Research

Many companies add whiteners to laundry detergent, paints, fabrics and other materials to make whites look “whiter than white,” but the choice of light sources may be even more important, according to new research. Kevin W. Houser, professor of architectural engineering at Penn State University, recently led a study about how well various light sources [...]

A new market research report published by Lighting Solution Development reveals a large and rapidly expanding market for horticultural grow lights to legal, commercial marijuana growers. As of October, 2013, 20 states plus the District of Columbia have varying degrees of decriminalization for marijuana, including legal commercial growing. Two states, Colorado and Washington, have legalized [...]

The CSIL Centre for industrial Studies in Milano, Italy recently published a new report, E-Commerce in the Lighting Fixtures Sector. The report states that e-commerce accounts for 4% of the $75 billion global luminaire market, including both B2B and B2C. North America is the largest e-commerce market for luminaires; its incidence on the world market [...]

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has released a report analyzing markets where light-emitting diodes (LEDs) compete with traditional lighting sources (e.g., incandescent and fluorescent). The report, Adoption of Light-Emitting Diodes in Common Lighting Applications, provides estimates of current energy savings, plus potential savings if these markets switched to LEDs overnight. Nine markets were analyzed: [...]

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The Department of Energy’s Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey is one of the most valuable ongoing research resources for the lighting industry, profiling number of buildings, floorspace square footage and other information by building market type. Unfortunately, the 2007 CBECS was scrapped due to poor research method, and DOE is still working on the next [...]

This recorded webinar presented by Dr. Craig Bernecker of Parsons, which you can watch below, provides a sampling of studies conducted that illustrate both psychological and physiological responses to lighted environments.

Editor’s note: This is the executive summary of the Commercial Lighting Market Attitudes Study, which I produced in 2004 based on surveys of participants across the commercial lighting product sales channel. I’ve been receiving some renewed interest in the study, which people have found valuable, so I decided to offer the report’s conclusions here. What [...]

I recently authored an article for the Lighting Controls Association about a recent Energy Center of Wisconsin study demonstrating that proper commissioning of daylight harvesting lighting controls can lead to higher energy savings. But an even bigger lesson, I believe, can be found in commissioning all automatic lighting control systems. Read it here.