Using Dynamic Lighting to maintain productivity and profitability during the winter

With the night’s drawing in and the annual discussion on the news about SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) it reminded me of the importance that light plays in our day to day lives and our wellbeing.

What is SAD and why is it important to understand?

SAD is a medical condition and a depressive illness caused by shortened daylight hours and the lack of sunlight. While it is very common to feel more lethargic in winter, many people will experience more severe and disabling symptoms. At a personal level this affects peoples quality of life and on a commercial level it will naturally affect productivity and ultimately profitability.

To understand how many people this affects, let’s look at some data from around the world to put it into perspective:

SAD in Florida

Experiencing a nice and sunny climate and mild winter months, Florida has a relatively low occurrence of SAD, affecting only 1.4% of the population.

As the latitude increases and the daylight hours are reduced, places such as Norway experience much higher occurrences of SAD (ten times that of Florida in fact).

With the UK being closer in latitude to Norway than Florida and a more comparable climate and daylight hours to that of Norway, we shouldn’t underestimate the impact that SAD might have on us as individuals and as businesses.

How does Dynamic Lighting help?

Dynamic Lighting tries to go some way towards bridging the gap between natural day light and the artificial light most of us spend our days working under. Our bodies are tuned to the rhythm of the day. Natural light sets the alarm in our body clock, when to wake up and when to sleep. Our alertness and concentration levels also have a direct link to the quality of light we experience. By controlling these previously uncontrollable aspects of our daily lives, we give ourselves the opportunity to control our own workspace and tailor it to our needs, to be more productive, and enhance our sense of wellbeing.

Dynamic lighting brings the characteristics of natural light into areas where that simply isn’t possible, or where the natural light needs a little helping hand. Dynamic Lighting uses two different temperature light sources in each fitting – one 2600K “Warm White” and one 5600K “Cool White”. It enables the temperature of light to be blended to anywhere between those two ends of the spectrum, marry that to smart dimming functions allowing the intensity of that light to be managed and you have an incredibly versatile “Smart Luminaire” which literally give us the opportunity to seize the day!

By adjusting the temperature and the intensity of the light in the space, you can stimulate the mind to allow you to perform at your maximum. Whether in the office, factory or some would argue most importantly in schools, colleges & university’s, dynamic lighting offers a benefit married with the energy efficiency offered by modern LED technology.

The benefits are threefold:-

Improved performance from staff or students.
Measurable savings in energy bills due to the use of highly efficient LED fittings.
The reduction of carbon footprint and the obvious ecological benefit that gives.

This is clearly a technology that we will all be seeing more of in the not too distant future and I for one will be keeping a very close eye on its progression. Using quality Philips lighting, Powercor are at the forefront of this technology.