Center for Energy & Environment

Submitted by Mike Miller, Director of Education

Have you ever thought how significant changes in technology have made our lives more comfortable? I think one of the biggest electrical upgrades we’ve all experienced is LED lighting. Of course, our use of such technologies requires  some quality standards be in place. 

In a recent podcast I hosted for the Association, I had the pleasure of connecting with Mr. Mike Verhulst, a lighting consultant with Center for Energy and Environment (CEE) in Minneapolis. He shared a great deal of information about CEE and how it directly guides our selection of lighting products that meet a high standard of performance and longevity. 

CEE started as a subsidy of the Minneapolis Division of Energy Conservation in 2001 in order to educate consumers on conserving energy by properly insulating homes. The science of assisting people with energy conservation eventually turned to lighting.

CEE recognized a need to ensure that consumers were getting what they paid for in LED lighting. They support the work of Design Lighting Consortium (DLC) and promoted their work in getting the word out in selecting quality LED lighting.
DLC is a nationally recognized group of college professors, lighting design experts in commercial businesses, lighting manufacturers, and utilities who came together and sponsored testing of LED fixtures on the market and developed tests to enable consumers to know if LED lighting equipment met the manufacturer’s promise of warranty, watts/lumen, lumen output, and energy savings. 

Those fixtures that did not live up to these advertised standards were not given a DLC designation for their product. Today, DLC designations are a sought-after marking that indicates a quality LED  product. DLC does not evaluate recessed can fixtures, screw-in style LED lamps, or exterior luminaires.

So, electrical workers, here is the ray of hope… DLC has our back when we are working with customers discussing warranty, watts/lumen, lumen output, and energy savings for LED lighting. 

So now we know! 

Have a SAFE and fun-filled summer!

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