The Wall Street Journal paints the International Dark Sky Association as Big Brother in Eric Felten’s opinion piece here. Once again, lighting takes a backseat to politics, but perhaps not in the way Felten thinks. In the lighting industry, we often hope for lighting issues to enter the public consciousness. But once they do, they [...]

Highlights of Int. No. 973: * Lighting systems in buildings larger than 50,000 gross sq.ft. (or buildings that combined with other buildings on same tax lot in total exceed 100,000 sq.ft.) must be upgraded * Deadline for upgrade is 1/1/2025 * Upgrade defined as meeting minimum requirements of New York City Energy Conservation Code * [...]

New York City has passed significant new legislation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from existing government, commercial and residential buildings in New York City. The six-point Greener, Greater Buildings Plan, introduced on Earth Day and enacted as part of PlaNYC, includes four bills that will dramatically reduce the City’s energy usage, saving consumers $700 million [...]

To help end users in the education, healthcare, military, municipality and government markets, Hubbell Lighting has published two booklets intended to guide them as well as lighting specifiers through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA). The books focus on ARRA stimulus plan lighting solutions and specifications. The specification guide identifies the full [...]

The National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) has announced consensus legislation–created with input from manufacturers, designers, energy advocates and utilities–that would set federal efficiency standards for pole-mounted outdoor lighting for the first time ever. This legislation creates three tiers for efficiency levels: · Tier 1, which becomes effective three years after enactment of the bill, sets [...]

The FTC has proposed new labeling requirements for lamps in response to a congressional mandate to provide consumers with clear, easily understandable information to help them choose among different bulb types as traditional lamps compete with CFLs and newer LED lamps. The Notice of Proposed Rulemaking announced on October 27 seeks comment on new labels [...]

This month, the IES Hartford Section is presenting the Fall 2009 update and final draft of the Model Lighting Ordinance, sometimes called the “Dark Sky regulations.” The guest speaker is Leo Smith (Northeast Regional Director of the International Dark Sky Association), who served on the IDA/IESNA joint task force that developed the current MLO. To [...]

Earlier this year, I had the pleasure of working with the National Electrical Manufacturers Association on a revision of their website detailing features, benefits and rules of implementation for the Commercial Buildings Deduction. Congress recently extended the expiration date for this important energy efficiency incentive to January 1, 2014. Check out the new and improved [...]

In July 2009, the Department of Energy issued new energy efficiency standards for commercial general-service fluorescent lamps and incandescent (and halogen) reflector lamps. The new rules take effect July 14, 2012 and will basically eliminate products with the lowest efficiency and lowest cost. In the case of fluorescent lamps, equivalent-performance products are readily available, such [...]