HUMAN-CENTRIC LIGHTING: TECHNOLOGY AND LIGHTING
Human-centric lighting, also known as circadian lighting or lighting for health and well being is and important topic for lighting designers and interior builders who are constantly strategically planning while deciding the type of lighting to use in a space during construction.
In a nutshell, human-centric lighting is a term used to describe the circadian rhythms (your body’s sleep/wake cycle), mood, visual acuity, improved productivity, energy savings and sustainability. Thanks to the advancement of technology, there now exists new capabilities to dim and “tune” correlated color temperature — commonly known as kelvin changing or shifting.
In this article, we are going to look at what human-centric lighting is, how it affects our health, and what to consider before you invest in this technology.
What is human-centric lighting?
Human-centric lighting can be defined in many different ways depending on what one is focusing on. Some definitions could focus on the circadian rhythms, others could focus on day-lighting and other user experiences, while a few could go much deeper into analyzing the mood, visual acuity, productivity and all other aspects of lighting. The most important thing to note is the human-centric lighting takes into account on how all aspects of lighting affects people.
Stan walerczyk states the varying light levels are at the heart of a human being’s 24-hour internal clock, which is also known as circadian rhythm.
Until a couple of hundreds of years ago, we used to spend about 90% of our waking time outside. But since the invention of electric lighting, we have become used to spending 90% of our waking time indoors.
We all know that the earth’s natural lighting changes in strength on a given day. In early morning and midday, there are high correlated color temperatures, and in the evening, there are extremely low light levels.
However, electrical lighting in the office does not give us varying lighting levels like natural lighting.
How it affects our health
Several studies have shown that poor lighting can have a negative effect to our health. Especially on our circadian rhythm. According to the National sleeping foundation, this internal 24 hour clock that is usually running in the background of your brain while cycling between sleepiness and alertness can highly be affected by a change in lighting levels.
Too much or too little light can affect our mood, behavior, how well we sleep at night and overall personal health.
Lighting experts and other manufactures have developed dimming and Kelvin shifting hard-wired LED troffer kits. Imagine going back to the office in a hot afternoon after lunch, feeling sleepy and exhausted, and instead of having to drink coffee or take some caffeine stimulant to lighten up, all you need to do is to adjust the lighting in your office space and gets you wide awake and ready to be productive again.
Conversely, color temperature has the opposite effect at night. A lot of people usually have a hard time getting sleep especially after spending a couple of hours in front of a computer screen, tablet or phone screen.
What to consider before you invest in this technology
Before you decide to invest in this type of lighting, there are a few things that lighting experts ask you to consider before installing or retrofitting human-centric lighting systems.
Select a flexible lighting system
Select a human-centric lighting system that will give you some flexibility in terms of usage. You can set up a scheduled lighting pattern that can automatically change during the day and night.
Get a lighting system that provides a wide range of capabilities
When retrofitting smart lighting, make sure that you select a human-centric lighting system that is scalable and is simple to configure
Make sure controls are easy to use
If you are unable to figure out how your new human-centric lighting system works before you purchase, then don’t purchase it. Find a system that is user friendly.
