2025

Below is an excerpt of my latest article in the March, 2025 issue of LD+A: The WestStar Tower in El Paso, TX marks a significant milestone as the first newly constructed skyscraper in the city in 40 years. It brings fresh energy to the urban skyline, symbolling El Paso’s unique position along the U.S.-Mexico border. [...]

The Symphony Tunable White LED Light Bar by évoralight provides versatility and functionality for applications requiring focused, adjustable task or accent lighting. The tunable white light bars have a 16 foot maximum run length, and two available lengths, 10” and 20”. The bars are designed for seamless linkable configurations—enhanced by a variety of compatible corner [...]

  The DesignLights Consortium (DLC) has introduced a new toolkit aimed at enhancing energy savings in commercial buildings by promoting the integration of networked lighting controls (NLC) with heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems. This resource addresses a significant opportunity for energy conservation, as research indicates that integrating lighting controls with HVAC can reduce [...]

  The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced on February 14th that it would postpone the implementation of several appliance energy efficiency standards that the Biden administration had finalized. This pause includes General Service Lamps (GSL), which include a large variety of screw-based lamps and some linear tube lamps. The Energy Secretary, Chris Wright, claimed [...]

  The CIE has recently published a new technical report and an international standard: Technical Report: CIE 255:2025 – The Functional Visual Field, 44 pages Technical Report CIE 255:2025, titled “The Functional Visual Field,” provides a comprehensive review of human visual field studies. The report aims to enhance understanding of the visual field’s role by classifying [...]

The core mission of achieving energy savings remains central to the relationship between institutional and commercial facilities and Energy Service Companies (ESCOs). However, facilities are constantly evolving due to various factors like maintenance issues, climate change, and occupancy shifts. While ESCOs have existed for around 40 years, the industry continues to adapt to meet these [...]

  Good Earth Lighting is saddened to announce the passing of the company’s Founder and former President, Marvin Feig, on February 19, 2025 at the age of 78. Marvin founded Good Earth Lighting in1992 with Co-Founder and Vice President of Research & Development, Alex Kowalenko. Good Earth Lighting’s mission at its founding according to Marvin [...]

  Here are four recently approved IES standards:  ANSI/IES TM-39-25 Technical Memorandum: Quantification and Specification of Flicker  This Technical Memorandum (TM) catalogs currently documented metrics and specification criteria related to the human perception of periodic TLM and summarizes existing research. It identifies a path toward an IES standard method for quantifying and specifying flicker for architectural [...]

Here is a quick summary of 6 acquisitions and one divestment, in the fourth quarter of 2024: PE Firm acquired Techlight. Details here. Acuity Brands acquired QSC, LLC, an audiovisual solution manufacturer. Details here. Beghelli was acquired by GEWISS, both Italian companies. Details here. Siemens acquires Toggled as part of Altair Engineering acquisition. Details here. [...]