The US Department of Energy (DOE) released a report on its first OLED lighting demonstration (GATEWAY) project. The report summarizes the experience at Aurora Lighting Design, a company based in Grayslake, IL, that installed Acuity Brands' Trilia OLED lighting system in September 2014.
On the plus side, the DOE report says that OLED lighting has a appearance that expresses creativity and innovation, making a statement to Aurora Lighting Design clients who visit the offices. The color quality is high, and the employees enjoy working under the system. The exposed OLED panels deliver a soft, minimal-shadow lighting that makes faces and expressions visible, and increases room brightness by delivering light to vertical surfaces.
The challenges and complicates of the OLED system were mainly due to the fact that there are no dedicated OLED drivers on the market yet, so Acuity equipped the OLED system with LED drivers, which lowered system efficacy. Total system efficiency was about 46 lm/W, but OLED efficiency is increasing steadily.
The DOE summarizes that if OLEDs continue to increase in efficacy, longevity, size, and flexibility, designers and engineers will have a new tool for creative and effective lighting.
