Too often, promising new technologies do not make the leap from a R&D prototype to a widely used product. New products must often overcome significant inertia in design, distribution, end-user acceptance and first costs. Without a boost, they often cannot leap this “Valley of Death” between prototype and widespread use. Recognizing this, the California Energy Commission’s Public Interest Energy Research (PIER) program supported demonstrations of seven new lighting technologies and three new HVAC technologies at 20 locations in the University of California (UC) and California State University (CSU) systems. The lighting technologies included the following:
- Bi-Level stairwell lighting (LaMar Lighting)
- Integrated classroom lighting system, ICLS (Finelite)
- “Smart” bathroom with integrated LED nightlight and occupancy sensor (MetalOptics/The WattStopper)
- High-Performance CFL downlight retrofit (Lithonia)
- Outdoor cutoff light fixture (Gardco)
- LED hybrid outdoor (Hunter Lighting)
- Load-shed fluorescent ballast (Sylvania)
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