Welcome

 Welcome  Lighting, Marketing, Web  No Responses »
Jan 012011
 

Effective Concepts LLC. is a small company out of Fargo, ND. We specialize in selling lamps, ballasts, and energy services to customers in the Fargo-Moorhead area. We sell wholesale, meaning an on-going relationship with commercial customers that are willing to trade a little lead time for better pricing. We are authorized distributors of  Sylvania, Havells, and TCP lamps and ballasts.

I have over twenty-five years of wholesale experience and a Marketing degree from Moorhead State University. I have over 35 years experience with computers, everything from programing, database design, spreadsheet modeling, to graphic design. I am also the webmaster for a number of web sites. I help out small company sites but have also done some large e-commerce sites and one page sites for nonprofit organizations. You don’t have to pay a lot of money to have a nice website or blog.

 Posted by Craig at 12:00 am  Tagged with: , ,

US Lighting Market

 Lighting  No Responses »
Jan 272012
 

I ran across the Department of Energy report on Lighting. It just came out and it is a survey or a census of Lighting in 2010.  The report is called 2010 U.S. Lighting Market Characterization and it can be found on the DoE’s Solid State Lighting Technical Reports page. It’s a long report but it is full of charts and graphs. It gives you a good looking at what is lighting this country. There are still a lot of inefficient lamps in the field- mostly incandescent lamps in residential homes. Business and Industry has done a good job of upgrading their lighting.
Continue reading »

 Posted by Craig at 1:48 pm

Bonus Rebates For T12 Retrofits

 Energy, Lighting  No Responses »
Jan 262012
 

Minnesota Xcel Electric customers- now is the time!

Those of you who still have T12 lamps in your offices and warehouse be aware that Xcel Energy is offering bonus rebates on top of their already generous rebates to change these older fluorescent lamps to newer T8 lamps with Electronic ballast. (T12 refers to the diameter of the tube in 1/8″ increments. A T12 is 1-1/2″ in diameter, whereas a T8 is 1 inch in diameter. But the real cost and energy savings come from the efficient electric ballast that drive T8 lamps. )

2009 U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) regulations require T12 fluorescent lighting be phased out in 2012 and will no longer be available. To help it’s Xcel MN customers with this change, Xcel is offering bonus rebates through 2012 for T12 to T8 retrofits, T12 to T8 optimization projects and T12 to T5 lighting systems.

Now through March 31, 2012, all Xcel Energy is offering 50% bonus rebates to their Minnesota business electricity customers. These T12 conversion projects must be completed and invoiced on or before March 31, 2012. T12 upgrades completed and invoiced between April 1 and December 31, 2012, will be eligible for up to a 30% bonus rebate.

Note: Rebates for T12 upgrades will not be available after December 31, 2012.
After 2012 there will be no more T12 fixtures sold and as of last year there are no more magnetic ballasts sold. T8s and electric ballast are proven technologies, so there is no reason to keep playing your utility company for more electricity than you need.

Rebates range from…

  • $18.00 – $28.00 per fixture standard program
  • $27.00 – $42.00 per fixture with the 50% bonus (ends March 31st)
  • $23.40 – $36.40 per fixture with the 30% bonus (ends December 31st)

Note: All rebate amounts are per retrofitted fixture. Rebates cannot exceed 75% of project cost. Applications must be turned in within 12 months of invoice date or no later than May 1, 2013.

Details can be found on the Xcel website although it takes some hunting to find the rebate forms.

 Posted by Craig at 2:37 pm  Tagged with: , , ,

Ghoulish LEDs

 Lighting, Magazines  No Responses »
Jan 102012
 

In the current issue of Electrical Wholesaling, Jim Lucy, the chief Editor, comments on a side-by-side comparison of Fluorescent and LEDs he saw at Lowes. I’m not surprised. LEDs often have an odd color cast. LEDs are now as efficient as Fluorescents but they are still more money. LEDs do have their uses. Often they are ideal in low wattage situations like decorative lighting. I’m sure they will get better and cheap as time goes on.

But what really galled me is that the LED on display was emitting a ghoulish blue-white light that could only appeal to someone trying to duplicate the lighting in a 1950s-era Soviet interrogation room. By any measure, this display did much more harm than good to the admirable cause of LED lighting, particularly in a setting where homeowners and other potential retail customers are probably getting their first look at LEDs.

 Posted by Craig at 1:48 pm

LED Lighting

 Energy, Lighting, Magazines  2 Responses »
Sep 302009
 

We have been getting some interest in LED Lighting recently. LED is a new technology that is finding its way into more lighting products. LED lighting has many good features, but for now efficiency is not one of them. For example TCP has just released a LED lamp. This TCP bulb is one of the best LED I’ve seen, but it only puts out 35 Lumens per Watt. Whereas a Compact Fluorescent will put out 55 lpw, a Standard T8 lamp will pump out 75 lpw, and a high performance T8 lamp almost 100 Lumens per Watt!

LEDs do have many advantages.

  1. Although 35 lpw is not much compared to a fluorescent it is an improvement over incandescent bulbs. A 2.6 watt LED replaces a 15 watt incandescent.
  2. The LED bulb last a long time (25,000 hours) so it is a good application where maintenance is difficult like a chandelier
  3. The LEDs are directional, this makes for a good spot lighting, but a poor area lighting.
  4. The LED is vibration resistant. They work well in ceiling fans. Our TCP brand LED lamps are outdoor rated and work well in cold locations.
  5. The TCP LEDs are dimmable and look pretty good with a CRI of 80. They look much better than some LEDs, which have weird color casts.

If you’re interested in what technologies are currently hot check out “Lighting’s Workhorses” by Jim Benya in Architectural Lighting. Pay special attention to the graph. It shows which lamp technologies are efficient and which are not. Effective Concepts has a good selection of all the lighting listed in the article: Tungsten, Halogen, Metal Halide, Ceramic Metal Halide, Fluorescent (Cold Cathode, PLs, Biax, Induction, T8, T5s, etc), and even LED lamps.

 Posted by Craig at 10:23 am  Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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