David Shiller

  The September 2025 Dodge Construction Network data show a continued rebound in total construction starts, with a 3.1% month-over-month increase to a seasonally adjusted annual rate (SAAR) of about $1.26 trillion. The upturn is driven primarily by a sharp rise in nonresidential starts, which climbed 11.9% for the month, while residential starts rose 3.6%. [...]

  Reflect Orbital, a California startup, plans to launch a demonstration satellite in 2026 that will unfold a large mirror (about 60 by 60 feet) to direct sunlight to specific ground targets, initiating a broader goal of a constellation of roughly 4,000 solar reflectors to provide “light on demand” and extend daylight hours. The venture [...]

  Following intense backlash from business leaders, bipartisan members of Congress, and industry groups, the EPA is reconsidering the ENERGY STAR program after initially announcing plans to eliminate it in May 2025. EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin has stepped back from terminating the program and is now exploring options to preserve or restructure it, though no [...]

The DesignLights Consortium (DLC) released the DLC Technical Requirements for LED Lighting: SSL V6.0 and LUNA V2.0. Solid-State Lighting is DLC’s LED program, while LUNA (Light Usage for Night Applications) is DLC’s dark sky program. These updated requirements apply to both indoor and outdoor non-residential applications. The DLC Technical Requirements for LED Lighting: SSL V6.0 [...]

  Illuminate the Future of Light and Well-Being at Canada Light Expo 2025 in Toronto, ON, November 12 & 13, 2025. On November 13 at 8:15 AM, at the Canada Light Expo, All Things Lighting® Association will host an interactive workshop titled “Unplugged but Illuminated – Finding Balance in a Technological World.” This engaging session [...]

  Apartment conversion projects surged across the U.S. in 2024, characterized by both the volume and pace of adaptive reuse—where underperforming properties are redeveloped into multifamily residential units. According to a new RentCafe report, nearly 25,000 apartments were completed through adaptive reuse in 2024, representing a 50% increase compared to 2023 and double 2022’s output. [...]

  A large-scale study by Flinders University analyzed over 13 million hours of light exposure data from 88,905 people aged 40 and older, revealing that bright light at night significantly increases the risk of heart failure and heart attack. Those exposed to the highest levels of nighttime light (measured in lux) had a 56% greater [...]

  Researchers at Xiamen University have demonstrated that adopting a hexagonal mesa structure significantly enhances the performance of indium gallium nitride (InGaN) micro green light-emitting diodes (LEDs). Published in Optics Express (Vol. 33, p. 42747, 2025), the study details how optimizing the geometric design of micro-LED mesas addresses current uniformity challenges and improves optoelectronic efficiency, [...]

  US Lighting Trends recently published an interesting article about why lighting reps keep increasing the number of manufacturers that they represent on their line cards. The article was written by Geoffrey Marlow of Marlow Advisory Group. Lighting representatives today often carry over a hundred product lines, a notable increase from past decades, reflecting a [...]