Interior Lighting » Incandescent Bulb

Light of the Future – Hybrid Solar Lighting

admin — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 12:34:37 +0000

Hybrid solar lighting (HSL) isn’t anything like solar power that converts sunlight into electricity. Through the use of optical fibers, HSL captures sunlight, channeling it and piping sunlight into a building. When there is little or no sunlight, these fixtures use electricity so that constant lighting is achieved.

Collector units, positioned on the top floor of a home or building, can provide as much as 50 percent of sunlight for indoor lighting. This is far superior to photovoltaic cells, which convert only 15 percent of sunlight into electricity, which then has to be changed back into light. An incandescent bulb uses only about 2 percent of this conversion and, yes, there is a lot of heat and energy wasted in this traditional lighting technology.

The use of incandescent light, a wonderful innovation of the past, served us well for decades, but has brought us to a crucial threshold. Research for alternative energy sources grows more important every day as we see our utility bills rise and our environment heat up because of our dependence on fossil fuels.

This type of Lighting employs a direct and efficient use of sunlight. HSL fixtures generate much less heat than regular incandescent fixtures, and, compared to fluorescents, the fixtures emit a full spectrum light, rather than the limited frequency spectrums of fluorescents. There are many advantages to using full spectrum light. The human eye and brain responds positively to full spectrum light because it replicates sunlight.

In retailing, colors of products are enhanced by full spectrum illumination. Shoppers, it is proven by retail research, feel good about buying in a full spectrum environment. Presently, HSL can save the most financially in commercial applications, and residential uses are being researched for the near future.

Hybrid Solar Lighting is employed by four foot wide mirrored dishes on rooftops equipped with GPS chips. Track the sun and focus the sunlight down into a single cord of 127 optical fibers. This light-conducting, flexible cord is a “pipeline” to HSL fixtures equipped with diffusers, which spread the light into room. One mirror collector can power eight HSL fixtures, which can illuminate an area of 10,000 square feet. The collector removes infrared rays and this makes HSL light fixtures cool enough to touch. The advantage of this cool operating temperature would be to reduce use of air-conditioning.

The fixture uses photo sensors to switch to electricity when sunlight illumination is weak, so that the fixture is always emitting a steady illumination. On a sunny day, a fixture can offset as much as 80 percent of artificial light. On a dark day, the illumination from sunlight might reduce to as much as 5 percent of required illumination for a given area. Light traveling along optical fibers grows weaker the longer the fiber cord is. Roof top collectors with shorter “pipelines” to fixtures located directly below would be the most powerful and efficient. Cost research for HSL’s aims at an expenditure of $3,000 per 10,000 square feet. This means that payback for the purchase of technology, for example, in Hawaii, would be approximately 3 years. For northern areas, the cost for HSL applications would have to be reduced further to make HSL’s a viable illumination technology for colder regions.

In field tests, interestingly, the solar fixtures emit a reddish light at sunrise and sunset. Test subjects responded positively to this change in color. This response can be attributed to the changes of natural light in sync with our circadian clocks (natural body rhythms.) This could explain why skylights in retail spaces have proven to increase sales. And because Seasonal Acquired Depression Syndrome is directly related to light (actually the lack of it, especially during winter months,) exposure to extended periods of natural light during the winter months could prove to be a welcome aid to those that suffer from this syndrome. Where skylights in commercial spaces have proven to positively effect sales and retailing ambiance, HSL technology has an advantage of providing constant natural light and increasing that positive trend.

By: Lois Dewitt

Do You Know How To Choose The Right Lighting for Reading?

admin — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 17:05:53 +0000

There are a number of factors to take into consideration when deciding on the best kind of lighting for reading. Although more and more individuals are deciding to gather information about the world we live in by means other than reading a book, a significant part of the world’s population continues to read traditional, printed material in the form of books, magazines, etc.

The younger reader experiences fewer problems with poor illumination while reading. For example, some research concludes that we need only half the light at age 30 to have adequate reading illumination as compared to what we need at age 60 to read the same material. Age 40 seems to be the beginning of diminishing eyesight for most. The older we get, the more we are prone to eyestrain, blurring vision and headaches as a result of inadequate lighting while reading.

So, the first and primary consideration is selecting a fixture that will provide the right amount of illumination.

The rooms in your home where you do most of your reading should have lighting that illuminates the area in a general way that makes the room feel attractive and inviting. Where possible, combine general light with directed or task lighting. The lighting selected for reading should be considered supplemental and an addition to the general lighting used in the room.

A number of writers on this subject offer a variety of suggestions and options with respect to the type of lighting fixtures to use for reading. I am a strong believer in the use of what is called full spectrum lighting. This type of lighting is also known as natural lighting and was originally used for providing simulated natural sunlight to help with the growth of indoor plants. This natural lighting is easy on the eyes, brings out the true colors of what it illuminates, and relieves eyestrain.

The most common type of full spectrum light is the incandescent bulb, although full spectrum lights are also available as fluorescent fixtures. Several years ago, these natural lighting fixtures were hard to find and fairly expensive when compared to more conventional lighting sources, but they are currently available in nearly all home centers and in many grocery and discount department stores.

The life expectancy of natural light fixtures is comparable to that of traditional light fixtures and well worth the extra few dollars.

The best type of directed lighting unit to buy for purposes of reading are by and far the gooseneck lamp. While a table lamp may be more attractive, it has the disadvantages of not being able to direct the light to where it is needed and in general is not adjustable. Lighting manufacturers have gotten savvy to the need for designing and manufacturing stylish and attractive gooseneck lamps and you can find one to meet your own particular decorating tastes with very little trouble.

Directed or task lighting provided by a gooseneck lamp should be positioned behind your reading chair or couch. The lamp should be positioned behind you according to whether you are left or right handed to avoid overshadowing as you read. Right-handed individuals should position the lamp behind their left shoulder while left-handed persons should do the opposite. If you have a mixture of “handedness” in your home, everyone should be advised about this positioning.

Using a white of lightly colored shade will help with the illumination of the material while darker colored shades absorb rather than reflect the illumination.

Glare is another major consideration when using a reading light. With a gooseneck lamp, position the bottom of the shade at eye level to avoid glare. The gooseneck lamp makes it easy to adjust the height of the light source depending on the size of the person using it.

Indirect lighting has become popular over the years and provides a concealed light source, which diffuses the light and eliminates glare, which can be a real problem in causing eyestrain and a number of other vision-related problems.

Installing dimmer switches will allow you to regulate the intensity of the light generated and serves the purpose of making one fixture useable for both older and younger readers.

For the serious reader, a light stand can be a real boon. The stand can be positioned to keep the material at the best distance and angle for optimum reading as well as helping keep it in focus and reduce the strain of holding a book while you are reading. Reading stands are particularly useful for the older reader and those with medical conditions that make it more difficult to hold a book steady for any length of time.

Let common sense and an awareness of your particular comfort level be an important guide in setting up your areas for reading. If you find some of my suggestions just don’t seem to work for you, try to discover why and make adjustments accordingly.

A lot of people find it restful and relaxing to read before or as a prelude to falling asleep. There are some special considerations to keep in mind if you are one of these people.

Many sleeping areas use overhead lighting fixtures as their primary source of illumination. First, overhead lighting in the bedroom usually doesn’t provide enough brightness to read comfortably and second, overhead lighting provides too much overall room lighting for anyone getting ready to go to sleep. This is a particular problem if you are sharing a room with someone who is not a “snooze-reader”.

Here are some other ways to light the sleeping area for the reader. Use a small table lamp positioned on your side of the bed making sure that the shade is low enough to avoid glare, use lamps that are attached to a mechanism that can be swung into just the right position over the reader (a variation on the gooseneck lamp), use a floor lamp with three-way bulbs to decrease the intensity of the illumination and finally, position a fixture on the wall directly above the reader that will cast only enough light to illuminate the book or other reading material.

If you don’t sleep alone, your goal is to keep the non-reader in the dark while you are reading. Some strange individuals (self-included) sleep soundly with the lights on or off. If this doesn’t cause a problem for your partner, consider whatever lighting works best and even consider a timer that can be reached easily if it shuts the lights off as you are just getting to the part of the book that reveals whodunit.

A few individuals find portable book lights handy. These LED light sources never burn out and generally last up to 20 hours on a set of batteries.

While not a complete or comprehensive guide to lighting for reading, I hope that this brief overview will provide you with some basics to consider.

By: Chuck Lunsford

LED Lighting for Businesses

admin — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 17:04:44 +0000

Using the most efficient and affordable way to do business is key to the success of any business. Your company might be completely streamlined in how it does business, but many business owners overlook such things as energy expenses. For many companies, switching to LED lighting can provide a substantial cost savings, both in the amount of energy they consume and also how often they have to replace the bulbs.

LED light bulbs are extremely useful in some rather surprising places. They have gained a lot of popularity for usage in electric signs, such as emergency exit signs. A regular, incandescent bulb will last about a year in an emergency exit sign, while an LED light bulb will last approximately eleven years. That’s ten extra years of not having to change the bulb and ten less bulbs found in your local landfill. LED light bulbs can also be used in other electric signage, such as scoreboards in a hockey rink or lit up road signs.

Using LED lighting to light offices is becoming a more mainstream option for many businesses. Not only is LED lighting cost effective, it can also reduce the damaging effects of fluorescent lighting to staff. Fluorescent lighting is known to cause headaches and eyestrain, and with LED being the artificial light that is closest to daylight, replacing fluorescent lighting with LED lighting can be beneficial to human resources as well.

There are other, simpler ways to add LED lighting to your business. Desk lamps are particularly well suited for LED light bulbs, since LED gives off directed light that is great for task lighting. Old Christmas decorations can be replaced with a new, LED variety. Any office that wants to save money and also move towards being environmentally friendly will find that making the switch to LED lighting is a must.

By: Sam Lewis

Walk-In Closets and Dressing Areas – Lighting Considerations

admin — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 10:10:46 +0000

In older homes, the closet was generally designed as a very small room located in bedrooms or in a hallway, usually by the front and/or back door. Its purpose was strictly for storing clothing or other items that were not on display year-round. A single, ceiling mounted incandescent bulb of relatively low wattage, typically provided lighting.

Most newer homes and particularly new construction have moved toward the walk-in closet and/or dressing room, particularly in the bedroom(s), as a more desirable alternative to the outdated clutter-collecting closet. If you have been new house shopping, I’m sure you will recall positive comments when the walk-in closet areas were discovered.

If you are planning to include walk-in closets/dressing room(s) in a remodeling plan, there are a number of things to keep in mind. Many if not most municipal codes have restrictions on the types of lighting that is permitted in an area designated as a closet (or any area where clothing is stored). These codes often include limitations on lighting allowed in a dressing room where clothing is also stored. Without going into great detail, codes usually prohibit exposed incandescent bulbs because of their potential as a fire hazard. Some codes even prohibit exposed compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs). Even though your remodeling plans will more than likely be subject to review and approval by your local building department before a permit is issued, you may want to double-check with them with respect to the planned lighting in the areas we are discussing.

Although usually not prohibited by code, a skylight or outside window is generally not a good idea in an area where clothing is stored because natural light will fade clothing over time. If an outside window is installed, be sure to include sun-blocking shades as part of the plan.

My top recommendation is to consider an alternative to true natural light in the form of full spectrum fluorescent lights. These fixtures were originally designed to be used as grow lamps for indoor plants but have evolved to the point where a wide variety of this type of lighting is available. This is due, in part, to the role that they play in alleviating some of the symptoms of what is called seasonal affective disorder (SAD).

Individuals suffering from SAD, experience a variety of unpleasant symptoms during seasons of the year when natural sunlight is not readily available. The 5000 degree Kelvin fluorescent is not the best choice for a dressing room because it tends to cast a light with a bluish tinge that does not flatter your natural skin tones. The 3,500 degree Kelvin fluorescent provides warmer light and provides the user with light that will allow make-up to be applied that will look good in the daylight or under incandescent light bulbs.

While recessed can-type fixtures can be attractive and stylish, there are some special considerations to keep in mind if you plan to use them. First, make sure that code permits them if the bulbs are not covered with a lens, and second, make sure the cans are equipped with directional wall washer trims that allow the light to illuminate the entire area with light rather than just what’s directly below the fixture. You may find this specialty lighting harder to find and somewhat more expensive than off-the-shelf fixtures, but the additional cost and trouble involved in finding them is well worth it.

Avoid any type of lighting that generates considerable heat. Consider using more, lower power lights rather than just a few higher power ones. This will insure more even lighting in the walk-in closet and/or dressing room and will provide an overall softer look.

If you have a fairly large dressing area, consider directional surface mounted lighting mounted on the ceiling above the area where the clothing is hung. Another surface mounted system should be used to illuminate the area in front of the dressing mirror to make putting on make-up and clothing a shadow-free experience.

In closing, don’t let lighting in closets and dressing rooms be an afterthought. Instead, give it just as much attention as you do to the rest of your home’s lighting design.

By: Chuck Lunsford

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Simple But Powerful Ways to Lower Your Lighting Bills

admin — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 01:44:30 +0000

Everybody knows that lighting consumes electricity. Based on statistics, lighting is responsible for about 12% of the energy used in a typical American home. That’s a huge chunk of your bills! Is there any way you can reduce your lighting bills?

Make no mistake about this, you cannot completely eliminate this need for lighting in the home at night, after all, what is life without light? You need to brighten up your nights with lights, perhaps to move around the house, doing your chores, guard against intruders, and enjoy some reading and so on. But let’s try our best to reduce that energy use.

Nearly every home can benefit from improved lighting efficiency. No matter what the type of lighting in your home, there are opportunities to lower your monthly energy costs by reducing your electricity use. You can also improve the quality of light at the same time.

On the average, every home has nine lights left on for more than three hours every day. Any light bulb burning more than two hours per day on average is a good candidate to be replaced with a compact fluorescent lamp (CFL).

Below are some simple techniques to lower lighting costs and improve lighting quality. Most of them can be done with little or no skill and with low cost:

Replace incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescents

Compact Fluorescent Lamps, or CFLs, use one-third to one-quarter the energy of incandescent bulbs, and last up to ten times longer. They screw into standard light bulb sockets, and are available in many sizes and shapes to fit almost any fixture. They are more expensive to buy than incandescent bulbs, but save several times their purchase cost because of reduced electric use and longer life (less frequent replacement).

The packaging for a CFL usually indicates the equivalent wattage of the incandescent bulb it replaces. For example, a 20-watt CFL gives off about the same amount of light as a 75-watt incandescent bulb. Note that CFLs take up to a minute to reach full brightness.

Look for ENERGY STAR qualified models, which carry the ENERGY STAR logo on the product or the box. These models are among the most energy-efficient units sold.

For the purpose of calculating savings from a compact fluorescent bulb, here are some facts:

If you replace one 75-watt incandescent bulb (that costs 75¢ and is on for four hours per day) with a 20-watt compact fluorescent lamp (that costs $5 and is also on for four hours per day), you’ll save about $3 by the end of the first year, and more than $50 over the expected seven-year life of the CFL. Well, it depends on your electricity tariffs, but you get the idea?

In addition to this, by replacing the incandescent lights with fluorescent bulbs, you will also save on your cooling bills. This is because incandescent lights give off a tremendous amount of heat that can warm up the interior of your house.

Install energy-saving controls on exterior lights

Outdoor lighting should be off when it’s not needed. You can switch them off manually or automatically. Here are some ways you can do it automatically : Install photocell switches. These can automate lights by shutting them off when the sun comes up. Be careful though to locate them away from street lighting, automobile headlights from the street and lighting from your own home. Also protect them from dusts and weather so as not to give false activations. Install timers to automatically turn off outdoor lights in the evening, such as patio lights that are no longer needed when you go indoors. You may have to adjust these as the season changes to longer or shorter daylight hours. Install motion sensors to turn on lights when they detect movement. These are excellent when people are moving around a lot. However, they have a drawback – they will switch off when a person remains motionless like when they are sitting down reading a book. These sensors are also prone to accidental operation by the movement of rodents and other nocturnal animals.

These devices are available at hardware stores and home improvement centers for as little as $15. Most of them come with installation instructions. Hard-wired fixtures may require an electrician.

Clean fixtures

Dust settling on lamps reduces the light intensity. Keep lamps, lampshades and light bulbs clean to maximize their light output. You may even find that once a fixture is clean, it gives off the same amount of light as a higher-wattage bulb.

Use low-wattage light bulbs

In some fixtures, it’s possible to use lower-wattage light bulbs and still get the amount of light you need. Sometimes locating a light source nearer to the needed area is all that is necessary.

Turn lights off

This is the best tip of all. The lamp that is switched off uses no energy. Turn off the lights when you don’t need them. This takes some discipline to make it work. Once the action has become a habit it becomes easier. If you need to, just put a sticker or sign to remind you to switch off when you are not using the room. Get your family to cooperate.

Finally, you might even consider a drastic change in your lifestyle – go to sleep earlier! It might even improve your health and lower your doctor’s bills!

By: Thomas Yoon