March 3, 2023
5 Things to Know: Week Ending March 4
Wattstopper's new partnership is not just another agency change
Here's a roundup of some of the week's happenings curated to help lighting people stay informed.
1. Capital Electric files U.S. Court Case against Contractor
One of the many risks that lighting and electrical distributors take is that sometimes contractors purchase materials and are slow to pay – and occasionally, they don’t pay at all. It’s often time- and cost-prohibitive for a distributor to make a federal case out of past due invoices, but that is exactly what Sonepar-owned Capital Lighting & Supply is doing.
Capital Lighting & Supply, also known as Capital Electric and formerly known as Capital Tri-State, yesterday filed a lawsuit in United States District Court for the District of Maryland claiming that Frederick Electric Company has failed to pay numerous invoices totaling $27,375 for a renovation project at the Leidos Building at Fort Detrick in Frederick, Maryland.
According to the contractor’s 2020 credit application, Frederick Electric Company generated $5 million in 2019 sales and does business with other D.C. area distributors including Shepherd Electric and Maurice Electric Supply. Once Frederick Electric Company is served with the lawsuit, they will have 30 days to file a response to Capital Electric’s allegations.
2. Wattstopper's SoCal Agent Change is a Unique One
As reported last month, Legrand’s Wattstopper has made an agent move in Southern California. Marketplace chatter in recent weeks was validated yesterday with the announcement that Wattstopper is teaming up with SCI Lighting Solutions. The new representation commenced yesterday, March 2, and affects the Greater Los Angeles and San Diego markets.
This move is notable for a number of reasons:
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We believe that California is the highest-volume U.S. state for lighting controls.
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When Wattstopper makes an agency change it usually does not partner with an agent that already represents Cooper Lighting Solutions or Acuity Brands.
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SCI Lighting Solutions represents Cooper Lighting throughout Southern California and is now (we believe) only the fifth Cooper Lighting agent to also represent Wattstopper. Other outliers are:
- Quality Lighting Systems (Upstate NY)
- Engineered Lighting Sales (Kentucky)
- Lighting Associates (Eastern Missouri, Southern Illinois)
- Mercer-Zimmerman (Western Missouri, Kansas, Iowa, Nebraska)
3. San Diego’s Ongoing Smart Streetlight Debate
As reported by Times of San Diego, thousands of smart streetlights were in use in San Diego for several years before city leaders agreed to deactivate the video-recording capabilities of the devices in 2020 amid protests over perceived government intrusiveness and demands for limits on how they could be used.
Next week, the San Diego Police Department will hold a series of community meetings next week to inform the public and gather feedback on a proposal to use streetlights equipped with surveillance cameras and automated license-plate readers as tools to solve crimes. The hearings will take place under terms of a 2022 ordinance detailing requirements that every city department meet for each technology that meets the criteria of surveillance, officials said.
4. Cleveland Streetlights Strobe Effect
Drivers on East 55th Street in Cleveland, Ohio may have recently witnessed an unusual and unpleasant sight as the streetlights from Rally's Drive-In to many blocks past Dollar General were strobing along a 1-mile stretch of road.
According to Cleveland Fox 8 News’ Patty Harken, the unusual strobe effect was seemingly caused by a Lincoln SUV that collided with a streetlight pole. Harken indicated that there was no word on the driver’s condition, but went on to report that the collision “did a number to the traffic lights and the streetlights.”
5. Quantifying Dark Skies
A recently published report reveals that a team of scientists investigated the change in global sky brightness from 2011 to 2022 using 51,351 citizen scientist observations of naked-eye stellar visibility.
According to The Conversation, the data shows that the night sky got, on average, 9.6% brighter every year. For many people, the night sky today is twice as bright as it was eight years ago. The brighter the sky, the fewer stars you can see.
If this trend continues, a child born today in a place where 250 stars are visible now would only be able to see 100 stars on their 18th birthday.
