The web-based politics and culture site Salon.com recently published an interview with Jane Brox, author of the new book “Brilliant: The Evolution of Artificial Light”. Those of us closely tied to lighting are well-versed in the implications of EISA on lighting product efficacy. What this interview presents, I think, is a look at this upcoming change and how it’s perceived outside of the industry. Sometimes we lighting geeks could do with a look at an outside perspective on the state of lighting. So here you go.

Up until this point, solid-state lighting in residential spaces has been limited mainly to niche applications: night lights, holiday strands, indicator lights, and a few others. The meat of the SSL energy savings potential, however, lies in general illumination. As with any emerging technology, sometimes a little nudge is needed, and in this case that nudge is called the L Prize.