LightNOW Comments Run Against “BUG,” A Classification System for Outdoor Light Fixtures
Back in April, I posted about BUG (Backlight, Uplight, Glare), a new classification system for outdoor light fixtures currently being promoted by the International Dark-Sky Association (IDA).
Based on the TM-15–the upgrade of the roadway shielding classification system by the Illuminating Engineering Society and the Lighting Research Center–BUG addresses light emitted from the fixture in all directions, not just up into the sky.
Click here to access links to BUG and read some good conversation about it in the Comments, which are running negative it.
What do you think? The Comments registered with me as part of a thought I’ve been having lately: Is lighting starting to get too complicated? (Or am I just getting old?)
Too complicated? Of course! In the past, common sense and practical utility resulted in workable designs. Now we have legislators trying to change the laws of physics, and electrical energy is a hot political topic. Feeling too old to adapt? Let your grandkids deal with it in their own way.
It just doesn’t seem all that complicated to me. It’s a metric measurement of stuff we all understand intuitively when we look at a post-top luminaire: how effective is it? how much light is falling behind it? Is it just a big glare bomb?
In any case the BUG rating isn’t meant to be deciphered they way the diagram shows. Each luminaire would be marked on the box with a BUG rating, which I think is just a 3-digit number. People have learned to read nutrition labels on their frozen food; I guess they can understand a simple rating number. Besides, just HAVING the numbers on the boxes will encourage manufacturers to pay more attention to the performance of their fixtures. That’s a plus.
Designers, for the most part, won’t be working that much with the BUG ratings. More likely we’ll be working on larger, more complicated projects that will have application-driven metrics. Those will definitely be complicated, but they’ll be built in to computer programs we already use. I don’t mind if my computer works harder.
Great points in favor of BUG, Addison. Thanks for sharing this perspective!