December 2016

After seeing consecutive months of contracting demand for the first time in four years, the Architecture Billings Index (ABI) saw a modest increase demand for design services. As a leading economic indicator of construction activity, the ABI reflects the approximate 9- to 12-month lead time between architecture billings and construction spending. The American Institute of [...]

Created by the Energy Policy Act of 2005, the Commercial Buildings Tax Deduction (Section 179D of the tax code) provides an accelerated tax deduction of up to $1.80/sq.ft. as an incentive to install energy-efficient building systems, including interior lighting. The tax deduction expired and renewed several times over the years, most recently with the passage [...]

Taking the kids on our annual lighting pilgrimage to Zoo Lights at the Calgary Zoo tonight. Hope you’re finding your holiday season filled with light. Here’s a video a Calgary resident made of her trip to Zoo Lights this year:

Selux’s Purelight LED is a stylish interior luminaire that provides 360 degrees of diffused direct and indirect light using an interior perforated reflector and secondary diffuser. A choice of square or round tubular shape provides smooth lines of light. End caps and joiners in polished aluminum, white or custom colors. Wall mounted as a sconce, [...]

Submissions are being accepted now through January 17, 2017 for the IESNYC’s 49th annual Lumen Awards. The Lumen Awards recognize and celebrate excellence in lighting design. The Lumen Awards are open to any interior or exterior architectural lighting design project completed within two years’ time of the submission deadline. To be eligible, a project must [...]

The Lighting Research Center (LRC) at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute has recently released a free open-access circadian stimulus (CS) calculator to help lighting professionals select light sources and light levels that will increase the potential for circadian-effective light exposure in architectural spaces, utilizing the CS metric. Developed by LRC researchers, the CS metric is a new [...]

Researchers at several universities have proposed a standard lamp label specifically geared to horticultural applications. From Urban AG News, which has the story: The label includes the efficacy (output of photosynthetically active radiation per unit of electric power consumed measured in micromoles per joule (μmol/J), conversion efficiency, photon flux output in key wavebands in 100 [...]

Recognizing the amount of energy used by the residential building sector, ASHRAE and IES are revising their residential energy standard with a goal of making it 50% more efficient than the 2006 International Energy Conservation Code (IECC), which serves as the industry benchmark. 90.2 is open for public comment until Dec. 19, 2016. Click here [...]

Funny effort to change a household light bulb with a drone. Thank you, Internet.