从LED照明看科技产业的“始料未及后果法则”

科技很棒──你可能已经感觉到后面会接着一个“但是”，而且这个词代表着“始料未及后果法则(the law of unintended consequences)”。 来谈谈LED与固态照明技术吧！人类已经从点蜡烛、煤气灯、白炽灯泡、日光灯，迈进了LED照明技术的时代；推动这个演进过程的是LED在能量转换效率方面的优势，而其节省下的能源在过去是以热的形式被“浪费”掉了。成本效益也是LED照明受到青睐的原因之一，其使用寿命能比白炽灯泡来得长许多。 固态照明的优势往往被这样介绍：与白炽灯相较，同样的发光亮度能以更少的能源消耗来达成；这对家庭主妇/主夫来说是个好消息，对地球来说也是。这种特性对能源供货商(电力公司)来说可能就不算好消息了…只是没多少人会关心吧？而笔者想要讨论的，是一个即将会发生──或者已经正在发生──的问题。 因为改用固态照明技术可获得省电、省钱的好处，各地的家庭、企业与地方/中央公家机构，会考虑安装更多的照明设备，特别是在户外场所──因为可以透过传感器来进行白昼/夜间的开关控制。 所以实际上，我们所有人集合起来也许可以省下一些钱、一些能源，却能在日常生活中享受到整天整夜更多的照明。这样的结果对能源供货商来说应该相当不错，但对人类或是地球来说就没那么好了，对那些希望在完全无光害的环境下观测星空的天文学家来说更是坏消息。 我的意思并非LED照明无法比过去的照明技术达到节省更多能源的效果，也不是说我们不该采用这种新技术；它可以达到更高的能源使用效率，它应该被采用、也会被大量采用。但在此同时，有必要采取适当的控制手段，以避免能源的浪费以及不必要的光害。 你在家门口装一盏小小的走廊灯或许是基本人权的展现，但从另一个角度看，你可能是个“黑暗杀手”，或是为周遭环境带来光害。这种“始料未及后果法则”让我想到了晶体管共同发明者Walter Brattain所说过的话。 当 年Brattain从贝尔实验室(Bell Labs)退休，回到美国华盛顿州的Walla Walla任教于母校惠特曼学院(Whitman College)，他说发明了晶体管让他后悔的事情之一，就是催生了晶体管收音机这种产品，让吵闹的摇滚乐整天不断地出现在校园各个角落。 LED照明是否有可能像是为Brattain带来吵闹噪音的晶体管收音机一样，也会为人类带来一些不可预期的困扰？ 本文授权编译自EE Times，版权所有，谢绝转载 编译：Judith Cheng 参考英文原文：Beware technology bearing gifts; turn off the light，by Peter Clarke

相关阅读：
• LED照明市场前景光明，分销商积极投身其中
• LED照明将是未来的一个海量增长市场
• LED照明开始进入家庭，价格及性能障碍仍在DsZesmc

{pagination} Beware technology bearing gifts; turn off the light Peter Clarke Technology is great...and I know you can sense a "but" coming. And the "but" is the law of unintended consequences. Consider the light-emitting diode and the solid-state light. Humanity has gone from burning candles to gas light to incandescent bulbs to fluorescent strip lights and now we are now entering the era of LED solid-state lighting. The advantage that drives adoption comes from the greater efficiency of energy conversion in LEDs and the fact that far less energy is "wasted" in the form of heat. Cost efficiencies should also come from the fact the LED lights can be engineered to last much longer than incandescent bulbs. The benefit of solid-state lighting is usually presented thus; you can have the same amount of light for much less energy outlay. That's good for the householder and good for the planet. It may not be so good for the energy supply company but not many people care about that. But I argue something different is going to happen; is already happening. Because the energy consumption and cost of running lights is reduced by the move to solid-state lighting, householders and corporations and authorities both local and national are tending to install more lights, including outdoor lights in particular and just leave them to be controlled by day/night sensors. So, effectively, we collectively may spend slightly less money and consume slightly less energy on lighting our lives but we will also have much more light, all day and all night. That's reasonably good for the energy companies but not particularly good for people or the planet and bad for astronomers who wish to look at the stars without their vision being obscured by skyglow. That's not to say the LED lighting cannot be made more energy efficient than previous forms of lighting and should not be adopted. It can, it should and it will. But at the same time it is necessary to implement appropriate controls to prevent energy waste and unnecessary light pollution. One aspect of lighting is that when you exercise your human right of expression to install and operate a little porch light you destroy the darkness or add to the light pollution for miles around. This law of unintended consequences reminds me of a quote attributed to Walter Brattain, one of the co-inventors of the transistor. After Brattain retired from Bell Labs he returned to Walla Walla, Washington, to teach at his alma mater Whitman College. He said his one regret about inventing the transistor was its application to transistor radios that continuously played rock and roll music around the campus. Brattain's idea that the transistor radio suddenly meant that for the first time there was noise everywhere and continuously has a parallel with the advent of LED lighting.