In 2003, when your humble editor was President of the Illuminating Engineering Society, I gave a talk at one of the conferences and discussed one of the then-important problems of our industry: initial metal halide lumen depreciation. After the talk I was quickly chastised by one of the large lamp manufacturers who had been involved in litigation because their lumen curves did not quite measure up. I was told that my talk was “unhelpful.”
An installed lighting job not measuring up to the specified lighting job is an age-old problem, many times leaving the lighting designer on the hook to solve the problem. Today, Jim Benya of Benya Burnett Consultancy demonstrated a solution during a panel discussion at LEDucation 9. Jim displayed a pocket spectrometer which sends metrics to his iPad and showed the results of our conference room lighting in real time: CCT of 2895, CRI of 87, with 97 Lux. The R9 was 32 and he held up his iPad showing the spectral distribution.
Jim called the pocket spectrometer one of the coolest things to hit lighting recently and spoke of writing specifications where the product must meet “field measurable metrics” during the warranty period, or the gear would have to be replaced.
This could dramatically affect our industry.
Your humble editor asked Jim if he was now adding these metrics to his specifications, and Jim explained that he does not plan to add this requirement on jobs where he works with reps and manufacturers where he has close working relationships. However, on large jobs, such as airports, or jobs where he may not be as comfortable with a manufacturer, he will add the requirement to the spec.
Jim also does expert witness testimony and reminded the audience that lighting designers are being held liable on inferior lighting jobs. Strong specifications, now coupled with field measurable metrics, can dramatically protect the specification community.
The panel discussed jobs gone bad where the manufacturer did the right thing and replaced equipment. Given this new device, the lighting designers will easily have the facts on their side.