Energy + Environment

The University of California, Davis and the California Lighting Technology Center (CLTC) have announced a commitment to reduce the campus’s electricity use for lighting by 60% by the end of 2015. The Smart Lighting Initiative makes UC Davis the first large institution to commit to a sweeping cut in energy use after the California Public [...]

Precision-Paragon [P2], a division of Hubbell Lighting, Inc., has released a free web app that provides a starting point for determining cost/benefit for lighting upgrade projects in offices, warehouses and manufacturing spaces. The Lighting Retrofit Calculator is available on the [P2] website.

The Txchnologist, sponsored by GE, has published photos of the lights of 10 major cities on Earth as seen from space. Check it out here.

Assistant Secretary of the Army for Installations, Energy and the Environment Katherine Hammack issued a new policy memorandum to improve high performance green buildings standards for the Army. “Energy security, sustainability and efficiency are national security imperatives,” said Hammack. “This policy supports the Army’s global missions in a cost-effective, safe and sustainable manner that will [...]

New Buildings Institute (NBI) has announced the publication of the inaugural online version of the Advanced Lighting Guidelines (ALG). ALG is a premier resource for energy‐efficient lighting design, technologies and applications representing the latest and best thinking of experts in the field (I was pleased to contribute the controls chapter with Dorene Maniccea, and edit [...]

The New York City section of the Illuminating Engineering Society has announced, “Control This!,” a tradeshow and lecture series dedicated to lighting controls and energy management technologies. When: Wednesday, December 8, 2010, 11:30 am to 6:00 pm Where: The Metropolitan Pavilion, 123 West 18th Street, 4th Floor, New York, NY 10011 Exhibit passes are free [...]

An article in ENLIGHTEN, the magazine for lighting decision-makers published by Wiedenbach-Brown, for which I was pleased to serve as editor, calls for a national effort to retrofit the existing building stock. The article, by Michael Siminovitch, CLTC director and UC Davis professor, discusses the opportunities for changing the way the nation uses energy. He [...]

How much energy is saved when a building uses lighting controls? The typical answer is the ever-present lighting term, “It depends.” Research, however, is suggestive: Space Type Controls Type Lighting Energy Savings Demonstrated in Research or Estimated as Potential Study Reference Private Office Occupancy sensor 38% An Analysis of the Energy and Cost Savings Potential [...]

The Illuminating Engineering Society has published PS-05-10 – Standards for Energy Efficient Indoor Lighting, a position statement on the subject of imposing energy standards on indoor lighting technology, such as efficacy standards for luminaires. IES “believes that technology independent approaches are the best way to provide energy reductions and to stimulate future energy savings.” IES [...]