Specialty and Architectural Lighting

For some people dark winter days, particularly in northern latitudes, can cause lack of motivation, lethargy, slow response and in some cases depression. The common term for this condition is SAD, seasonal affective disorder. For owners of commercial operations with employees, this phenomenon should be taken seriously because it can...

By a considerable margin the most common lighting job in North America is general space lighting for commercial and institutional occupancies provided by fluorescent tubes mounted in troffers, direct / indirect pendants and strip lights. In 2016, the U.S. Department of Energy (USDOE) estimated there were over 300 million fluorescent...

If you are a business or institution and are not yet using LED light fixtures and bulbs in your operation, you should be. At the very least you should be installing sample product to evaluate it. In 2020 we are at generation 5 and 6 of LED product and the...

When determining whether or not an LED lamp or LED fixture will provide the equivalent lighting that is provided by traditional light sources such as halogen, fluorescent or metal halide, lumens is one of the numbers you need for your evaluation. Spec sheets for most light bulbs and light fixtures...

When LED fixtures (or lamps) are installed in a building, thinking about replacement is likely the last thing on the minds of staff. With LED rated life ranging from 25,000 hours (for lamps) to over 50,000 hours (for fixtures) the typical time to replacement is measured in years. However, facility...

The ability of the human eye to see the world in color and to perceive the smallest variations in the color of objects and illuminated spaces enriches the visual experience beyond measure. A major factor in the perception of color is the light source that is illuminating the object or...

Among all the factors to consider when buying an LED outdoor luminaire – here is another: connected controls. Increasingly, commercial building codes are expanding outdoor lighting requirements to include automatic shutoff and modulated light levels based on occupancy or time of day. This level of control, common for commercial interior lighting,...

The germicidal portion of the ultraviolet spectrum provides an extremely powerful method of addressing sanitation issues for both water and air environments. We have already addressed UV water applications in another blog post. In this post we will look at both commercial / industrial and residential applications for using ultraviolet...

LED downlight modules provide both an easy upgrade solution for existing incandescent or halogen downlight and an all-in-one package that makes for a seamless looking new downlight. The downlight module includes a non-replaceable LED array or light engine (not a bulb), an LED driver, a diffuser and the trim that...

It's not uncommon today for an incandescent, halogen or fluorescent light source to be replaced with an LED light source. Many LEDs are made to be direct replacements for traditional light bulbs and fixtures. In some cases, those traditional light sources have been controlled by photocells that are still in...

Should water used by the public be disinfected with chlorine or ultraviolet germicidal light? This post looks at the pros and cons for each approach. Whether it’s water used in food processing or water that comes out of a faucet for drinking or water in a municipal swimming pool, elimination...