Codes + Standards

The ANSI Accredited Standards Committee C81 recently revised two standards for the lighting industry: ANSI C81.61-2017 American National Standard for Electric Lamp Bases—Specifications for Bases (Caps) for Electric Lamps and ANSI C81.62-2017 American National Standard for Electric Lampholders. These standards present specifications for lamp bases and holders, and now include G6.6 designations. “The tubular LED [...]

In this article published in LEDs Magazine, Mark Rea, Director of the Lighting Research Center, and Jean Paul Freyssinier, Senior Research Scientist for the LRC, propose a new definition for the lumen. This lumen should be used in product regulations instead of CRI, as CRI arguably does not align to consumer preferences for color rendering. [...]

The California Lighting Technology Center (CLTC) has updated its Residential Lighting Guide for California’s 2016 Building Energy Efficiency Standards. The guide assists builders and lighting industry professionals in navigating the residential lighting portion of California’s Title 24, Part 6. The updated Energy Standards take effect on January 1, 2017. The Residential Lighting Guide is sponsored [...]

Researchers at several universities have proposed a standard lamp label specifically geared to horticultural applications. From Urban AG News, which has the story: The label includes the efficacy (output of photosynthetically active radiation per unit of electric power consumed measured in micromoles per joule (μmol/J), conversion efficiency, photon flux output in key wavebands in 100 [...]

Recognizing the amount of energy used by the residential building sector, ASHRAE and IES are revising their residential energy standard with a goal of making it 50% more efficient than the 2006 International Energy Conservation Code (IECC), which serves as the industry benchmark. 90.2 is open for public comment until Dec. 19, 2016. Click here [...]

The Lighting Controls Association (LCA) has published a new course to enhance its Education Express program: EE203: Lighting and Commercial Energy Codes, Part 2: ASHRAE/IES 90.1-2013 and IECC 2015. Complying with a Department of Energy mandate, a growing number of states are adopting commercial building energy codes at least as stringent as ASHRAE/IES 90.1-2013 and [...]

ANSI/ASHRAE/IES Standard 90.1-2016, Energy Efficiency Standard for Buildings Except Low-Rise Residential Buildings, contains 125 addenda published since the 2013 standard. The 2013 standard currently serves as the commercial building reference standard for state building energy codes. This 2016 version is the 10th edition published since the original standard was first published in 1975 during the [...]

The Module-Driver Interface Special Interest Group (MD-SIG), a lighting-industry consortium, has published its LEDset specifications, available here. LEDset provides the lighting market with a standardized, multi-vendor, electrical interface for LED systems, which simplifies the process of matching LED modules with suitable drivers. Today, there are many different options on the market for communication and power [...]

Below is my lighting column published in the July issue of tED Magazine. Reprinted with permission. Founded in 1992, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) ENERGY STAR is a voluntary product labeling program designed to help consumers identify and promote energy-efficient products. These products include lamps and residential luminaires. Consumers recognize the ENERGY STAR label [...]