February 2009

The SOURCE, Cooper’s 35,000-sq.ft. lighting education facility located at Cooper Lighting‘s headquarters in Peachtree City, GA, has released the 2009 calendar of classes for the lighting and design community. The SOURCE has been servicing the lighting industry for more than 17 years, educating more than 100,000 construction professionals with accredited seminars and workshops. New this [...]

In many schools, lighting eats up 30-40% of utility costs. As energy codes become more restrictive, can lighting satisfy the demands of the modern classroom, with horizontal and vertical workplanes, computers and A/V equipment? To test one approach, the California Energy Commission (CEC) and the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) engaged [...]

One in four baby boom generation households (26%) expects to move from their current home in the future, with the majority looking for a single-level home that is more comfortable or convenient, according to a new survey prepared for AARP. Echoing past surveys, most boomers (79%) say they would like to stay in their current [...]

The stimulus package, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, focuses on economic stimulus through both tax credits and public-sector spending, with a heavy focus on infrastructure and energy. Here’s an interesting development I had missed at first glance through it: The Department of Energy is offering $16.8 billion to the states for a variety of [...]

The Lighting Controls Association has published an article I wrote on the topic of the major lighting changes in the 2009 version of the International Energy Conservation Code (IECC) related to commercial buildings. One of the most controversial changes isn’t directly related to lighting, but it could have a significant impact on lighting design. Previous [...]

Core77 has partnered with Greener Gadgets again to produce a design competition aimed at generating outstanding design innovations for greener electronics. They published the top 50 for online voting, and then the Top 10 will be judged live Friday, February 27, at the Greener Gadgets Conference in New York City. Click here to see the [...]

Two interesting sites to check out related to the stimulus bill signed into law by President Obama yesterday. First is Reed Construction Data. Click on the banner at the top promising access to more than 18,000 Federal stimulus projects. After a quick registration you can download by region of the country (Northeast, etc.). The list [...]

Jim Haughey, chief economist for Reed Construction Data, writes about the January 2009 value of construction starts, excluding residential, at the Reed website here. Overall, the value of construction starts in January 2009 was up 5.3% over January 2008, but starts fell 23% from December, which, after accounting for the usual seasonal decline in January, [...]

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has published the workshop presentations and materials from its sixth annual DOE Solid-State Lighting R&D Workshop in San Francisco, held February 3-5, 2009. A complete workshop report will be posted later in March. Click here for conference highlights. Click here to download the presentations.