Smart Lighting For Smarter Working
How automated smart lighting systems can revolutionise our workplaces
By Steve Stark, Trade Sales Director UK & Ireland for LEDVANCE
Even before lockdown, we have seen more and more workplaces moving over to smart automated lighting systems. The choice of products available to choose from is amazing – smart lamps in a wide variety of shapes, smart luminaires, products for indoor and outdoor use or plugs for integrating conventional light sources into more advanced systems. Using Bluetooth, ZigBee, an app or simply their own voice, office lights can easily be adapted to suit the changing workplace, especially as many more of us now have an office at home. The ‘unprecedented times’ we are living in have already shone a light on the hygiene hazards that come from multiple hands touching a shared light switch, but there’s even more reasons for workplaces to adopt these smart systems.
Firstly, automated systems provide managers with the valuable opportunity to adapt workplace lighting to workers’ circadian rhythms. The circadian rhythm is our 24-hour body clock that governs natural cycles of activity and rest by managing hormone levels. Humans are known to be heavily influenced by variations in natural light throughout the course of the day. A human oriented lighting concept uses smart controllable LED lighting systems to simulate the characteristics of natural daylight, combining the visual and non-visual biological effects of light. Artificial light that synchronises with our circadian rhythms is proven to make us happier, healthier and more productive not only in office scenarios, but also classrooms, warehouses and health facilities. Once the timings of the workday have been programmed, an automated lighting system can co-ordinate with our own natural rhythms, providing an optimum workspace. It has been scientifically proven that workspaces which use human centric lighting systems have improved employee wellbeing, concentration and reduced staff sickness.
Furthermore, smart lighting installations require offices to transition their lighting to LED luminaires, which are significantly more efficient than traditional incandescent or fluorescent lights. Too many workspaces are lagging behind and still using yesterday’s inefficient energy-hungry lighting, at the expense of reduced financial cost. Moreover, the fluorescent lighting that many workspaces and facilities are settling for contains harmful mercury gases and produces a yellow-tinged lighting, which can cause migraines and eye strain amongst workers. An upgrade to SMART lighting brings an office up to date with 21st century technology, improving employee health and wellbeing in the process.
In addition, lights that are not switched on all the time and tailored to the individual requirements of an office provide excellent energy savings. Luminaires can be programmed with the start and end times of a working day to illuminate the office only when necessary. They can be further programmed to turn themselves off when a room or floor of an office is unoccupied. Besides convenience, these systems eradicate unnecessary cost caused by a light being left on accidentally overnight, consequently saving employees time when they leave and need not check for this sort of mistake. Smart lighting systems achieve ultimate energy efficiency by protecting themselves against our own human inefficiency.
When considering the benefits of automated lighting systems to their workplaces, facilities managers will generally note convenience and cost benefits. However, these systems can have an additional positive impact on employee wellbeing and productivity as well. In short, an upgrade to automated lighting can quite simply revolutionise how we work.
How to achieve Human Centric Lighting
A human-oriented lighting concept known as human centric lighting (HCL) uses smart controllable LED lighting systems to simulate the characteristics of natural daylight with brighter, bluer light during the day which reduces in brightness and blue content in the evening. The easy controllability of LED lighting makes it possible to replicate and even idealise natural light, to better support human circadian rhythms. This enables everyone to be happier, healthier, and more productive.
Traditional electric lighting has typically allowed dimming but provided few, if any, other practicable options to adjust the light to suit the users’ needs. Now, with simple electronic or software control and the right combination of emitter types, an LED light engine can manage the spectral content with great precision to produce almost any colour or adjust “white” light throughout a range of correlated colour temperatures (CCT) expressing ambiences from warm, to cool, to daylight white. At any desired dimming ratio.
Arising from this new-found flexibility, concepts such as colour quality, mood lighting, and human-centric lighting have gained traction. Each offers an approach to creating a more comfortable, compelling environment.
Large lights from above that imitate a sunlit (blue) sky have the greatest biologically activating effect. Therefore, at the start of the day until lunch time and after the lunch break, bright, cold white light with a high blue component (such as 6500 Kelvin at an illuminance of 300 lux at the eye) should be used. Indirect light which includes both ceilings and walls is ideal for this. Towards the evening the lighting should be changed to direct warm white light without blue components (such as 2700 to 3000 kelvin) to help our bodies relax and prepare for the night.
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