Silver Spring, MD—The National Lighting Bureau (NLB) reports that third-quarter 2009 NEMA Lighting Systems Index results were 3.3% higher than second-quarter 2009 results. Each covered lighting equipment category except emergency lighting showed improvement. “While certainly this is good news,” said NLB Communications Director John Bachner, “we need to be realistic about what it really means. In fact, third-quarter ’09 performance is the second-worst on record, down almost 20% from third-quarter ’08 results. And compared to the third-quarter ’08 situation, every covered lighting equipment category declined, with luminaire shipments being most affected.”

Established in 1998, the NEMA Lighting Systems Index is a composite measure of lamps, luminaires, ballasts, emergency lighting, exit signs, and other lighting products shipped nationally and internationally from the United States by the 450 companies that comprise the National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA), one of the National Lighting Bureau’s founding sponsors and creator of the enLIGHTen America communications campaign (www.nemasavesenergy.org). NEMA members manufacture a wide range of products used in the generation, transmission, distribution, and control of electricity, as well as innumerable end-use products in addition to those used in lighting. Worldwide sales of NEMA members’ products exceed $120 billion.

The Index uses 2002 data for its 100-point benchmark; third-quarter 2009 performance receded to the 74-point level, its second-lowest ever.

Bachner commented that much of the third quarter’s improvement occurred because of residential construction spurred by the federal government’s first-time-homebuyer tax credit program. He said that “it’s difficult to gauge what the residential market will do now that the tax-credit program has ended, but most people seem optimistic that it will continue to recover.” He added that much depends on what happens with employment. “If unemployment remains high, more foreclosures could result, and that would have the effect of weakening demand for new homes,” he said.

Whatever optimism residential performance has created is more than offset by the pessimism associated with nonresidential construction. According to NEMA Economic Analysis Director Brian Lego, “Demand for nonresidential lighting equipment is expected to decline further thanks to ongoing weakness in the commercial real estate market. Office vacancy rates are closing in on their highest levels since the implosion of the dot-com industry; meanwhile, sharp declines in international trade, manufacturing output and wholesale inventories have pushed industrial vacancy rates to new all-time highs.

“With vacancy rates high and construction activity declining, replacement demand for lighting is expected to take a hit. Retrofitting existing lighting equipment to more energy-efficient systems will be hurt over the near term as businesses try to bolster profits by cutting any costs that are perceived as unnecessary in the near term.” Lego added that “declines in shipments of commercial lighting equipment will likely offset the modest uptrend expected in residential demand, keeping any gains in the Lighting Systems Index to a minimum as late as 2011.”

The NEMA Lighting Systems Index can be viewed at www.nlb.org/Index/.

Established in 1976, the National Lighting Bureau is a not-for-profit, independent, lighting information source sponsored by professional societies, trade associations, manufacturers, and agencies of the U.S. government, including, among others:                                             
• GE Lighting Industrial Technology, Inc.;
• Illuminating Engineering Society of North America (IES);
• interNational Association of Lighting Management Companies (NALMCO);
• Lutron Electronics Company, Inc.;
• Magnaray;
• National Electrical Contractors Association (NECA);
• National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA);
• OSRAM SYLVANIA;
• Philips Lighting Company;
• Philips Lighting Electronics (makers of Philips Advance-branded ballasts); and
• U.S. General Services Administration.

For more information about the Bureau or its designer and certifier listings, visit the Bureau’s website (www.nlb.org) or contact Bureau staff at info@nlb.org or 301/587-9572.