Craig DiLouie

New fluorescent ballast energy efficiency regulations took effect in November. The new rules expand previous regulations to cover seven classes of T12, T8 and T5 fluorescent lamp ballasts. Outdoor sign and residential-­only ballasts, exempted from previous DOE ballast regulations, are now covered and will be significantly affected.
 Exempted are dimming ballasts that dim to 50 [...]

Automaker BMW recently unveiled Light and Charge, an LED streetlight that doubles as a charging station for electric vehicles. Owners of any electric vehicle can charge up with a click on a mobile app. “Light and Charge is a simple and innovative solution which aims to seamlessly integrate a smoothly functioning charging station network into [...]

The Illuminating Engineering Society of North America (IES) has announced the recipients of the IES Illumination Awards for 2014. The IES granted two Awards of Distinction, 11 Awards of Excellence, and five Special Citations. The Awards program recognizes individuals for professionalism, ingenuity and originality in lighting design based on the individual merit of each entry. [...]

This educational video by Philips Lighting describes how a luminaire delivers its light at what angles and at what intensity, and how this information is recorded on a photometric report and analyzed.

Equipped with a standard GU5.3 two-pin base, Soraa’s constant current MR16 LED lamp fits into any MR16 luminaire and fully conforms to the ANSI/ IECE compatible form factor. Unlike other MR16 LED lamps, the constant-current LED lamp is designed to accept an external driver which supplies the lamp with low-voltage DC input current, eliminating the [...]

Chris Brown, CEO of Wiedenbach-Brown, recently penned an interesting perspective on how change in the lighting industry may impact lighting distributors. The article begins: Five years ago, we were in the light bulb business. Today we’re in the semiconductor business. Five years ago, we were dealing with three lamp companies. Today we’re dealing with a [...]

NEMA’s Electroindustry Business Conditions Index (EBCI) for current conditions in North America improved to 58.3 in October as the share of panelists reporting improved conditions rose by a larger amount than the share reporting they worsened. Meanwhile, the EBCI for future North American conditions fell for a second consecutive month in October, dropping to 55.6.

The Calgary Tower, an iconic symbol in my adopted city of Calgary, recently got new LED lighting that is impressing people across the city with impressive colorful light shows occurring each day from 5AM to sunrise and nightly from dusk to midnight. There are three luminaires on the roof, 12 on the crown, and 24 [...]

Even as the 2014 Nobel Prize in Physics recognizes LEDs as the single most significant and disruptive energy-efficient lighting solution of today, scientists around the world continue to search for a better light bulb. Enter carbon electronics. Scientists from Tohoku University in Japan have developed a new type of energy-efficient flat light source based on [...]