Energy efficient innovative lighting and energy supply solutions in developing countries

The vast majority of the rural population in the de veloping countries is out of reach of electricity and hence has to depend on the tradi tional fuels to fulfil the daily energy needs. Providing grid electricity to the rural areas of ma ny developing countries is a very difficult task due to the geographical complexity and lack of fina ncial resources. The paper explains the use of different renewable energy sources in combination w ith efficient lighting technology as a realistic option to provide clean lighting services to develo ping countries. The application of Light Emitting Diodes and renewable energy sources has be en a sustainable solution to the basic lighting needs of rural people. The paper also pres ents a comparison of costs between available renewable energy technologies

Lighting for subsidiary streets: investigation of lamps of different SPD. Part 1 - Visual Performance

British Standard BS5489-1: 2003 permits a trade-off between colour rendering and illuminance for lighting in subsidiary streets—if lamps of high colour rendering index such as metal halide are used instead of high- or low-pressure sodium lamps, a lower average illuminance can be used. A series of tests are carried out under mesopic conditions to validate the trade-off, and this paper reports on the new visual performance results. Four tests are carried out: acuity of achromatic and chromatic targets, achromatic contrast detection threshold, and colour identification, these being for on-axis targets. It is found that spectral power distribution (SPD) does not affect the performance of achromatic tasks except for an increase in contrast detection threshold under low-pressure sodium lamps. The performance of an acuity task using coloured targets displayed interaction between target colour and SPD. Colour naming accuracy is found to be significantly higher for metal halide lamps than for sodium lamps. For all tasks there is a reduction in visual performance at lower illuminances, and therefore a reduction in design illuminance leads to a reduction in the performance of some visual tasks which may not be offset by lamp SPD. Implications for the performance of real pedestrian tasks are discussed

Replacing fuel based lighting with light emitting diodes in developing countries: Energy and lighting in rural Nepali homes

More than one quarter of the world’s population, who does not have access to electric light, live in the developing countries. Nepal is one of these countries, where the people in the remote rural areas have to rely on fuel based lighting to bring minimal lighting services in their homes. This paper reviews the quality of lighting, energy and health issues due to the use of fuel based lighting in rural Nepali villages. Recommendations are given on the amount of light needed as the first time electric lighting services in those remote places. The measurement results show that LED technology can bring necessary light in these rural homes with least energy use and it is the potential technology to replace fuel based lighting in a sustainable way. Replacing fuel based lighting by white LEDs can also contribute to the overall development of the underprivileged and underdeveloped communities by helping to improve the health, education and life expectancy of the people as well as income generation