When the glass lamp envelope of a Mercury Vapor (MV) or Metal Halide (MH) lamp is broken, but continues to operate, the quartz arc tube inside emits significant levels of UV radiation that are a danger when there is direct exposure to eyes or skin. Normally, the glass lamp envelope filters the UV radiation and [...]

  LEDVANCE has collected and summarized information about 14 states, the District of Columbia, and Canada, that either have passed mercury lamp bans or have other restrictions on mercury containing lamps. For each jurisdiction, the summary table provides relevant restrictions on general service lamps (GSL, screw-base CFLs, pin-base CFLs, and linear fluorescent lamps. The website [...]

  It’s no secret that the lighting industry is increasingly selling electrification products, including EV chargers. The ISO 15118-1:2019 standard, “Road Vehicles – Vehicle to grid communication interface” is one of the most important EV charger standards in the world, today. The smart charging requirements in ISO 15118 enable matching the grid’s capacity and the [...]

  The IES has published two new standards: ANSI/IES TM-32-24 Lighting Practice: Lighting Parameters for Building Information Modeling This is the IES-recommended standardization of parameters attached to objects, object libraries, or parametric features that represent luminaires for use in many different types of BIM software. Now available in an IES Lighting Library subscription or at the IES [...]

  APPRIME Lighting launched its business in early 2024, and has focused on creating more sustainable luminaires designed for circularity at end of life. Their first two products are an LED troffer and an LED troffer retrofit. Installed, they look similar to most troffers, but inside, both products are designed with a tool-less, replaceable light [...]

  Edison Lighting Group’s ED LINE 2+, 3+, and 4+ are a new line of architectural dark optic recessed luminaires for non-insulated gridded ceilings or drywall. 11” modular board with dark optics create a low-glare light source, each with a 7-cell, LEDiL reflector. The luminaires are offered with regular 50o/16UGR or flood 80o/19UGR internal optic. [...]

Baltimore Gas & Electric (BGE) is the first utility in the country using EV batteries to help power homes. The utility is paying Ford F-150 Lightning owners to run their homes using their truck batteries during peak periods to help balance grid supply and demand. Other electric utilities around the country are talking about creating [...]

  MushLume Lighting biofabricates sustainable lamp shades from hemp and fungus mycelium (the root structure of fungi). The mycelium shades give the appearance of concrete. They even have begun adding colors (see second image below). MushLume describes the process this way, “In just a few days, the mycelium grows, cultivating a thick network of hyphae [...]

Networked lighting controls (NLC) enable many useful functions, including dimming, high-end trim, occupancy/vacancy sensing, scheduling, and daylight harvesting. A recent article by Levin Nock of the Design Lights Consortium (DLC) in EC&M argues that a NLC function of growing importance is demand response (DR). Demand response is when end-users voluntarily reduce electricity usage at peak [...]