Specialty and Architectural Lighting

With the cost of employing people orders of magnitude more expensive than the cost of operating a lighting system, it is important to strike the right balance between energy efficient lighting and the productivity of employees. It is no secret that light affects people in a multitude of ways. Some ways are more obvious than others. If there is not enough light on a work surface, eye strain becomes a problem and less work gets...

Now that both incandescent and halogen bulbs are disappearing from the market, many people want to replace their current household lighting with the LED light bulbs. This is a great option for many because the price of LED bulb keeps decreasing and lighting companies become more efficient and the cost of manufacturing comes down. However, you need to learn how you can find the best LED replacement bulbs for your home. There are some important...

There are different types of light bulbs with a variety of shapes, bases, wattages, voltage, and more. Some of the best quality bulbs are MR light bulbs. MR is an abbreviation for "multifaceted reflector." These light bulbs are most often low voltage halogen MR reflectors which come in different shapes which include MR16, MR11, and MR8. The same lamp shapes also come in a line voltage type, using a GU10 base, although overall options are...

With a variety of lighting applications and lamp types, schools have many opportunities to both improve the quality of the lighting in their facilities and reduce operating costs. In addition to higher efficiency traditional lamps and better controls, LED lighting retrofit opportunities have reached a point both in the maturity of the technology and in lower prices to warrant strong consideration. Retrofit Classrooms with T8 LED Tubes Classrooms, usually illuminated with T8 fluorescent recessed troffers...

Have you ever wondered why your eyes and head sometimes hurt after sitting in your office for awhile? Look up at the lights for a possible answer. You may not notice anything other than a fluorescent fixture. But what's happening inside the fluorescent tubes is fluctuating light output. Input power frequency variations inherent in the relationship between the magnetic ballast and the lamps cause the fluctuations. The pulse is too rapid for most people to...

Infrared light is typically the most discussed form of light within the spectrum. In basic terms, infrared light can be termed as heat; it is the type of radiation where the wavelengths cannot be seen by naked human eyes, but instead it is felt by the body as heat. Infrared light can be seen through use of certain special cameras. This heat is useful in various ways. The term "infrared" by itself when applied to...

Since the early 1990s, governments around the world have been increasingly concerned about the types of lighting citizens use in their homes and businesses. Large regulatory bodies, from the US government to the European Union, have been eliminating common inefficient forms of lighting in an effort to reduce energy usage. Incandescent The incandescent bulb has been the most common target of phase-out legislation, as it has been the most common light bulb used by consumers....

Everyone knows that the only thing more annoying than sitting in an office without a window is sitting in an office with a window in a cold, featureless basement after being demoted. And not surprisingly, the government has made it a practice of shunting inconvenient employees into windowless, basement offices. But is a windowless office a greater health hazard than even an overly-talkative co-worker? Recent studies suggest yes. A team made up of architects and...

Before you head off to your favorite store, online or brick, to buy LED light bulbs to replace those short-lived incandescents, you should read on. When LEDs first came on the market, there was wild talk about how these bulbs will last forever... or at least 100,000 hours which is over 11 years. Compared to incandescent bulbs with an expected life of around 750 hours, that might as well be forever. Rated Life More recently...

While summer is fast approaching in the US, Canada, Europe, and the rest of the Northern Hemisphere, the other half of the globe is entering its colder, darker months. And with less sunlight means more risk of being sad and getting SAD, also known as Seasonal Affective Disorder. SAD was first named in the early 1980s and has become widely recognized as a seasonal mood disorder that is a form of depression. About 70-80% of...

When it comes to upgrading to LED lighting, owners of small retail businesses may assume that bottom line benefits accrue primarily to large operations retrofitting with hundreds or even thousands of LED lamps. While scale and buying power certainly help larger businesses justify major light upgrades, locally owned retailers will find they too have LED options well worth exploring. Any smaller sized retail business open six or seven days a week probably operates enough lighting...

The idea that light can have a biological effect on humans first appeared with research on Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD). People living in northern parts of the U.S., where hours of daylight are significantly reduced in winter months, reported tired, depression-like symptoms. When sufferers of SAD made an effort to get least 20 minutes a day of daylight in the morning, they reported improved symptoms. Even being exposed to electric light with full spectrum characteristics,...

In a world suddenly awash with LED light bulbs and fixtures on the market providing stunning white light for homes and businesses, it is easy to forget how recently the only LEDs we laid eyes on were single diode red and green dots blinking at us from instrument panels, most likely 1980s-era audio or computer equipment. The missing link that took years to develop, with many failures along the way, was the blue LED. Finally...

At some point it will become necessary to change out old light bulbs, and for many lighting situations this does not pose a problem. Where a problem does occur is when bulbs in directional lighting, such as track lights, require replacement. While homes may have a few MR or PAR bulbs in various rooms, businesses like museums, art galleries, restaurants, and retail stores may have hundreds of bulbs with varying beam angles. Making sure these...

Legislation banning common incandescent bulbs has not been well received by most consumers. CFL and LED bulbs, often mentioned as the new go-to lighting option for homes, have caused an uproar. Consumers complain that the government is making them choose between one bulb that is "cheap and doesn't work" (CFL) and another bulb that is "too expensive and doesn't work" (LED). At the peak of these complaints, LED bulbs had cost around $35 each for...