Mr. Chow has written an excellent article on lighting design that anyone, whether interested in LEED or just good lighting should read as a primer. I have seen lighting considered as an afterthought on far too many projects.

Either people don’t want to spend the money on good quality lighting, or they do not receive accurate and proper guidance from their architect or contractor. In either event, I see locations that are either too bright and have glare, or end up cave like in both quality and quantity of light.

The good news is that lighting has come a long way over the years. In just the past 10 years we have gone from T-8 to T-5 fluorescent lighting with CRI’s of over 90 to now being at the point where I will not even recommend fluorescent lighting…only LED.

Besides energy savings, LED’s have excellent life cycle cost benefits with regard to maintenance and end of life disposal. They are not hazardous like fluorescent bulbs…the one point Mr. Chow leaves out.

Mr. Chow’s observations on CRI and lumens, as well as his observations on sensors is right on the money.

Read the full article:
Lighting system design