Electrical Industry Articles and Stories

About 28% of a building's electrical energy bill is literally consumed in lighting the premises. That's pretty consistent across both industrial and commercial buildings. Obviously, if you can lower that expense significantly, the impact on your overall operating budget reduces.

I know what you're thinking.

"He's going to start talking about LED lighting upgrades, isn't he?"

Once upon a time, the only reason building codes addressed electrical metering was to enable local utility billing efforts. Today, though, metering is seen as a critical tool in efforts to boost our buildings’ energy efficiency. With the understanding that we can’t manage what we don’t measure, the latest energy standards are calling for greater use of submetering of individual building systems – and that means even greater use of current transformers (CTs).

No, I'm not talking about traveling back into the past. I'm talking about moving onward to the future. And the "retro" is really retrofitting to LED lighting.

In another article, I talked more about using LED drop-ins to replace old fluorescent troffers. And I still like that option.

They say you can't teach an old dog new tricks …

But, I'm an old dog and I just learned of a brand new "trick" that literally made me sit up and beg for more. I thought I'd seen everything, but I was wrong … so very wrong.

My mind's been officially … blown.

If you think you’re seeing solar panels on more of your neighbors’ houses lately, there’s a good reason: solar power is getting cheaper. Even as federal tax credits are being reduced, installed costs continue to fall. This is thanks to both less expensive – and more efficient – panels and inverters, along with money- and time-saving improvements to all the ancillary hardware required to put systems in place.

When you’re on a project, you don’t want any surprises. For lighting control, that means selecting a solution that saves time and money, installs quickly and simply, is easy to program, available when you need it and, of course, meets code.

Vive by Lutron is a simple, scalable, wireless lighting control that makes meeting code easier than ever. View video