Researchers at the California Lighting Technology Center are addressing the integration and demonstration of exterior lighting systems with on-board solar generation, battery storage and advanced controls with funding provided by the California Energy Commission’s EPIC program. In other words, “smart and clean” exterior lighting systems.

CLTC and The Color Lab recently received a generous donation of a PureStyle RGBA lighting system from lighting manufacturer Color Kinetics, a Signify brand. The system will be used to explore the impact of discrete color spectra on stress, mood, and alertness in partnership with the UC Davis Center for Mind and Brain and Toyota-Boshoku America.

The California Lighting Technology Center is excited to kick off research into today's Residential Energy & Automation (REA) Systems in collaboration with California's statewide electric emerging technologies program, CalNEXT.

REA systems combine home-energy monitoring features with automated appliance management and control of distributed energy resources (DER) such as electric vehicle (EV) chargers, rooftop solar panels, and stationary battery energy storage (BES).

We are excited to announce that the California Lighting Technology Center is expanding its research capacity to lead a new effort demonstrating vehicle-to-building (V2B) mobile battery energy storage as emergency power backup at a Caltrans’ facility in Oakland, California.

This $5.3M project is funded with $3M from the California Energy Commission’s Electric Program Investment Charge Program (EPIC) Program and $2.3M in match funds from project partners.

At UC Davis, the California Lighting Technology Center is establishing “The Color Lab” in collaboration with the Center for Mind and Brain to explore the impact of discrete color spectra on stress, mood, and alertness.

CLTC recently partnered with the California Energy Commission, Sonoma Clean Power Authority, and Frontier Energy Inc. to evaluate opportunities in emerging daylighting technologies. One such technology is a solar-tracking lighting system, which delivers daylight via optical fibers to core building areas that otherwise do not have access to daylight.

CLTC recently received a generous donation of lighting components from lighting manufacturer Telelumen! The components will be used to support the lighting design classes taught at UC Davis by CLTC's Associate Director Jae Yong Suk.

Networked lighting control (NLC) systems have proven they can successfully reduce demand and save energy in real-world applications through a combination of basic and advanced control strategies. However, the potential of NLCs’ integral metering and reporting capabilities to provide cost effective energy-use data for incentive programs and outcome-based code opportunities has not been fully realized. This is, in part, due to the variety of metering and reporting approaches used by today’s NLCs.

It is with great pleasure that we welcome Professor Jae Yong Suk to UC Davis! Suk joins the CLTC research team as Associate Director, and the Department of Design as an associate professor teaching lighting and daylighting design courses. Suk brings a unique background as a highly accomplished researcher, professor, and internationally recognized lighting designer, which will enhance CLTC's ongoing research, education, and demonstration activities.

Today, adaptive lighting is considered best practice for numerous outdoor applications and has been incorporated into many current energy standards. However, outdoor areas with heightened security requirements are often excluded from adaptive lighting control requirements and these areas remain lit with high, uniform levels of static illumination.

To address this gap, CLTC partnered with the Office of Naval Research to evaluate the energy-savings potential and end-user acceptance of adaptive lighting for outdoor security applications.

In the fall of 2017, the Mexican Ministry of Energy awarded funding to the Universidad Autónoma de Guadalajara in collaboration with the University of California Davis to establish a lighting technology and design research center known as the Centro de Tecnología en Iluminación (CTI).

Outcome-based energy codes are relatively new. They incorporate strategies that quantify a building’s actual energy performance over time to demonstrate code compliance. The term "outcome-based" refers to the fact that compliance is linked with a building’s actual energy “outcome” which may be measured post-occupancy.

CLTC is excited to share that the California Energy Commission recently awarded approximately $4.2M in funding for CLTC to develop and demonstrate Renewable Energy & Advanced Lighting Systems for Exterior Applications.

To achieve this goal, CLTC will collaborate with its industry partners and seven committed demonstration communities in California's disadvantaged and low-income areas to ensure REAL systems meet technical requirements and cost effectiveness needs.

CLTC is excited to release our updated Daylight Harvesting for Commercial Buildings guide!  This publication provides guidance towards meeting and exceeding California's 2019 Energy Code for daylight harvesting.

Daylight design guidelines and Energy Code requirements are provided in an easy to read, side-by-side layout, organized into sections for each building-related discipline that impacts daylight performance from building siting, through architectural and interior design, to construction, commissioning and operation. 

The Million LED Challenge Program has expanded its product catalog to include high-quality linear LED lamps, retrofit kits and luminaires!  The MLC Program also continues to offer LED A-lamps, PAR-lamps and downlights, which have been available for purchase since the Program's launch in 2018.