Craig’s Lighting Articles

My contribution to the May issue of ELECTRICAL CONTRACTOR talks about a complex but suitable application for circadian lighting–hospitals.

To get an idea of how connected lighting is impacting the industry and where it’s going, I talked to six thought leaders in the lighting industry. Here’s what they said.

An increasing number of lighting control and home automation manufacturers now offer voice recognition as an input for their systems.

Below is my contribution to the April issue of tED Magazine, the official NAED publication. Reprinted with permission. Networked lighting controls are control systems that use microprocessing (intelligence) and communication (hardwired or wireless connectivity) to enact layered and complex control strategies. This approach allows individually addressable control points, software-based setup and operation, simplified connections, and [...]

The U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) recently published a report, 2015 U.S. Lighting Market Characterization, an excellent resource for lighting market analysis and business planning. One thing is clear: The lighting market has undergone significant transformation since the last DOE characterization in 2010.

Available in new construction luminaires and retrofit trims and kits, LED offers the benefits of directional light output, high efficiency and life, good lighting quality, and controllability in downlighting. Click to read this article about trends in this category.

The Department of Energy’s (DOE) latest Residential Energy Consumption Survey (RECS) revealed a majority of U.S. homes used more than one type of lamp, mainly a mix of incandescent and compact fluorescent. Adoption of LED lighting was increasing, however, with 29 percent of households reporting they’d installed at least one LED lamp. Click to learn more about the 2015 RECS.

Skeletal frameworks installed in some facilities form interior subspaces called bays, often characterized as high-bay (>20 ft. off the floor) or low-bay (<20 ft.). Such high-ceiling applications are common in industrial, warehouse, big-box retail, convention center, and gymnasiums. General lighting installed in high-bay applications typically involves high-output luminaires emitting 15,000 up to 100,000 lumens per luminaire. These luminaires often operate at least 12 hours per day, making them good candidates for energy-saving options for both retrofit and new construction. Click to read this article about trends in LED high-bay lighting.

The lighting industry continues to undergo historic change marked by extraordinary trends enabled by rapid adoption of LED lighting. Connectivity and networked control, the Internet of Things, lighting and health, restrictive energy codes, and rebates are all driving change. For electrical contractors that compete based on lighting expertise, this presents the challenge of reviewing one’s skillsets and learning what needs learning to remain competitive. In this informative roundtable, ELECTRICAL CONTRACTOR talked to six lighting industry experts to find out what impact these trends are having and where they’re going.