Illumination 400

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Illumination 400

October 6, 2026
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IEEE Education & Healthcare Facilities Committee

NEC Section 226.6 Conductor Size and Support (B) Festoon Lighting

EC&M Article 225: Outside Branch Circuits

Electrical Time: Definition of Festoon Lighting

“Starry Night Over the Rhône” 1888 Vincent van Gogh


Today we refresh our understanding of the moment in illumination technologies for outdoor lighting systems— related but different from our exploration of building interior illumination systems in Illumination 200.  Later in 2024 we will roll out Illumination 400 (Holiday illumination) and Illumination 500 which explores litigation related to public illumination technology.  As cities-within-cities the shared perimeter of a campus with the host municipality has proven rich in legal controversy and action.

Illumination technology was the original inspiration for the electric utility industry; providing night-time security and transforming every sector of every economy on earth.  Lighting load remains the largest component of any building’s electric load — about 35 percent– making it a large target for energy regulations.

Our inquiry begins with selections from the following documents…

International Electrotechnical Commission TC 34 Lighting

IEC 60364 Electrical Installations in Buildings

2023 National Electrical Safety Code

IEEE P3001.9 – Recommended Practice for the Design of Power Systems Supplying Lighting Systems in Commercial and Industrial Facilities

Institution of Engineering and Technology: Recommendations for Energy-efficient Exterior Lighting Systems

2023 National Electrical Code: Article 410  (While the bulk of the NEC concerns indoor wiring fire hazards, there are passages that inform outdoor lighting wiring safety)

2019 ASHRAE 90.1: Chapter 9 Lighting

Illumination Engineering Society: Various titles

ISO/TC 274 Light and lighting

Salt Water River Project: Outdoor Lighting Standards

US DOE-EERE Building Energy Codes Program

…and about 20 other accredited, consortia or ad hoc standards developers and publishers aligned principally with vertical incumbents.  Illumination was the original inspiration (i.e. the first “killer app”) for the electrical power industry in every nation.  Its best practice literature reflects a fast-moving, shape-changing domain.

Click in today with the login credentials at the upper right of our home page.

Upper Wharfedale Primary Federation School District Yorkshire Dales

McGill University: Before electricity, streets were filled with gas lights

Outdoor lighting systems can be owned and maintained by different entities depending on the context and location. Here are some examples of ownership regimes for outdoor lighting systems:

  1. Public ownership: In this case, outdoor lighting systems are owned and maintained by the local government or municipal authority. The lighting may be installed in public spaces such as parks, streets, and other outdoor areas for the safety and convenience of the public.
  2. Private ownership: Outdoor lighting systems may be owned by private individuals or organizations. For example, a business owner may install outdoor lighting for security or aesthetic reasons, or a homeowner may install outdoor lighting in their garden or yard.
  3. Co-owned: Outdoor lighting systems may be owned jointly by multiple entities. For example, a residential community may jointly own and maintain outdoor lighting in their shared spaces such as parking areas, community parks, or recreational facilities.
  4. Utility ownership: Outdoor lighting systems may be owned and maintained by utility companies such as electric or energy companies. These companies may install and maintain street lights or other lighting systems for the public good.
  5. Third-party ownership: In some cases, a third-party entity may own and maintain outdoor lighting systems on behalf of a public or private entity. For example, a lighting contractor may install and maintain lighting in a public park on behalf of a local government.

The ownership regime of an outdoor lighting system can have implications for issues such as installation, maintenance, and cost-sharing. It is important to consider ownership when designing and implementing outdoor lighting systems to ensure their long-term effectiveness and sustainability.

More

International Commission on Illumination

National Electrical Manufacturers Association

National Electrical Contractors Association

Representative Specifications

Sam Houston State University | Division 26500 Interior and Exterior Lighting

University of Delaware | Division 265100 Interior Lighting

Cal Poly University San Luis Obispo | Division 265100 Interior Lighting

Relevant Research

Enhancing the Sustainability of Outdoor Floodlighting for Cultural Heritage Buildings

The Performance and Impact of LED Floodlights in an Outdoor Electrical Substation During Misty Weather Conditions

Replacement of HPS Luminaires with LED Luminaires for the Lighting Requirements of an Outdoor Electrical Substation

 

Education, Health & Sport Essential Works

October 6, 2026
mike@standardsmichigan.com
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Abstract: A new committee* under the Industrial and Commercial Power Systems (I&CPS) Department of the Industry Applications Society (IAS) received approval at the October 2014 IAS Annual Meeting, in Vancouver. This committee will be dedicated to the special needs and characteristics of the Educational and Healthcare segments of the US and World economies. For example, these two segments of the US economy, alone, annually spend $60 billion on electrical and telecommunication systems; yet, these two segments are either underrepresented, or not represented at all, in most electrical engineering forums, code writing, and/or standards writing institutions. (May 2015)

A few of the University’s Electrical Engineers

APERÇU
Education, Health & Sport Essential Works

The change from IEEE Education & Healthcare Facilities Committee
to IEEE Education, Health & Sport Essential Works Committee
is more than a change of label. It better describes the territory.

“Facilities” directs attention toward buildings. Our work has never stopped at
the building envelope. Universities, schools, hospitals and athletic enterprises
depend upon networks of electrical power, communications, water, transportation,
energy storage, emergency systems and digital infrastructure extending across
campuses and into the surrounding public utility fabric.

Facilities describes the containers;
Essential Works describes the systems that make them work.

Essential Works is therefore the larger and more accurate idea.
It directs attention toward the infrastructure necessary for an educational
settlement to function continuously, safely and economically.

Replacing Healthcare with Health broadens the
field as well. Health encompasses hospitals and clinical facilities but also
research laboratories, public health, student health, rehabilitation, wellness
and the increasingly interconnected medical and research systems found on
university campuses.

Adding Sport recognizes another substantial class of infrastructure.
Stadiums, arenas, natatoria, field houses and outdoor athletic complexes present
demanding problems of illumination, power quality, emergency power, broadcasting,
communications, crowd safety, refrigeration and increasingly sophisticated
digital systems.

The three words — Education, Health & Sport — describe enduring
human activities. Essential Works describes the technical systems
that sustain them.

That is closer to what the committee actually does: not merely standards for
facilities, but engineering for the complex settlements in which people
learn, heal, compete and live.

 

“The Boy Friend”

October 5, 2026
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Cheesy Hamburger Skillet

October 5, 2026
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Michigan Central

C

CLICK HERE FOR RECIPE

MSU’s Extension’s Beef Production program supports Michigan’s beef industry through research, education, and outreach to enhance producer profitability, sustainability, and quality of life. It focuses on key areas like nutrition, genetics, grazing management, health, reproduction, and economics. Notable efforts include advancing grass-fed beef systems, feedlot management, and beef x dairy crossbreeding.

Conducted at facilities such as the Lake City and Upper Peninsula Research Farms, the program offers workshops, resources (e.g., pricing tools, disease prevention guides), and youth education via 4-H market beef projects and family recipes.

Family Housing

October 5, 2026
mike@standardsmichigan.com
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Fitchburg State University: Expansion of On-Campus Family Housing

University of Washington: UH4 Housing Project

University of Santa Cruz: Early Education Center

“Kindergarten” 1885 Johann Sperl

Today at the usual hour we examine recent case studies of residential building projects that support family formation.

University of Santa Cruz: New child care center, student housing

University of Kentucky: Graduate and Family Housing

University of Utah: Sunnyside Apartments – Family and Graduate Housing

University of Colorado Boulder: Graduate and Family Housing

The Married Student

Once upon a time the American university once understood that a student might also be a husband and father.

After World War II, the G.I. Bill brought millions of veterans into higher education. They were older than the customary undergraduate population and many arrived with wives and children. At the University of Michigan, roughly one-third of the first great wave of returning veterans were married. The University responded with Veterans Village, apartments at Willow Run and, eventually, the Northwood married-student communities.

The University of Idaho and others managed much the same problem. Veterans returned to campus with wives and young children, overwhelming housing designed principally for single students. Idaho assembled three temporary “Vet Villages” from trailers and surplus federal buildings. Those makeshift communities were eventually succeeded by purpose-built married-student and family housing.

These were not peripheral welfare programs. They were physical accommodations to a national policy: educate returning American servicemen without requiring them to postpone marriage and family life while doing so.

Michigan’s Northwood and Idaho’s family housing therefore belong to an important architectural and social tradition. The university did not assume that education and family formation occupied separate stages of life. It built for both.

As universities again expand family housing, the useful question is not simply how many apartments they are building. It is whether the institution still understands the purpose that gave rise to them: making higher education compatible with forming and supporting a young family — an American family.  

Related:

Maternity Metrix

Homophily Michigan

Family Housing: Cache County

October 5, 2026
mike@standardsmichigan.com

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Standards Utah

Chris Williamson

Involuntary Childlessness: Academia and Collapsing Birth Rates

“The only true measure of wealth is children” | Tucker Carlson

…”Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.
You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,
which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams…”

Safety for the Household

October 5, 2026
mike@standardsmichigan.com
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https://nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/Legacy/circ/nbscircular463.pdf

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