Controls

HUNT Dimming has announced that it has begun celebrating its fiftieth year as a lighting control manufacturer and technology development company. The invention of the transistor in 1956, which launched the dawn of the modern-day electronics age and earned its inventors the Nobel prize for physics, would have a far-reaching impact on lighting control. Four [...]

Lutron Electronics Co., Inc. has announced the formation of a new Energy Solutions business unit that will operate in both the public and private sectors to help to accelerate and maximize the use of the company’s existing technologies in a broad range of energy saving products. This Energy Solutions unit will develop a strategy to [...]

Now this is what I want for Christmas. Take a table, turn it into an interactive video image of your living space, and control everything.

Control wiring provides a path for command and status communication between control devices in a lighting and control system and, in many cases, power to the devices as well. Wiring is interrelated with overall lighting control system considerations—such as selection of control system and components, layout and installation practices—and is therefore an important consideration when [...]

Ledalite’s ecoSTEP program highlights new product options and corporate initiatives that support the company’s ongoing sustainability commitments. Available in all Ledalite 2’x2′ recessed luminaires, the ecoSTEP offering delivers energy savings of 25%-35%, with 68% less mercury content, and requires less maintenance and fewer luminaires for a wide range of open plan spaces including libraries, offices [...]

Over a year ago, a group of building controls manufacturers formed the EnOcean Alliance to promote interoperable wireless sensor networks based on the EnOcean wireless standard. Today, 113 companies, including Leviton, Masco, Distech Controls, Philips Ledalite and Osram Sylvania have engineered products that use wireless and energy harvesting sensors, switches and controls. According to EnOcean, [...]

The National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) has published LL 9-2009 Dimming of T8 Fluorescent Lighting Systems. This new standard is the first coordinated guidance from industry on the dimming of T8 fluorescent lighting systems; LL 9 covers ranges between 100% and approximately 35% output (60mA lamp current). The publication was a result of discussions between [...]

Building Design & Construction’s July issue features an article by C.C. Sullivan and Barbara Horwitz-Bennett titled, “MEP Technologies for Eco-Effective Buildings,” includes several sections related to lighting. I was pleased to participate in the article as a source instead of an author this time, representing my client the Lighting Controls Association, for which I’m acting [...]

I got my hands on a very informative graphic from Lutron describing how LED drivers–electronic devices that conditioning incoming power to match the circuit design and configuration of the LED array in the light fixture–interact with the LED lighting system. Drivers may be integral to power supplies, separate of power supplies but integral to the [...]