Controls

The Senseable City Lab is dedicated to studying and facilitating adoption of sensors in cities, enabling real-time visualization of how the urban environment is being used, from traffic patterns to data flows to energy and water consumption. Check it out here. Here we see a visualization of cell phone activity in Rome during a soccer [...]

BACnet International and the EnOcean Alliance, an international consortium of 130 companies from the building sector, today announced its cooperation with BACnet’s Wireless Networking-Working Group (WN-WG) to develop a vendor independent gateway specification for integrating EnOcean-based wireless energy-harvesting nodes into the world’s leading data communications protocol for building automation and control. As the only wireless [...]

A new standard for the design of high-performance green buildings is set to revolutionize the building industry. Published by ASHRAE in conjunction with IES and the U.S. Green Building Council, Standard 189.1, Standard for the Design of High-Performance, Green Buildings Except Low-Rise Residential Buildings, is the first code-intended commercial green building standard in the United [...]

Home theaters are a popular addition to many homes, according to the Consumer Electronics Association, which estimated that by the end of 2004, one-third of U.S. households owned a home theater system, up from about one-fifth at the end of 1999. The addition of a home theater creates special demands on the lighting and controls. [...]

Green construction codes and standards are beginning to emerge on the national code stage. The standards go beyond energy standards such as 90.1 and the International Energy Conservation Code (IECC) to cover additional areas such as site sustainability, water efficiency, indoor environmental quality and materials and resources. This is the subject of a new whitepaper [...]

Leviton Manufacturing Company has expanded its line of commercial wireless occupancy sensors with a comprehensive offering of LevNet RF wireless energy management devices. These self-powered devices integrate Leviton product design with EnOcean wireless control technology. With no wires to run, the family of LevNet RF devices reduces labor and material costs and takes only minutes [...]

WattStopper has launched the RT-200 Astronomical Time Switch, a user-programmable time switch that turns lights, or other electrical loads, ON and OFF relative to dusk or dawn, or at selected times of day, providing energy savings and security both inside and outside the home. It is compliant with the requirements of California’s Title 24-2008 for [...]

Acting on behalf of my client the Lighting Controls Association as its education director, I was pleased to participate in a roundtable on sustainability and lighting efficiency published by Consulting-Specifying Engineer Magazine. Joining me were Jody Good, LC, LEED AP, Principal Lighting and Theatre Designer for Spectrum Engineers Inc.; Siva Haran, PE, LC, LEED AP, [...]

The United States suffered its worst recession in 70 years following the collapse of the housing market. The good news is some economists believe the economy began to recover in Q309 after hitting bottom in the second quarter. The residential construction market is expected to recover, and the Federal stimulus has generated some growth in [...]