Getting Started – The Basics
What You Need to Know About Healthy Lighting Products
They are LED Based – Why?
At present, the Light Emitting Diode=LED is the only form of inexpensive lighting that has the ability to create the full natural spectrum of sun’s light. In fact, LEDs are able to create harmful parts of the sunlight spectrum that the earth’s atmosphere protects us from. Creating this part of the Solar spectrum under shielded conditions is capable of disabling pathogens such as bacteria, viruses and moulds.
The technology behind LEDs is semiconductor based. Most to the products we use in telecommunications and computers are semiconductors. This means that we can easily add communications and computing ability to this form of lighting.
LED lighting uses less energy than other forms of lighting – up to 80% less for the same light we used to receive from traditional incandescent and fluorescent bulbs. The low energy use of LED based bulbs combined with a life cycle measured in years or decades changes the whole idea of the light bulb to that of a fixture rather than a disposable.
LEDs changes the way we talk about lighting
Initially, we use the traditional term “Watts” to match LED bulbs to the traditional brightness/energy level of the old bulb. For example, we look for the LED equivalent to the old 60 or 100 Watt light. We replace the incandescent or fluorescent bulb with a LED giving the same light, but at a much lower wattage (25 Watts or less).
Now comes the new part, we get to decide what part of the outdoor sunlight spectrum we want. Often, this choice allows one to decide not only what part of the spectrum one desires, but how bright the light should be.
The spectral range of the LED bulb or lamp offers us a range of choices in both spectral range and brightness. The simplest is a LED bulb set for a specific spectrum and brightness – for example a bright white 6000 Kelvin LED at 900 Lumens brightness. The next possibility is a bulb that allows you to select a series of possible spectra (eg. orange/yellow at 2500K, white/yellow at 3500K, soft white at 4500K and blue/white at 6000K) and brightness from low to high Lumens (like a rheostat) by remote control (through Wi-Fi on your phone or remote switch). Finally, there are full spectra bulbs offer full choice of spectra (anything between 2500 and 6500K) along with timer setting to match the spectral changes of outdoor sunlight mimicking the transformation of light spectra throughout the day – again using Wi-Fi to set up the desired light spectra and brightness.
The Basics of Healthy
Circadian Lighting
What should I be looking for?
Full spectrum variable indoor light that gives me the health benefits of outdoor sunlight throughout the day.
Why do I want it ?
Matching the spectral changes that occur in outdoor light brings energy and focus to our work activity early in the day. Later the changing light spectrum slowly allows for relaxation and builds up important sleep enhancing Melatonin for a good night’s rest. The subtile chemical changes that this spectral change to yellow/orange from blue/white helps our physiology avoids the chemical stress of total exhaustion by allowing us to gradually move to a more restful state.
Where do I go and what should I be looking at to get lighting that provides the indoor health benefits of outdoor light?
Changing over to better healthy indoor light may be as simple as changing the light bulbs or lamps from single spectrum to variable full spectrum lighting. NOTE: “variable” means that one can change or set the spectral color of the light source by means of an external controls (mobile phone wi-fi, separate wi-fi switch sold with the bulb or rewired wall switch made for spectral and intensity control).
The following is a chart of vendors offering variable spectrum light bulbs, their spectral range in Kelvins, Color Rendering Index (CRI), wattage as compared with the old standard wattage, Lumen output (brightness) and ability to control Lumen output and price range.