around their breakfast tables talking and the husband will say...
"So, those light eating diates things.....what exactly are they and why don't we have some for our Christmas Tree? And the wife will answer with....."Christmas Tree? Why don't we have them everywhere"......and the revolution will begin.
Within a week or two reporters will be asking the questions that needed to be asked.....60 Minutes will fall in line and the Oprah will do a show on LEDs and
WHAMO....THE LIGHTING REVOLUTION IS IN FULL SWING.
AND ALL IT TOOK WAS ONE LARGE BEAUTIFUL CHRISTMAS TREE
and once again Christmas kicks ass!
I am sure that Color Kinetics got the job to light the tree but if they didn't then shame on their sales department.
Of course there will be the slight backlash on the fact that all those lights were made in China but I doubt that any reporter will dig that deep during the ceremony. It will take a few weeks for Bill Reilly or Sean Hannity to expose the China connection to the Rockefeller Christmas Tree. But by then the cat will be out of the bag and information will be screaming across this country regarding...
LEDs
or
Solid State Lighting, if you prefer.
Personally I don't give a rat's ass what you want to call it....just realize that the amount of Energy saved by switching to LED bulbs is....
IMMEDIATE......AND HUGE
and they are available to purchase right now for 75 % of all your exterior and interior lighting......EXCEPT AT YOUR LOCAL RETAILERS WHO FOR SOME REASON HAVE BEEN PREVENTED FROM SELLING LEDs BY TWO LARGE COMPANIES WHO IMPLY THAT THE TECHNOLOGY IS NOT AVAILABLE.
while buying LED companies......lock, stock and barrel.
......BUT..... GE and Philips will not be able to stop the flood and they will be forced to move early on their planned retail unveiling of LEDs. And the entire process started with one Christmas Tree....one very large Christmas Tree.
Happy Holidays
Michael Timothy McAlevey
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2 comments:
Yeah, but have you seen the price for a string of those lights?! Conventional ones you can get for $1.00 now, so I doubt there will be a mad rush to get LED Christmas lights when you can go anywhere and buy the cheap ones.
"Economically Greener"
Seriously....the cost of the LED Christmas lights is not that high. Of course 30,000 lights represents a larger investment that anyone will encounter. The cost of the LED Christmas Tree lights for a regular size tree runs about $10 a strand.
And they don't get hot so no more Christmas Tree fires....and the energy saved completely negates the cost of the bulbs.
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