Sponsored By: Satco Nuvo
With Scott Zimmerman
8/26/19 – Lighting Episode 97(Full Version) – Scott Zimmerman 47:18
Have we filled our workplaces with photonic deathray diodes?
Have we turned our homes into caves?
Maybe a little.
Scott Zimmerman is an engineer who partners with health researchers and other scientists to model the effects near-infrared light not just on the eye, but skin, blood vessels and the brain and he’s concerned about how the observed good effects NIR are being set aside as we convert the built environment to LED lighting with IR films over the windows. We may be trading efficiency for our well-being. His solution: a hybrid LED-incandescent lamp that comes with a few other surprise benefits on the design side.
Your Resources
– Satco Filament Style Bulbs
– National Association of Innovative Lighting Distributors (NAILD)
Visible only lighting isn’t anything new – it didn’t start with LED lighting. Fluorescent lighting is visible only and has been around in the work place for decades. There are also occupations that essentially guarantee visible only lighting. The US Navy should have an abundance of information on health effects on submariners. The mining industry should have caught on to issues long ago as well. Office environments since at least the 1970s have been using fluorescents and exposing millions of workers to visible only lighting (50+ years).
I personally would love to evaluate Silas’ optical models. I can’t though because I haven’t seen them published.
I will also point out that the medical definition of NIR varies tremendously and may include ~660 nm light which is actually visible light. Others use 808 nm light which is a common wavelength for pumping solid state lasers. According to the CIE visible light is 360 – 830 nm.
Eric: LEDs clearly emit a much narrower range of wavelengths than previous light sources. There is no debate here. Fluorescent is not “visible only” and emits all kinds of waves outside the visible spectrum, in all directions. Not sure why you think fluorescent is visible only…
However, I do agree that the “optical models” discussed in this podcast sound sketchy. It’ll be interesting to see what the published research continues to find here. But empirical evidence aside, there’s no denying how good it feels to get a little bit of daylight/sunlight.