Being a home owner comes with more responsibility than some people realize, and it can get overwhelming. There are certain aspects about your home that you may have overlooked, or just thought wasn’t important, like your HVAC system. Not paying attention to your HVAC can become very troublesome for your home and cause several issues.

CaseStudy Design, has become locally popular for their unique light fixtures that are made out of … wait for it … books! If you’re as surprised as I was when I first learned about CaseStudy Design and its owner/founder/designer Chall Gray, who are engaged in the practice of upcycling old things like books into lovely light fixtures, then read on for an interesting interview with a book-lover turned lamp designer.

1. Hello, Chall, and thanks for talking with me. First, can you tell me a little about your background and upbringing?

I’m a native of western North Carolina, and grew up on a farm out in the country. Design was something that gradually became more and more central to my life and predilections the older I’ve gotten.

2. So you’ve grown up surrounded by upcyclable things. That makes me wonder: Why books? Why not make lamps out of tissue boxes, skulls, or aluminum cans?

4. What are your goals with Case Study Design? What does the future look like?

I currently work full-time as VP at Thirsty Monk, where we have a series of beer and cocktail bars and a brewery, so I’m only able to devote so much time to CaseStudy, but it’s a central passion of my life, and luckily production doesn’t depend on my schedule because our Production Manager crafts the lights in our shop in West Asheville. As of this week our lights will be on display in Downtown Books & News, a great used bookstore in downtown Asheville, and we’re also working on a design collaboration with a local audio company on a set of home speakers, actually, which is a fun side-project. I’d love to grow the business to having a larger retail presence over the next couple of years, but really, we’re having a blast just designing and building lights.

6. Who are some of your favorite designers, lighting or otherwise?

My influences are pretty varied, but a few touchstones are the architect Tom Kundig, whose work I go back to time and time again, the shoe designer John Fluevog, and watchmaker George Daniels. The great modernists of the 20th Century, Frank Lloyd Wright, Saarinen, Eames, etc. And in terms of lighting, Ingo Maurer and Ilse Crawford immediately spring to mind.

Conclusion: Chall Gray and his CaseStudy Design Firm are doing impressive things with upcycled materials and here!

A new thing we will be doing every here every month on the MyLEDLightingGuide’s official blog is curating things from all around the web relating to the LED lighting industry. Here are the types of articles and pieces of content that will often be featured on our monthly link roundup:

This post will be covering all of the happenings from the past month, September of 2016. We also plan to give a brief summary of each piece we include, just to get a better idea of what it’s about, who it’s for, and why it might be valuable for you to take a look at.

Without further ado, here is the first addition of A Month in The LED Lighting Industry Link Roundup…

High Bay Luminare and Lamp Market Expected to Reach $20.4 Billion by 2024

For anyone involved in the lighting industry, even remotely, this is great news to hear. As LED products become cheaper and cheaper overall, the resistance from facility managers to make the investment in LED fixtures is reducing. This trend seems to be growing, and there is seemingly only a positive future in LED; especially in the commercial lighting world.

As LED Streetlights Spread, Some Critics Look for Dimmer Switch

While some concerns relating to the light that LEDs give off is bad for street lighting scenarios, cities are still picking up the technology for obvious reasons (from cost reduction to higher quality lighting). On the contrary, critics are looking for these LED street fixtures to be dimmed down a bit, all for some fairly valid reasons that you will discover in this piece of content.

How LED Lights Influence the Bats Activity

To finish off this seemingly street light themed roundup, this post discusses the influence LED lights are having on bat activity. Is this a way for those with bat issues to deal with it or not? In short; they will reduce some issues you may have with bats and related night time animals. But check this one out to get a better understanding on how it may help.

Interesting Reads:

Here are some not-so-relevant but still relevant articles that we think are highly interesting and definitely worth the read.

First Pro Basketball Game Held on LED Court in Japan

If you were gifted electronics for Christmas, it’s time to ensure their protection! The last thing you want is for your new computer, tablet, HD television, or gaming system to take on destructive surges, rendering it useless. Spare yourself the heartache of losing an expensive electronic gadget by using surge protectors.

Anything that has a plug is susceptible to surges. In fact, surges happen all the time, you just don’t know it. Not every surge has the capacity to fry your electronics and appliances right then, however, even small surges can shorten their lifespans.

Simply put, an electrical surge is a brief spike in the current, lasting less than a thousandth of a second. But don’t let its fleeting personality fool you, as a surge can be detrimental.

There are numerous reasons as to why you’re experiencing electrical surges. Large appliances such as a refrigerator, air conditioner, or even a space heater, when turned on, can cause a surge capable of damaging your electronics.