Products + Technology

NEMA’s incandescent and compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) indices for Q109 declined 2.4% and 4.6% respectively compared to the previous quarter. The incandescent lamp shipments index showed a decline of 16.9% on a year-over-year basis, nearly reaching the all-time low set during the third quarter of 2008. Since the beginning of 2007, the incandescent index has [...]

The blazing fire is an amazing effect–I was able to see it firsthand at the Sylvania booth at Lightfair, which was showcasing this Traxon product. The video doesn’t quite do it justice, but check it out to get a feel for the special effect: Here's another interesting use of the same product: And another:

Interesting review of Nexxus’ SSL lamp here, written by one of Fast Company Magazine’s technology bloggers. The review contains some errors in its analysis, but it’s an interesting take and shows what non-lighting people are thinking about some of these advancements. In particular, LEDs still have a very high cool factor with consumers.

I recently wrote an article for the April issue of Electrical Contractor, about some aspects of integrating lighting control and energy management systems. This is a hot topic because codes now require automatic shutoff of lighting and demand response is going to grow in importance in the future, but EMS traditionally has not done a [...]

Change the lighting; improve your health. It’s a strategy researchers from Case Western Reserve University’s Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing and the School of Medicine, the Geriatric Research Education and Clinical Center at the Louis Stokes Cleveland Veterans Affairs Medical Center (GRECC), Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s Lighting Research Center and GE Consumer & Industrial have [...]

Lighting designer Jim Benya, a regular contributor to Architectural Lighting Magazine (my alma mater) and a thought leader in the lighting community, wrote an excellent article about residential lighting controls for the magazine’s April/May issue, which was released at Lightfair. Calling residential a leader in lighting control, he identifies three ways to approach control: * [...]

OSRAM SYLVANIA has introduced a full line of “True Replacement” LED lamps marketed as direct replacements for standard incandescent, halogen and compact fluorescent lamps in commercial and residential applications. The 8W LED A-Line can replace a 40W incandescent A-line lamp typically found in table lamps, ceiling and wall mounted luminaires. Another common form factor around [...]

The Lightfair Innovation Awards, sponsored by Architectural Lighting Magazine and elumit.com, honored five products out of 218 submissions with the following awards: Most Innovative Product of the Year: Calculite Solid-State Downlights by Lightolier/Philips Design Excellence Award: Kite by Peerless Lighting/Acuity Brands Lighting Technical Innovation Award: Luxeon Rebel ES from Philips Lumileds Lighting Company Technical Innovation [...]

At Lightfair, Philips Lighting unveiled a prototype of a 600-lumen output A-shape LED bulb that can ultimately be used to replace 40W incandescent lamps in general lighting applications in the U.S. and 60W incandescent technology in the European (230V) market. Highly efficient and dimmable down to 10%, the 8W 120V integral lamp is powered by [...]