Legislation + Regulation

On April 30, 2015, President Obama signed S. 535, the Energy Efficiency Improvement Act of 2015, which specifies various Federal actions to increase energy and water efficiency in commercial buildings and adjusts a Department of Energy efficiency standard for grid-enabled residential water heaters. Of particular interest are two provisions that: * promote commercial building energy-use [...]

LightNOW recently reported that the Department of Energy (DOE) issued new energy standards for general-service fluorescent lamps. As promised, I’m following up to provide some analysis. The new rules were published in the Federal Register January 25 and go into effect January 26, 2018. They specifically cover 4-ft. T8 linear, 2-ft. T8 U-bend and 4-ft. [...]

On the last day of 2014, the Department of Energy (DOE) completed new standards for general-service fluorescent lamps. You can see the complete regulations here. After a first read-through, the regulations appear to strengthen existing lamp standards with a majority of covered lamp types. I’m currently working on a detailed write-up of the new standards, [...]

On December 19, President Obama signed the Tax Increase Prevention Act, which contains extenders of 50+ tax relief provisions. Of particular interest in the lighting industry is a one-year extension of 179D, the Commercial Buildings Tax Deduction. This is an accelerated tax deduction rewarding investment in energy-efficient building property, notably interior lighting systems. The law [...]

The DesignLights Consortium™ Premium classification demands higher-performance requirements for luminaires and retrofit kits related to efficacy, lumen maintenance and integral controls. EYE Lighting has published a guide here.

New York Governor Cuomo recently signed into law the “Healthy, Safe and Energy Efficient Outdoor Lighting Act,” which establishes requirements for outdoor lighting installed by state agencies. The bill requires the use of properly shielded luminaires to prevent unnecessary up- and side-lighting, thereby reducing light trespass and sky glow. The bill also states that installations [...]

New fluorescent ballast energy efficiency regulations took effect in November. The new rules expand previous regulations to cover seven classes of T12, T8 and T5 fluorescent lamp ballasts. Outdoor sign and residential-­only ballasts, exempted from previous DOE ballast regulations, are now covered and will be significantly affected.
 Exempted are dimming ballasts that dim to 50 [...]

In 2009, DOE issued energy standards for commercial general-service fluorescent lamps that took effect July 14, 2012 and eliminated a majority of 4-ft. linear and 2-ft. U-shaped T12 lamps and many 8-ft. T12 and T12HO lamps from the market. Exceptions include lamps with a CRI rating of 87 or higher, lamps designed to operate in [...]

The Senate Finance Committee recently voted to approve a two-year extension of the Energy Efficient Commercial Buildings Tax Deduction, also known as Section 179D, as part of the Expiring Provisions Improvement Reform and Efficiency (EXPIRE) Act. The provision allows a taxpayer to take a deduction equal to commercial building energy-efficiency expenditures made by the taxpayer [...]