News Updates for the Week of November 11

1.      LEDucation 8 Expands SSL Educational Expo to a 2-day Format and New Location - The Designers Lighting Forum of New York announced that due to outstanding response of exhibitors and attendees alike, LEDucation 8 has expanded to a 2-day event and will be held at a new location to accommodate more exhibitors.  LEDucation 8, historically known as the largest single day exhibition and educational event dedicated solely to the ever-evolving LED market and technology, will return to New York City on March 18-19, 2014 in a new 2-day format and in a new venue–the Sheraton NY Times Square hotel. http://www.leducation.org/

2.      LEED Remains Preferred Rating System for Federal Buildings - The GSA concluded that the U.S. Green Building Council’s (USGBC) LEED green building rating system can and should be used in government buildings to advance energy efficiency and to save taxpayers’ money. GSA issued its recommendation based on the findings of the EISA §436(h) Ad-Hoc Review Group on Green Building Certification Systems. More than 1.5 million square feet of space is certified using LEED every day, making LEED the most widely used high-performance building program for the design, construction, maintenance and operations of green buildings. More than 55,000 projects are currently participating in the commercial and institutional LEED rating systems, comprising 10.4 billion square feet of construction space in more than 140 countries and territories. http://www.edcmag.com/articles/95298-leed-remains-preferred-rating-system-for-federal-buildings

3.      Traditional Light Bulbs Are Dead, Long Live LEDs - The humble Edison light bulb has enjoyed a long lifespan, seeing only modest changes while technologies like television and radio have been drastically revised over time. But the familiar bulb's long, uninterrupted reign could finally be under threat as LEDs appear poised to become the new standard. 11/07 USA TODAY

4.      Little Fanfare for the Texas $7 Billion Clean-Energy Project - The last legs of a 3,600-mile system of transmission lines bringing wind-generated electricity from West Texas to the state's urban areas will be finished by the end of the year with little or no fanfare.  The project -- perhaps the state's largest clean-energy investment -- is getting little public notice from state authorities because of past controversies that helped add $2 billion to the cost, or that the final verdict on the overall benefit is still out because the 18,450 megawatt system comes on-line at half capacity.  Or perhaps officials don't want to draw attention to the $5 to $10 monthly increase that is coming to the electricity bills for the millions of customers of the state's primary electricity grid.  11/02 American-Statesman

5.      The Most Energy-Efficient U.S. States - The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) issued its annual scorecard for each state based on multiple factors, including reductions in greenhouse gas, energy codes for buildings and switching to cleaner fuels. The top five include: Oregon, New York, California, Massachusetts and Connecticut http://aceee.org/state-policy/scorecard

6.      DOE Publishes New Pricing and Efficacy Trend Analysis for Utility Program Planning - The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has published a new report, SSL Pricing and Efficacy Trend Analysis for Utility Program Planning. The report was created in response to requests from utilities and energy efficiency organizations for information to help them forecast the order in which important SSL applications will become cost-effective and estimate when each “tipping point” will be reached. It includes performance trend analysis from DOE's LED Lighting Facts^® and CALiPER programs, plus cost analysis from various sources. www.ssl.energy.gov/techreports.html

7.      DOE Publishes New CALiPER Report on Subjective Evaluation of LED PAR38 Lamps - The U.S. DOE has published the first in a series of four special investigations intended to extend the findings of CALiPER Application Summary Report 20: LED PAR38 Lamps, which was published late last year. The new report, CALiPER Report 20.1: Subjective Evaluation of Beam Quality, Shadow Quality, and Color Quality for LED PAR38 Lamps, focuses on a subset of the lamps from Report 20, which were separately assessed by members of the IES.  The results suggest that many of the LED products compared favorably to halogen benchmarks in all attributes considered. The report is available online at www.ssl.energy.gov/reports

8.      DOE Publishes New Report on Dimming LEDs with Phase-Cut Dimmers - The U.S. DOE has published a new report, Dimming LEDs with Phase-Cut Dimmers: The Specifier's Process for Maximizing Success. The report was created in response to issues raised about dimming by energy efficiency organizations and specifiers, and is based on experience from CALiPER testing and GATEWAY demonstrations.  The new report reviews how phase-cut dimmers work, how LEDs differ from the incandescent lamps these dimmers were originally designed to control, and how those differences can lead to complications when attempting to dim LEDs. Such complications are often due to incompatibility between the LED source and the dimmer, rather than to any shortcomings in the LED source itself.  The report: www.ssl.energy.gov/gatewaydemos_results.html

9.      DTE Energy, MI Adds Two Energy-Savings Tools to Web Site - The new Lighting Guide, meanwhile, takes a comprehensive look at modern lighting, showing which bulbs are the most energy efficient and cost effective. The Lighting Guide also shows where bulbs can be purchased at special DTE Energy discounted prices. The Guide is continually updated with new information. www.dteenergy.com/LightingGuide

10.  Lutron and Hubbell Announce Collaboration to Address New Building Codes - Hubbell will embed Lutron's Clear Connect radio frequency (RF) communication technology directly into Hubbell's Load:Logic plug load control products. This expands the interoperability of Clear Connect-enabled devices, provides the industry with a much-needed, code-compliant solution and allows installers to easily control electrical outlets in new and existing facilities without learning new systems or performing extensive commissioning. 11/08 HCN