LED lighting blogger Kevin Willmorth wonders why solid-state lighting seems so alien to lighting decision-makers, and offers interesting insights about how lighting people are coping with the alien invasion. Check it out here.
Several weeks ago, I conducted a short survey of lighting practitioners to see how they are using the Commercial Buildings Deduction. I got a very small response on the new construction side of the industry and a high response on the retrofit side. As the former lacked a statistically valid sample on which to make [...]
Here’s my lead editorial from the July issue of Illuminate, which you may find interesting: This year’s Lightfair International in New York City was memorable for many things, but topping the list in my mind is how LED products and standards swept the Lightfair Innovation Awards. Calculite Solid-State Downlights by Philips Lightolier, a family of [...]
In James Howard Kunstler’s view, public spaces should be inspired centers of civic life and the physical manifestation of the common good. Instead, he argues in this Technology, Entertainment and Design (TED) Talk, what we have in America is a nation of places not worth caring about.
“If someone really wanted to do a green household, they could use dimmers, they could use occupancy sensors to turn off the lights in case they forgot to. Control of the light is really the most energy efficient way to gain benefit.” –Howard Brandston LightNOW says: Amen, brother! Click here to read this interview with [...]
Since the launch of the blog I’ve been having to weed out comments for some of the posts where manufacturers or manufacturer sales reps are trying to promote their new products. I’m not against people doing this, not at all. It’s just that those posts were not the right place for promotional messages. To provide [...]
Great conversation still happening in the comments section in an earlier post here. To which I’d like to add: Perhaps we are “banning” the wrong technology? CFLs save energy but they have dimming issues with self-ballasted screw-in type units, thermal issues in some luminaires, sizing issues in others, color, time to reach full brightness, etc. [...]
Kevin Willmorth sums up the tradeoffs of globalization in his lighting and energy conservation blog. He makes the point that the U.S. economy is currently overly focused on taking profit from a devaluation process instead of one that builds value. The long term result is a loss of competitiveness and erosion of wages and qualify [...]
The residential section of the 2009 version of the International Energy Conservation Code (IECC), recently published, has a new Section 404, which covers residential lighting. It’s the first time IECC has covered residential lighting efficiency. The entire section reads simply: “404.1 Lighting equipment (prescriptive). A minimum of 50% of the lamps in permanently installed lighting [...]
Multilevel switching and personal dimming are often lumped together because the goal is the same–providing users a manual choice of light levels. The 2003 Advanced Lighting Guidelines, published by the New Buildings Institute, says they both save about 30% in energy. There is evidence that bi-level switching saves much more energy than personal dimming control, [...]
