Research

Using specialized nanoparticles embedded in plant leaves, MIT engineers have created a light-emitting plant that can be charged by an LED. After 10 seconds of charging, plants glow brightly for several minutes, and they can be recharged repeatedly.

For an upcoming article in Electrical Contractor Magazine, I recently had the opportunity to interview Bob Karlicek, Ph.D., Professor of Electrical, Computer and Systems Engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Director of the Center for Lighting Enabled Systems and Applications, co-Director of the Energy, Built Environment and Smart Systems Institute at Rensselaer. The topic: spatially tunable lighting, which LightNOW first reported on in August. Transcript follows.

The University of Melbourne, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, University of California Berkeley, and Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Transformative Meta-Optical Systems (TMOS) have collaborated on the development of a device that could identify various gases, potentially including lethal ones.

As it seeks to quantify the non-energy benefits of networked lighting and advanced building controls, the DesignLights Consortium (DLC) is asking for input from facility managers for a short online survey. Results of this research will yield monetized estimates useful for product marketing, efficiency program incentive promotion, and facility management decision making.

Imagine walking into a conference room where there are no light switches or lighting control panels. Rather the light is “aware.” It automatically responds to where you are in the room, where others are and the tasks they are performing while smoothly adjusting illuminance to the precise lighting needed to optimize comfort, productivity and circadian function.

Researchers at the University of Strathclyde in the UK have developed a process to use dynamically controlled LEDs for 3D imaging.

As lumen depreciation is a significant failure mode with LED lighting, it raises the question whether some older exit signs are still producing sufficient brightness to be visible in smoky conditions. This is the subject of a new study being undertaken by NALMCO in partnership with the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York, and the topic of an article I wrote about the study for the January issue of ELECTRICAL CONTRACTOR.

The electrical contracting community experienced significant economic impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic but is somewhat optimistic about 2021. That is one key finding from the 2020 Commercial/Industrial/Institutional (CII) Lighting Trends Survey, conducted by ELECTRICAL CONTRACTOR in October among the magazine’s Subscriber Research Panel. The survey and article were my contribution to the magazine’s December 2020 issue.

The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) recently published a new report analyzing the energy impact of lighting designs that satisfy three prominent circadian lighting guidelines. The researchers discovered a potentially significant increase in light levels and associated energy consumption.