Area lighting device using discrete light sources, such as leds

An area lighting device, comprising:

• a) a first plurality of panels arranged into a first hollow box having interconnected side walls and open top and bottom, at least one of said side wall panels comprising a light emitting panel having a lighted side facing inside said first hollow box;
• b) a second plurality of panels arranged into a second hollow box having interconnected side walls and open bottom, at least one of said side wall panels comprising a light emitting panel having a lighted side facing inside said second hollow box;
• and
• c) an enclosure connecting said bottom of said second box to said open top of said first box such that light generated within said second box is transmitted to said first box.

A street lighting device, comprising:

• a) a pole;
• b) a luminaire disposed at an upper end of said pole;
• and
• c) said luminaire including a plurality of light emitting panels oriented toward the street to provide area lighting.

A method for calculating the illumination intensity on a target surface provided by a plurality of light sources disposed in one location above the target surface, each light source providing a cone of light where the axis of the cone has the highest light intensity and the boundary of the cone represents a lesser percentage of the wavelength radiation intensity from the center, comprising:

• a) subdividing the target surface into grids;
• b) for each grid, calculating the light intensity provided by each light source by taking the cross product of a location vector represented by a line connecting the light source and the grid, and an aiming vector represented by the cone axis;
• c) calculating the angle between the location vector and the aiming vector;
• d) if the angle is less than one-half the cone angle, calculating the primary lighting intensity at the grid;
• e) plotting the total light intensity at each grid.