David Shiller

  The Association for Smarter Homes & Buildings (ASHB) surveyed 308 building owners, operators, IT leaders, and facility managers, in the US and Canada, about trends in smart buildings. The results are in ASHB’s report, 2025 Smart Building Trends & Technology Adoption. The document’s key finding is that smart building technology has moved from experimentation [...]

  On April 1st, I published an article about the furniture industry’s declining imports and exports in 2025 relative to 2024. This likely indicated an overall decline in the furniture market, due to new 2025 US tariffs. I raised the question of whether similar declines occurred in the US lighting industry. After a little research, [...]

  Zumtobel, in Europe, has launched the first remanufacturing service by a luminaire manufacturer. The new standardized remanufacturing service extends the life of lighting systems to at least two product life cycles. The full-service, turnkey package covers everything from deinstallation and remanufacturing to reinstallation. The as-new remanufactured system will provide at least equivalent performance, as [...]

  Design Lights Consortium (DLC) has announced the DLC Summit 2026. It will be held October 26-27, 2026, in Los Angeles, CA. The conference is co-hosted by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP). The theme of the summit is “Next Gen Lighting: Controls, Integration, and the Environment.” The agenda will include integrating [...]

  A recent dark sky project has had me thinking and researching light pollution, sky glow, and by extension an optical phenomenon that we can experience on most clear days or nights. Rayleigh scattering is an interaction of light with Earth’s atmosphere. It’s most notable characteristic is it scatters lower wavelength light colors (violet and [...]

  Japanese home builders are rapidly expanding their footprint in the United States, reshaping the landscape of the American housing market through a wave of acquisitions. Since 2020, Japanese firms have acquired 23 U.S. single-family construction companies—more than doubling their pace from previous years. This surge reflects both strategic ambition and economic necessity, as demographic [...]

  Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) has adopted new General Service Lamp (GSL) regulations that will largely harmonize with the current US GSL requirement of 45 lumens per watt minimum. Timing Manufactured on or after January 1st, 2026 for general service incandescent lamps or a general service incandescent reflector lamps. Manufactured on or after January 1st, [...]

  Lighting Manufacturer M&A Transactions in the United States, Canada, and Europe Announcement Seller Country Description Buyer Details January Good Earth Lighting USA Environmental outdoor lighting Feit Electric Press Release February Pharos Controls UK Architectural entertainment lighting ETC Press Release February Nova Flex LED* USA Architectural/tape lighting Environmental Lights Press Release February Lumenture Canada Architectural [...]

  Design Lights Consortium (DLC) has released the Networked Lighting Controls (NLC) Requirements V5.2 Draft 1. DLC laid out four goals for Version 5.2: Highlighting emerging capabilities in networked lighting controls. Present new system capabilities, particularly integrations with thermostats to save energy and improve building performance. Strengthening the role of NLC in energy efficiency programs [...]