March 2010

This article, which I wrote for Buildings Magazine last year on behalf of the Lighting Controls Association, discusses the role for lighting controls in upgrading lighting systems in existing buildings. This post sponsored by

Cree, Inc. recently announced a new efficacy record of 208 lumens per watt for a white power LED. Cree’s tests confirmed that the LED produced 208 lumens of light output and achieved 208 lumens per watt efficacy at a correlated color temperature of 4579K. The tests were conducted under standard LED test conditions at a [...]

Texas power utility First Choice Power has announced the availability of $2,000 Reduce Your Use™ energy-efficiency grants for nonprofits to replace their old inefficient heating/cooling equipment or lighting. Deadline: Applications must be submitted online by 5 PM on April 15. Only one application per nonprofit is accepted each year. Click here for insight, specific guidelines [...]

Vice President Joe Biden and Energy Secretary Steven Chu are visiting Cree company to tour and speak at the facility. Get the story here.

Most light sources have a particular standardized size and shape that affects how objects and surfaces will be illuminated. Point sources are small lamps, often featuring a clear outer glass bulb revealing the arc tube or bare incandescent filament, used to produce dramatic highlights and pronounced shadows. Linear sources, such as tubular fluorescent lamps, emit [...]

GE Lighting has established an ESCO Energy Services Program and alliances with selected energy services companies (ESCOs). Through the program, GE aims to help customers explore energy strategies that take into account such factors as cost-of-light payback, return on investment, rebates, financing and government incentives that can reduce investment costs. Throughout the process, including planning [...]

Selection of the right luminaire and controls takes considerable time and effort, and is integral to the lighting design. Cost overruns, value engineering, unclear or weakly worded specifications, and conflicts between lighting and other buidling systems can result in substitutions and other design decisions being made without the lighting designer’s involvement. Lighting designers should protect [...]

Guest post by Jim Brodrick, reprinted with permission from Postings: from the desk of Jim Brodrick [Recently,] DOE published the final ENERGY STAR criteria for integral LED lamps, which go into effect August 31, 2010. These criteria are the culmination of a long process of comment and revision, with the first draft published in January [...]

Fluxus by Andromeda is a wavering Murano glass sculpture created to adorn White Gallery, the first big lifestyle store to be opened in Rome in October 2009. Fluxus is the result of the cooperation between designer Karim Rashid, who designed the Knit (individual hand-made glass element) and Artist Michela Vianello, whose inspiration gave concrete shape [...]