Craig DiLouie

Is the market at or near bottom? Good news is always welcome these days. While still deep in negative territory, builder confidence in the market for newly built, single-family homes rose five points in April to the highest level since October 2008, according to the latest National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index [...]

A new Freedonia Group study, Advanced Lighting, is forecasting that U.S. demand for advanced lighting products will grow nearly 11% per year to $6.8 billion in 2013. Gains will be spurred by legislation aimed at reducing the energy consumed by lighting. Imports are a significant source of advanced lighting products, and will account for almost [...]

Most lighting professionals are aware by now that the Commercial Buildings Deduction has been extended to 2013. Here is an article I wrote for Electrical Contractor Magazine, published in the March issue, that describes the Interim Lighting Rule, which in my opinion is the easiest and fastest path for an indoor lighting project to qualify [...]

Finally, some good news. After a series of historic lows, the Architecture Billings Index (ABI) was up more than eight points in March. As a leading economic indicator of construction activity, the ABI reflects the approximate 9-12 month lag time between architecture billings and construction spending. AIA reported the March ABI rating was 43.7, up [...]

Philips is currently working on transparent OLEDs, enabling OLED panels to function as ordinary windows during the day and become panels at night to imitate daylight or provide attractive indoor lighting. Even during the day, they could function as privacy shields. Transparent OLED panels will be commercialized within the next 3-5 years, according to the [...]

I owe Jim Hutchison another hat tip for turning me on to this simple photography technique that uses a simple flashlight, camera and a healthy imagination to create works of art. Here are a few photos from the Light Paint blog. After you take a look, check out the tutorial video at the bottom of [...]

Wow! Yesterday, Royal Philips Electronics unveiled the first-ever OLED interactive lighting concepts–for both consumer and professional use–during Euroluce International Lighting Fair in Milan. The concepts offer a combination of intuitive interactivity, ultra flat shape, soft light-effect and new design possibilities. “Our concepts demonstrate a new light ambiance, novel design possibilities and unique interactivity of light [...]

At Lightfair, I will have the pleasure of presenting a workshop on lighting controls commissioning with Gary Meshberg of Encelium Technologies and David Weigand of Leviton, as part of the Lightfair Institute. The workshop (course #L09W21), “Commissioning and Controls,” will be presented on Monday, May 4, from 2-5PM. This workshop will focus on providing a [...]

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 [...]