Tropical Storm Matthew Highly Likely To Form Soon

The next named Atlantic storm will be Matthew. There is currently a well organized stormy blob in the Atlantic, heading for the Lesser Antilles, that has a very high probability of becoming a named storm, and that could happen by Wednesday or Thursday. This seems to be a fairly fast developing storm. Also, though it…

source http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2016/09/27/tropical-storm-matthew-highly-likely-to-form-soon/

A Question For Next Debate: How Will the US Catch Up With the Clean Power Plan?

The US is already behind in its agreed to commitment to clean power A study just out in Nature climate Change suggests that the US is already behind in its commitments to reduce the use of fossil fuel as an energy source, and the concomitant release of climate-warming greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere. The paper,…

source http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2016/09/27/a-question-for-next-debate-how-will-the-us-catch-up-with-the-clean-power-plan/

Who won the first presidential debate?

It was a tossup, but in a rather complicated way. Even the regular commenters with major network news, and PBS, clearly indicated that Hillary Clinton won this debate. And she did. She not only had better answers, but actual answers. Trump acted very poorly and Clinton acted presidential. Trump got caught in several lies, and…

source http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2016/09/27/who-won-the-first-presidential-debate/

What is the Best Replacement For Metal Halide Technology?

In the world of commercial lighting, especially in outdoor lighting and large indoor areas there are three most common lighting technologies found:

• Metal Halide (MH)
• High Pressure Sodium (HPS)
• Light-Emitting Diode (LED)

With metal halide and high pressure sodium lighting technologies in an overwhelming amount of facilities and fixtures, LED has a long way to come in terms of being the majority.

When the question of “what is the best alternative to metal halide lights” comes up: the overwhelming and most common answer these days is LED. There are just so many benefits of LED vs metal halide, hence the massive growth for the LED lighting market while metal halide are slowly becoming obsolete.

Wondering what exactly are the benefits of LED over metal halide? Here they are:

Benefits of LED over MH

They use 50-75% less energy. Depending on where you get your industrial lighting products from will all depend on the energy savings you realize from you LED system. Ensuring you do proper research before placing an order will ensure the best ROI as well as short and long term energy savings. So although any LED is generally better than MH; if you don’t do your research you could be cutting yourself short of 25% more energy savings by choosing the wrong supplier / manufacturer. With savings like this; you can just “eye” how fast you can realize a return on investment.

Higher quality. LEDs not only offer higher quality of light emitted but also higher quality structure. It’s just in the way they are built. But like the previous benefits, it can all depend on the company you get your lighting fixtures from. Ensuring the highest of quality built lights can seriously make or break your ROI. If you go with the wrong company you could be costing yourself more, especially if your lights are going into a fragile environment (such as food processing plants, refineries, etc). Back to the part about higher quality of light; LED technology in general is known to emit and provide a better and wider range of color temperatures and Color Rendering Index numbers. In addition, if you’ve ever had issues with metal halide fixtures buzzing or flickering; you’ll be surprised to know that LED will never do these things, not even near the end of their lifespan!

LED gives rebates. Have you ever got a rebate for purchasing a metal halide light? Probably not, know why? Because energy companies know that they are inefficient and they only reward those who make the investment in quality lighting that they know is saving extranomical amounts of energy (especially when you are talking about a large building with many lights). Only thing you need to remember to be eligible for rebates is this: buy DLC qualified products only. The DLC qualifies only commercial / industrial lighting products that are of quality. And if they aren’t listed, utility companies typically (if ever) will give you rebates simply for having a LED system installed in your building.

Don’t get me wrong; some items don’t qualify to be listed on the DLC’s official website not because they aren’t quality but rather because they don’t fit the criteria to be listed. They can also be listed with Energy Star which is equally as good.

How to replace existing metal halide lights?

Replacing existing lights can have two different options: Fully replace or just retrofit.

Fully replacing a light involves removing and replacing not only the light source itself but also the fixture it is held in. While on the contrary, a retrofit is just a replacement of the existing light source with a new one; all while keeping the external fixture that the light source is in.

Something called a metal halide LED retrofit is the perfect option for those who would simply like to replace technologies from metal halide to LED instead of replacing the entire fixture. If you’d like to replace the entire lighting fixture too, you will be best off buying a system that is all put together and practically ready to install.

source http://my-led-lighting-guide.blogspot.com/2016/09/what-is-best-replacement-for-metal.html

What is a Vapor Tight Light? When is it Used?

If you are a facility manager or even a building owner in a facility that deals with wet environments you probably already know what vapor tight lighting is. And for those of you who aren’t one of those; you are probably already getting a very small idea about what they are.

In short, vapor tight lighting is made to block out moisture from entering the fixture. This is extremely important for any situation in which the lighting fixtures within a facility are faced with wet conditions and need to block out moisture from entering.

Often times in food processing facilities this is very common due to regulations and rules requiring them to wash down everything in the facility frequently, even the lighting fixtures. Think about this; what happens when water gets into technology? It can ruin it, grow mold, and just ruin the overall safety and functionality of the product itself; and this all goes along with the lighting fixtures in wet facilities. But not only are they for wet environments, they are also made to lock out dirt and dust; which can also cause issues to lights.

Hopefully you now have a better understanding of what vapor tight fixtures are, what they do, and why they are important to have. Now we are going to cover exactly where they are used besides just in food processing facilities and also uncover the difference of a vapor tight and a vapor proof fixture. There is a difference, and you want to know what it is!

Where are they used?

We’ve talked about food processing plants as a common place that you will find a vapor tight light fixture being used. But where else are they used? Here is a list of many common applications that you will find vapor tight fixtures being used…

• Food Processing Plants
• Cold Storage Facilities
• Paint Booths / Areas
• Parking Garages

As you can probably imagine, all of these areas are susceptible to either water, dust, dirt, or any of the related. Thus, it’s highly important for these types of environments (as well as many more) to install vapor tight fixtures.

Vapor Tight vs Vapor Proof

There is a common confusion of vapor tight and vapor proof lighting. Vapor tight is what we’ve been talking about and the applications we’ve discussed. Vapor proof on the other hand is a bit different yet similar at the same time.Vapor proofs are designed to replace existing metal halide or HPS lights (just like the tights do), but instead of water and dirt; they are meant to resist corrosive fumes, vapors, gases, and the related (moisture too!).

Some common applications that vapor proof fixtures include the following (but not limited to):

• Oil Refineries
• Nuclear Power Plants
• Any related environments…

The importance of this technology is highly important for all environments that are susceptible to wet, dirty, or gas environments. Without such technology, the lights in such environments would be vulnerable to the elements that these places produce.

Final Words

We have covered what a vapor tight lighting system is, when it’s used and where, as well as the difference of a vapor tight and vapor proof fixture.

We hope you now have a better understanding of how important this technology is to any fragile environment that is susceptible to certain conditions such as moisture, dirt, or dust. You should now be able to identify if you will need these types of lighting fixtures in your facility or not; and if you do you now know which you need (proof or tight).

Have any other comments or questions on the topic? Comment them down below and share your thoughts!

source http://my-led-lighting-guide.blogspot.com/2016/09/what-is-vapor-tight-light-when-is-it.html

New Paleoclimate Paper: Longest detailed reconstruction plus possible bad news

You’ve probably already heard about his paper because everyone is all a tizzy about it. There is a fundamental complaint being made about one of the paper’s conclusions. I’ve been paying careful attention to what my colleagues are saying about that one aspect of the paper, and I get their point but I’m not sure…

source http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2016/09/26/new-paleoclimate-paper-longest-detailed-reconstruction-plus-possible-bad-news/

Trypanosomiasis Discovery: An Argument for Basic Research

One of the differences among the current four candidates for POTUS is the recognition, by only one of them, of the great importance of basic research. By that, I mean, give the scientists funding to pursue the questions that interest them. A sort of free market of ideas driven not by profits of the Bayers,…

source http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2016/09/25/trypanosomiasis-discovery-an-argument-for-basic-research/