Well here we are again pretty much everyone with commercial interests in lighting is in Frankfurt attending the mother of all lighting exhibitions. Given we are now 7 months into the first stage of the ban on incandescent lamps it is simply stunning how many products particularly in the decorative and domestic sectors are still designed for and exhibited with traditional incandescent lamps.

So far I have yet to see anything new in incandescent replacements though i have not yet made it around the entire exhibition, and am unlikely to do so given constraints on time. Sad to report that Osram are still claiming an 11W CFLis equal to a 60W incandescent despite the judgment in Iceland posted previously.

One thing of interest is that you can now see what you are doing on some stands that are solely lit by LED fittings. It looks like the time has come when these can be considered a mainstream light-source however the efficiencies are way below what has been claimed and still a lot less than is achievable with good quality T5 fluorescent lamps. Interestingly the best LED products for colour rendition including the new Xicato modules are running around the same efficiency as the best Tungsten Halogen Lamps. We are a long way off getting good quality and reduced energy use.

Kevan Shaw