Practical advice on commercial lighting from LED retrofits to lighting design.

Keeping up with lighting standards and building codes can be exhausting. If you’re in California, you already have to worry about Title 24. Now, new appliance efficiency standards (also called Title 20) are in effect.

A healthy vendor partnership is based on trust, mutual understanding, and respect. When we enter a relationship with a vendor, we are committed to long-term growth together, which means a long-term commitment to serving our customer well. 

LIGHTFAIR 2018 in Chicago was another great opportunity to catch up on the latest advancements in lighting and network with those in the lighting community. As you walk the aisles at the show, it becomes clear that the US lighting market is moving from being a traditional, somewhat boring commodity, to more technologically advanced and design oriented, much like it is in Europe. 

Our goal here on the Lighting Insights Blog is to offer helpful answers to common lighting questions and to keep you posted on key developments in the industry.

LED has taken the lighting industry by storm. The price of entry into lighting manufacturing has never been smaller, opening up the floodgates for new, innovative manufacturers with little overhead to introduce a myriad of new products and ideas to the market. 

As of Sept. 1, 2016 lighting manufacturers are required to submit all applicable products under a new set of DLC requirement updates which will go into effect for consumers on Jan. 1, 2017. Now, I don’t pretend to think that all of you reading this article know what DLC stands for and why it exists, but it will have an impact on the lighting you purchase. Let’s break that down before we dive into how these changes may impact your lighting.

Warranties are almost always an important consideration in the buying process. Whether you're buying a new car, new tires, or a new stereo, smart buying is knowing what kind of protection you have on your purchase should the product prematurely malfunction. 

Buying lighting is no different, especially these days when more and more buildings are switching to long-life lighting. When you make that purchase, you want to know for sure that your lighting will last as long as the manufacturer says it will. 

But malfunctions happen from time to time. So how can you find that security?

Technological developments and changes in the lighting industry are non-stop, and that reality made the news once again earlier this month when GE announced that it would cease production of compact fluorescent bulbs.

Learn more about CFLs in our post, 'What are CFL bulbs and where should they be used?'

This is big news for the lighting world. 

Compact fluorescents (CFL) for years inhabited the energy-efficient corner of the market, but GE’s recent announcement further confirms the quick and imminent takeover of LEDs.  

For all the buzz LEDs get around the lighting industry today, you’d think innovation in the fluorescent and incandescent arenas had come to a screeching halt.

It hasn’t.

Lighting manufacturers continue to turn out some excellent, innovative products which use proven lighting technologies like halogen incandescent and fluorescent.