The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has released a free report detailing the characteristics of the U.S. lighting market by technology and sector. The 2010 U.S. Lighting Market Characterization provides comprehensive and detailed estimates of the national inventory of installed lamps as well as their associated energy use and lumen production. It focuses on four [...]

The Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey (CEBCS) provides valuable information about the U.S. commercial building stock and its energy consumption. The 2007 CEBCS was canceled due to a bad data collection method (proving cheaper is not always better), and the 2011 CEBCS was suspended due to funding cuts at the Department of Energy. You may [...]

Guest post by Jim Brodrick, Department of Energy Results of the latest round of CALiPER testing were released recently, and as usual they can tell us a thing or two about the current state of solid-state lighting. As you may know, DOE’s CALiPER program supports testing of a wide array of SSL products available for [...]

The U.S. Department of Energy has published the final evaluation report from a retrofit of 32 track lights used to illuminate artwork in the lobby of the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) headquarters building. During the demonstration, 12W LED PAR38 lamps replaced 15W and 23W reflector compact fluorescent lamps that were installed in 2001, and comparisons [...]

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has completed Round 13 of product testing through the DOE Solid-State Lighting (SSL) CALiPER program. A Summary Report containing the results is now available for download on the DOE SSL website. Round 13 of product testing included three primary focus areas: LED and benchmark high-bay luminaires; LED wallpack luminaires; [...]

A fascinating study conducted by the Lighting Research Center (LRC) at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute found that satellite images of outdoor lighting are unrelated to actual light levels reaching the eye. These results challenge previous studies linking satellite images of outdoor lighting with increased incidences of breast cancer. Light entering the eye regulates our body’s circadian [...]

Flicker and stroboscopic effects have been a concern with solid-state lighting (SSL), and industry and the ENERGY STAR program have debated recently the effects of frequency and other driving modes on the perception and acceptability of flicker. To provide further data and guidance in this area, the Lighting Research Center (LRC) at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute [...]

The Department of Energy has completed Retail Replacement Lamp product testing through the Solid-State Lighting (SSL) CALiPER program. A Summary Report containing the results is now available for download. This special testing was undertaken to identify and test performance of SSL replacement lamp products directly available to the general public through retail outlets (stores and [...]

Guest post by Jim Brodrick, Department of Energy This week, the Round 12 Summary Report for the CALiPER testing program was published, and as usual, the results are worth noting. For those of you who may not know, CALiPER stands for Commercially Available LED Product Evaluation and Reporting, and it’s a DOE program that supports [...]