The GE outdoor LED area light from GE Lighting Systems, Inc.-the first of many outdoor LED lighting systems the company will debut starting in 2008-provides up to 60 percent energy savings, longer life and significantly improved light-level uniformity compared with traditional HID lamp sources and optical systems, such as a standard 400-watt quartz metal halide system.

High performance LED systems from Lumination, LLC, also a GE Consumer & Industrial business, enable the GE LED outdoor area light to deliver excellent system and application efficiency with up to four times the recommended service interval of standard HID systems-a 50,000-hour planned service interval for the GE outdoor LED area light compared with a 20,000-hour rated life and14,000-hour recommended re-lamp interval at 70 percent of rated life for a standard 400-watt quartz metal halide system.

GE Lighting Systems accelerated the development of the GE outdoor LED area light through extensive collaboration with Lumination, GE's globally established LED systems company with expertise in LED-based signal, signage, architectural, display and white LED lighting systems. Lumination's LED Refrigerated Display Case system, an energy and maintenance cost saving replacement for linear fluorescent lighting, continues to transform how many grocers and major retailers light display cases. Wal-Mart's use of the inventive LED system represents the world's largest LED retrofit of fluorescent lighting.

"As a global leader in white LED system technology, we're perfecting the GE outdoor LED area light with the aggressiveness that we applied in literally creating the LED refrigerated display case lighting category," says Michael Petras, vice president of electrical distribution and lighting, GE Consumer & Industrial

The GE outdoor LED area light, with its patent-pending optical design, becomes available later this year after significant application analysis and real world testing that's underway.

"We're garnering a lot of attention among retail and municipal customers because they understand the value of our testing rigor, our quality focus, our fixture experience, our optical leadership and GE's LED integration know-how," says Paul Morse, president, GE Lighting Systems.

The addition of outdoor LED lighting systems is a major expansion of GE Lighting Systems' product portfolio.

"Our strategy is always to give customers more choices," notes Morse. "We're still innovating and delivering for customers who value traditional systems. LED technology simply provides a path to meet growing market demand for greater energy efficiency and lower lifetime costs."

Experience speaks volumes about longevity
Using LEDs as a reliable, long-term outdoor lighting solution requires consideration of a variety of design and application conditions that differ from traditional magnetic ballast and lamp systems.

The GE outdoor LED area light improves visibility and quality of light versus standard HID systems by providing a comparatively higher color temperature (5500K), a 70+ color-rendering index and a low-glare optical design. It can do all this with lower lumens and considerable energy savings because its advanced optical design leverages the LED characteristics to deliver light precisely where it is intended to go.

The low profile design of the GE outdoor LED area light offers an aesthetically desirable appearance while incorporating clean lines and a reduced effective projected area. Its optics create a more uniform light level for the on-site activities that require light, while reducing off-site glare and light pollution. The luminaire's low glare and high uniformity benefits promote improved performance in security camera operation, since cameras are susceptible to glare sources and work better with a smaller range of scene brightness.

The GE outdoor LED area light's optical system satisfies IESNA Full-Cut-Off criteria, while providing enhanced photometric performance.

Each of the outdoor LED lighting systems that GE will introduce over the next 24 months and beyond will exemplify not only GE quality, reliability and inventiveness, but also GE Lighting Systems' more than 100 years of outdoor lighting experience.

GE Consumer & Industrial spans the globe as an industry leader in major appliance, lighting and integrated industrial equipment, systems and services. Providing solutions for commercial, industrial and residential use in more than 100 countries, GE Consumer & Industrial uses innovative technologies and "ecomagination," a GE initiative to aggressively bring to market new technologies that help customers and consumers meet pressing environmental challenges, to deliver comfort, convenience and electrical protection and control. General Electric (NYSE: GE) brings imagination to work, selling products under the Monogram®, Profile(TM) GE®, Hotpoint®, SmartWater(TM) Reveal®, Edison(TM) and Energy Smart® consumer brands, and Entellisys(TM) industrial brand. For more information, consumers may visit www.ge.com.