The American Lighting Association

I belong to the America Lighting Association as do many other lighting showrooms, lighting manufacturers and lighting representatives throughout North America. I think this association is really worthwhile. They run an annual conference and provide training for lighting designers and showroom employees throughout the year. And they maintain a web site loaded with information for consumers. If you want some ideas about how to light your home, I urge you to visit www.americanlightingassoc.com to take advantage of all the useful information presented there.

I became a Certified Lighting Consultant, the highest certification bestowed by the ALA, because I feel it is necessary to be as helpful as possible to my clients. (There are fewer than 1,000 CLC's throughout North America and only two in Maine). Other degrees offered are: Lighting Associate, Lighting Specialist, Certificate Specialist and Certified Lighting Manufacturers Representative. Fogg Lighting has sent all our employees to training programs and I am proud to say we have several Lighting Specialists on our staff. When you see the American Lighting Association logo on a lighting showroom's door you can be fairly certain that that showroom is a reputable organization.

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New York Times Article About the Future of Lighting

The following is a re-print of an article thta appeared in the New York Times yesterday. It illustrates how the dramatic changes that lighting will undergo in the near future.

 

April 24, 2013

New Technology Inspires a Rethinking of Light

By FELICITY BARRINGER

AFTER the joy of the birth itself, parenthood sometimes brings the unwelcome news that a newborn has jaundice and must wear goggles and be placed under special lights. Imagine how different this experience might be if there were no goggles, just a warm blanket covering the tiny body, a healing frequency of blue light emanating from its folds.

That comforting scene, already a reality in some hospitals, is evidence of the fundamental rethinking of lighting now under way in research labs, executive offices and investor conferences. Digital revolutionaries have Edison’s 130-year-old industry, and its $100 billion in worldwide revenue, in their sights. Color, control and function are all being reassessed, and new players have emerged like a wave of Silicon Valley start-ups.

“This is the move from the last industrial-age analog technology to a digital technology,” said Fred Maxik, the chief technology officer with the Lighting Science Group Corporation, one of many newer players in the field.

The efforts start with energy efficiency and cost savings but go far beyond replacing inefficient incandescent bulbs. Light’s potential to heal, soothe, invigorate or safeguard people is being exploited to introduce products like the blanket, versions of which are offered by General Electric and in development at Philips, the Dutch electronics giant.

Innovations on the horizon range from smart lampposts that can sense gas hazards to lights harnessed for office productivity or even to cure jet lag. Digital lighting based on light-emitting diodes — LEDs — offers the opportunity to flit beams delicately across stages like the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge — creating a light sculpture more elegant than the garish marketers’ light shows on display in Times Square, Piccadilly Circus and the Shibuya district in Tokyo.

“Up till now we only thought — do I have enough light to see, to clean my room, to cut a diamond?” said Ed Crawford, a senior vice president of Philips Lighting Americas. “Now it impacts what I do, how I feel, in emotional ways.”

In the United States, lighting consumes more than 20 percent of electric power generated each year; the Energy Department says LEDs can cut consumption by up to 80 percent. LEDs — also called solid-state lighting — are already a $12.5 billion business worldwide, according to analysts at the research firm Strategies Unlimited in Mountain View, Calif.  A 2012 McKinsey report estimates LEDs will be an $84 billion business by 2020.

But there is an obstacle or two facing the LED revolutionaries. One is existing modes of lighting: Edison’s screw-based socket, the office’s fluorescent ceiling tubes, and metal halide or sodium lights in parking lots are not going away anytime soon.

Another hurdle is public wariness after the environmental exhortations of the 2000s, which led to much-disputed federal legislation to phase out the old incandescents, often in favor of compact fluorescent bulbs. In pursuing their goals, advocates played down problems like the harshness of fluorescent light, and difficulties with dimming the bulbs and dealing with the toxic mercury they contain. Now, some lighting scientists say, both consumers and investors are leery of buying into something they suspect might be substandard.

Another powerful force for continuity is the psychological legacy of light as we know it — from sun to candle to bulb. Isn’t the cartoon shorthand for a new idea a glowing bulb over the thinker’s head?

So some companies are selling the new digital lighting in forms that will fit into the prerevolutionary world, with its sockets and streetlamps — including familiar bulb shapes.

Philips is producing a bulb called Hue that fits into the old sockets and not only dims and brightens, but also changes colors on command. Mr. Crawford said that in his lamps division, 25 percent of sales income now comes from LEDs; he expects it to increase to 50 percent in two years. In 2008, that number was close to zero.

One reason adoption will speed up, Mr. Crawford believes, is that in recent years, consumers have been asked to compromise on quality to get energy savings. With the latest generation of LEDs, he said, “the consumer gets the energy savings without compromise.”

The cost barrier is getting lower. Until recently, it typically cost $30 to buy an LED that could replace a 60-watt glass incandescent bulb bought for less than a dollar. Now Cree, a semiconductor manufacturer, has 40-watt and 60-watt LED equivalents for $10 and $14.

James Highgate, an expert on the new technology who runs an annual LED industry conference, sees a transition period ahead “for the next three to five years, until the eight billion sockets in the U.S. get filled” with LEDs. “Some people will never change,” he added. “They’ll be in the alleys buying 100-watt incandescents.”

But a new poll done by the lighting company Osram Sylvania showed that fewer consumers were listing “burned out or broken” as the main reason for switching bulb formats. According to a company news release, “68 percent of Americans say they have switched lighting for increased energy efficiency.”

Energy efficiency is only the beginning, according to experts on the lighting innovations. Take communication between lights. At the University of California, Davis, a bike path illuminated at night with a “just in time” system has one light node alerting another and another down the line as a bicycle goes by, progressively lighting the rider’s way, then dimming back into an energy-saving mode.

Michael Siminovitch, director of the California Lighting Technology Center at the university, said that with the new technology “we’re going to be able to create a variety of control features in terms of how we introduce points of light in space, but we’re also going to be able to do it with planes and areas of light.” For example, he said, there could be light-generating ceilings or walls.

Engineers like Mr. Maxik at Lighting Science are now imagining cities that light their streets as needed, without benefit of lampposts. He has created a fixture that could replace the reflective medians in highways south of the snow belt. Once installed along the road’s centerline, they provide as much illumination as streetlamps. The metal and wiring that go into the streetlamp would be unnecessary.

Lighting Science has teamed up with Google to develop a light bulb — soon to be available — that is controllable with an Android phone app.

But just as it will take consumers a while to give up familiar light sockets for lights embedded in walls or ceilings, it is likely to take cities and their public works departments some time to give up their lampposts.

Recognizing this, other companies, like the newly renamed Sensity Systems (formerly Xeralux) are reimagining lampposts as nodes in a smart network that illuminate spaces, visually monitor them, sense heat and communicate with other nodes and human monitors.

In addition to such functions — which could raise privacy concerns, though perhaps less so after the Boston Marathon bombings — the new systems could sharply cut the cost of street lighting. The data could be sold to app developers who could create, say, an app to help find parking.

The idea, said the company’s chief executive, Hugh Martin, is “wherever there’s a light, there’s data being generated.”

Mr. Maxik said: “It’s the convergence of the light source, the novel controls we can apply to it and the ability to program it which makes solid-state lighting as a category unique. That becomes the enabler of the new forms and new functions.”

Many of the elements of the nascent revolution seem in place. A host of relatively new entrants — Lighting Science, Eye Lighting, Ohm Lighting and TerraLUX among them — are moving into what had been a market dominated by large, established companies like General Electric, Philips and Osram Sylvania.

In both the newer and older camps, researchers are trying to reimagine uses for light and ways of controlling it. What kinds of controls? Adjusting the intensity of a light between dim and bright, of course, has been done for decades — but not often in outdoor settings. Other options, indoors and out, include changing the frequency and color of the light, or having it pulsate — think of the multicolor displays atop the Empire State Building.

This color-changing capability has applications far beyond the theatrical. Consider sea turtle hatchlings leaving nests along the Florida coast that are led astray by bright white lights, luring them inland when they should head seaward. Lighting Science is one of several companies that offer a solution; its $29.99 amber “turtle lights” are on sale in Satellite Beach, Fla., near the most active turtle nesting area.

For the workplace, Osram Sylvania’s researchers are looking to control light to improve office productivity. As Lori Brock, director of research and innovation at the company’s technology lab in Massachusetts, said: “It optimizes the illumination for the task you’re doing. If you sat at your desk to use the computer, maybe the overhead light would dim, increasing the contrast so you could see better. Other lights could go to an energy-saving hue.” Ideally, productivity increases while energy costs decrease.

As for health applications, the Lighting Research Center of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute has focused its research on the physiological and psychological impacts of light. This might lead to light fixtures in hotel rooms and elsewhere that enhance sleep or restore the circadian rhythms of jet-lagged travelers.

Philips’s lighting division is working on a product that allows people with psoriasis to have light treatments at home, not in the hospital. It has also introduced a blue-light-emitting poultice to relieve muscle pain by releasing the nitric oxide in the patient’s system, stimulating blood flow.

“This is where the promise is,” said Dr. Siminovitch of the U.C. Davis center. “The promise is going to be on well-being, wellness, biology — lighting starts doing something for us that is inherently different.”

Please visit FoggLighting.com and like us on Facebook. Stay up to date on lighting, the fastest changing technology for the home and workplace.

Under Cabinet Lighting

Under cabinet lighting is an essential part of a kitchen lighting plan. It puts light on the counter top where the fine tasks occur and it adds an interesting layer of light to the kitchen. If you can not see what you are doing, knife work can be dangerous work, but when the knife work is done the lights can be dimmed for an subtle effect.

Unilume LED
Under Cabinet Light

Under cabinet lighting comes in many flavors: fluorescent, halogen, Xenon and LED. And those options come in many styles: puck lights, tape light, rope light, enclosed fixtures and several other options. I am promoting LED under cabinet lighting because it has a really long life, it does not produce heat and it does not attract insects.

You should be aware that the counter top impacts under cabinet lighting. For example, a polished marble counter top will reflect under cabinet light and produce glare. If you use tape light or any other type of fixture that has individual light bulbs, each or those bulbs will be reflected on the counter. That is why my new favorite under cabinet light is the Unilume LED from Tech Lighting that is pictured here. It has a shield over the individual bulbs that gives a nice even light with no hot spots.

Please visit FoggLighting.com and like us on Facebook. I am always available to answer your questions.

Bathroom Lighting

How often do you go into a bathroom? I will bet it is at least once or twice a day. And why do you go into a bathroom, other than to answer the call of nature? You probably comb your hair, or shave, or apply makeup or read the newspaper or take a shower or engage in other grooming activities. And what do all these tasks have in common...they require lots of light, good, non-glare light installed in the appropriate places.

Well Lighted Bathroom

I talk with clients all the time who are going to use a fan-light as the main light in their bathrooms. I don't know if you have noticed or not but most fan-lights do not provide much light. (They don't do much as a fan either, for that matter). When my wife and I moved into our house a few years ago the vanity lighting was provided by two puck lights in a valance above the sinks. I really don't know how the previous owners could see!

When I design a lighting plan for a bathroom I go all out. Showers should have recessed lights in them so you can see yourself (in addition to being able to admire all the expensive tile). Vanity lighting should come from the sides if possible thereby eliminating the shadows that an overhead light produces on the face.A good light should be provided for the toilet (think from the male prospective). Good ambient lighting should be provided for the whole room so you can see to clean. These lighting requirements serve to add layers of light to the room as well as providing adequate light for all the tasks performed there. A fan is sometimes required by code. Don't make the mistake of accepting the idea that a fan-light will substitute for any of the lights mentioned above. And insist on a low sones (quiet) fan. They are not much more expensive, but they are much more enjoyable. 

Please visit FoggLighting.com and like us on Facebook. Learn about lighting so you can be involved in all the lighting decisions at your house.

Why Get Involved With The Lighting Decisions - Part 2

How old are you? How long are you going to live in your home? These are two of the most important questions that should influence your lighting decisions. If you are 25 years old and are going to be moving up to a new house in 5-10 years lighting is not as crucial as if you are 55 and plan to live in your house for 20-25 years.

As you age less and less light reaches your retina. When you are 60 only 1/3 as much light reaches your retina as when you were 20! That taken together with the facts that 50% of the 65-75 year old population have cataracts (70% of over 75 year olds), 25% have macular degeneration, and 3% have glaucoma makes lighting a very important consideration. Take control of your lighting design. Chances are your contractor and electrician are a lot younger than you so they do not appreciate your vision. The same applies to your children. They can not appreciate what you see or do not see.

I am 66 and plan to live independently as long as possible. I know that my vision is not as good as it used to be. I am studying lighting as it pertains to older Americans. If you want some advice, call me. Please visit FoggLighting.com and email any questions or comments. The American Lighting Association is a great resource for information.

Why Get Involved With The Lighting Decisions - Part 1

So you are building a new house or remodeling the one you live in now and you hire a contractor who works with subs, one of whom is an electrician. You meet with the electrician and he says: "I've wired hundreds of houses. I'll walk through with you and tell you where I think you should have lights." Wow! This guy must be good. He's wired hundreds of houses.


Maybe he's good and maybe he isn't. Remember he is going to be wiring your house, a really big investment, and a really important component.  And he is not going to be cooking in your kitchen or washing your dishes, or putting on your makeup or entertaining your friends. In fact, he is going to do the quickest job he can possibly do and then go on to the next job because that is how he makes his living. He probably quoted the contractor a fixed price based on what he has done in those hundreds of previous jobs, and anything out of the ordinary he resents doing because of his contract. I am not saying the electrician is intentionally doing a bad job. He is probably doing what he always does because that is in his comfort zone. The problem is that the way he has always done things might not be optimal.

You should really care about the lighting because you will be living with it for years, recessed lighting in particular because if it is installed improperly it is really expensive to change later. You should educate yourself in proper lighting design or hire a lighting designer/consultant (like me) before the wiring in your house is "roughed in." Actually you should really do this before construction begins. I don't care if you are building a mansion or a really modest home. You really should "drive the bus" when it comes to lighting decisions. I don't care where you buy the lighting (I really do, but that's another story) just take charge. It's your money.

Fogg Lighting is an American Lighting Association member. We pride ourselves on continuing our lighting education. We work hard to stay current with what is going on in the industry. And we are good at lighting design. Visit us at FoggLighting.com and please contact us with any of your lighting questions.

Light Output - Defined

Luminous flux is the term to describe the total output of light from a light source. The unit we use for luminous flux is lumen. The lumen rating for a lamp is the total output of light in all directions from a lamp. It does not take the directionality of light into consideration. Furthermore lumen is not the total energy radiated from a light source but is the energy that falls within the range of human vision. Ultraviolet and infrared energy are also produced by most modern light sources and the human eye can not see that energy. The Illuminating Engineering Society defines light as "visually evaluated radiant energy." The graph below shows the human visual response curve.

Human Visual Response Curve

Our vision is not equally sensitive to all the wavelengths that comprise vision. Therefore lumen rating is based on our visual response. Our visual system responds more strongly to energy toward the center of the spectrum, the green-yellow area of the spectrum. We respond less strongly to the blue and red area of the spectrum. Consequently lumen output is affected more by central wavelengths than by wavelengths from either end of the spectrum. The end wavelengths are important for color but are not so important for lumen output.

In a directional lamp it is important to know how much light is going in one direction, and lumen output does not define that for us. We need to know the density of lumens contained within the cone of light. This density is know as luminous intensity, and the unit we use to describe this is candela or candlepower. More about directional light in a future post.

It is important to know about lumen depreciation. Manufacturers publish data on initial lumen output of their lamps. Usually this data reflects lumen output after 100 hours of operation. Lumen output gradually decreases as lamps operate beyond the initial 100 hours, and this decrease is know as lumen depreciation. The reason for the decrease in incandescent light bulbs is because the tungsten filament evaporates and/or the capsule darkens, and in fluorescent lamps it is due to phosphor depreciation and changes in the lamp cathodes and electrical properties.

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Directional Light Sources

Always start with the light bulb when deciding how you want to light a room or a wall or a piece of art or anything. The fixture is secondary to the lamp (how lights bulbs are referred to by lighting professionals). We are discussing directional lamps here so one of the most common lamp types is the MR16, a 2 inch diameter mirrored reflector. It is used extensively in recessed lights, track fixtures, monopoints and landscape lights. It is one of many directional lamps available today. Other directional lamps include PAR, BAR and AR. These designations are followed by numbers, 16, 20, 30, 38, etc. The numbers are the measurement of the face of the light bulb in 1/8th's of inches. So a PAR38 is 4.75" in diameter.

To determine which directional light source to use you need a basic understanding of photometrics, the measurement of the properties of light. Most fixture and light bulb manufacturers publish photometric tables that show how different lamps perform. These tables show footcandle levels at different distances from the light source and different aiming angles. They also show the distribution of light at different distances from the center beam of the light bulb. The center of the beam of a directional light is the brightest spot and the number of footcandles at that point is determined by Center Beam Candle Power, CBCP. Therefore you will see this terminology used when describing directional lamps. There is a lot or great information available in the UL app "LightSmart" that you can download for free at the app store.

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Euroluce - What Is New In The World of Lighting

What follows is a reprint of an article about Euroluce, Europe's amazing lighting show.

Laura Van Zeyl



MILANO-RAMA

By Laura Van Zeyl

Euroluce made its bi-annual appearance in Milan last week as part of the annual Salone Internazionale del Mobile furniture fair at Fiera Milano Rho just outside Italy’s fashion capital. A staggering 320,000 attendees take part -- that’s more than twice the attendance at the Consumer Electronics Show, just to put it in perspective.
The crowds boost the excitement and energy level at an event that’s already elevated in terms of its elaborate booth displays. These stunning temporary presentations often feel like art installations that celebrate design for its own sake -- and the designers behind the creations.
With such abundant originality in each booth, it’s hard to discern “trends” per se, but at this year’s show, there were a few recurring themes worth noting:
Design potential of LED. This compact and increasingly practical light source is like a new toy in the hands of designers eager to explore new forms. The most common use of LED seemed to be to hide it around the perimeter of a shape and graze a surface at the center, sometimes bringing out raised designs, textures or trompe l’oeil effects of dimensionality. Only a few of the contemporary exhibitors didn’t integrate LED, speculating that retrofit bulb options would allow LED to be used if desired. But in my view, this misses the point of taking advantage of LED’s unique properties.
Mixed media. The incorporation of wood into frames of lamps and fixtures may not feel new since we’ve seen that already stateside, but it was groundbreaking for many glass manufacturers at Euroluce. When your reputation for a particular craft dates back centuries, as it does for many of these Italian exhibitors, you’re very deliberate about selecting other materials to sit alongside your masterpieces. Walnut was the most popular choice, which had the right richness to hold its own with mouth-blown glass.
Glossy or ghostly white. Gloss white finishes are another trend already present here as well, but the contours of the sculptural shapes seen at Euroluce just seemed sexier in application. Polished chrome accents were an equally sleek complement. In a more organic vein, matte and textured white finishes conveyed a purity of form in fabrics, papers and fiberglass. These looks had very little, if any, additional adornment or framing to potentially kill the ethereal mood.
Retro modern. Nostalgic silhouettes felt delightfully ironic when they housed cutting-edge LED technology. Classic Midcentury Modern styles were exaggerated to emphasize the reference but also indicate that it was only a jumping-off point to take us into the future. The retro vibe was present in display as well as in design, from LZF’s Blue Note-inspired album art to Ares’ homage to Studio 54.

I thought you might be interested in what is happening in the world of lighting. Please visit FoggLighting.com and like us on Facebook.

Circadian Rhythms - How Light Affects Sleep

Circadian rhythms are internal biological rhythms that are controlled by an external factor which in most cases is daylight. Life on planet Earth has been affected by these circadian rhythms since life began. We are pre-programmed by hundreds of generations to be affected by the 24 hour day/night cycle of light and dark. We now have many sources of artificial light that we use every day. These sources of light are impacting our lives, specifically the quality and quantity of sleep we get.

Sunlight qualities changes as day progresses from sunrise to sunset. As sunlight travels through he atmosphere it is refracted and reflected. In the early morning there is more of the blue spectrum in sunlight and in the evening there is more red.

Melatonin is a chemical produced by the pineal gland in the center of the brain. It is necessary for sleep. Blue light suppresses melatonin production so exposure to blue light before bedtime interferes with a restful night's sleep and disrupts the circadian rhythm. In nature there is less blue in evening sunlight and more in morning sunlight. That makes it easier to go to sleep in the evening and to get going in the morning.

What do we all do every evening at home...watch TV and plan video games on computers. TVs and other video screens emit light in the blue end of the spectrum. This causes low melatonin which results in sleep problems. And this is especially problematical for older people because as we age we produce less and less melatonin naturally. Maybe putting kids in front of the TV just before bedtime might not be a good idea!

More information will be forthcoming in future blog posts. In the meantime be sure to visit FoggLighting.com and like us on facebook.

Light Bulb Labeling

Effective in 2012 all light bulbs are required to have a label similar to this one. You are now able to compare the efficiency of one light bulb to another. In the lighting business this is know as efficacy, the ratio of lumen output to watts consumed. The label also has other valuable information about the light bulb such as color temperature, estimated annual cost and estimated life.

One reason for this new label is to let the consumer make an informed buying decision. Most people have associated watts with light output. Watts are a measure of energy consumed, not a measure of light output. Lumens are a measure of light output.

   The label above is from a 13 watt compact fluorescent light bulb while the one to the right is from a 60 watt incandescent light bulb. You will notice that the light output (lumens) is about the same for each but the energy consumed (watts) is dramatically different. The efficacy of the CFL is much better than the incandescent, 67 lumens per watt as compared to about 14 lumens per watt.

I am not advocating one way or the other for either type of light bulb. The label does the talking, you make the decision. Please visit the app store and download "LightSmart", the free app from UL that has lots of useful lighting information you might enjoy. And please visit FoggLighting.com.

Electricity - A Primer

We could not have lighting if it were not for electricity. Electrification is the generation, distribution and use of electricity for homes and businesses. A basic understanding of electricity is useful in planning for lighting and in choosing fixtures. Electrical design and especially installation should be the responsibility qualified electrical professionals.

Electricity comes from the Greek word for amber which was known for its static electricity. Electricity is the movement of electrons along a conducting pathway. Electrons are negatively charged atomic particles. Matter has resistance to electron flow. Matter with the least resistance is called conductive, copper, silver, gold and water for example. Matter with the most resistance are insulators, paper, ceramic and wood to name three. Electricity flows when electromagnetic force is applied to a conducting pathway. The force is called voltage, the flow is called current.

Volts measure the electrical pressure that creates current. Electric utilities distribute electricity at very high voltage because they are sending power over long distances. Transformers, like the ones you see on light poles, reduce that voltage to 110-120 volts which is what most households use to run appliances and lights. Voltage can vary up or down by 5% without causing any problems but greater variances can damage appliances.

Current is the rate that at which electrons flow through a conductor. It is measured in Amperes, commonly called amps. Current is the function of electrical pressure and the amount of resistance in the circuit. Typical homes have a service that provides 150-200 amps. Large homes might have 400 amp services. A circuit is a closed path of electricity and includes the breaker or fuse, the wiring and the load. The load is the amount of watts used. A 20-amp circuit at 120 volts will support a load of 2400 watts. Watts measure electrical power and is a function of voltage and amperage (W=VxA).

Wow, that's enough of that. But at least now you know have an understanding of why electrical professionals are necessary to install and design lighting systems.  Please visit FoggLighting.com and let us know if you have questions, needs or questions. Be sure to download the free app from Underwriters Laboratories called LightSmart. Lots of good information.

     

What is Low Voltage Lighting?

Regular household electrical current is 120 volts. It powers most appliances and lights in the typical home. Low voltage is either 12 volts or 24 volts and is created by using a transformer to reduce household current from 120V to 12V or 24V. Many fixtures are manufactured to use 12V.

Typical Landscape Lighting
Transformer

Low voltage lighting is particularly useful in track lighting, pendant lighting, recessed lighting, landscape lighting and accent lighting. Low voltage light bulbs can be a lot smaller that 120V light bulbs thereby allowing more flexibility in fixture design. They are almost always halogen. Low voltage does not equate to less power usage (although most halogen light bulbs are more efficient than other incandescent). Do not confuse volts with watts. Watts is the measure of how much power is used, so 50 watts is 50 watts is 50 watts.

Recently a lot of low voltage lighting is being converted to LED. I expect this trend to continue and to accelerate in the future. LED is much more efficient than either low voltage halogen or incandescent. Once engineers find a better solution to the heat dissipation problem you will see better LED solutions to miniature light bulbs.

Please visit FoggLighting.com and call with any inquires or comments.

Landscape Lighting - A Primer

My first involvement with landscape light was courtesy of Home Depot. Before I was in the lighting industry and knew better, I went to Home Depot and bought a really inexpensive kit containing a small transformer, 3 or 4 up lights and some low voltage wire. I hooked it all up and enjoyed looking out at my backyard until piece by piece the system stopped working.

I really like landscape lighting when done correctly and subtly. The photo at right shows a tastefully lit back yard. Notice the depth of field that the lighting produces. The trees are beautiful and the steps are lighted. Landscape lighting brings the outdoors in and creates a focal point for people inside the house. It eliminates the "black hole" effect of windows at night. I can guarantee you that this lighting is not from Home Depot.

Most Landscape lighting is low voltage, meaning a transformer reduces normal household voltage from 120V to 12V (24V in some circumstances). A two conductor wire is run from the transformer to the individual fixtures. The further away from the transformer the lower the voltage becomes. This is called voltage drop and is due to the resistance in the wire and the power that other lights are drawing from the transformer. Thus lights get dimmer the further they are from the transformer. LED technology is really beneficial in landscape lighting because LED's use less power and therefore voltage drop is much less noticeable.

When contemplating landscape lighting consider buying the best you can afford. There is a big difference in quality. Landscape lighting is exposed to the elements 24/7 and needs to be water tight and corrosion resistant. Landscape lighting is really enjoyable. Install some today!

Please visit FoggLighting.com and call or email with any questions or comments.

How High Should You Mount a Wall Sconce?

The short answer is sconces should be between 65" to 70" above the finished floor. Sconces above mirrors in bathrooms should be about 78" above the floor.

That being said, the mounting height depends on the sconce, the height of the ceiling and what you want the sconce to do. Sconces can be used as task lights, like in a bathroom, they can be used as decorative elements or they can be used to provide indirect light, or a combination of all the above. Sconces can be short and compact, tall and wide or anything in between. Ceilings can be low or high. All of these factors determine how high to mount a sconce.

Before cutting a junction box into a wall I recommend cutting out a template and holding it against the wall to see how it looks. Bear in mind that sometimes the electrical connection on the back of the sconce is not in the middle of the sconce so the junction box might have to be higher or lower to maintain the finished height of the sconce. Also make sure of the dimensions of the back plate of the sconce. Some sconces have narrow back plates and will not fit over a regular junction box. You need a switch box for these sconces.

Please visit FoggLighting.com and contact us with all your lighting questions and for all your lighting needs.

The Wonders of Sunlight

Well here I am, on vacation in Florida laying around in the sun. Wow, I really like this kind of lighting! If I could only figure out how to do this in Maine.

I always wear sunscreen!

The real wonder of sunlight is that it contains all the colors of the spectrum. It is the most amazing incandescent light source. The color of sunlight changes as the day progresses, but the change is due to reflection and refraction of the light passing through the atmosphere not that sunlight is changing. Sunlight is appears more blue in the morning and more red in the evening. Life is arranged around this change. More about this in a future post.

While I am away feel free to visit our website, FoggLighting.com and call or email with questions or comments.

Who Likes Good Lighting?

We all like good lighting, whether we know it or not. I am in the lighting industry so I notice lighting all the time. It's the one thing I focus on. You probably do not focus on lighting, but I bet you notice bad lighting. You might not realize it is the lighting that is bad, but you notice that the space looks "off". The problem might be

Bad Lighting in a Restaurant

because the color temperature is wrong, maybe it is because the place is unevenly lit or maybe the wrong fixtures are being used. There are quite a few reasons why the lighting could be wrong.

When I was younger and went to restaurants (once in a great while) with my parents, my father always complained that he could not read the menu because it was too dark. (Could be we were at the restaurant pictured on the left!) This was a source of great fun because I kidded him about being old. Of course now that I have aged a little I know what he was talking about. When I go to a poorly lit restaurant I have to use my flashlight app to see the menu. My father did not have that luxury.


Bad Lighting in a Home


Bad lighting is not reserved for restaurants or other commercial establishments. Unfortunately it is prevalent in far too many homes. When you plan your lighting please try to use as many layers of light as you can. Be mindful of lighting art or of lighting walls or of not over using recessed lights in living areas where social activities occur. Use fixtures that conceal the light source, a source of glare. Use a lighting consultant if the budget allows. Good lighting is a source of lasting pleasure.

Please be sure to visit out website FoggLighting.com and call or email for any information or with any comments.

Some Common Obstacles Encountered in a Lighting Plans

A few years ago I did a lighting plan for the new house my wife and I were building. I had recessed lights located in just the right places and was dreaming about how perfect the house would be. I did a Lutron whole house lighting control system, touch one button and all the lights go out, touch a button in your car and lights come on, etc. Wonderful! And an electric roller window shade. In short a lighting designer's dream house.

House Framing

 It seems there were a couple of flaws in my grand plan. I did not know as much about framing as I should have known. The framing interfered with the placement of recessed lights so my plan for recessed did not work out the way I envisioned. The plumber and heating people got to work before the electrician so there were pipes and duct work were in the way of some of the other recessed lights. The Lutron whole house control system was great except my wife and kids could not figure out how to turn just one light on or off (there are no switches, just buttons). In order for the system to work it has to be programmed and there aren't a lot of Lutron certified programmers around to call when you want to change how a button works...and they charge by the hour. We had a whole house generator that came on automatically if the power went off. That was good, but it caused the Lutron system to go crazy. Lights would blink on and off and buzz and do all sorts of weird things. We even had the component that prevented the weird stuff from happening, didn't work.

The good news is that I learned a lot about how to design lighting. The mistakes I made were at my own expense. Since then I take nothing for granted and visit house sites to make sure that the framing will not interfere with the lighting, etc. Whole home systems work and can work well but the homeowner should be aware of some of the in and outs of committing to the system because once it is installed it can not be replaced easily.

Lighting is fun. Enjoy your experience and do not become overwhelmed. Please visit FoggLighting.com and call or email with any comments or questions.

Glare, a Problem in Outdoor Lighting

Glare is one of the most common and annoying lighting problems. Glare occurs when the contrast between dark and light is accentuated. A good example of glare would be outdoor flood lights above a garage door in the dark of night. They light the driveway but can blind a driver pulling into the garage, like the photo to the left. That is the kind of glare that should be avoided.

Lots of times this type of outdoor flood lighting is installed as a security measure. This works well if the homeowner is looking out a window from inside the house, but if the homeowner is outside the house the glare inhibits the eye's ability to adjust and focus. The pupil can not contract fast enough. You will notice this especially if you drive into a driveway where the lights are on a motion sensor. It is dark one second and blindingly bright the next.

Glare is also produced by outdoor sconces and post lights that have clear or clear seedy glass and a too powerful light bulb. Most commercial and municipal parking lots have lights that produce glare as do most highway interchanges.

Glare is especially annoying and dangerous for older people because the ability of the eye to adjust to light and dark conditions is drastically reduced. When lighting your home's exterior keep all this in mind. I recommend shielded light sources where you are not looking directly at a light bulb. The contrast between light and dark does not take as much lighting firepower as you might expect.

Please visit FoggLighting.com and call or email with any questions or comments.