Page 30 - enLIGHTenment - November 2017

What i lEarNEd

MAP OF RISK ZONES IN AMERICA

INSURANCE INSTITUTE FOR BUSINESS & HOME SAFETY (IBHS)

Earthquake

Hail & High Winds

Hurricane
Wild re

Winter Weather

a short amount of time. Instead, Resilient Lighting meeting was the issue of “standby power.” For all

(which is called “illumination for continued activity” of us who have “smart” voice-activated “home as-
in the UK and there is already a published Brit- sistants” such as Alexa/Echo, Google Home, and

ish standard for it) would be comprised of new Apple HomePod, it’s easy to forget that those elec-
residential lighting products that would be able to tronic devices are always “on” and “listening” for

operate for extended periods of time. The Illumi- key words in conversation for activation. Referred

nating Engineering Society (IES) has formed an IES to as “standby power,” “vampire draw,” “phantom/
Resilient Lighting Commi ee and is actively dra - ghost load,” or “leaking electricity,” it all relates to

ing a design guide for North American use.
the amount of energy that these monitoring de-
According to McGowan, these guidelines t with vices consume. Of concern to the Department of

lighting products and designs being developed for Energy (DOE) is how much power these devices

Zero Energy and Resilient Homes. There is also a – for example, a “smart” lighting system – being on
non-pro t organization called the Resilient Design 24/7 could a ect the actual energy savings.

Institute (RDI), which is tackling the issues of how Another consequence of the Internet Age has
to make homes more resistant overall to adverse been the increase in cyber-hacking and cyber-

weather conditions. It is thought that the growth security issues. Nearly every month it seems an

of solar- and ba ery-powered lights that have re- international bank, major retailer or credit card
cently come on the market are on the right track for company, or – in the case of Equifax – a credit re-

o ering solutions.
porting agency has experienced serious breaches
Other emerging topics addressed in the ALA
adversely a ecting consumers. McGowan posed

28 enLIGHTenment magazine | november 2017
WWW.enlightenmentmag.com