Illuminations. LEDs are saving us and will transmit data in the future
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According to an estimate from 2018, which is often taken up again at this time of year, the Christmas lights lead to a 30 percent increase in electricity consumption. And that meant another 6.63 billion kilowatt-hours in the United States alone. More than what El Salvador needs for an entire year, it stands at around 5.35 billion kilowatt hours, or Ethiopia which absorbs 5.30 billion and even more than Tanzania which reaches 4.81 billion. But these are estimates that need to be reviewed because today many lights, including Christmas ones, are led and compared to traditional ones they are much more efficient.
“Actual numbers are hard to pin down,” he confirms Elizabeth Baldanzi, researcher at the psychophysics laboratory of vision of the National Research Council Ino-Cnr of Florence and professor at the University of the Tuscan capital. “But it is certain, there is a peak in consumption. Today, however, already half of the light points are already LED and all the luminous decorations for parties are now built with this technology. By 2030 they will represent 90 percent of those in use and it is a substantial leap forward: compared to an incandescent bulb, consumption is reduced by between 80 and 90 percent and there is no loss in quality. On the contrary”.
In defense of Rome’s Christmas tree
by Riccardo Luna
Just look at the specifications of those on sale: a 400 LED light chain consumes just over three watts. However, we need to multiply this figure by hundreds of millions if not more, how many decorations are accessed, even if in terms of consumption peaks, the electricity absorption of televisions during the World Cup was probably greater given that televisions are devices particularly demanding in terms of energy and poorly optimized.
In any case, according to research by LabGov, paying attention to consumption is a matter of little. In addition to the necessary transition to LED lights, you need to insert a timer to program when to turn the lights on and off, avoiding waste. It helps the choice of decorations that use optical fiber in addition to LEDs. This type of solution uses a single light source that flows through a fiber cable, extending the light beam with even greater efficiency, and therefore savings. Finally, the adoption of solar-powered Christmas lights: they work without the need for a switch, turning on when it gets dark with an autonomy of 8 to 10 hours. The increase in costs is relative, even if we accept a 30 percent increase in consumption. For a family, considering a light chain of 300 or 400 LEDs, we are talking about one euro and 70 cents. On a national basis about five million euros. But again, we’re talking about estimates.
Environment
“Even at Christmas you can buy without harming the planet”
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Beyond Christmas, the interesting thing about the studies conducted on LEDs lies in their possible use as a form of data transmission alongside wi-fi and mobile networks. And it is precisely Elisabetta Baldanzi’s field of investigation. “The advantages are not only in the energy, design and perceptive fields”, she explains herself. “LEDs can emit light spectrums not visible to the human eye capable of transforming themselves into a data transmission system between devices equipped with an optical sensor with respectable speed”.
We are talking about Visible Light Communication, one of the resources that is being developed for 6G which should begin to take hold starting from 2030. It allows broadband information to be transmitted through light. “The operating principle recalls that of ancient instruments such as the optical telegraph and the photophone, but with clearly superior performance”, continues Baldanzi. “By modulating the LED light with a frequency such that our eye is unable to perceive, but visible by an optical sensor, it is possible to transfer images, videos, information by building a real li-fi, light fidelity, which integrates to other radio frequency networks”.
Harald Haas, pioneer of this new technology capable of communicating and illuminating at the same time, spoke about it in a Ted Talk in 2011. At the time we had 14 billion light sources in the world. If all of them were LED and used this data transmission technology, argued the German Professor of Mobile Communications, we would already have an infrastructure capable of guaranteeing maximum performance with very low consumption. There are obviously limits in addition to the advantages, which are those of light: for example, it is not possible to transmit information from one room to another since there is a screen in the middle or to fixtures that are in shaded areas. This is why it is a technology that is thought of as an additional and not a substitute for radiofrequency ones. In short, tomorrow will always be green Mom or missed the plane streaming it could be the lights on the Christmas tree.
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