Lighting Design & Daylighting

Photo: Adrian Grycuk. License: CC BY-SA 3.0

Energy-efficient lighting is seriously misunderstood by many in the green building industry. Long associated with CFLs and poorly lit spaces, today’s energy-efficient lighting uses state-of-the-art LEDs, controllers, and optics to direct light just where you need it.

Outdoors, LED streetlamps use advanced sensors and are optimized for maximum efficiency, yet they produce little light pollution that could disrupt local wildlife.

Indoors, LEDs can be integrated into DC power systems via power-over-ethernet cables. The color can be changed to help increase worker productivity, improve patient moods, or mimic natural outdoor light to help maintain our natural circadian rhythms.

New forms of LED and OLED lighting are revolutionizing how we light our buildings.

Lighting Design & Daylighting

Deep Dives

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  • LEDs: The Future Is Here

    Feature Article

    LEDs have finally become an economically viable lighting option, but choosing the best LED products still takes knowledge and skill.

  • Rethinking the All-Glass Building

    Feature Article

    Is it time to end our love affair with the all-glass building? A lot of proponents of high-performance, green design certainly think so-while other respected architects, including some leading green designers and energy experts, argue that all-glass can work well if done right.

  • Controls Go Wireless

    Feature Article

    Particularly for lighting and ventilation controls in retrofit situations wireless systems offer potential energy, money, and resource savings. The technology is still new, however, and potential drawbacks like health risks, interference, and even the potential for increased energy consumption need to be examined.

  • Historic Preservation and Green Building: A Lasting Relationship

    Feature Article

    Rehabilitation of existing buildings is important to sustainability in buildings, but with historic buildings, green building and preservationism can diverge. With attention to preservation standards and suitable application of green strategies, however, those agendas can be aligned.

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  • How Electric Lighting Works

    Primer

    How do incandescent, fluorescent, high-intensity discharge, and light-emitting diode lighting technologies work, and what are their relative efficiencies?

  • Shedding Light on Light Quality

    Primer

    Two terms commonly used to refer to light sources-color temperature and color rendering index-tell us about the quality of light, but can at times be counter-intuitive. Lights with a low color temperature, for example, actually feel "warmer" on the color spectrum.

  • Light-Emitting Diodes: Chasing White Light

    Primer

    LED lighting is becoming more energy-efficient and cost-effective, but it has not yet realized its potential for efficacy, and for wider applicability.

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