A client recently asked my opinion on power over ethernet (POE) and DC microgrids for their next building upgrade project. They received a hard sales pitch on POE lighting and controls and wanted some rational counterpoints. Here’s my two cents, after talking to a folks...
As an energy efficiency consultant, my primary job is to recommend energy projects to my clients. More often than not, they base their decision to implement the project on its cost-effectiveness. For energy retrofit projects, establishing payback is fairly easy – the project costs $X,...
We don’t usually do consumer product reviews here at kW. But I have to admit that, I love my new Costco/Koda LED ceiling fixture so much I’m making an exception. Why? Because it is the perfect hallway lighting fixture for my home, and so far,...
As trade tensions continue to escalate between the United States and China, the lighting industry can’t help but be impacted. Most of the big brand lighting manufacturers headquartered in the United States manufacture vast swaths of their lighting products offshore. So it’s no surprise the...
Many lighting retrofit designs fail to fully consider egress and emergency lighting systems. These systems are usually required by state code and often superseded by local code or the requirements of the local authority having jurisdiction. Failure to provide adequate egress and emergency lighting controls...
So, you’ve decided to retrofit all your interior linear fluorescent light fixtures with LEDs. Great! Where should you begin? What kind of retrofit works best for your site? Let’s explore some options to answer some of your questions. Currently, interior LED retrofits can be broadly divided...
Just as the PC industry faced consolidation in the late 80’s, the lighting industry is also consolidating. Legrand started it off when it bought WattStopper and Vantage/Equinox/LCAP decades ago. Philips is now Signify. Siemens recently purchased Enlighted. GE has begun the process to sell their lighting and control...
In a previous post, I wrote about smartphone apps and their inadequacy with respect to illuminance measurements (that is, their ability to measure footcandles or lux). That post took a deep dive into why smartphones are not up to snuff as a professional light meter....
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,...
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)....