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Click to Enlarge Photo Courtesy/Michael Siminovitch The Berkeley Lamp, an energy-saving device, will be offered free to UC Berkeley faculty and staff to encourage conservation of electricity.
The "Berkeley Lamp," a newly invented low-energy lamp developed by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory scientists, is set to go on a free trial run to UC Berkeley faculty and staff this week. The university's physical plant department is offering free Berkeley Lamps and other energy-saving devices Thursday, in a campaign to encourage UC Berkeley employees to conserve electricity in the midst of the state's chronic power shortage. Along with the Berkeley Lamp, physical plant officials will be offering applications for a free energy-saving power strip. Using a heat sensor, the device shuts off electricity to appliances plugged into it after detecting that a person has left the area. "Let's say you're sitting at your computer, and (you produce) a certain heat pattern," said Jeff Kessel, an official with the physical plant department. "When you leave, the sensor notices the heat pattern has changed." If the person-and the accompanying heat signal-does not return in 10 minutes, the heat sensor sends a message to the power strip telling it to shut off electricity. Kessel suggested plugging in computer monitors, lamps or radios in the heat-detecting power strip-appliances that are not used when a person has temporarily left the room. The appliances are being offered free in a trial run as part of general energy conservation efforts, Kessel said. Faculty and staff can apply for them, despite a limited supply. The offer is not available to students, and the Berkeley Lamp has not yet been approved for use in the dormitories, said Margaret Gilligan, a spokesperson for the physical plant department. The Berkeley Lamp, which was first publicized in March, is expected to reduce energy use in university offices. The lamp's UC Berkeley inventors say that its light output is so powerful that the Berkeley Lamp can be used in place of traditional ceiling lights, Gilligan said. Erik Page, co-inventor of the Berkeley Lamp and a Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory scientist, said he is excited to see the lamp finally come into existence. Page has been working on the project for nearly five years. The lamp uses two dimmable compact fluorescent bulbs, which are silent and flicker-free. One of the light bulbs is oriented upward toward the ceiling, and the other downward, toward a desk. "Now you're able to turn off your ceiling lights-people will no longer want to use their ceiling lights because there's a much nicer ambience generated by this lamp," Kessel said. Using their research in optics, Page said a primary advantage in the Berkeley Lamp is its indirect lighting. In contrast to normal ceiling lighting that can cause glares on computer screens, the Berkeley Lamp uses indirect light that bounces off the ceiling. "With an indirect source, you don't see (the glare)-you have a whole ceiling that's kind of bright, instead of harsher hot spots (by ceiling lights)," Page said. The fluorescent lamp has a light output equivalent to 300 to 400 watts of an incandescent bulb. It uses only a fraction of the energy used in a halogen lamp. Page acknowledged that the final design was not terribly complex. "But there's some real energy to be saved and some subtle things with the optics. He said the optics package can provide a great deal of control over lighting options for a small office-serving as either a desk lamp, a ceiling lamp or both. "From 20 or so prototypes, people have been positive," Page said. "People don't give them back to us, so we take that as a good sign." This is the first significant manufacturing run that will be tested on campus. Commercial distribution of the Berkeley Lamp is expected to be made available by August.
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