Energy + Environment

NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory has been watching the Sun non-stop for over a full decade, gathering 425 million high-resolution images now viewable as a time-lapse video.

In my May 2020 lighting column for ELECTRICAL CONTRACTOR, I covered the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers’ (ASHRAE) free design guides for buildings that achieve net-zero energy consumption without compromising quality.

Rebate fulfillment provider BriteSwitch said a majority of rebate programs are still taking applications and issuing checks, but inspection requirements are changing in many programs, though deadlines remain in effect.

The American Institute of Architects (AIA) recently issued a statement following the decision by President Trump to officially withdraw from the Paris climate accord.

Limitations of state efficiency policies routinely result in understated energy savings potential of lighting systems, and particularly advanced lighting control technologies, inadvertently leaving substantial savings on the table, according to a new study by the Alliance to Save Energy (funded by GE Current) and the DesignLights Consortium (DLC).

BriteSwitch recently published a post on its website analyzing the best and worst regions of the United States for lighting rebates.

Pat yourselves on the back, lighting industry. According to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, lighting contributed more than any other building system to reducing energy consumption in the United States from 2000-2018.

In this featured episode of the Get a Grip on Lighting podcast, hosts Greg Ehrich, LC, former President of NAILD and owner of Premier Lighting, and Michael Colligan, an entrepreneur and inventor, talk about a project they were involved with where they were asked to do an audit–only the customer was completely unprepared for it. It made them ask the question: When should you charge for audits?

I recently saw another story about China’s improbable and very dystopian idea to build an artificial moon to provide nighttime lighting. Website INSH took the concept seriously and asked how such a thing could be accomplished and what effects it would have.