December 1, 2020
By Adam Lilien, business development manager, UL's Lighting division
UL and the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) delivered a one-hour webcast at the recent Renaissance of Light Quality: SSL Industry Swaps Focus from Efficiency to Architecture virtual event hosted by LEDs Magazine on Sept. 30.
For people active during the day who spend their time indoors under lighting designed for energy efficiency, studies have shown that entraining (or said more simply: synchronizing) our circadian rhythm may lead to better sleep, higher alertness, and lower incidents of depression, anxiety and diabetes.
The webcast is titled “Developing Quality Lighting for the Eyes and the Circadian System,” and an on-demand link to view this webcast is provided below.
In this session, UL delivered a 25-minute webcast focusing on UL 24480, Design Guideline for Promoting Circadian Entrainment with Light for Day-Active People. In the webcast, Adam Lilien, global business development manager for UL’s Lighting division, discussed how the UL Circadian Task Group was formed to investigate the design guideline based on the CS method (the process that the task group undertook) and the peer-reviewed research supporting the task group’s scope and findings. By walking through the methodology of the Design Guideline, the lighting specifier learns how to deliver better health through lighting using the CS method in just six steps and can better understand why they play a primary role in delivering lighting for nonvisual benefits. As well, other disciplines in the lighting industry can consider their role in circadian-effective lighting design adoption.
The GSA delivered a 25-minute webcast focusing on circadian-effective light in federal buildings. In the webcast, Bryan Steverson, of the GSA’s Office of Federal High-Performance Buildings, discussed the GSA’s field studies of lighting and health in federal buildings in partnership with the Lighting Research Center (LRC). As design and construction managers of 8,700 owned or leased buildings totaling more than 374 million rentable square feet, and owners of 482 historic buildings, the GSA has a unique role in bridging the research and practice of circadian-effective lighting. The GSA conducted field studies with the LRC in 10 federal buildings across the U.S. and northern Europe. Steverson walked us through the results of multiple phases of research demonstrating that more light during the day and less at night leads to better sleep, higher alertness and better moods at work. He concluded with an overview of the results and discussed the GSA roadmap that is under development.
The Q&A session that follows, managed by Maury Wright of LEDs Magazine, dove into questions from the audience on various subjects, including:
- Tunable white light versus fixed correlated colour temperature (CCT) lighting
- Efficiency of energy with varying systems and energy codes
- Additional impacts beyond overhead lighting such as wall washers, desk lamps, wall paint and cubicle wall color
To view the “Developing Quality Lighting for the Eyes and the Circadian System” webcast, click here to register for on-demand access.