Page 32 - enLIGHTenment Magazine - December 2015

2015
A CONFERENCE
lessons from ala
HUNTINGTON BEACH

HITTING THE

Hot Button

Speaking to nearly a standing room-only crowd, lighting experts Carl Bloom eld

of Intertek, Mike O’Boyle from Philips Lighting, David Shiller of Lighting Solution

Development, and ALA’s Director of Engineering Terry McGowan shared their

thoughts on Residential Lighting’s Top Five Hot-Bu on Technical Issues.

S

elling lighting is not like it used to be, and the concept of “lighting systems” versus testing a

with technology changing so quickly, ALA single light source or element as was standard in the
members were able to hear what these past. “Or how do you evaluate a single luminaire that

four members of ALA’s Engineering Com- is connected to another system,” he asked.
mi ee believe are the key elements to
Controls for lighting – especially as it relates to wi-

know when selling these high-tech lighting systems apps on smartphones and tablets – remain another

to the average homeowner.
topic of discussion. “Historically we had standards
According to McGowan, who coordinated the for testing wall-mounted controls, but now that

session, the purpose was to hammer out the criti- some of these LEDs and LED systems have the con-
cal technical issues that must be considered and trols built in; it’s not the same as [testing] something

managed if these products are to be successfully that is hardwired on the wall,” Bloom eld recounted.

designed and sold in today’s market.
There has also been growth in what is called “cus-
Carl Bloom eld, Director/Global Lighting Busi- tom products” or “one-o s.” According to Bloom eld,
There are
ness for testing facility Intertek, explained, “Due maybe a custom lighting system is designed for a
to regulation di erences, there are challenges for speci c hotel. “It might need to do things that there
headaches
a manufacturer to sell a product internationally aren’t standard requirements for,” he said. “We are

that occur overseas as well as to the U.S. And the technology ge ing called in when the product is there on-site
involving the ETL and the UL listing mark is rapidly and we’ll hear from the inspector that the building
when you
changing. We’ve been at this Conference for two can’t get a C.O. without the testing label.” There are
days and there’s probably a new chip or component headaches that occur when you have to modify an
have to
that’s already come out [ready to be tested].”
existing product to suit a new purpose. “It requires

modify an The second concern, from a testing point of view, an understanding of where you are trying to go with
is how to address this new technology using cur- a product,” he a rmed.

existing rent standards. “For example, you can’t always say Audience member Je Dross, a veteran of
something must comply with ‘this’ if ‘this’ doesn’t Kichler’s engineering department, asked if there are

product to even exist yet,’” noted Bloom eld, who is concerned lessons the lighting industry can learn from develop-

suit a new about evaluating safety and performance issues if ments in the electronics industry, which has dealt
there are not yet standards in place to measure it by with solid-state lighting for far longer. Bloom eld

purpose.
[because the technology is so new].
con rmed that testing labs do have a knowledge
Another concern that Bloom eld mentioned was
base from TVs and other electronics that might be

30 enLIGHTenment magazine | December 2015
www.enlightenmentmag.com