David Shiller

  Blue Laser Fusion, Inc. (BLF) was founded in 2022 by Shuji Nakamura, Ph.D., 2014 Nobel Laureate in Physics and Professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and co-inventor of the blue / phosphor converted white LED; Hiroaki Ohta, Ph.D., General Partner of Waseda University Ventures (WUV); and Richard Ogawa, a Silicon Valley-based attorney. [...]

Some estimates are that up to one billion birds each year are killed in collisions with windows. A new report titled, “Building Safer Cities for Birds: How Cities Are Leading the Way on Bird-Friendly Building Policy,” details the growing number of cities, municipalities, laws, and policies that are reducing deadly bird collisions with buildings. The [...]

  2023 has already seen quite a few lighting manufacturer shut downs. I’m not talking about Chapter 11 restructurings nor acquisitions. Here are seven lighting manufacturers that shuttered operations so far in 2023: Universal-Douglas – Shut down March 22nd. More details here. Pathway Lighting – Shut down June 9th. Asset auction closes September 13th. More [...]

The September 2023 issue of LD+A has an interesting article arguing that a 180-degree cut-off for street and area lights is an inadequate requirement. The article is written by Thomas Paterson, who lays out the following arguments for a tighter beam cut-off angle, such as 150 or 120 degrees: Tolerance – A 180-degree cut-off doesn’t [...]

  Scientists from Fishtek Marine, a manufacturer of sustainable fishing gear, had a surprise discovery. Bright lights that they added to crab pots to catch more crabs instead attracted loads of scallops. The scallops swam into the traps to get to the lights. Traditional scallop fishing involves dredging the bottom of the ocean, causing considerable [...]

    I had the pleasure of interviewing Derek Richardson, CEO of Deako, about their unique approach to residential smart lighting controls. Shiller: Derek, thank you for sharing your expertise with LightNOW readers. I have to admit that I hadn’t heard of Deako until recently, but Deako seems to have a very large footprint in [...]

  The DLC Controls Summit has announced panelists for the session, A Brighter Future for NLC Energy Savings Through External Systems Integration, which will be held on Wednesday, 9/27. The panelists will quantify the potential energy savings in two different regions, explore innovative efficiency programs to support NLC-HVAC integration, and consider the potential impacts of regulatory [...]

  Colorado recently became the seventh state to ban nearly all fluorescent lamps. The other six states are: California, Hawaii, Maine, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Vermont. The above chart shows the effective dates for each state’s phaseout of screw-based CFLs, as well as pin-based CFLs & linear fluorescent tubes. All of the fluorescent lamp bans [...]

  In mid-July, Mexico passed China to become the U.S.’s largest trading partner. Experts say Mexico’s gains are due to the U.S. strategy of gradual economic decoupling from China. This trend has is also named “Friendshoring,” where trade moves from China to countries like Mexico, India, Vietnam, and other trade partners with less contentious relationships [...]