Products + Technology

“Where the Light Is: Home Lighting Trends” is a major feature article I wrote for the March issue of ELECTRICAL CONTRACTOR. The 2008 housing-market crash ended the home construction boom. A steady recovery began in 2012, and it continues today, bolstering the U.S. economy. Historically, residential construction averages 5 percent of the country’s gross domestic [...]

2nd Ave Lighting recently unveiled the Anillo Ellipse 5 Light Cascading Pendant. This modern sophisticated system features adjustable elements of ambient light, including five elliptic spectral halos that appear to rotate in space and create an impressive visual effect. Supported by cables, this grouping of Solar Black-finished solid steel rings reveal Crystal and Contrail Mist [...]

No, this no April Fool’s joke. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) reported that three of its professors have developed a light-recycling filament technology that may result in incandescent lamps becoming as efficient as LED lamps. Lab research has already achieved a threefold improvement in incandescent lamp efficiency, with even greater potential. Count me interested. [...]

Soraa has incorporated advanced digital drivers into its MR16 LED lamps, eliminating the problem of stroboscopic effect, or “invisible flicker.” Soraa’s new digital driver MR16 LED lamps have expanded compatibility with transformers and dimmers, and, like all Soraa lamps, they regulate temperature to maintain lifetime, color quality and efficiency across a range of application conditions. [...]

I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Bonnie Littman, President, USAI Lighting, on the topic of tunable-white lighting. I’m happy to share her responses with you here. The interview informed an article I wrote for the May 2016 issue of tED. DiLouie: Looking at LED sources and controls, what are the different technological methods used [...]

Finelite’s HP-6 LED Collection expands the company’s HP family of luminaires with 6-inch-wide beams of light. Any length, minimum 2 feet, in increments down to 1/16th-inch, and 90-degree corners in a single plane, ship in 10 working days. Custom angles are available. Models include recessed as well as direct pendant and direct surface mount. Up [...]

The California Lighting Technology Center has published the 2015 Lighting Technology Overview (LTO), which covers a broad range of energy-saving commercial and residential lighting technologies. The publication provides guidance on comparing products, sample products, expected energy savings and case studies. Covered categories include: * Omnidirectional (A19) Lamps * Directional Lamps * Linear LED Retrofit Solutions [...]

Cree’s TW Series PAR30 LED Bulb is ENERGY STAR-certified and available in 25° spot or 40° flood beam angles, suitable for accent lighting in track and recessed luminaires. These lamps leverage Cree TrueWhite Technology to deliver bright warm-white (3000K) light with a 90 CRI. Fully dimmable with a projected life of 25,000 hours, the PAR30 [...]

DOE’s CALiPER program has published a new Snapshot Report on LED MR16 lamps, which updates a similar Snapshot Report published in January 2014. In the past two years, LED technology has progressed rapidly, but the progress has been much slower for LED MR16s. The increase in mean efficacy is about half of that seen for [...]