Craig’s Illuminate Columns

Big changes are in the works that will impact future lighting designs by eliminating some of the least-efficient and lowest-cost products from the market, while establishing ambitious new goals for energy codes that may severely limit design choices. The Energy Policy Act of 2005 expanded ballast regulations put into effect by the Department of Energy [...]

Here’s an article I wrote for the October 2008 issue of Illuminate that talks about the C2C product certification program: In 2005, McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry (MBDC), founded by architect William McDonough and chemist Michael Braungart, launched the Cradle to Cradle (C2C) product certification program. The program resulted from manufacturer requests for a label that [...]

I wrote the below column for the April issue of Illuminate, published by Architectural Products Magazine, about the Commercial Lighting Solutions program produced by DOE to support organizations seeking to generate energy savings beyond ASHRAE 90.1-2004 without sacrificing lighting quality. I was also honored to take part in a charrette in Washington, DC to contribute [...]

Traditionally, lighting design for office applications has focused on making sure that there are sufficient maintained light levels on horizontal surfaces such as desktops. But research suggests that office workers prefer some light on vertical surfaces, confirming the beliefs of many lighting designers. Designing lighting to create brightness on vertical surfaces in the field of [...]

Studies show that commercial buildings produce about half of greenhouse gas emissions contributing to climate change—making these buildings the top emitter of human-caused greenhouse gases, ahead of cars and trucks—while consuming nearly three-fourths of electricity produced at power plants. The Commercial Buildings Initiative (CBI) is a public-private partnership formed to achieve an ambitious goal: By [...]

Incandescent general-service and reflector lamps, and fluorescent magnetic, mercury vapor and probe-start metal halide ballasts, are being targeted by efficiency legislation. As a result, some of lighting’s most venerable workhorses are being retired. Their new competitors are simply too efficient and better performing. The electronic ballast’s rapid rise to dominance of the fluorescent ballast market, [...]