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How To Make Your Garage Lighting More Energy-Efficient

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Feb 262013

PinExt How To Make Your Garage Lighting More Energy Efficient

This is the fourth post in a series on saving energy with your lights. We’re tackling every space in your home and business to make sure you’re saving the most power possible. Click here to browse through all the posts.

For many of us, the garage is one of the most utilitarian rooms in the house, so there shouldn’t be any excuse for having lights that consume unnecessary energy. Whether you use your garage as a full-on workshop, or just as a place to stash your holiday decorations, you might be surprised at how much you can save with just a few simple lighting upgrades.

iStock 000019156158Small How To Make Your Garage Lighting More Energy Efficient

Let’s start by dividing the garage into different regions with unique functions: the storage area, the task area, and the entrances and exits. Continue reading »

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Pegasus Lighting Roundup: Lighting in January

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Jan 282013

PinExt Pegasus Lighting Roundup: Lighting in January

incandescent 300x199 Pegasus Lighting Roundup: Lighting in January

Image via Cleveland.com

It’s a new year, and we’re back to keep you up-to-date on what’s happening in the lighting world. So far, 2013 has brought us tons of lighting innovations, brilliant tips on improving your life with light, and some just plain cool stuff…

In Lighting News…

Starting January 1, import and manufacture of the 75-watt incandescent light bulb were banned in the U.S. as part of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007. The goal here is to move the country to a higher efficiency standard to save energy, money, and natural resources. To learn more about the act, how it affects consumers, and how to adapt, check out this article from Cleveland.com or our own recent blog post on the matter.

Philips has come out with a new way to try on clothing in retail shops called the AmbiScene Fitting Room System. The system’s LEDs let customers adjust the lighting in their dressing rooms. To see how your clothes look in different places, you can choose settings that mimic the seasons, different times of day, and even different locations like the office or a nightclub. The system is also perfect for retail displays. Check out this video to see how it works:

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Next Phase Of EISA: Losing The 75-Watt Incandescent

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Jan 242013

PinExt Next Phase Of EISA: Losing The 75 Watt Incandescent

Stock Photo Shattered Light Bulb Next Phase Of EISA: Losing The 75 Watt Incandescent
As of January 1, 2013, the second phase of EISA has taken effect, banning the import and production of 75-watt incandescent light bulbs.

For those unfamiliar, EISA stands for the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007. President Bush signed this act during his second term, and it aims to do the following:

Move the U.S. toward greater energy independence and security
Increase the production of clean, renewable fuels
Increase the efficiency of products, buildings, and vehicles
Promote research on and set up greenhouse gas capture and storage options
Improve the energy performance of the Federal Government
Increase U.S. energy security, develop renewable fuel production, and improve vehicle fuel economy

One of the main goals enacted by this legislation is to raise appliance and lighting efficiency standards, which is what has brought about the incandescent light phase outs. These older incandescent lamps just don’t meet the mark.

Last January, we said goodbye to the 100-watt incandescent lamp, and now the 75-watt has followed. It’s likely you’ll still see them in stores in coming months, but with the ban on importing or manufacturing these lights, the supplies we already have will dwindle and eventually run out. Now, a light bulb must use 53 watts or less if it emits the equivalent lumens of a 75-watt incandescent light.

These new standards are technology neutral, so any kind of light bulb can still be sold, as long as it meets the efficiency requirements. Continue reading »

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The 8 Best Excuses To Upgrade Your Lights

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Jan 112013

PinExt The 8 Best Excuses To Upgrade Your Lights

It’s a new year, and many of us have resolved to finally do what makes us happy. To stop coming up with reasons not to do the things we want. Of course, this time of year also brings many to the crippling realization of just how much they spent over the holidays, and how much they need to save in the new year.

Good lighting, beautiful lighting, new lighting in your home can really work miracles for the space’s look and feel, and even your own well-being. But, when trying to save money, springing for new lights can feel like too much of a luxury. How do you know when it’s worth it?

We’ve put our heads together here at Pegasus Lighting to come up with the 8 best reasons you should say YES! to a lighting upgrade:

1. You’re wasting money.

Blue Indirect Lighting in a Kitchen 1024x1024 The 8 Best Excuses To Upgrade Your Lights

This reasoning isn’t too hard to figure out. Wasting money on old, energy-sucking lights is worse than saving money on new, energy-saving lights. There may be a little more expense upfront, but new, efficient lights will pay for themselves really quickly. If you switch just 3 of your 60-watt incandescent light bulbs for 12-watt LEDs, you’ll save about $114 every year! To compare more light sources, take a look at this infographic.

2. You have trouble seeing.

Kitchen Lighting The 8 Best Excuses To Upgrade Your Lights

If your lights are inadequate, especially in areas where you have to intensely focus on tasks (kitchens, bathrooms, offices) you’re not doing yourself any favors. Eyestrain does not a happy homeowner make. Good lighting in these task areas will make it much easier to focus, and to get things right the first time. Make your work space a healthy one with task lighting essentials like under cabinet lights in the kitchen, or a good desk lamp for reading. Continue reading »

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18 Pictures Of Vintage Christmas Lights

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Dec 142012

PinExt 18 Pictures Of Vintage Christmas Lights

GE Lights Advert Old Christmas Lights 235x300 18 Pictures Of Vintage Christmas Lights

Image via OldChristmasTreeLights.com

The holiday season is always a nostalgic time. Here at Pegasus Lighting, we sometimes like to get nostalgic about what we love – light!

Let’s take a magical journey back in time, to revisit some of the quirkiest, silliest, loveliest, and least-functional lights of years past. (If you think today’s cheap-o incandescent string lights are frustrating, just you wait…)

Back in the day (and by “the day” I mean a day in 1903) General Electric first offered pre-wired lighting outfits, making it possible to have a fancy, lighted Christmas tree at home. These first lights were very expensive, and department stores would rent them out to patrons for the holidays.

1905

Here’s one of those early sets. The color on the glass envelopes comes from water soluble paint. They may have looked cheerful, but they burned at shockingly high temperatures that could cause serious injury. Earliest Edison Set 18 Pictures Of Vintage Christmas Lights

1918

These Ever Ready string lights from Japan are one of the first to use miniature-base flame lamps - voluptuous compared to the glass envelopes of later lights. The capricious carbon filaments of these lights made lumen outputs difficult to control.

Continue reading »

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Getting To Know Light

Light Bulbs No Responses »

Dec 122012

Every so often, we need to go back to the basics. New lighting technology has the potential to simplify our lives, but trying to actually understand it can get complicated. Check out these helpful graphics from Bulbrite’s Lightopedia to learn how to use measurements like CRI, lumen, and Kelvin temperature to find the perfect lights for your home or building…

Watt the Heck is a Lumen?

Contrary to popular belief, watts DON’T measure the brightness of a light bulb. They measure how much energy that light bulb consumes. CFLs and LEDs consume much less energy (watts) than older filament lamps, so they’ll produce more light for every watt they consume.

If you’re still in the incandescent mindset, check out this handy conversion chart showing how many lumens each incandescent light produces:

Image via Lightopedia.com

Continue reading »

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An Enticing New Alternative To Fluorescents, CFLs, and LEDs

Lighting News No Responses »

Dec 072012

PinExt An Enticing New Alternative To Fluorescents, CFLs, and LEDs

No light source is perfect. With every different light source come consumers and critics who dislike it. We complain incandescent lights don’t last long enough. They use too much energy, give off too much heat, and then that heat jacks up our A/C bills.

Fluorescents and CFLs last longer, but some people are bothered by the small amount of UV rays they emit. Sometimes they might flicker or take a while to reach full brightness. If they break, they release harmful mercury into the environment.

Even the LED, the lighting industry’s golden boy, isn’t perfect. It lacks the incandescent’s beautiful, soothing light quality. LEDs are still expensive, and it can be hard as heck to make them with dimming capabilities.

Clearly, we still have work to do. But now, there’s a new light source that might just give these other guys a run for their money.

It’s called FIPEL. Doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue, does it? Well, whatever the name, this new light source could be the answer to the comfortable, efficient light we crave.

An Enticing New Alternative To Fluorescents, CFLs, and LEDs

Image via Ken Bennett, Wake Forest University Photographer

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The Quest for Quality Light

Lighting News No Responses »

Sep 282012

Since the advent of the incandescent (and even before), quality of light has been on the tip of everyone’s tongue. Regrettably, that quality has mostly been unfortunate. When incandescent lights were the only choice, the early 20^th century population complained about the glare and the possible dangers of electricity.

Case in point: on an episode of Downton Abbey (Masterpiece’s smash hit about an elite family living on an estate in the early 1900’s), the prim and hilarious Dowager Countess laments the new electric lamps:

“Such a glare! I couldn’t have electricity in the house – I wouldn’t sleep a wink. All those vapors seeping about. Feels as if I were on stage at the Gaiety.”

Downton Abbey 1024x576 The Quest for Quality Light

The Countess shielding herself from the electric lights. Courtesy of Downton Abbey.

Not only were people of the time dissatisfied with the brightness of the lights, they also were afraid electricity was going to leap out of the walls and plug points and infect them!

Even when fluorescent and mercury vapor lights came along in the 1930s, their blue-green hues and poor color rendering indexes made them sorry alternatives. The people were left to compare the poor quality of gas-discharge lamps vs. the poor quality of phosphor-generated lights vs. the incandescent lights they had learned to live with.

Finally, according to the LIGHTimes Online, quality of light may be gaining a positive spin thanks to LEDs. Yes, like many of the lights before them, LEDs have provided their share of poor quality with cheaply manufactured lamps that claimed way more than they actually could deliver. But now, all the major LED manufacturers have incorporated quality of light into their daily vocabulary. Continue reading »

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Pegasus Lighting Roundup: Updates and Renovations

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Sep 262012

PinExt Pegasus Lighting Roundup: Updates and Renovations

This month, more of us are trading out old light fixtures for (surprise) LEDs. Others are re-purposing old lights in illuminating ways…

In Lighting News…

Cree’s New 10-year Warranty on LEDs. Just this week Cree (a notable LED manufacturer) introduced a 10 year warranty on nearly all new commercial light fixtures. For many of us still skeptical about the quality of LEDs on the market today, Cree’s commitment to long-term performance and reliability is a relief.

Pegasus Lighting Roundup: Updates and Renovations

Courtesy of MiamiHerald.com

Notable LED Makeovers at Home and Abroad. Everywhere more and more iconic structures and events are adopting LED lights. A few recent additions include:

The Miami Tower: This beautiful upgrade allows for custom light shows and will reduce the 47-story building’s related lighting energy usage by over 92%.
LSU’s Tiger Stadium: The 90-year-old, 92,000-seat stadium stepped up its game with a multicolor, LED lighting system. It enhances the structure’s architecture, and fans love it!
Oktoberfest: One of Frankfurt’s most popular tents, the Hippodrome, just replaced its 25-watt incandescent light bulbs with 550 5-watt LEDs. The warmly lit atmosphere won’t change, but they’ll save about 1.2 tons in CO2 emissions.

LEDs Increase Plant Growth. Researchers at Penn State conducted a recent experiment, testing the benefits of using LED grow lights against more traditional fluorescent and incandescent light bulbs. The results were astounding. Not only did LEDs cost less to operate and maintain, but they also caused a noticeable increase in plant growth.

LEDs Increase Plant Growth Pegasus Lighting Roundup: Updates and Renovations

Plants grown with LEDs are on the left. Photo courtesy of the Penn State Department of Public Information.

Continue reading »

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How To Cope When Your Favorite Light Bulb Gets The Shaft: Reflector Lamps

Light Bulbs No Responses »

Sep 052012

PinExt How To Cope When Your Favorite Light Bulb Gets The Shaft: Reflector Lamps

This post is the second in a three part series on EISA light bulb phase-outs: what’s leaving, why it’s leaving, and how we can cope. If you missed the first post on household lamps, you can find it here.

Discontinued Reflector Lamps

New standards have also hit the halogen and incandescent reflector lamps that don’t meet efficiency requirements set by the EISA. The act affects the following:

BR, ER, and BPAR lamps
Reflector lamps between 2.25” (R18) and 2.75” (R22) in diameter
Lamps that have a rated wattage of 40 watts or higher

It really boils down to a lumens per watt issue here. If a lamp doesn’t produce enough light for the amount of energy it consumes, it’s on the way out.

Here’s your guide to the new LPW standards as of 7/14/12 for 40W-205W lamps*:

Lamp Size (Diameter)	Voltage	Minimum Lumens Per Watt	Replacement Options
2.5” (R20 and PAR20)	120V	13.5 to 21.0 LPW	LED, CFL, Halogen IR
2.5” (R20 and PAR20)	130V	15.4 to 24.0 LPW	LED, CFL Halogen IR
>2.5” (PAR30, PAR38, BR30, BR40, ER30, ER40)	120V	16.0 to 24.8 LPW	LED, CFL, Halogen IR
>2.5” (PAR30, PAR38, BR30, BR40, ER30, ER40)	130V	18.4 to 28.6 LPW	LED, CFL, Halogen IR

*Exemptions to these standards include: Rough service or vibration lamps; colored PAR lamps; BR30, BR40, and ER40 lamps rated at 65 watts; ER30, BR30, BR40, and ER40 lamps rated at 50 watts or less; R20 lamps rated at 45 watts or less. These regulations apply to standard spectrum reflector lamps only. For modified spectrum lamps standards are approximately 17% less stringent. For more info check out this article. Continue reading »

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