BOULDER, Colo., Feb. 8, 2005 (PRIMEZONE) -- Energy Conservation Technologies, Inc. (Pink Sheets:ENYC), a landmark technology company ("Econ"), submitted a draft application for a new patent to its Patent Attorney, Patton Boggs LLC. This patent is for a new invention by Econ for maintaining constant power into a gas discharge lamp and allows superior dimming than now available, over the life of a lamp.
Commercially available gas discharge lamps, such as fluorescent, high-pressure sodium and metal halide lamps have what is known as negative resistance characteristics. This becomes more apparent as they age. Therefore, constant monitoring of the lamp voltage and current is necessary in order to maintain the specified power and lumen output from the lamp. This is particularly true for high intensity discharge (HID) lamps.
As an example, a 250-watt high-pressure sodium lamp, used in street lighting all over the world, when new, has a nominal lamp voltage of 100V and requires 2.5A current for maintaining 250 watts of power in the lamp (formula: power = voltage x current). As it starts to age, the lamp voltage can increase to over 140 volts to get the same amount of lumens. Thus, to have same 250-watt power going into the lamp, the lamp current must be reduced to 1.79A.
It's significant to note that none of the HID ballasts can be sold or accepted by lamp manufacturers unless the ballast maintains a constant power within a specified limit. Magnetic ballasts achieve this in a crude manner by passive means. On the other hand, electronic ballasts commonly use an integrated circuit, which is known as a multiplier. This multiplier electronically multiplies current and voltage to maintain constant power into the lamp. However, commercially available multiplier integration is expensive due to the required inherent components and implementation is expensive due to additional labor needs to build the product.
Econ's new breakthrough invention for maintaining a constant power into the lamp requires only two inexpensive electronic components, saving a minimum of $3.00 (three dollars) for each electronic ballast.
In addition to maintaining constant power into the lamp, this new invention will also allow superior dimming. When a gas discharge lamp is dimmed, the gas temperature is reduced and this changes the characteristics of the lamp. This may cause drifts in light intensity. By maintaining constant power at any desired dimming level, a constant light output can be maintained.
Econ Chairman and Director of Engineering, Fazle Quazi stated that, "This invention is a fundamental discovery and very significant for our company. This will make our product perform better by precisely maintaining constant power into a lamp and thus the lumen output throughout the lamp life. This new technology will cost only a fraction to produce of what is now available in the current marketplace. This invention will give us a competitive edge both from a performance and cost point of view for years to come."
About Energy Conservation Technologies, Inc.
Energy Conservation Technologies, Inc. holds a patent for "Control Circuit for power factor corrected electronic ballasts and power supplies," patent No: 6,359,395, granted on March 19, 2002 developed by its founder, Fazle Quazi. The current patent covers power factor corrections and controlling energy into bulbs and power supplies such as: computer servers, copy machines, compact fluorescent lamps, power supplies to the telecom industry, inverters used to convert DC power to AC power (120 Volts), automobiles specialty lighting, solar and wind power generators, and fuel cells.
New patent applications involving the lighting industry are now being drafted after extensive testing. These new designs will revolutionize the HID lighting industry, annually a $2 billion dollar market in the United States and over $10 billion on an international basis. Econ's HID electronic ballasts will be available at costs comparable to magnetic ballasts, reducing ballast weight by a factor of 10 and saving an estimated 35 percent of electrical energy over magnetic ballast usage. Econ has begun development of electronic ballasts for the new high-wattage compact fluorescent bulbs, scaling down its existing designs for this purpose.
Econ is committed to keep its technology on the cutting edge of both the HID electronic ballast world and emerging developments for high power compact electronic fluorescent bulbs that will replace incandescent bulbs and in some cases HID bulbs used for flood lighting, gymnasiums, high ceiling applications and specialty and architectural lighting.
Discussions are now in progress with a major lighting manufacturer in Mexico and with a Fortune 500 company regarding licensing our patents and future patent filings.
FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENT DISCLAIMER:
Statements describing objectives or goals or our future plans are forward-looking statements and are subject to certain risks and uncertainties, including among other factors our financial performance, our ability to license or market our new designs and the performance of those designs, the market for ballasts, and other technological developments in ballasts and lighting in general, which could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected in this release.