Craig DiLouie

After seven months of steady growth in the demand for design services, the Architecture Billings Index (ABI) paused in September.

Kenall’s MEIC series of ceiling-mounted luminaires kills harmful bacteria, including MRSA, in emergency departments, procedure/exam rooms, pharmacies, and waiting areas.

Tuesday’s elections had a number of upsets, one of which was Democrat Lee Carter winning a 9-point victory over a Republican incumbent for a Delegate seat in the Virginia legislature. His decision to run for political office was inspired by his experience installing a lighting control system connected to a miswired lighting control panel.

My lighting column in the October issue of ELECTRICAL CONTRACTOR describes the DesignLights Consortium’s market transformation program aimed at networked lighting controls and describes the first utility rebates promoting the technology.

The New Buildings Institute (NBI) recently released a model stretch building code that targets 20% better efficiency than current national building energy codes.

Outdoor area lighting is a major contributor to nationwide energy use, and the market segment has been an important player in the transition to SSL. DOE’s CALiPER program has released a new Snapshot report on outdoor area lighting that covers LED area/roadway luminaires, parking garage luminaires, and canopy luminaires.

Acclaim Lighting’s Dyna Accent Mini is a compact, high-power LED floodlight designed for the tightest spaces in outdoor commercial and landscape applications.

The Lighting Research Center has expanded its Lighting Patterns for Healthy Buildings website to include designs for the healthcare environment. The website provides lighting patterns, utilizing circadian stimulus (CS) as the primary design component, for three distinct healthcare environments and the needs of their respective end-users: the shiftwork environment, the NICU, and patient rooms.

Among the changes taking place in healthcare is a trend in hospitals toward designing larger, single-patient suites that consist of a bedroom and bathroom, rather than the traditional shared rooms. A recently completed DOE-funded R&D project carried out by Philips Lighting Research North America sought to redefine lighting for healthcare patient suites by developing an innovative LED lighting system that not only was 40% more energy-efficient than traditional fluorescent incumbent technologies, but also met all of the visual and non-visual needs of patients, caregivers, and visitors while improving the overall patient experience.