High-powered flood lights and area lights are typical fixtures used to illuminate outdoor areas like streets, sports fields, athletic courts, and parking lots. These projects require tall poles to mount the fixtures up high. These poles and their attachments need to...
Microwave vs PIR Motion Sensors: What’s the Difference?
You’re probably aware of the different kinds of lighting controls that are out there. Dimmers and timers are two examples. They operate just as you would imagine. Dimmers adjust light levels and timers will turn lights off after a specified period of time. Another...
The 15 Best Podcasts for Contractors
Podcasting has exploded, and with good reason. Podcasts come in the form of digital audio and/or video files that can be downloaded or streamed on various devices. You can listen to or view them on your smartphone, tablet, laptop, smart TV, or car audio system. One of...
The Difference Between Maintained and Non-Maintained Emergency Lights Explained
Whether it’s a power outage, a fire, or any kind of natural disaster, it’s critical that people in any kind of facility know how to evacuate to safety. Their path needs to be properly illuminated and they need to know how to get to the exits. Public and private...
The History of LED Lights
These days, LED lighting can be found just about everywhere. The light-emitting diode (LED) is currently the most energy-efficient lighting technology available. It is one of the most rapidly developing technologies around and it is used in a wide variety of...
The Complete Guide to Building Your ESG Strategy
ESG stands for Environmental, Social, and Governance. It is a framework that helps stakeholders know how an organization is managing risks and opportunities related to environmental, social, and governance standards. In this context, stakeholders are defined as not...
LED Light Color – Binning System
LED lighting systems offer a wide range of white color LEDs. Watch the light color or brightness constancy. Samples of LED projects that emit light in slightly different light colors or different luminances are reasons for bad reputations. What is the reason for that...
The Difference Between Clear and Frosted Lenses
Did you ever look to purchase LED lamps or fixtures for a lighting project and notice that there are clear and frosted lens options for the same thing? Choosing the right option is important because each one is dependent on both personal preference and the application...
The Environmental Impact of LED Lights: 10 Ways LEDs Are Helping the Planet
The advent of LED lighting technology has proven to be a game-changer for environmental- and energy-related matters. Over the last ten to fifteen years, it has demonstrated to be an easy, cost-saving approach for manufacturers and consumers to reduce their long-term...
How LED Lighting Can Improve Your ESG Strategy
What is ESG? ESG stands for Environmental, Social, and Governance. It is a tool used for sustainable investing. It’s a non-financial factor that is part of an investor’s analysis process. ESG Investing is the method of integrating a company's ESG initiatives into...
The Most Important Considerations to Reduce Peak Demand Charges
What is Peak Demand? Peak demand is one of the factors that determines the charge rate of your electricity bill. Peak demand is the highest amount of energy used during a 15-to-30-minute period of time during the month. It determines a large part of how your rate per...
LED Lighting Statistics to Know In 2022
LEDs (light-emitting diodes) are on their way to becoming king of the global lighting market. Lighting technologies like incandescent, halogen, and fluorescent are slowly being phased out and, in some cases, obsolete. Over the last ten to fifteen years, LED technology...
The Engineering behind High Temperature LED Fixtures
This by definition seems unachievable – LED Lights that can operate in a hot environment. LEDs are good – every one is adopting them in commercial and industrial applications. But they have their limitations. By far, the biggest limitation is heat. Heat has a tendency...
The Top Electrical Contractor Publications to Stay Up to Date with
As an electrical contractor, you know that the industry is in constant flux. Code changes, regulations, technological advancements, market trends, and new product releases are always changing. It’s imperative that you continue to be knowledgeable about these things to...
The Top 11 Lighting Industry Publications to Keep Up to Date With
The lighting industry is competitive and ever-changing. Whether you’re a manufacturer, distributor, designer, installer, or have any other connection to the industry, it’s essential that you stay informed about it. It’s important for you to be knowledgeable about the...
How to Avoid Shadows with Commercial LED Lights
Shadows are a phenomena known in lighting caused by uneven or unbalanced lighting. It can occur in both indoor and outdoor lighting applications. Shadowing occurs when the light between fixtures is noticeably not as bright than the light under a fixture. It can occur...
Understanding Watts, Volts, and Amps
Electricity can be difficult to understand. Here are some electrifying terms everyone should learn. Most of the electrical terminology that’s used relates to one another in some way. Understanding each term can help to navigate the complex world of electricity. Here...
Understanding Beam Spread and NEMA Lighting Distribution Types
What is NEMA? NEMA is the National Electrical Manufacturers Association which is a trade association of electrical manufacturers founded in 1926. It is an ANSI-accredited organization that develops standards for electrical equipment used in North America, some of...
Lighting Certifications Explained
There are many certifications that demonstrate key knowledge of the various facets of the lighting industry. They provide assurance that a lighting professional is competent and proficient in their field of expertise. The subsequent list consists of some notable...
Buyer Beware – LED Purchases Gone Wrong
Over the past several years, we have received phone calls, emails and chats from customers. They asked us to solve bad LED purchases. Or installation issues and bad lighting in their facilities. For some of these unfortunate customers, they were lead astray by other...
What is Dark Sky Compliance and Why Does It Matter?
Dark sky compliance has been trending a lot lately. Thanks to the efforts of the dark-sky movement attempting to 'reclaim the sky.' But what is dark sky compliance and the dark-sky movement? Both seek the same goal. To eradicate and cut the amount of light pollution...
Why Upgrade to LED Lighting?
Advancements in technology across the board have let people live more efficient lives. Whether it be the accessibility of a smartphone or the fuel efficiency of a car, technology lets us do more with less. Switching to LEDs is just another way to improve efficiency. ...
The 5 Pitfalls of Buying LED and Fixing Bad LED Purchases
When you upgrade your lighting system to LED, there are many options. Some are riskier than others. Here are some of the pitfalls to avoid when making your purchase. The second part of this post relates to those who have made those mistakes, and what they can do. More...
Impact Rating IK01 to IK10 for LED Light Fixtures
It is very common to see LED lights widely used in commercial, industrial, and sporting applications. They are commonplace and widely used in warehouses, parking lots, manufacturing, gymnasiums, and intense industrial applications. It's well known that LED fixtures...
IP Rating and LED Light Fixtures
Shopping for LED commercial and industrial lighting can be confusing. There are many different factors to consider, but the good news is that you’ve already made a good choice by deciding to switch to LED lights. They provide numerous benefits, like energy savings and...
20 Tips on LED Lights
We compiled a list of helpful LED Tips for your benefit and hopefully, you might learn some useful things about LED lighting. Our tips include everything from helpful hints when it comes to retrofitting an existing fixture or what to look for when replacing a fixture...
Lumen Depreciation and LED Lighting
When we talk about replacing lights, we try to reduce the current costs that old, inefficient lights incur. We also try to keep (if not improve) the current quality of light in place. Here are some obvious options to achieve this: Switching away from less efficient...
Lighting Terminology Glossary
Common Terms Used in the Lighting Industry ANSI (American National Standards Institute) A private non-profit organization that oversees the development of voluntary instructions and sets performance levels for products, services, processes, and personnel in all...
Busting Electricity Myths
In the world of electricity, there are prevalent myths that are passed around and are occurring far too often without any evidence that they are the truth. So, with this post, we are busting these common electricity myths and putting an end to them once and for all....
How to Reduce your Carbon Footprint
A carbon footprint is the sum of all greenhouse gases emitted by a single individual based on their lifestyle and activities. Additionally, you can also calculate a carbon footprint for a company, a product, or even a specific event. The calculation of carbon...