Get LEDucated with LEDucation 7

Mark your calendars lighting fans! On March 20th, 2013 it is time to get educated on LEDs with the seventh annual LEDucation. LEDucation is an educational event held in the Hotel Pennsylvania in New York City, dedicated to the ever growing and changing market of LED lighting. The conference will explore every part of the LED market from the component itself, the sales numbers, and the aesthetic design of the lights. In 2012 almost 2,200 people attended the conference and even more are expected this year. I, Dr. Bulb, would compare LEDucation 7 to a modern day Woodstock, but a bit more educational. With all those lighting enthusiasts in one place, it is bound to get wild.

LEDucation is hosted by The Designer Lighting Forum of New York. The event consists of a variety of educational seminars regarding the trends and hot topics of the LED lighting industry; check out the featured speakers here. The speakers will be covering five topics throughout the course of the day: next generation luminaires, the ZHAGA standard, anatomy of an LED project, controlling LED lighting, and the possibility of LEDs making code compliance easier.  There is also a large exhibition hall where attendees can see almost 100 different displays of the latest developments in LED technology.

A quick overview as to what all these people are meeting about:
A light-emitting diode (LED) is a semiconductor light source. In the past few years, technology advancements have allowed LED lights to become highly usable in commercial, residential, sports and most other types of lighting. LED lights are efficient typically lasting 50,000+ hours.  Additionally LED fixtures greatly reduce energy consumption as compared to CFL and incandescent lighting, often only using a third of the energy to produce equal amount of light out up. LEDs are durable because they do not contain filaments or other breakable parts that standard lights include. No mercury is used in the production of LEDs making them environmentally friendly.  Another benefit is the small amount of heat that LED’s produce, this helps to maintain the integrity of the fixture as there is little heat wear down the internal components. I, Dr. Bulb, believe that LED technology is the future of lighting and could not be happier that events like LEDucation are being held.

Bringing all these contractors, manufacturers, lighting experts and even students together makes for an enlightening experience.  I cannot wait to hear all the news about LED sports lighting, LED high bays, LED wall packs and maybe even some brand new LED technology. The LED market is constantly moving forward, and this is a great opportunity for some of the leaders in the field to connect and talk about the future of lighting.