New Industry Products

Prescolite Introduces Unique LED Downlight for Solid State Lighting

October 11, 2006 by Jeff Shepard

The Prescolite Division of Hubbell Lighting, Inc. has introduced what the company claims is the first specification-grade LED recessed lighting fixture that performs like a CFL downlight. Promising specifiers high-energy efficiency, excellent illumination, and lower operating costs, the breakthrough development of this LED luminaire is now available from Prescolite in a choice of 4" and 6" apertures.

As an expansion to its Architektur family of specification-grade downlights, Prescolite claims that its product design team successfully overcame the challenges of creating a group of fixtures that is practical, produces a good quality white light, and is consistent from LED to LED and from fixture to fixture. This new approach to commercial recessed downlighting is expected to have a major impact on how architects, illuminating engineers, and lighting designers view LED lighting when specifying luminaries for hospitality, restaurant, and high-end retail venues as well as installations for casinos, boutiques, and corporate boardrooms. Further, as this unique line of LED recessed light fixtures takes its place in Prescolite's family of Architektur downlights, it is expected that these new luminaries will provide a welcome source for any lighting application where illumination plays a key role in building and environmental design.

Recent technological advances have positioned LEDs as a viable alternative to traditional fluorescent, HID, and incandescent lamps. Functional advantages of LEDs include high energy efficiency (90%+ conversion of heat into light, compared to 9% with incandescent); long life (50,000 hours at 70% lumen maintenance); robustness (resistance to vibration, breakage, and low temperature extremes); low temperature operation (the lower the temperature the better the performance); optical efficiency (each LED is highly efficient due to its directional design), and lower operating costs.

Each of Prescolite's LED recessed downlights consists of two elements: first, the patent-pending light engine/reflector assembly (an assembly of LEDs, heat sinks, circuit boards, and optical components designed to deliver light), and second, the housing. The innovative array of parabolic reflectors within the light engine has been designed to eliminate brightness while delivering light in a uniform optical distribution.

Employing state-of-the-art Luxeon K2 LEDs by Lumileds, the light engine/reflector assembly is the heart of the LED downlight. The light engine/reflector assembly installs easily by securing tamperproof hardware into an internally threaded rod that is secured to the housing. This feature prevents vandalism after installation. Prescolite partnered with Advance in the design and development of these exceptional LED downlights. The Prescolite/Advance downlight design is based on Advance's Xitanium driver. Designed specifically to power high flux LED's in illumination applications, these drivers deliver the right amount of current to the LED to achieve high overall efficiency. Prescolite's new D4LED and D6LED downlights are wet location listed under covered ceilings and offer a full range of reflector finishes and colors.