Sustainability and LEDs loomed large at this year’s Lightfair. At the show, exhibitors reflected the move toward eco-friendly products with skylights, daylighting systems, occupancy sensors and advanced control systems and other energy-saving lamp sources.

One such exhibitor was Ciralight, a Park City, Utah-based daylighting manufacturer that is making its entrance into the retail sector because of the widespread demands for sustainable practices in retail design. “With retail, you get hundreds of people a day going through the store and experiencing daylighting,” says ceo Mike Basch. “It’s like having a showroom without having to ask permission.”

Ciralight exhibited its SunTrackerOne Daylighting System that features a small, solar-powered cell, a controller and a three-mirror array inside an acrylic dome. The mirrors track the sun across the sky, while a diffusion and thermal barrier softens light and passes less than half of the heat of a fluorescent light fixture inside the store. According to Basch, several retailers, such as Office Depot in Greensboro, N.C., and 3G in Salt Lake City, have taken advantage the company’s energy-saving system. “There is an increasing awareness of the green movement and retailers who take the lead will have an early market advantage, particularly among those with high disposable incomes,” he says.

David Apfel of David Apfel Lighting Designs (New York), who walked the floor with VM+SD, noted such companies as Sensor Switch (Wallingford, Conn.) and HoloPhane/Acuity Brands Lighting (Newark, Ohio and Atlanta), which feature equipment to control electrical lighting and conserve energy. (HoloPhane/Acuity took home an award for its ROAM-Remote Asset Management System that remotely monitors and controls lighting systems.)

Leading with LEDs

LEDs were on prominent display at the show, with vendors lauding their long life and overall energy efficiency. And with several LED products among the top award-getters, they appear to be gaining in acceptance. “LEDs are perfect for accent lighting or color-changing,” Apfel says. “And they’re gaining ground to eventually be used to light stores and merchandise.”

The show floor was studded with exhibitor booths presenting everything from downlights using warm-white LEDs to a video display from Element Labs (Austin, Texas) that featured a transparent LED system comprised of modular panels.

However, one exhibitor in particular caught Apfel’s attention. “Color Kinetics has been a standout in color-changing LEDs,” he says. “They supply totally integrated product – both the LEDs and the control equipment that makes them work.” The Boston-based company lit up the show floor with 900 square feet of 10,000 individually programmed LED lights and nodes and a large presentation of white light, including upcoming prototypes and current models.

And the Winners Are…

At the 2007 LFI Innovation Awards Ceremony, previously known as the New Product Showcase, lighting manufacturers received recognition for design innovation. Out of 139 submissions, judges presented three Innovation Awards and 14 Best of Category Awards.

Taking top honors was The Bodine Co. (Collierville, Tenn.), winning Most Innovative Product of the Year and Best of Category in industrial, vandal, emergency exit and emergency lighting for its ARC Keeper® Arctic™ 175 HID Backup Ballast. The ballast is designed for cold conditions and maintains the arc of one 100- to 175-watt metal halide pulse-start lamp.

The Technical Excellence Award went to co-winners Philips Lighting Co. (Somerset, N.J.) and Philips Lumileds (San Jose, Calif.) for the Alto II T8 Lamp, a low-mercury fluorescent lamp, and the Luxeon Rebel, a small-power LED with an efficacy greater than 70 lumens per watt in warm, cool and neutral white color temperatures. Philips Lumileds also took home a Best of Category Award for Luxeon in specialty lamps.