Discontinued Operations - Income (Loss) By Business (Details) - USD ($) $ in Thousands	3 Months Ended	9 Months Ended
Sep. 30, 2015	Sep. 30, 2014	Sep. 30, 2015	Sep. 30, 2014
Income Statement, Balance Sheet and Additional Disclosures by Disposal Groups, Including Discontinued Operations [Line Items]
Loss from discontinued operations	$ (53)	$ (659)	$ (167)	$ (916)
Loss on disposal of discontinued operations	(89)	0	(161)	0
Loss from discontinued operations before income taxes	(142)	(659)	(328)	(916)
Benefit from income taxes	0	0	(10)	(2)
Loss from discontinued operations	(142)	(659)	(318)	(914)
Crescent Lighting Limited [Member]
Income Statement, Balance Sheet and Additional Disclosures by Disposal Groups, Including Discontinued Operations [Line Items]
Loss from discontinued operations	(55)	(274)	(138)	(538)
Loss on disposal of discontinued operations	(44)	0	(44)	0
Energy Focus LED Solutions, LLC [Member]
Income Statement, Balance Sheet and Additional Disclosures by Disposal Groups, Including Discontinued Operations [Line Items]
Loss from discontinued operations	2	(385)	(29)	(358)
Pool Division [Member]
Income Statement, Balance Sheet and Additional Disclosures by Disposal Groups, Including Discontinued Operations [Line Items]
Loss from discontinued operations	0	0		(20)
Loss on disposal of discontinued operations	$ (45)	$ 0	$ (117)	$ 0

Amount of gain (loss), before tax expense or benefit and not previously recognized, resulting from the sale of a business component.

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Overall income (loss) from a disposal group that is classified as a component of the entity, before income tax, reported as a separate component of income before extraordinary items. Includes the following (before income tax): income (loss) from operations during the phase-out period, gain (loss) on disposal, provision (or any reversals of earlier provisions) for loss on disposal, and adjustments of a prior period gain (loss) on disposal.

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Pretax income (loss) from operations of a business component (exclusive of any gain (loss) on disposal, or provision therefore) during the reporting period, until its disposal.

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Tax effect allocated to a disposal group that is classified as a component of the entity reported as a separate component of income before extraordinary items. Includes the tax effects of the following: income (loss) from operations during the phase-out period, gain (loss) on disposal, provision (or any reversals of earlier provisions) for loss on disposal, and adjustments of a prior period gain (loss) on disposal.

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Amount of income (loss) from a disposal group, net of income tax, reported as a separate component of income before extraordinary items after deduction or consideration of the amount allocable to noncontrolling interests. Includes, net of tax, income (loss) from operations during the phase-out period, gain (loss) on disposal, provision (or any reversals of earlier provisions) for loss on disposal, and adjustments of a prior period gain (loss) on disposal.

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Line items represent financial concepts included in a table. These concepts are used to disclose reportable information associated with domain members defined in one or many axes to the table.

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