News Updates for the Week of July 23

1.      Study: Energy-Saving Light Bulbs Can Cause Skin Cancer - Energy-saving compact fluorescent light bulbs popular among environmentalists are harmful to skin, researchers at a New York university have found.  Phosphor coatings on the bulbs wear off, the study from Stony Brook University on Long Island reported in the study published by in the journal of Photochemistry and Photobiology.  The scientists, led by Miriam Rafailovich, collected CFL bulbs from across Long Island to measure the amount of UV the bulbs gave off. They were alarmed thow many of the bulbs' phosphor coatings were lacking, causing them to leak significant levels of UVC and UVA.  Read more on Newsmax.com: Study: Energy-Saving Light Bulbs Can Cause Skin Cancer 

2.    ETS Focuses on Lighting Tax Incentives - Engineered Tax Services (ETS) www.engineeredtaxservices.com recently posted several lighting-focused articles on the 179D tax incentive program set to expire at the end of 2013.  179D was enacted by the Energy Policy Act of 2005 to stimulate investment in energy-saving technologies, though it remains widely unknown in the lighting industry. Non-public commercial buildings (both new and renovated) can claim up to $60,000 for every 100,000 square feet of building space where qualified efficient lighting is installed.  Surprisingly, building owners and designers and engineers are all eligible to take advantage of this incentive, which can improve the ROI of a prospective project. And if the incentive was missed during the design phase, past projects completed after January 1, 2006 remain qualified. http://lighting.com/ets-lighting-tax-incentives/

3.      New Light Bulb Rules Go into Effect July 14 - New U.S. Department of Energy regulations outlaw the manufacture of traditional T12 tubes, the most common fluorescent bulbs in the country.  T12 tubes are 4 feet long and 11/2 inches in diameter. According to a Department of Energy report, American homes in 2010 used more than 330 million old-fashioned fluorescent bulbs. An additional 410 million were lighting offices and shops. 7/14 The Kansas City Star

4.      DOE Releases CALiPER Application Summary Report 16 - The U.S. Department of Energy has completed Series 16 of testing through the DOE Solid-State Lighting CALiPER program. A summary of the results is now available for download on the DOE SSL website at www.ssl.energy.gov/reports.html.  Report 16 analyzes the performance of a group of 13 LED products labeled as BR30 or R30 lamps. Results show substantial improvement versus earlier CALiPER testing of similar products, and that many of the LED lamps could be effective replacements for conventional directional lamps in the right application. The report also indicates the need for a broader range of LED lamps within product families in terms of lumen output and distribution type, and questions the adequacy of existing reflector lamp categories for LED products.

5.      Energy Savings Draw Consumers to Energy-Efficient Lighting Systems - As lighting accounts for more than 20 percent of primary energy use in commercial buildings in the United States, there is an urgent need to upgrade existing lighting systems.  New analysis from Frost & Sullivan's Analysis of the North American Lighting Equipment Market finds that the market earned revenues of $17.3 billion in 2011 and estimates this to reach $20.8 billion in 2016.  7/19 PRNewswire http://www.buildingtechnologies.frost.com

6.      Fluorescent Lamp Shipments Dim During First Quarter - NEMA’s shipment indexes for linear fluorescent T5, T8, and T12 lamps decreased during the first quarter of 2012 compared to the same period last year. T5 lamps showed the largest decrease, declining 7.9%, while T8s and T12s declined by 5.5% and 5.0%, respectively. Despite posting year-over-year declines, shipments of T5 and T12 lamps grew by 6.8% and 4.9%, respectively, on a quarterly basis. Shipments of T8 lamps decreased 4.9% over the previous quarter. http://www.nema.org

7.      HID Lamp Shipment Indexes Show Growth for First Quarter - NEMA’s shipment indexes for high intensity discharge (HID) lamps returned to positive growth territory during the first quarter of 2012, with each lamp type showing year-over-year gains following negative growth to close out the final quarter of 2011. Sodium vapor lamps increased 2.9 percent, while shipments of mercury vapor and metal halide HID lamps increased 5.0 and 0.1 percent, respectively. http://www.nema.org

8.      DOE Municipal Solid-State Street Lighting Consortium - DOE created the Municipal Solid-State Street Lighting Consortium in 2010 to leverage the efforts of the many cities that are investigating LED street lighting products, often as a result of block grants and energy mandates--and increasingly with an eye toward creative financing arrangements. The Consortium provides a convenient way for cities to navigate multiple sources of information in just one stop, and offers such tools as the Model Specification for LED Roadway Luminaires and the Retrofit Financial Analysis Tool. To date, more than 350 municipalities, utilities, and government agencies have signed on as primary Consortium members, and momentum continues to build. http://www1.eere.energy.gov/buildings/ssl/consortium.html

9.      New York City Goes Green with Retrofit Lighting to Maximize Energy Savings - Commercial buildings in New York City including hotels, university housing, multifamily housing, medical and outpatient facilities, and commercial offices now have an opportunity to cut their energy costs and consumption. Building and property managers, building owners, facility engineers and directors, electricians and contractors can take part in a free webinar to learn more about new retrofitting technology and rebate programs on July 30, 2012.  TerraLUX Inc., an industry leader that designs, patents and manufactures LED-based lighting solutions for portable and general illumination applications, will be leading the webinar with retrofitting experts from UL, Con Edison/Lockheed Martin, and Smart Energy US.  Scheduled to take place at 10 a.m. EDT on July 30th, 2012 at:  http://www.terraluxillumination.com/2012/maximize-energy-savings-in-lighting-retrofit/

      10.  What’s New in HID Lamps and Ballasts by Craig Dilouie -Similar trends as fluorescent are driving innovation in high-intensity lighting, which is dominated by HID lighting. Within this segment, there has been a major technology shift from mercury vapor to metal halide over the past 10 years, and the market is trending in favor of white light. Innovation has focused on energy efficiency, longer life and controllability among higher-wattage lamps, and miniaturization and improved color performance among lower-wattage lamps that compete with halogen. Installed base of high-intensity discharge lamps in the United States, 2001 versus 2010. The HID lighting market has seen a significant technology shift in the past decade or so from mercury vapor to metal halide as a more-efficient, higher-performing white light source. Low-pressure sodium has also declined in popularity. Images based on Department of Energy data.  http://lightingcontrolsassociation.org/whats-new-in-hid-lighting/

 

11.  Drive to Standardize Outdoor & Street Lighting Controls - Several outdoor and street lighting industry players have allied to form a new global consortium with the aim of creating a globally accepted standard for a management software interface for outdoor lighting networks. Named TALQ www.TALQ-consortium.org the founders/participants are Harvard Engineering, Kingsun, Philips, Schréder, Streetlight.Vision and Thorn/Zumtobel. http://lighting.com/standardize-outdoor-controls/
 

12.  Lutron to Retrofit Empire State Building’s Lighting - Lutron Electronics, Coopersburg, Pa., will provide lighting controls for a major renovation of pre-built tenant spaces in the Empire State Building. The lighting controls are expected to provide total lighting energy savings of up to 65% and a reduced installed payback period of 2.75 years. The Empire State Building is undergoing a building-wide retrofit to improve energy efficiency and financial performance as part of the Clinton Climate Initiative’s Building Retrofit program. The project is designed to reduce the building’s energy use by 38% and energy bills by $4.4 million a year. http://www.lutron.com

13.  The Market for Wireless Power Systems Will Triple over the Next 8 Years, Surpassing $15 Billion by 2020 - Originating with simple inductive charging mechanisms that require a direct point of contact between charger (transmitter) and device (receiver), wireless power systems are evolving toward devices that connect to the wider power delivery infrastructure. As the technology matures and the industry consolidates, wireless power is beginning to see greater acceptance across a range of applications, and will become an increasingly common form of charging in the coming years. According to a new report from Pike Research, the market for wireless power systems–encompassing mobile devices, consumer electronics, industrial applications, infrastructure devices, and electric vehicles–will triple over the next 8 years, growing from $4.9 billion in revenue in 2012 to $15.1 billion in 2020.  http://www.pikeresearch.com/research/wireless-power

14.  Register for the AdVenture Marketing Conference - August 20-22, 2012 | Chicago, IL | Renaissance Blackstone. This conference is your chance to catch up on the latest marketing techniques while mingling with fellow marketers from the channel. Warren Janes, Maurice Electrical Supply Co., recently described one of the best reason to attend: "The beauty of AdVenture is that it is an audience of both Distributor and Manufacturers discovering how to market together." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eawBXUmnSkk

15. Housing Starts Show Yearly Gains in June - Housing starts increased to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 760,000 in June, up 6.9% from the revised May estimate of 711,000 and 23.6% above the June 2011 figure. Single-family housing starts in June were at a rate of 539,000, a 4.7% increase from the revised May figure of 515,000. The yearly comparisons showed gains across the country, with the West coming out on top with a 38.3% spike compared with June 2011. In the Midwest, single-family starts rose 15.7% and in the South, 14.2%. The Northeast showed a 19.4% increase. 7/19 HCN