LpS Digital is the brand new, unique, and first, digital lighting conference and exhibition 24/7 available to viewers. Due to environmental issues and travel restrictions, the acclaimed LpS Symposium +Expo and Trends in Lighting Forum &Show held in Bregenz, Austria, has been remodeled into the LpS Digital. Jan Denneman has been one of the first presenters to record a presentation for LpS Digital about the importance of Good Light indoors.
Summary
Our world would not exist without the light and energy of the sun. Homo sapiens has evolved under this sun and therefore it is logical that we still need a lot of daylight to function optimally. Many thousands of years mankind indeed lived outside, but the modern human being spends most of its life indoors. In offices, schools, factories, hospitals, care homes, nursery homes, shops, private homes, trains, cars etc. In those places, light is usually good enough to see, but biologically it is darkness. Our body and brain need much higher lighting levels during daytime to steer important biological processes in the body like for instance the biological clock.
Around the turn of the century, important discoveries were done that explain the mechanisms behind the effects of light on people. In 2002, the 3rd photoreceptor in the human eye has been discovered. The Nobel Prize for medicine and physiology in 2017 went to the scientists carried out breakthrough work in the field of chronobiology, the knowledge about 24 hour rhythms and sleep in our body. Irrespective the progress made in these scientific fields, it is currently still not reflected in how we design and light up our indoor spaces. Consequently, mankind still lives in biological darkness.
The chronic light shortage has all kinds of bad consequences. People are less concentrated, alert, creative and their cognitive abilities are reduced. The quality of sleep is worse and people develop feelings of depression.
Because most people do not have an outdoor job and as a result spend most of their lives indoors, we need to drastically improve the way we design our indoor spaces. Much more daylight needs to enter buildings and the electric lighting needs to compensate for the lack of natural daylight. The LED technology makes this possible in a sustainable way.
The future of light is not any longer in energy efficiency alone. The energy efficiency with smart LED systems is already extremely high, and the lighting sector has been one of the highest contributors to energy efficiency and sustainability. The difference in energy efficiency and related cost savings between the lighting companies is small, and does not create a competitive edge. The attempts to change business models towards data and connectivity are only partly successful.
The future of lighting is to focus on the real added value of good light. Good light will contribute to the well-being of the billions of people with an indoor job. If these users of indoor light would know and understand how important lighting is for their well-being, they will demand better lighting from building owners, facility managers, etc. This will create a pull for good light. This requires value-added selling capabilities, and communication to a wide public about the benefits of good light indoors. And it also creates an enormous opportunity for new innovations and for companies to create a competitive edge with their solution for Good Light.