Controls

My most recent contribution to ELECTRICAL CONTRACTOR talks about the smart building and lighting market and the commensurate increasing opportunity for electrical contractors to provide integration services or work with integrators.

In my lighting column published in the February issue of ELECTRICAL CONTRACTOR, I tackle the topic of DC building microgrids.

The 2021 Lighting & Homes for Tomorrow (LHFT) competition recognized nine connected home products and platforms.

I recently had the opportunity to interview Gabe Arnold, PE, LC, Senior Engineer, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory for an article about DC building microgrids for an upcoming issue of ELECTRICAL CONTRACTOR, the official publication of NECA. Transcript follows.

White-light color tuning is one of the most exciting advantages of LED lighting, providing the ability to adjust luminaire color output across the white light spectrum. As the timed spectral emission of light plays a part in circadian lighting—the application of light to promote circadian health—this developing trend offers the potential to take tunable white more mainstream.

The Lighting Controls Association now offers two YouTube webinars on tunable-white lighting and automatic plug load control, plus a new course on integrating lighting control and building automation systems.

“The technology exists to not only greatly increase the efficacy of commercial lighting, but to capitalize on its largely untapped potential to reduce peak demand. It’s time for regulation and practice to catch up with technology.”

The U.S. Department of Energy has released the results of a study exploring the energy-reporting accuracy of market-available connected devices.

Toward the goal of a more accurate test method that would capture new and emerging sensor capabilities, researchers at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) conducted a literature review of test methods for characterizing occupancy sensor performance