Energy + Environment

Lighting for Tomorrow is launching its 2010 competition—with a focus on lighting control devices and SSL luminaires and replacement lamps. For the first time, Lighting for Tomorrow will be looking at lighting control products including stand-alone, system-based, and whole house devices. The lighting controls competition is building on the 2009 fluorescent dimming competition by seeking [...]

To reduce peak demand with lighting, we can turn it off, turn it down or use it more efficiently. Since lighting is critical for productivity and safety in many indoor spaces, turning it down instead of off is usually more desirable. Dimmable lighting therefore has a strong potential role to play in demand response. But [...]

Today’s focus on saving energy is accelerating demand for luminaires designed to achieve a high level of energy efficiency. Luminaires can be evaluated based on luminaire center beam candlepower (candela), total input watts (W), efficiency (fraction of lamp lumens that exit the luminaire), efficacy rating (lumens/W), coefficient of utilization (CU) and comparative yearly energy cost [...]

An article I write about lighting and LEED 2009 was published in the January issue of TED Magazine. TED is the official publication of the National Association of Electrical Distributors (NAED) and is read by the nation’s electrical distributor community. Check it out here.

While the days of incandescent may ultimately be numbered, those numbers will not be 2012, 2013 or 2014, as originally thought after passage of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007. The energy-saving version of Philips Halogena already complied, and now Sylvania has a halogen screw-in lamp that is compliant. Currently, there is a [...]

This article, which I wrote for Buildings Magazine last year on behalf of the Lighting Controls Association, discusses the role for lighting controls in upgrading lighting systems in existing buildings. This post sponsored by

Texas power utility First Choice Power has announced the availability of $2,000 Reduce Your Use™ energy-efficiency grants for nonprofits to replace their old inefficient heating/cooling equipment or lighting. Deadline: Applications must be submitted online by 5 PM on April 15. Only one application per nonprofit is accepted each year. Click here for insight, specific guidelines [...]

GE Lighting has established an ESCO Energy Services Program and alliances with selected energy services companies (ESCOs). Through the program, GE aims to help customers explore energy strategies that take into account such factors as cost-of-light payback, return on investment, rebates, financing and government incentives that can reduce investment costs. Throughout the process, including planning [...]

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 [...]