The challenges in lighting my new home

Brilliantly lit with static blue-pump LED lights, our new build condo was designed for beauty but not for health

My wife and I downsized this summer from our 100-year-old incandescent-lit home where we had raised our family, to a newly built condo in the center of our town. We are enjoying all the benefits of modern new appliances, plumbing and amenities. But there is one glaring problem - it is brilliantly lit throughout by LED downlight fixtures.

These downlights in our condo ceiling are not light bulbs which can be easily replaced with circadian friendly zero blue bulbs. They are installed LED fixtures which pump out blue-rich light night and day.

What you see when you look up at my condo ceiling

It takes a trained eye and some equipment to demonstrate the problem. The lights were advertised as “soft white” with a coordinated color temperature of 2850 Kelvin which might not sound too bad. But when I point my handheld spectrophotometer at these lights the spectral content that enters our eyes is revealed.

The Spectral Power Distribution (SPD) of the downlights shows the relative power of each of the color wavelengths in the light spectrum.

These are classic blue-chip LEDs with 10.4% circadian blue content which emit a beautiful bright white light with a prominent blue spike at 453 nm and a partial trough at 479 nm which makes them not fit for purpose, as I will explain below.

Lighting Designed for Beauty but Not for Health

This lighting is visually attractive, as you would expect for a modern high-end luxury condo. I next measured desktop illumination using the typical method of lighting designers, holding my light sensor at the level of a table or desktop while pointing it towards the ceiling. The captured data is shown on the screen below.

The basic data screen of my handheld spectrophotometer.

• The CCT (Coordinated Color Temperature) of 2851 Kelvin would classify the light as a warm soft light. But as I discuss in my book THE LIGHT DOCTOR color temperature is a poor guide for judging the circadian impact of a light.

• The Duv of -0.0027 shows the light is very close to the “ideal” black body curve. (0 is perfectly on the curve). But this so called “ideal” is a theoretical construct based on what happens to a lump of non-reflective metal that is heated up until it becomes white hot. You can get whiter and healthier light by not being tied to this arbitrary standard.

• The CRI (Color Rendering Index) of 94 shows very high color fidelity (where natural daylight is 100). This means the colors of objects illuminated by these lights is similar to that seen under natural daylight.

In other words, these are light fixtures that many traditionally-trained lighting designers would be happy to recommend for residential living - but only if they were unaware of the health impacts for the occupants.

Not good for day or night

With all the downlights switched on in my condo they provide only about 70 lux of light at eye-level, that is 10.4% circadian blue. That is nowhere near enough daytime circadian blue content to keep my circadian clocks robustly entrained. In comparison when outdoors on a cloudy day I get 10,000 lux of 15-20% circadian blue light, and on a sunny day 50,000 plus lux

However, the same level of light at night from these downlights in my condo provides way too much circadian blue, and, if used at night these lights would disrupt my circadian rhythms, increase my appetite (not a good idea with a fridge well-stocked with food) and trigger a propensity for diabetic glucose intolerance.

So how am I creating a healthy circadian lighting environment?

1. We chose a condo which maximizes daylight exposure with picture windows on three sides and with the main daytime living area and balcony facing south-east, so we get plenty of morning sun.

2. Eat breakfast and lunch at a table next to a south-east facing window which provides 5000 plus lux of eye level illumination on a sunny day.

3. Go for a walk outdoors every morning, rain or shine, to get a full dose of natural circadian blue.

   

4. Use the LED downlights when needed for vision during the day but switch them off between sunset and sunrise.

5. Use table lamps with zero-blue light bulbs between sunset and bedtime.

6. Equip my home office with a Lumium Circadian Blue light fixture from Ecosense which automatically switches from maximum circadian blue during the day (>20% 440-495 nm) to zero blue between sunset and sunrise. During evening or night hours this provides about 1 % 440-495 nm blue which equals the amount of circadian blue from the wood fires or candles our ancestors used in the days before electric light.

7.      Equip our bedroom with light blocking drapes and lamps with Soraa zero blue light bulbs for the evening which are switched off when we sleep.

8.      Use an alarm clock with a red LED display.

9.      Light the bathroom during the night with a monochromatic orange light which has zero circadian blue content

It all starts with education

Inform yourself about how to live a healthy life by creating a healthy lighting environment

Buy a copy THE LIGHT DOCTOR and share copies with your friends and colleagues.

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