Ironically, this 2,500-year-old quote is as true today as it was the day it was written. The only thing I would add is that change exists on a continuum. The level of change, for example, in lighting has been nothing short of amazing. From lifetime expectancy to lighting's role in loT, the changes are too numerous to count. So I put together a list of the five most surprising changes: 1. Solid-State Dominance. Back in 2007, when the average system efficacy for LED hovered in the low 20s, the thinking was that each technology has its strengths: incandescent in display, HID in area and fluorescent in commercial indoor. Even fiber optics were clinging to the side of the pool. Now, its LEDs all day long, up and down the channel. Not only have LEDs poached nearly every conceivable vertical, they continue to raise application efficiencies in their wake. Based on plummeting power density averages in some applications, we could predict that a decade from now, we'll have reached the point of diminishing returns as far as the energy savings to be found in most, if not all, lighting applications. That becomes interesting because as an industry, we will then be focused entirely on what are, in effect, the soft costs today: sensing and controls in addition to light and health.
展开▼
