Electrical Industry Articles and Stories

As I pondered this topic, I was relaxing in our side yard, gazing at the garden in the dark. Well, not totally in the dark. The garden was delightfully illuminated by flickering tiki torch lamps … lit by LEDs, charged by the sun. Spotlights shone on my miniature windmill as it lazily spun in the evening breeze.

Maintaining proper lighting levels, color temperature, and Color Rendering Index (CRI) is crucial for various applications. Color temperature affects the ambiance, while CRI determines color accuracy. LEDs offer flexibility in color temperature, have a high CRI, produce less heat, and are energy-efficient compared to incandescent lamps.

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.

I was talking to my brother, Mark, on the phone last night. We’d been trying to connect all week and finally got the chance. I’m in Arkansas and he’s in Arizona, so the time difference can be a pain.

We just missed each other the day before because he was over with the neighbors across the street.

Earlier this year at the Light + Building 2018 trade show in Frankfurt, Germany, Philips Lighting announced a string of new initiatives aimed at the transition to more LED lamps as well as the inclusion of LEDs into the “Internet of Things” (IoT) in homes and buildings worldwide.

First the company announced IoT platform called Interact, designed to handle data collected from connected light points, sensors, devices and systems.