Early Days
As a young lighting designer for an electrical engineer, fresh out of the USAF, I was quickly introduced to wide range of customers from very frugal to mega wealthy. From small retailers to chain grocery stores, or retirement homes to massive custom homes, single office lease space improvement to multi-story office complex, beverage warehouse to manufacturing plant – the range of customer experiences was exciting. Every job was a learning experience.
Topline
Lighting Facts is a DOE funded program of information presentation specifically focused on LED products. Lighting Facts does not impose performance standards, it is designed to establish that data shown on the LF labels has been verified by certified test facilities.
Energy Star is an EPA program focused on interior lighting products, that establishes performance criteria as qualifiers for certification. The performance criteria include a wide range of performance metrics, including FCC compliance, power characteristics, and color consistency. All products must comply with current published specifications.
DLC QPL is a program of the Design Lights Consortium similar to ES in approach, qualifying product not included in the Energy Star program. By agreement, if ES covers a specific product, DLC is required to drop it. Products from older specifications remain in the QLP list, with no requirement to update imposed.
The value of these programs is to establish product performance credibility. All utilize the same core foundation: Certified lab testing and “off shelf” verification to enforce participant compliance. (more…)
Solid-state lighting technology is poised to cause an explosion of artistic lighting design that eclipses all before it. The opportunities to do great things is limitless, with a great many interesting applications have already come from utilizing it to great effect. LEDs and OLEDs open doors to creative work like nothing before them. While the technologists focus on saving energy and other metrics to satisfy any number of codes, comply with regulations and meet objective demands – artists are now finding ways to apply the technology to delight customers. This is what keeps me interested in this industry.
Background
My background in graphic arts was founded on a deep desire to delight people with creative work. As NCOIC of Graphics on Anderson Air Force Base, Guam, I included art in otherwise mundane officious graphic presentations. There was a level of thrill when, as a lowly sergeant, a starred-up General seeks to you out to express his delight with a presentation.
The move from graphics to lighting design 36 years ago was fueled by the same desire to realize delighted customer response. Architects, Interior Designers and property owners, from home owners to casino operators, were the new delight-able generals to me. The addition of product design and development followed delight-able customers in manufacturing, coupling my design interests with my passion for making things with my hands. I’ve invested the last 11 years in solid-state technology in lighting for one reason – I see it as a new frontier in creating applications and products that delight customers. (more…)
I’m going to go right at this one head on. The assumption of quality being equated to price paid is a marketing strategy. There is no irrefutable fact or reality associating price with quality. This does not mean that high quality is not a value worth paying for. I am also not saying that there is no justification for paying a higher price to attain a higher level of quality. What I am saying is, the connection between cost and quality is not inseparable. You can achieve high quality at a low price, and you can suffer low quality at a premium. The region between bargain and rip-off is vast.
Design is the work of assigning an appropriate level of quality in application and product selection, within the need and desire of the customer
To get a handle on this, let’s take a moment to define quality in minimal terms. I believe product and design quality is a composite of three core factors.
There are a great many pleasant, long-lasting, efficient, quality environments designed using modestly priced products well-selected.
I have taken a break from publishing to this blog for several months for a reason. I needed some time to stand back and observe and listen without intent to respond or contribute, and to seek counsel of others. The lighting industry has been in a state of flux for more than a decade now. As a veteran spanning over three decades, there is nothing new in this. Here’s a bit of news for those new to this business – the industry has been in flux for over three decades now, the intrusion of solid-state technology is just one more in a long series of adjustments. However, the most recent decade has brought a new character to the industry that, frankly, stinks.
For those who attend my presentation on Metering and Meter use at the LED Specifier Summit this Tuesday (9:00AM) here is the related reference information and a copy of handouts for the presentation. Let me know what you think and post your comments or questions here. If you have any questions or wish to discuss this presentation or have a metering issue you’d like some help with, let me know.
Here is a copy of the presentation handout here: LED Spec Summit KLW Meter Presentation
The following are a summary of the links to the meter files content referred to in the presentation:
My trusted and most valued tool – a resto-modded 1967 South Bend tool room lathe with all the fixings
My joy in life is in making things. In this, there is rarely a day that passes where I am not building something or tinkering a gadget together. Yesterday it was drill fixture to aid a co-worker in drilling 30 brackets in less than a half hour, while protecting fingers from the part jumping around. It was 20 minutes a work and a few scraps of metal, job done – smile on face. Otherwise, it’s a light fixture for the conference table, a test rig for a cure light, a finger brace for a kids broken finger, an adapter to convert an old fluorescent task light to a UV cure light/500Fc detail work light combination. (more…)
There is a great deal of noise in the SSL market on the topic of warranty coverage. The usual lighting industry one year warranty has been determined as obsolete as the glass bulbs they housed, with new demand now for coverage of LED products of 5 years, 7 years, even 10 years. The lofty demand is founded on the concept that if the LEDs are indeed going to last 50,000, 70,000 or even 100,000 hours (13 to 26 years in heavy commercial use), then why not back that up with a warranty that reflects that performance claim? This is further supported by the reasoning that such a warranty can be used to justify the added expense of LED products. All seems reasonable enough, and there are certainly producers out there willing to deliver warranties with extended coverage.
The question is, are these real warranties, or just paper claims? Perhaps more important, are the demand for this type of warranty coverage even rational? (more…)
June and July are not only the first nice days of the year, they mark several milestones for me. First, its’ the 10th year of Lumenique LLC being focused exclusively on solid-state lighting – marking the point at which I left my last position as VP of Marketing and Design at Visa Lighting in 2006 to focus on all things solid-state as a solo act. Prior to that, Lumenique has been many things, from hobby presence and sculpture studio, to lighting consulting side business. This last decade is its first as a focused entity and source of real income. 6 years ago, I launched a task lighting product line, under the name Tasca. I am a serious task light advocate, and build Tasca products for the tougher applications, like shop machines and Navy ship bridge and map tasks. Most of the products we make at Tasca are custom to a specific requirement, either mounting or light characteristics. This will be a greater focus in coming years, as there are many opportunities in task and work lighting I’ve found interesting.
The Pseudo Science Marketing of Human Centrcity
Posted: June 10, 2017 in General CommentaryFull disclosure
I do not use, like, or support, the term “Human-Centric Lighting” or HCL, and the marketing of it. Nor am I convinced the bullish marketing of the term makes it any more attractive or legitimate. The term has been tagged onto so many crack-pot claims, unsupported promises, and misapplication of hand-selected, overly simplified misleading single-line extractions from legitimate studies, and anecdotal claims by unqualified “experts” – that it has become nothing more than an extension of the now discredited “Full Spectrum” marketing that has plagued lighting for decades. (more…)
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