I wonder how many of us are quite willing for a change and are making up their minds to shift towards this technology of efficient lighting which dawned upon us recently. This technology of future has reached our doorsteps by the courtesy of our Chinese neighbors. I have been in contact with the local representatives of OSRAM, a leading European firm working in the field of LED lighting. According to them a single PRATHOM LED bulb can be made available @4500/- PKR which to my understanding is quite high a price in every respect. I wonder if people have ever tried their Chinese counterparts like OSAKA etc which are readily available in the local market and almost on all the supermarkets.
LEDs are just an application of solid state physics and are not that new to us. We have seen these lights in radios, cell phones etc already. Only the improvisation to use these as dedicated light sources to replace incandescent bulbs is revolutionary and rather new.
I have seen countrymen confusing it with Emergency Lights which are easily available in the local market @300/- PKR. In fact a lot of Emergency Lights being sold out in the local market employ LEDs but I am talking about LED bulbs or tube lights that can directly replace the Incandescent Bulbs and Fluorescent Lights.
e.g.,
OSRAM PARATHOM LED
and
LEDTRONICS
the former is being owned by a Pakistani entrepreneur who in fact is one of the pioneers of this technology. One may check their line up at
LEDTRONICS PRODUCTS 1
LEDTRONICS PRODUCTS 2
Pervaiz Lodhie is President and CEO of LEDtronics, Inc. He established LEDtronics in 1983 in Torrance, California. Mr. Lodhie founded and serves as Chairman of PABE, Pakistani-American Business Executives, and an information portal. He is Founding Director of PAL-C, Pakistan American Liaison Center.
I have always been thrilled to hear the success stories of Pakistani entrepreneurs functioning in the foreign markets. I was quite surprised to know that a Pakistani has been pioneering the field of LED lighting solutions. Furthermore, the clients list available on LEDTRONICS was another surprise where even Buckingham palace and large suspension bridges are on it.
One fine example of LED powered Emergency Lights are Rechargeable Lamps which can run on both AC and DC i.e., when there is Electricity running in from the mains and when there is no power (battery mode). It is listed at @899/- PKR and might be available in the local market at around 330/- PKR.
To me the main hindrance towards adaptation of this technology is the associated cost. Even in the west LED lamps haven't been yet mass adopted due to this reason. Maybe once when prices drop substantially then masses will switch over to LEDs. Just like solar panels, substantially high prices discourage mass adaptation, otherwise every one among has already switched towards solar power if the photovoltaic panels were cheap.
Q. One must be curious as to why there is such a difference in price?
On one hand a single LED bulb (of European origin though) costs Rs. 4500 but on the other side Chinese LED emergency lights can be bought for a few hundred rupees. Is it because the Chinese emergency lights are not really LED technology but just claim to be for marketing reasons?
A. Chinese emergency lights also use true LEDs but to my opinion it is only the painstaking potentially expensive qualification process that makes these light bulbs expensive. Furthermore, CFLs in Europe cost way much than that in Pakistan. Anyone can confirm this by checking prices of these on international websites.
Are LEDtronics products available in Pakistan?
I left the same question on the website of LEDtronics. Surprisingly, I was contacted by their country head, some Lodhie guy residing in Karachi who told me that they have an in house manufacturing facility at KEPZ Karachi but they are not retailing their products at the moment at least. Though, he looked very interested in corporate lighting projects.
He is manufacturing inside KEPZ simply because of duty free raw material. The Government of Pakistan should allow alternate energy projects to be setup inside Pakistan and give them duty and tax relief. Unless people at the helm of affairs in the Pakistan Government become genuinely serious about alternate energy the situation would remain pathetic. Simply creating AEDP or committees (with irrelevant or unsuitable people) won't solve the problems.
I talked to the representative (still doubting their credibility though) of Toshiba Lighting (Kainat Enterprises Lahore) recently about any possibility of introducing Toshiba LED lighting solutions in Pakistan, but they too are relying upon CFLs and Tube lights alone. Some of the LED products being boasted by Toshiba are as under;
TOSHIBA LED LIGHTING PRODUCTS
However, they are planning to introduce Chinese LED lamps with Kainat brand name. ORIENT a giant conglomerate is practicing the same business strategy by importing CFLs manufactured in china and then marketing those with their own brand name, a legitimate practice as a lot of power generator manufacturing companies in Pakistan are doing this by importing CBUs from UK and China and selling those with their own brand names.
