Posts Tagged ‘Spectrum’

Check Out Full Spectrum Energy Efficient Lighting

The merit of using full spectrum lighting and the new natural light fluorescent lights is a move in the right direction for the planet and for your pocketbook.  Lighting utilizes approximately 17% of all electricity consumed in the United States. Reducing energy consumption saves money and reduces the amount of emissions that contribute to climate change, acid rain and smog. In fact, upgrading your home lighting system from incandescent lighting is one of the easiest and most cost effective measures you can do to save money in your home and protect the environment.
New developments in fluorescent lighting provide high quality, flicker-free light without the humming and gray colored light associated with older fluorescent bulbs and tubes. High quality phosphors used in contemporary lamps, such as lamps manufactured by Ott-Lite, provide high color quality and electronic ballasts that have eliminated the flicker and hum.
Other than giving us basic illumination, artificial light should meet our needs for visibility, health and safety, mood, comfort, socializing and aesthetic appeal. Since today’s contemporary society spends significant amounts of time indoors, it is important that indoor lighting provide a positive home and office environment. When setting up your own home lighting environment, your consideration of the occupants in the lighted space is needed. For example, as our eyes age they undergo optical and neurological changes that require increased light levels because of the aging eye’s reduced ability to perceive contrast and color saturation.
The Way Electric Lights Work
In incandescent bulbs, electricity heats a wire filament inside a glass bulb causing it to glow and give off light. 90% of the energy used is given off as heat and 10% as light.
In fluorescent lamps the electric ballast alters the electric current flowing between electrodes inside gas filled glass tubes activating the gas to produce Ultraviolet (UV) light. The UV light excites the multi-phosphor coating on the inside of the glass tube and causes it to glow and produce visible light – 60% of the energy used is given off as heat and 40% as light.
Lighting Characteristics
Color Temperature – The relative “color” of a light source expressed in degrees Kelvin. Generally, sources below 3200K are considered “warm” (more yellowish) and those above 4000K are considered “cool” (more bluish). Of course, fluorescent lights are included in the latter.
Therefore, if you want to have an excellent, affordable source of good lighting with accurate color rendering, that will lessen eye strain and improve visibility as your eyes age, change your lighting to full spectrum natural manufactured lights and lamps. The new fluorescents are worth the research, and their benefits can be taken to the bank.

Full Spectrum Lighting

OttLite’s full spectrum lighting is a healthy way to light up your world.

Dr. John Ott, founder and inventor of OttLite lighting, researched alternatives to unhealthy artificial lighting and the affects different wavelengths of light have on health.  His pioneering work is the basis for OttLite lighting – full spectrum lighting specially engineered with a precise balance of contrast and brightness.  It’s like natural daylight indoors.

Today, OttLite has developed specially designed lamps equipped with OttLite’s full spectrum lighting bulbs.

Here’s a look at Dr. Ott’s amazing work:

Bringing Daylight Indoors

Dr. Ott observed that we were not meant to live and work indoors under artificial lights.  We were meant thrive outdoors in sunlight – the world’s #1 power source.

The Walt Disney Company asked Dr. Ott to record the growth of a pumpkin through time-lapse photography. Animators would use this footage to draw Cinderella’s magical carriage.  Dr. Ott found that under some lighting conditions, male plants grew, but no females. After adjusting the lighting, females grew, but no males. Following several experiments, Dr. Ott discovered that he needed a full spectrum of light wavelengths to successfully grow the pumpkin indoors.

Full Spectrum Lighting and Education

In a study on the effects of lighting on school age children, Dr. Ott found that using full spectrum fluorescent lighting actually decreased hyperactive behavior of students.  The results of his study found that several extremely hyperactive children with confirmed learning disabilities calmed down completely and rapidly overcame their learning and reading problems while in the full spectrum lighting environment.

“behavior and classroom performance, as well as overall academic achievement, improved markedly within one month after the new (full spectrum lighting bulbs) were installed,” according to Light: Medicine of the Future by Dr. Jacob Liberman, O.D., Ph.D.

The Chicken and the Egg

Which came first, the sun or the artificial light?  Obviously the sun is the answer to this riddle.  Now which is better?  Studies revealed that chickens raised under full spectrum lighting bulbs lived twice as long, lay more eggs, are calmer and less aggressive and produce eggs that are approximately 25% lower in cholesterol.

“When we speak about the quality of light and its importance to the well-being of all living organisms, the contributions of Dr. John Ott Stand out above those of other researchers in the field.  His pioneering work on the effects that different light sources have on plants, animals, and humans may prove to contain some of the most important discoveries of the century.” according to Light:  Medicine of the Future, Dr. Jacob Liberman, O.D., Ph.D.