Every year on April 22nd, we celebrate our home planet, Earth! It’s an essential day to raise awareness and help take action to protect our natural resources and species.  This year Major League Baseball unveiled their sustainability initiatives that will be enforced by each team. Check out this article ...Read More...

While the holidays are filled with gifts, decorations, and lights, Santa shouldn’t be the only one checking his list twice. It’s the most wonderful time of year!  Taking the right precautions will help eliminate any risk with your lights and decorations, so you can keep the holidays jolly and bright. According ...Read More...

Can you guess this lighting technology? Compact Fluorescent Lamp (CFL) A Compact Fluorescent Lamp is a fluorescent lamp that was created to replace an incandescent light bulb. When was it invented? Edward E. Hammer, an engineer with General Electric, invented the spiral CFL in response to ...Read More...

Birchwood Lighting - Katrina What an elegant yet energy efficient way to light a room! The Katrina is a LED circular dual distribution luminaire.  This integral LED design delivers efficient and even light distribution.  It has multiple color temperatures and lumen output for controlled illumination. ...Read More...

  Take a look. The color of the apples range from a rich red to a dark fuchsia.   Which apple looks more appetizing? Why?  It all depends on the light! The color rendering of objects exhibits how well the shades are perceived by the human eye.  The Color Rendering Index (CRI) scales from 0 ...Read More...

What is LED? Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) are semiconductor devices that produce visible light when an electrical current passes through them. It is basically digital light that comes with an abundant amount of benefits. It is a highly energy efficient lighting technology and has the potential ...Read More...

The EcoSense TROV is a linear LED lighting platform designed for the needs of the lighting design community.  It provides a solution for cove lighting, wall grazing, wall washing, line of light accents, and uniform asymmetric lighting.  TROV has interior and exterior options with a flicker-free dim ...Read More...

Incandescent Light Incandescent bulbs are extremely inefficient, but a very inexpensive light source.  When power is applied, the filament glows, which generates heat, that produces light (incandescence). When there are no more particles to burn, the light bulb burns out, which typically takes ...Read More...

  Beacon’s Viper is an LED luminaire offered in 2 sizes and optimizes performance, output, and efficiency.  It is ideal for applications ranging from walkways to large logistical centers with extremely high mounting heights.  The Viper is designed for sustained, long-term performance. The Viper ...Read More...

  All brick-and-mortar retailers are challenged with brand image, online shopping, keeping stores fresh looking, and profitability. Retail environments need to offer a superior shopping experience that is interactive, interesting, and engaging. Good lighting design is critical to supporting that ...Read More...

Running errands the other day, I stopped by a hardware store.  These sconces caught my eye as I made my way into the building.  Can you tell why?  One obvious detail is the color of the light being emitted from each fixture differs completely without rhyme or reason. Some lights have a higher color ...Read More...

Lighting plays a key role in setting the right ambiance for your business or home. If you have the incorrect lighting, it can prevent the effectiveness of other elements you’re using to make the environment enjoyable. The first step is creating layers of lights with ambient, accent, and task lighting. ...Read More...

Have you ever been hurrying out of your home and leave two, three, or maybe four lights running all day? By 30 days, the lack of making a two-minute walk through your home can become costly.  For hospitals or hotels, the failure to flip the switch to off is multiplied.          Lighting controls ...Read More...

Have you ever been in a dark and gloomy parking garage or entry way? How did that make you feel? If I had to guess, it probably didn’t create an environment that was pleasant for you. Choosing lighting that creates a positive experience for customers is super crucial for business owners.  The right ...Read More...

The myriad financial benefits of a well-designed LED lighting system can be organized into 2 categories - obvious and non-obvious.    Obvious The obvious financial benefits include lower utility and maintenance expenses (i.e., for lighting and HVAC) as LED fixtures consume less energy, last longer, ...Read More...

Valet is introducing a tongue-in-cheek blog thread called "Light Shame".  The purpose is to bring attention to blunders we stumble across in the wild, and use them less as opportunities to shame those responsible than to educate folks on lighting efficiency principles.  Topics will be left up to chance ...Read More...

What's wrong with the image? All the lights are on and no one is home. This is a massive corporate campus on a Saturday morning with about 6 cleaning personnel on site, yet all the lights were on.  It makes you wonder if they ever turn off.  Maybe they're controlled by a panel with a timer.  Maybe ...Read More...

We've all worked in settings somewhere between a dungeon and dentist chair on the uncomfortable scale, so we know how this impacts our capacity to focus and overall output per unit of time.  The importance of employee comfort cannot be overstated as the cost of people is generally two orders of magnitude ...Read More...