News Updates for the Week of March 3

1.      2013 Outdoor Competition Winners - Next Generation Luminaires congratulates the winners of the 2013 Solid-State Lighting Design Competition! Twenty-six commercial LED outdoor lighting products received awards for excellence, including six Best-in-Class winners. The judging panel selected the luminaires on the basis of color quality, appropriate illuminance, light distribution, glare control, appearance, serviceability, value, and energy efficiency and lumen maintenance. The awards event took place during the 2014 Strategies in Light Conference on February 27, 2014. http://www.ngldc.org/13/outdoor/winners.stm Best in Class:

2.      Voters Overwhelmingly Support Energy Efficiency - The poll released by NEMA and NAM commissioned by McLaughlin & Associates, found that 9 in 10 likely voters support energy efficiency as a key part of the solution addressing our energy challenges. Results showed a desire for greater adoption of efficient technologies throughout our economy, including the federal government, where tax dollars can be saved. A national survey among 1,000 likely voters clearly illustrates broad support for energy efficiency that cuts across demographic and political lines. Two-thirds are more likely to vote a candidate for Congress who supports energy efficiency policies. http://www.nema.org/Policy/Documents/National-NEMA-NAM-Memo.pdf

3.      ASE Test Develops Industry's First SSL Test System - ASE Test, a division of Automation South Electronics, has developed the industry's first automated test system that is specifically designed for quickly testing the electrical performance of LED drivers, LED arrays and LED fixtures. Designated the ASE SSL 3.0 Test System, this flexible test system can be used for design, design validation and volume manufacturing testing to verify quality of production.  http://www.asetest.net/

4.      Indoor Lighting Can Affect Decision Making - Facility managers may want to take care while adjusting indoor lighting. According to new research, the way a room is lit can affect decision making, with bright light acting is a possible catalyst for more intense emotions.  Researcher Alison Jing Xu says the effect bright light has on our emotional system may be the result of the light being perceived as heat, and the perception of heat can trigger our emotions. The majority of everyday decisions are also made under bright light. So turning down the light may help people make more rational decisions. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1057740813001174

5.      Hubbell Lighting Launches Lighting Upgrade Program for Colleges and Universities - Hubbell Lighting announced a new energy efficient lighting program to cut electricity costs by 84%, enhance the quality of light and reduce the financial risk of upgrades. The initiative, called createchange® consists of two innovative offerings from Hubbell Lighting: 

• A suite of unique audit tools and other product selection resources that allow schools to precisely forecast the economic impact of various lighting retrofit strategies and identify any utility rebates that are available.
• A 90-day risk-free trial program called "Compare in the Air", which allows customers to validate cost saving estimates in buildings or outdoor environments with up to four Hubbell Lighting products. http://www.hubbelllighting.com/solutions/retrofit/applications/education

6.      CUNY Gets ARPA-E funding for Metacapacitors for LED Lighting - City University of New York (CUNY) Energy Institute is developing less expensive, more efficient, smaller, and longer-lasting power converters for energy-efficient LED lights. LEDs need more sophisticated converters because they require a different type of power (low-voltage direct current, or DC) than what's generally supplied by power outlets. CUNY Energy Institute is developing sophisticated power converters for LEDs that contain capacitors made from new, nanoscale materials. http://www.arpa-e.energy.gov/?q=arpa-e-projects/metacapacitors-led-lighting

News Updates for the Week of November 1

1. Final ENERGY STAR Program Requirements -The EPA has finalized revisions to the ENERGY STAR Partner Commitments and Product Specifications to implement third-party certification requirements for ENERGY STAR qualified products. These final documents, as well as all comments received, are posted at: www.energystar.gov/testingandverification

2. DOE's CALiPER Round 11 Summary Report Published This Week - CALiPER tests a wide range of solid-state lighting products that are available on the market, and for benchmark purposes compares them with similar products that use traditional light sources. The results of each round of testing are highlighted in a Summary Report, with detailed reports going into greater depth. http://apps1.eere.energy.gov/buildings/publications/pdfs/ssl/caliper_round-11_summary.pdf

3. INTERIOR LIGHTING: LED Vs. TRADITIONAL - instructed by Stan Walerczyk, L.C., C.L.E.P. Presented in two live 2-hour online sessions. New Program Starts December 16. Numerous LED products are currently ready for use as primary light sources, and can be considered better overall than traditional technologies for many interior applications. But there are also many LED products that are not yet nearly as cost effective as comparable high performance fluorescent, halogen infrared, metal halide, and other well-established lighting options. This seminar will examine the pros and cons of the use of LED versus traditional lighting fixtures for a variety of specific indoor lighting applications. http://www.aeeprograms.com/realtime/InteriorLighting/

4. Solais iPhone App - The app provides a simple conversion tool for users to calculate the potential cost savings from replacing a traditional lamp (halogen, CMH or CFL) with a Solais LED replacement lamp (LR38, LR30LN, LR30). http://solaislighting.com/iphone_app

5.September Existing-Home Sales Show Another Strong Gain - According to the National Association of Realtors, the 10% increase in existing-home sales for September affirms that "a sales recovery has begun," although it may choppy. Existing-home sales jumped 10.0% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.53 million in September from a downwardly revised 4.12 million in August. The September figure is well below last year's rate of 5.60 million, but last year's figure was inflated by the approaching deadline of the home buyer tax credit. 10/25 HCN

6. Economists: Unemployment Won't Drop to Normal Until 2018 - The job market and the economy will improve only slightly next year, according to an Associated Press Economy Survey of 43 leading economists whose outlook for 2011 has dimmed over the past three months. In their view, shoppers and employers will stay cautious. Households will keep saving. Inflation will remain tame. And unemployment will dip only a bit from the current 9.6 percent rate to a still-high 9 percent at the end of 2011 and won't drop to a historically normal 5.5 percent to 6 percent until at least 2018. http://www.moneynews.com

7. Living Efficiently Teams Up With NASCAR Driver Leilani Münter - LivingEfficiently http://livingefficiently.org/ is a one-stop shop devoted to helping save energy and money in all the areas where you live your life: at home, at school, at work and on the go. http://ase.org/

8. Are Performance-Based Models the Future of Commercial Building Energy Codes?- by Craig DiLouie, Lighting Controls Association. Commercial building energy codes are largely prescriptive, combining mandatory requirements for lighting controls with limits on lighting loads by application. The typical lighting load metric is lighting power density (LPD) measured in watts per square foot. Code authorities are considering approaches to energy codes that are performance based instead of mainly prescriptive. In a performance-based code, the building would be designed so that it would operate within a target limit for energy consumption as the primary metric. http://www.aboutlightingcontrols.org/education/papers/2010/2010_performance-codes.shtml

9. IES Publishes Position Statement on Indoor Lighting Efficiency - The Illuminating Engineering Society has published PS-05-10 – Standards for Energy Efficient Indoor Lighting, a position statement on the subject of imposing energy standards on indoor lighting technology, such as efficacy standards for luminaires. IES “believes that technology independent approaches are the best way to provide energy reductions and to stimulate future energy savings.” http://www.ies.org/PDF/PositionStatements/PS-05-10.pdf

10.GSA Raising Energy-Efficiency Standard for New Construction - The General Services Administration is raising the bar to increase the energy efficiency of all of its new federal building construction projects. Projects must achieve LEED Gold certification, the second-highest rating from the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design program. Previously, federal building projects needed to be certified at the LEED Silver level, the third-highest rating, or higher. 10/29 Federal Times

11. CA Energy Audit Removed from Home Sales, for Now - A measure that would require existing California homes to undergo energy efficiency audits before they're sold will get a second look over the next three months, the Climate Action Plan Advisory Committee decided. The committee's initial recommendation was to leave the building ordinance as is and make an audit program part of the overall climate plan, which is not expected to be finished until 2012. 10/22 The Record