Specialty and Architectural Lighting — LED

Currently, T8 fluorescent tubes dominate the commercial and institutional lighting sector both in number of lamps and in lumen output. The USDOE estimated in 2010 that there were 1 billion fluorescent fixtures in the U.S. It is no surprise that LED manufacturers have focused on this potentially huge retrofit market...

Cities and states can enjoy numerous benefits by switching from high pressure sodium to LED lights in street lighting fixtures and traffic signal lights. These benefits included better visibility for drivers, lower power consumption for street lights, and reduced maintenance when compared to the old lighting technology. On the negative...

We recently received an email from a reader pointing to the fact that many details are glossed over or left out in articles about how to buy LED bulbs to replace existing incandescent or halogen in homes. We'll give it another try in this article. With incandescent bulbs, when they...

If there are still doubts about the long-term impact of the LED lighting revolution, the upcoming Super Bowl should eliminate the skeptics. It's one thing to put an LED bulb in a table lamp. But use them to light a massive football stadium? It is true. Every second of the...

LED light bulbs, it seems, are like old cowboys, they never die, they only ride off into the sunset. Exaggeration? Maybe. But it brings up an important point. LED light bulbs do eventually go dark, but the process takes so long it seems like forever. A Fistful of Rated Hours...

You'd think, after 4.6 billion years of existence, the sun would get some respect. But the importance of the sun's light has long been ignored as a key factor for human health and well being. Maybe, because incandescent bulbs were cheap and effective for much of the twentieth century, mimicking...

One of the benefits of LED light bulbs sometimes touted by the media and by manufacturers alike is "no heat." If the heat being referred to is radiant, meaning it heats objects but not the air in between, the claim is accurate. Put your hand a few inches away from...

Fluorescent lighting technology has been around for a considerable length of time. Both linear fluorescent tubes and compact fluorescent bulbs have turned out to be reliable and economical, while producing the brightness required in public and working environments. Lately, however, a new form of light source has overtaken both fluorescent...

About 8 to 15% of the electricity budget of an average household is consumed by lighting. The different types of lighting technologies that are installed, the design, and the user behavior are significant determinants to the total amount consumers can spend just on lighting for the home. With a well-designed...

Ever since Thomas Edison's early light bulbs, the iconic shape of the most common light bulb in our homes has been remarkably consistent - pear-shaped glass narrowing to a screw base at one end. This shape is so ingrained in our collective consciousness that it has become a cliche graphic...

With the phase-out of the 60 watt incandescent light bulb, finding these classic bulbs will get more and more difficult over time. Even now, just a few months after the ban came into effect in January 2014, home improvement stores are doing everything they can to shift consumers into alternative,...