We tend to romanticize the glow that emanates from city lights. We don’t often realize that any light that goes into the sky represents wasted energy, about $2.2 billion per year according to one popular estimate. Not only does light pollution run up electric bills and create carbon emissions, it (more…)

Streetlights do more than tell us when to be home — “Be back before they come on,” our parents would tell us – they also light the way and keep us safe. Nowhere is this more evident than in the sprawling camps of people displaced by the January 2010 earthquake in Haiti. In recent months, the lights (more…)

Intematix, a Fremont, California, company, has developed LED lighting technology that involves separating the LED chips from their complementary phosphors. This approach differs from that of conventional LEDs in which the phosphor is incorporated in the LED chip package and close to or in contact with a light (more…)

LED lights, or light emitting diodes, are increasingly more common in newly manufactured devices. A beneficial addition to solid-state lighting, LEDs provide long-life lighting technology in applications such as safety street lighting, vehicles, medical devices and (more…)

Americans report in surveys that they are likely to retire later than expected as a result of this economic downturn that doesn’t seem to want to quit. While that’s bad news for golf courses and Florida real estate, it helps one industry: energy efficient lighting.

We are squinting, rather than sprinting toward (more…)

The International Green Construction Code (IGCC) is a model code for cities seeking to promote sustainable building practices through their building codes. The IGCC promotes transition from the current voluntary green construction certifications, like USGBC’s LEED, to mandatory green (more…)

“Is that a solar tube light or have tiny flying saucers landed on your house?”

I’m sure our neighbors have wondered this – at least if they get a view of the backside of our roof after dark.

We have five solar tube lights and at nighttime the (more…)

Am I average?

That’s the question that often hits me when someone quotes an ‘average’ statistic. The ‘average’ business or household seems almost mythological. Few of us fall right on that point on the line.

The same is true when it comes to often quoted (more…)

In a previous post, I discussed the new LED patent dispute between Osram, Samsung and LG Electronics (LG). There were a few significant developments last month.

First, the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) decided to investigate allegations raised in two (more…)

Talk about a light bulb moment.

A professor of engineering at Edinburgh University recently demonstrated for the first time to a wide audience his technology that uses common every day lights to transmit data.

Harald Haas streamed a video through a desk lamp (more…)