News Updates for the Week of February 28

1. Energy Efficient Light Bulbs Survive Congress - A new attack on the ban on incandescent light bulbs – the one that isn’t actually a ban – didn’t get very far. According to the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), U.S. House Representative Todd Akin (R-Mo.) recently withdrew an amendment that would have denied funding for the DOE to carry out new energy efficiency standards for light bulbs set to begin going into effect in 2012. 2/21 Earth Techling

2. New Reports Chart Path to Zero-Net-Energy Commercial Buildings - Two new reports from the Zero Energy Commercial Buildings Consortium (CBC) on achieving net-zero-energy use in commercial buildings say “high levels of energy efficiency are the first, largest and most important step on the way to net-zero.” There are many definitions of net-zero-energy buildings, but typically they are highly energy efficient buildings that use no more energy than they can produce on site on an annual basis. Free copies of the full reports can be downloaded at http://zeroenergycbc.org/

3. Existing-Home Sales Increase in January - Existing home sales estimates began 2011 on a positive note: up 2.7% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.36 million. That's up from a downwardly revised 5.22 million in December. According to the estimate from the National Association of Realtors (NAR) released Wednesday morning, existing home sales are 5.3% ahead of the 5.09 million in January 2010. 2/23 HCN

4. New Residential Sales in January 2011 - Sales of new single-family houses in January 2011 were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 284,000, according to estimates released jointly today by the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. This is 12 6 12.6 percent (±11.2%) below the revised December rate of 325,000 and is 18.6 percent (±15.4%) below the January 2010 estimate of 349,000. http://www.census.gov/newhomesales

5. Rising Fuel Prices Could Cramp Economic Recovery - Consumers are already seeing the fallout from turmoil in the Middle East and North Africa every time they fill their gas tanks. It's what they don't see that's the bigger worry for the U.S. economy. From the farm to the factory, businesses are facing higher costs to grow the nation's food, ship goods and manufacture products at a time when they're already cautious about hiring new employees or placing big orders. The added burden of sustained fuel price increases could slow the nation's already sluggish economic growth, analysts said. By some estimates, every penny increase at the pump sucks $1.5 billion from household spending nationwide. Volatile fuel prices have some businesses looking to make permanent adjustments to their operations. 2/24 LA Times

6. National Lighting Product Information Program Releases New Report on Street Lighting Technologies - The National Lighting Product Information Program (NLPIP) released its latest Specifier Report, designed to provide objective performance information on existing street lighting technologies including LEDs, induction, and high pressure sodium (HPS) streetlights. This report comes at a critical time when many municipalities, some with funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, are in the process of replacing HPS streetlights with LED and induction models. http://www.lrc.rpi.edu/nlpip/publicationDetails.asp?id=927&type=1

7. Amerlux Introduces 10-Year Warranty on LED Light Fixture Products - This warranty applies to the company's LED lighting fixtures beginning February 1, 2011 and demonstrates the company's confidence in its vast selection of these breakthrough products. "At Amerlux we have stood behind all of our product lines from the very beginning," noted Frank Diassi, Amerlux chairman and founder. "Our new 10-year warranty adds exciting new levels of value and assurance for our lighting customers in every category." Complete information is available at http://www.amerlux.com/

8. Economy's 4Q Growth Rate Lower Than First Thought -The economy grew more slowly at the end of last year than first thought as state and local governments cut spending more deeply and Americans spent a tad less briskly. The government says business activity increased at an annual rate of 2.8 percent in the October-December quarter. That was down from the initial estimate of 3.2 percent. 2/25 Washington Post

9. Philips Lumileds Promises Freedom From Binning for White LEDs - Philips Lumileds has unveiled its Freedom From Binning program, which is intended to relieve concerns over white-light consistency and uniformity, and to simplify the design process for LED solutions. Lumileds intends to offer white Luxeon emitters for which there are no color bin selections, because the LEDs are sufficiently uniform and consistent. This also involves hot testing and binning at 85ºC. The program has been launched at Strategies in Light with 2700K and 3000K white LEDs. Lumileds plans to proliferate Freedom From Binning through new product introductions this year and into the future. http://www.ledsmagazine.com/news/8/2/25

10. Cree LBR-30™ LED Lamp Sets New Industry Benchmark for Color Rendering - Cree, Inc. announces commercial availability of the LBR-30™ LED lamp, aimed at replacing energy-wasting incandescent lamps commonly used in tracks, commercial and residential recessed downlights. Powered by Cree TrueWhite® Technology, the lamp delivers warm-white light with unrivaled color accuracy and efficiency. Thanks to its high color rendering index (CRI) of 94, the LBR-30 lamp is optimized for applications where high color accuracy is essential, including restaurants, retail stores, groceries and museums. It delivers 600 lumens, equivalent to a 60 watt incandescent BR30, while using only 12 watts of input power. The lamp is designed to last 50,000 hours in open fixtures. 2/21 BUSINESS WIRE

11. Next Generation Luminaires™ Announces LED Design Competition Winners - Winners of the third annual Next Generation Luminaires™ awards were announced 2/23 at the Strategies in Light Conference in Santa Clara, California. Out of 138 entries from 61 companies, 33 were recognized this year as winners and another four were chosen as “best in class.”

• The Lighting Quotient Inc. for its Linear Concealed LED Luminaire cove lighting fixture

• Philips Color Kinetics for its eW Burst Powercore facade lighting fixture

• Koncept Technologies Inc. for its Equo LED Desk Lamp task lighting fixture

• USAI for its NanoLED recessed accent lighting fixture.

More information on all the winning entries is available at http://www.ngldc.org/

12. Bill Brown Sales Launches New Website - Bill Brown Sales (BBS), the leading component sales agency to lighting fixture OEMs, announces the launch of its new website at http://www.billbrownsales.com/ The user-friendly site offers a profile of each manufacturer that BBS represents, the latest product news, a calendar of upcoming trade shows, full contact details, resource information and much more.

13. California Senate Oks Renewable Energy Bill - The state Senate acted Thursday to require California utilities to boost their use of wind, solar and other renewable energy sources to a third of total supply by the year 2020. California law already requires utilities to get a fifth of their power from renewable energy. If this measure becomes law, utilities will be forced to lean even more heavily on green power. Supporters said the 33% target for renewables would put California ahead of the rest of the country in green-energy use. 2/24 LA Times

14. LCA TV Now Broadcasting on YouTube - Check out videos of new products, product demos and other interesting control-related videos at the Lighting Controls Association’s new YouTube channel Coming soon: At LIGHTFAIR, the Lighting Controls Association will be shooting and producing short videos demonstrating new products being introduced at the show, to be posted here and at LCA’s YouTube channel.