Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum Lights Up New Exhibit with Cree LED Lighting
DURHAM, N.C. -- Cree, Inc. (Nasdaq: CREE), a market leader in LED lighting, announces that LR24 recessed LED luminaires have been installed in the National Air and Space Museum. Designed for the new “Moving Beyond Earth” exhibit, the Cree LED lights replace high intensity discharge work lights, offering the high lumen output and efficacy required to work in the gallery.
The “Moving Beyond Earth” exhibit has 20-foot high ceilings and 5,000 square feet of space. Stable temperature and humidity levels are required to protect the significant number of historical artifacts featured in the exhibit. The Cree LED lights deliver uniform and bright light and weigh less than other fixtures, helping to reduce strain on the high ceilings.
Work lights, on for roughly eight hours per day, allow museum staff to clean the gallery and perform other maintenance during non-exhibit hours. Replacing the antiquated mercury vapor work lights with Cree LR24s can reduce maintenance costs and save energy. The LR24s are designed to produce little heat, saving on air conditioning needs and related costs, and emit virtually no ultraviolet rays, which can help protect the priceless objects featured in the exhibit.
The Cree LR24 luminaires underwent extensive life-cycle-cost business-case analysis that demonstrated an estimated 80 percent energy savings over the incumbent mercury vapor fixtures. Other evaluation criteria included maintenance costs, thermal/HVAC impact and ultraviolet emissions (which can degrade artifacts).
“The Air and Space Museum installation shows the versatility of our lighting products as well as the cost and environmental benefits associated with LEDs,” said Gary Trott, Cree vice president of market development. “And it’s a natural fit for American innovation to be behind the scenes of an exhibit that proudly displays American history.”
The “Moving Beyond Earth” exhibition explores the achievements and challenges of human spaceflight in the United States during the space-shuttle and space-station era through artifacts, immersive experiences and interactive computer stations. The exhibit includes a 12-foot tall space shuttle model, parts of the Hubble Space Telescope, as well as a model of the Ares launch vehicle.
About Cree
Cree is leading the LED lighting revolution and setting the stage to obsolete the incandescent light bulb through the use of energy-efficient, environmentally friendly LED lighting. Cree is a market-leading innovator of lighting-class LEDs, LED lighting, and semiconductor solutions for wireless and power applications.
Cree’s product families include LED fixtures and bulbs, blue and green LED chips, high-brightness LEDs, lighting-class power LEDs, power-switching devices and radio-frequency/wireless devices. Cree solutions are driving improvements in applications such as general illumination, backlighting, electronic signs and signals, variable-speed motors, and wireless communications. For additional product and company information, please refer to www.cree.com.
To learn more about the LED Lighting Revolution, please visit www.creeledrevolution.com.
This press release contains forward-looking statements involving risks and uncertainties, both known and unknown, that may cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated. Actual results may differ materially due to a number of factors, including the possibility that actual savings may vary from expectations; the rapid development of new technology and competing products that may impair demand or render Cree's products obsolete; and other factors discussed in Cree's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its report on Form 10-K for the year ended June 28, 2009, and subsequent filings.