The Davis Enterprise – When UC Davis students walk across campus at night this fall, the streetlights that illuminate their way won’t be quite as inanimate as they have been in the past. Over the past year, UCD has been installing “smart” lights throughout the university grounds that can talk to each other to help safely and efficiently guide those moving about campus to their destinations.
UC Newsroom – The University of California, Davis, unveiled one of the most advanced outdoor lighting systems in the country, a roughly $1 million network of “smart” lights that talk to each other and adapt to their environment.
Outdoor ‘Smart’ Lighting System to Save Energy, Enhance Safety
LD+A – Upgrade now or upgrade later? When it comes to street lighting, that is the question facing cities and utilities today. For decades, high-pressure sodium (HPS) lamps were the simple, most cost-effective choice. Now cities and utilities have the power — and the responsibility — of choosing among new light sources and advanced controls that drastically reduce energy use and electricity costs.
LD+A – The Net-Zero Energy (NZE) building vision, along with emerging knowledge about health and well-being effects of light, especially daylight, has increased interest in the expanded use of daylight into buildings’ core spaces.
Energy NewsData Corp. – Most people may not know it yet, but lighting aisles in California stores are about to undergo a profound transformation. Beginning Jan. 1, the sale of old-style incandescent light bulbs will officially be phased out. California is the first state to implement the initiative, a year ahead of the rest of the country.
LD+A – Michael Siminovitch’s mental agility compels him to poke, probe and push boundaries. As the director of the California Lighting Technology Center (CLTC) and a professor in the University of California Davis design program, Siminovitch is responsible for researching and developing cutting-edge residential and commercial lighting technologies.
LD+A – High dynamic range (HDR) imaging, originally developed and used for research purposes, now is becoming a consumer term as several consumer cameras and even mobile phones, such as the latest version of the iPhone, include some form of HDR capabilities, mainly for improved photography. As digital cameras and software become mainstream, so does the consideration of HDR imaging in lighting practice, pointing away from using workplace illuminance as a sole determining metric for design.
Enlighten – Concerns about energy efficiency, coupled with a growing awareness of climate change, have heightened interest in efficient lighting as an effective strategic venture for our country. Given the unprecedented investment directed at public entities for “efficiency opportunities” and the lack of a clear vision related to “what should be done,” there is mounting concern related to the ultimate value of this investment and the ability to achieve sustained and deep energy savings.
LD+A – Concerns about energy efficiency, coupled with a growing awareness of climate change, have renewed our national interest in reducing energy use and the associated carbon footprint. The understanding is that this investment will achieve deep and sustained energy savings in infrastructure for our public spaces. One target is re-lighting municipal roadway applications, focusing on the ubiquitous streetlight.
LD+A – The strategy is to foster the development of high-efficacy light sources that achieve, as much as possible, interchangeability with incandescent lighting, in terms of compatibility with electrical infrastructure and with popular lighting expectations. This article is a summary of CLTC research aimed at developing a technology-neutral Super Lamp specification for replacement of incandescent sources in the residential sector.
