Recently, Japan’s PanaHome Corp and Panasonic Electric Works Co Ltd demonstrated a model house that use LEDs as the major lighting source in Tokyo.

In the two-family home built by the two companies, LED lamps provided by Panasonic are used for all the 74 lighting apparatuses in the home for parents. And the home for the family of their children is equipped with 45 fluorescent lights and 25 LED ones. PanaHome claims that the model house features the optimal eco-friendly lighting equipment when considering the high prices of LED lights and their lower total efficiency than highly efficient fluorescent lamps.

The lighting equipment of the living/dining room in the parents' home consists of only LED lights.

Fluorescent lights and LED lights are combined for the living room in the children's home.

The design of part of the house was based on a "symphony lighting" concept by Panasonic. During the meal hour, the dining table and its periphery are lighted up while the lighting in the living room is dimmed. And when a movie is watched on TV, walls are illuminated by bracket lights while the illuminance of the entire room is lowered. This design results in 85% less electricity cost compared with using incandescent lamps and straight tube fluorescent lamps which are constantly lit.

However, compared with incandescent and straight tube fluorescent lamps, the costs of the lighting equipments consisting of only LED lights in the parents' home and those composed of both fluorescent lights and LED lights in the children's home are three and two times higher, respectively.