I will not budge on two things. First, of Richard Kelly’s Three Components of Light, ‘play of brilliants’ is the best element of lighting design (who doesn’t love sparkle?). Second, smartphones are not light meters. Say it again with me. Smartphones are not light meters. Yes,...
I’ve found that one of the most effective tools in visualizing energy use is the heat map. I also find them beautiful. Call me an energy geek but visualizing energy use on a calendar is very effective for spotting scheduling energy savings and peak demand...
It’s 2018 and lighting controls are not standalone anymore. Owners, lighting designers and commissioning authorities need to recognize that lighting is a system, and controls are often networked. Now more than ever, it’s extremely important to practice sound lighting control design for efficiency, code as...
I became a commissioning (Cx) provider because I believe it makes a difference in the quality and efficiency of buildings. Title 24 (part 6) has the same goals. Unfortunately, as it stands the goal of efficient buildings through commissioning isn't being enforced as well as...
[Thanks to Supriya Goel, PNNL for your input!] BuildingSync might just be the first major advance in how we report energy audit results in a long time. I say this cautiously because I’ve seen plenty of prior efforts fall flat, and I’m a born skeptic at heart. I’m...
Exterior lighting pushes back the darkness and can make the otherwise intimidating nighttime environment more welcoming and functional. But lighting can also impact our well-being. The extent of that impact is currently under debate between the American Medical Association (AMA) and Illuminating Engineering Society (IES)....
In 1982, an explosion of a Gasprom pipeline in Siberia was the first cyber-attack of an Industrial Control System (ICS). Stuxnet (the malware that took down Iran’s nuclear centrifuges) was released 10 years ago. According to Joe Weiss, an ICS cybersecurity expert, who recently wrote...
What’s cool about NMEC and M&V 2.0 There’s a lot of buzz in our state right now around the concept of M&V 2.0 and Normalized Metered Energy Consumption (NMEC). The term was created as part of AB 802 in 2015 with the inclusion of the following...
We recently worked with our Center for Energy Efficient Labs partners My Green Lab and Frontier Energy on an Emerging Technologies study funded jointly by the three California IOUs. The study involved testing the energy performance of modern, high-efficiency ultra-low temperature (ULT; -80C) lab freezers...
I spend a lot of time with building engineers deciphering what’s happening in their VAV systems. Unfortunately, it’s often not what the design engineer intended, or what the controls company envisioned when they set up the system. When identifying problems with building control systems, it’s...