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The Glare Zone

The Simple Gift of Light #9 Comfort. Work. Safety. Three of our lighting zones have names that invoke ideas that most of us want: few would say “no comfort, please.” The Glare Zone, however, has a much different ring to it. Perhaps every human eye should come with a READ ME FIRST! warning, every home […]

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Exposure: A Better Bath

A photograph of small circular lighting fixtures in a shower stall.

  In the fourth and final SMART LIGHTING SERIES video from Wipliance, Lee and I take a quick bathroom break to explore the Light Can Help You approach to lighting. We push back against common trends like downlights over the sink and vanity lights over the mirror to deliver a better experience. We also use a […]

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THINK LIGHT: Color Temperature

An illustration of a camera recording a lightbulb on a monitor. The lightbulb is yellow, but is depicted as green on the monitor. Text below reads "Why Choosing Color Temperature is Hard"

A few years ago I wrote a pulp piece for Houzz.com on how to choose the “right” color temperature of light. At the time there were just a few choices homeowners faced with lighting: choose 2700°K warm white, 3000°K not-quite-as-warm light, or perhaps 3500°K “neutral” white or 4000°K cool light. I recommended 2700°K for traditional […]

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Exposure: The Dallas Kitchen

A photograph of an illuminated kitchen with a small island.

  Lee Travis and his team from Wipliance released their third video shot in the ProSource Lighting Technology and Learning Center in Dallas, Texas! Lee and I discuss layered lighting in kitchens in this short video. We designed the Learning Center to share good lighting with others, and I am thrilled with this shoot join […]

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Exposure: Dallas Part 2

A photograph of a well-lit living room

  Wipliance is rolling them out fast and furiously! Their second video in the series showcases the main interior living area of the ProSource Lighting Technology and Learning Center in Dallas, Texas. It was fun filming with Lee Travis of Wipliance, though I confess it does get a little embarrassing watching myself on camera. All […]

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GEAR TALK: LED Screw-In Bulbs

On the left, a NASA space shuttle attached to the rocket boosters. On the right, a screw-in LED lightbulb. An equal sign between them. A NASA Space Shutttle equals an LED Lightbulb

There is a popular story that ties the Space Shuttle technology to the width of Roman horse’s backside, and it just occurred to me that there is may be a parallel in lighting. The first story goes something like this: the booster rockets on the Space Shuttle were a certain diameter because they had to […]

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1THING: New Build Baths

A CAD illustration of a bathroom featuring a large, circular bathtub in the middle of the room with sinks and vanities on the walls framing the tub. On the far wall is a shower stall.

In retrospect, perhaps I should have saved this post for Halloween. Why? Because I attempted to illustrate light on the human face and ended up creating ghosts. I was never very good at drawing faces, well, honestly, I was never ANY good at drawing faces. But since faces are the reason we have mirrors over […]

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1THING: Plug In Living Rooms

An illustration of a standard lamp with a thin stem and a lampshade. Text underneath reads "the amazing lamp"

If the idea of ripping into a finished ceiling, pulling new wires, installing fixtures, repairing drywall, and repainting is discouraging you from improving lighting in your home, I sympathize. When I was a tad younger (okay, twenty years younger), I thought nothing of crawling through my attic, hacking away at decades old plaster, and pulling […]

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THINK LIGHT: Light Pollution

A satelite image of the contiguous United States taken at night. The city lights of metropolitan areas are lit up and visible from a very high altitude.

When it comes to light, it is hard to tell exactly how much we throw away. The International Dark Sky Association estimates that 35% of lighting energy is wasted making the sky glow. This is energy that has no discernible positive effect on humans, but a huge negative effect on our lives, our wallets, the planet, and […]

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Light Can Help You