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Lighting Revolution in Two Graphs: LED Distribution In Residential And Commercial Applications by Craig DiLouie

William Attardi on January 15, 2025

As the LED revolution achieves increasing adoption, a recent report by the Department of Energy illuminates the growth. Published in April 2024, the “2020 U.S. Lighting Market Characterization” https://tinyurl.com/3fczwe9s estimates technology distribution among the U.S. installed base of units (lamps/luminaires), along with energy consumption. Residential sector: Let’s start with the residential lighting sector, where an estimated 6.5 billion units are installed, accounting for 80% of lighting installations. LED was the most popular light source in 2020 with 3.1 billion units installed or 48% of the total, nearly 50% less energy than in 2015.  Commercial buildings: In the commercial building sector, with its estimated 1.6 billion installed units, we see a similarly striking snapshot of LED earning virtual parity with other light sources. In 2020, LED reached an overall share of 48% of the installed base and a rough parity with fluorescent, nearly 30% less energy than 2015 and 57% less than 2001. Again, LED adoption is today the majority light source in commercial buildings.  Lighting Revolution in Two Graphs: LED distribution in residential and commercial applications – Electrical Contractor Magazine

The Lagging Transition to LEDs in Schools – Part 1 of 3 by Jessica Kelly, Andrea Wilkerson, Dan Blitzer

William Attardi on November 26, 2024

This article series looks at the current situation from the perspective of school facility personnel. Part 1 covers the transition to LED technology. Part 2 will identify changes coming to the lighting market, and Part 3 will offer thoughts for practical paths forward for LED systems in schools. Although commercial LED lamps and luminaires have been available for more than a decade, educational facilities have been slow to adopt LED technology. As of 2020, 78% of the lighting in U.S. educational buildings was still fluorescent, according to the most recent estimates from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Solid-State Lighting program in the “2020 U.S. Lighting Market Characterization” report. The general feeling of, “We have fluorescent, we’re fine,” may change as the situation evolves. Stay tuned for Part 2 of this series where we discuss these upcoming changes to the lighting market regarding fluorescent availability and utility rebates. The Lagging Transition to LEDs in Schools – Part 1 of 3 | EC&M

Pepper Production Trials Entering a Fourth Year

William Attardi on November 21, 2024

Signify and the University of British Columbia has announced that their pepper production trial is now entering its fourth year. This trial, which focuses on optimizing dynamic lighting conditions, has delivered insights into how pepper plants respond to artificial lighting throughout the year. 2025 will mark the culmination of this extensive research project. The final results will be presented in a comprehensive whitepaper, which will detail the outcomes of this trial and combine insights from all other pepper trials conducted around the world. By synthesizing this knowledge, Signify aims to provide growers with a definitive guide to optimizing pepper production using LED lighting, ensuring that they can continue to improve yields and quality well into the future. Pepper production trials entering a fourth year – LEDinside

Artificial Intelligence (AI) for Hire – While most of us have heard the term artificial intelligence, few could predict the explosion of GenAI technologies in the public sphere over the last two years. In the work setting alone, Microsoft and LinkedIn reported that “75% of knowledge workers use AI at work” and “66% of leaders say they wouldn’t hire someone without AI skills”.                 

So how did this all happen:

1956, August: At the Dartmouth Conference, researchers discuss creating machines capable of intelligent behavior and the term “Artificial Intelligence” is introduced.

2017, June: Google researchers introduce the Transformer architecture, the foundation for generative AI (GenAI) models. (GPT = Generative Pre-trained Transformer)

2022, November: OpenAI unveils ChatGPT, a conversational GenAI model, marking a tipping point in public access and accelerated adoption.

2024 NOW: Commercialization is accelerating. Globally, the GenAI solutions market is expected to exceed $50 billion by 2028 with over 60,000 GenAI companies already doing business (Horban, 2024).  The biggest tech/communications companies are all involved in a very big way to drive and influence our lives now and in the future with their GenAI models:

  • OpenAI’s ChatGPT
  • xAI’s Grok
  • Google’s Gemini
  • Microsoft’s Copilot
  • Anthropic’s Claude
  • Apple’s Apple Intelligence
  • Meta’s Llama
  • Coming: Orion by OpenAI 

Plan for your future, because that is where you are going to spend the rest of your life. Mark Twain