Would you rather invest in expensive electrical equipment or your quality of life? Recently one of our custom integration partners asked me why homeowners should choose digitally controlled lighting over panelized dimming systems. As a lighting professional, the choice is so clear to me that it can be difficult to imagine why anyone wouldn’t want to go […]
Category: Outdoor Living
THINK LIGHT, Think Flooring
One of the perennially difficult aspects of the role of lighting designer is the struggle over budget allocation. Lighting is most often viewed as a utility or commodity, something to be installed as cheaply as possible, but that too often robs the homeowners of comfort, relaxation, energy, and more. So how do we help homeowners […]
Hidden Lighting Tariffs?!
Think Light Series A few weeks ago, I had the privilege to attend a presentation by Prem Kumar at the IES Maritime Annual Conference on Prince Edward Island. As is the case with good presentations on lighting, Prem got me thinking. If you have lighting on the outside of your home (or business), you are […]
Get Creative: Kitchens
Giving the Simple Gift of Light #5 “Yes, but…” Back when I was a teenager, my dad regularly teased me by saying, before I could, “yes, but….” Apparently, I had developed quite the habit of contradicting him, so he went on the offensive. Of course, as a fifteen-year-old, I did have all the answers to […]
Relax Easily
The Simple Gift of Light #4 You can skip reading this post if the stress of the workday falls off your shoulders and you find relaxation easily when you return home. This post is for the rest of us. Perhaps you work at home or away and juggle responsibilities or push your body physically all […]
Retirement Announcement: CRI
A special thanks to Tony Esposito for inspiring this post with his excellent presentation at the IES Maritime conference on Prince Edward Island recently. Everyone loves talking about lighting acronyms, right? Ah, what a joy to discuss CRI, the Color Rendering Index, the gold standard of lighting quality for decades. Five of them, in fact, […]
PICK THE PRODUCTS: Kitchens
Giving the Simple Gift of Light #4 When I was much younger, I looked at box full of chocolates with a mix of excitement and trepidation. I knew, somewhere in the box, would be a delicious chocolate with a creamy caramel center, but I was deathly afraid that I would bite through a cherry, or […]
Dogs, Dust Bunnies, Downlights, & Disc Lights
In most of our kitchens, we prioritize our dogs or the dust bunnies that inevitably collect on top of cabinets, range hoods, and refrigerators. At least when planning light. We might put more money into our countertops, cabinets, backsplashes, sinks, and appliances than our floor, but we are systematically using the best light in the […]
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Lighting: Useful, Harmful, or Both?
Coffee, when poured into a mug and consumed, delivers a strongly desired boost of energy through caffeine. The same coffee, when poured onto the laptop, can be ruinous. The question of usefulness or harmfulness, applied to coffee, is answered by the use. The same can be true for light, especially outside. But indulge me a […]
EXPOSURE: Daring to go Digital
It is time for our lighting systems to move out of the analog Stone Age and into the Digital Era. I’m working on a new CEU focused entirely on the topic and actively exploring the case for change, the systems, and the benefits. I got a jump start writing for Residential Systems in January’s issue […]