David Shiller

Light + Health, Products + Technology

Visible Light Disinfection Now Inside Garbage Disposals!

  InSinkErator, one of the leading manufacturers of garbage disposals, has released its LEDefense line, with antimicrobial light technology added to garbage disposals to fight the odor-causing bacteria that builds up with food waste. Instead of waiting until a disposal smells bad and then using citrus peels or cleaning pods, the product uses always-on light [...]

Codes + Standards, Controls

Talq Consortium Releases V2.7.0 Smart City Protocol

  The TALQ Consortium’s latest release, version 2.7.0 of the Smart City Protocol, isn’t about any flashy new features, but rather making smart outdoor lighting systems easier to integrate, certify, and scale across vendors. For the lighting industry, the big message is that interoperability is becoming more standardized and more demanding, which should favor manufacturers [...]

Legislation + Regulation, Lighting Industry

Case Study: Tariffs Shrink Furniture Imports & Exports

  I was recently struck by a pair of articles in Home News Now, about the reduction in furniture imports and exports in 2025 versus 2024. The reductions suggest tariffs are reducing trade flows on both sides of the furniture market: imports fell almost three times more than exports (on a percentage basis), narrowing the [...]

Controls, Products + Technology

Networked Lighting Controls Increasing Size Of J-Boxes

  The increasing complexity of modern lighting control components, such as smart dimmers, sensors, and networked modules, is directly leading to the use of larger junction boxes. The added electronics, extra wiring for communication, and the need for heat dissipation require more volume than traditional electrical components, necessitating deeper or wider boxes: Smart switches, dimmers, [...]

Products + Technology

The Trend Toward Low Glare Industrial High Bays

  There is a strong, growing trend toward low-glare high bay fixtures in industrial applications, particularly as facilities increasingly adopt automation, robotics, and machine vision systems. The shift is driven by the need to optimize lighting for both human worker well-being and the technical requirements of automated equipment, which requires consistent, shadow-free, and glare-free environments to operate [...]

Energy + Environment, Legislation + Regulation

State Battery Recycling Laws Expanding Across U.S.

  A large number of states either have passed or are considering mandatory battery recycling laws, known as “extended producer responsibility,” or EPR laws for batteries. These laws can impact lighting manufacturers that include handheld remote controls or potentially stand alone smart control components containing batteries. By 2027, more than 61 million Americans will live [...]

Controls, Light + Health

Smart Homes Becoming Biologically Responsive

  Smart homes are evolving from simple convenience systems into environments that react to human biological signals. One company, Ultrahuman, is working to fuse wearables, lab biomarkers, and home automation into a continuous health feedback loop. Ultrahuman, founded in 2019, began with an activity-tracking app and later added metabolic tracking via continuous glucose monitoring in [...]

Light + Health, Research

Sun Melanoma Risk Much Lower Than Inadequate Sunlight Risk

  Researchers at the University of Edinburgh analyzed whether ultraviolet (UV) exposure in low-sunlight regions is associated with better or worse health outcomes, focusing on deaths from cardiovascular disease, cancer, and skin cancer. Using UK Biobank data from 395,000 white European participants across the UK, they linked individual health and genetic records with estimated UV [...]

LED + SSL, Products + Technology

Comparing RGBAL and RGBIL Color Mixing Approaches

  While primarily utilized in entertainment lighting, 5-channel color mixing is beginning to be adopted in high performance architectural fixtures, as well. This includes two approaches: red-green-blue-amber-lime (RGBAL) and red-green-blue-indigo-lime (RGBIL). Here is a comparison between the two 5-channel color mixing approaches. The differences between RGBAL and RGBIL LEDs primarily involve color rendering, spectral output, and specialized application needs. [...]

Controls, Products + Technology

Can Mobile App-Configured Drivers Replace NFC Drivers?

  Randy Reid published an interesting article in EdisonReport about a conversation at Light + Building, in Frankfurt. The conversation was about whether NFC configurable drivers could be replaced with mobile app-configured drivers to eliminate the NFC programming tool, in favor of a basic smart phone or tablet running an app. While the advantage is [...]

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