Electrical Industry Articles and Stories

Recessed downlights have evolved from simple fixtures to high-tech marvels. LED technology has revolutionized the game, enabling slim profiles, integrated lighting elements, and unparalleled controllability.

They look a lot like a whiffle ball – and sound like one, too – but that thwok, thwok, thwok sound now resounding through cities and suburbs, alike, is probably coming from a pickleball ball, the centerpiece of a sport soon to be coming to a court near you (in the unlikely case that it hasn’t already), and possibly even to an Olympic arena, if proponents have their way.

Recently, my wife and I had the “pleasure” of visiting a relatively new hospital complex. For almost a year, I watched the 5-story edifice being built as I traveled up and down Highway 49 in Northwest Arkansas.

As someone who’s tracked LED lighting since its early days as a commercially available technology, my own experience with the products has evolved. I live in an older house with overhead lighting only in the kitchen and bathrooms, so this has mostly meant experimenting with LED bulbs (or “lamps,” in lighting designer lingo) in the 14 or 15 table fixtures scattered around my home.

It truly amazes me how LEDs have transformed the lighting industry in just a decade. In 2012, manufacturers introduced the first bulbs to match the output of a standard 60W incandescent. They weren’t dimmable and could cost $25 or more. Fast forward to 2023, and LEDs now dominate the lighting market, and inexpensive replacement lamps can cost less than $5 and last 10-20 years.