Do you have the perception that LED lighting can only light up rooms and billboards? Then you are wrong. To an increasing extent, LED lighting is used in plant nurseries and greenhouses and for that reason, we take a closer look at how light-emitting diodes can accelerate vegetation as well as the pros and cons related to using LED lighting.

During the last couple of years, LED grow light has become particularly popular in greenhouses. The purpose is to speed up the vegetation process and compared to traditional grow light, there are several advantages related to the use of LED.

Advantages of using LED lighting

In most nurseries, sodium vapour lamps are used as grow light. This has been the case for decades but today, many greenhouses have realized the potential of LED luminaires as grow light. The rate of efficiency is the only advantage of the traditional sodium vapour lamps. This rate is typically 10% higher than the efficiency rate of LED lighting. However, the vast number of LED advantages compensate for this fact.

All plants and crops are different and require different amounts of lighting. Therefore, there is no final prescription for how to illuminate a greenhouse. However, it has been proved that the optimal photosynthesis occurs when the plant is exposed to a mix of red, yellow, and blue light to simulate the circadian rhythm. In order to ensure the best growth conditions, the plants must be exposed to red or yellow light 65-95% of the time. The remaining 5-35% of the time, the plants must be exposed to blue light. Sodium vapour lamps emit a yellowish and uniform light, which affects the plants’ growth conditions. On the other hand, LED lighting allows for adjusting the colour temperature, which is a huge advantage for the nurseries.

Another advantage of LED is that this type of lighting does not emit ultraviolet rays and only a limited amount of infrared rays. This is in contrast with sodium vapour lamps, which generate heat due to the UV and IR rays. This means that the LED luminaires can be installed closer to the plants. If sodium vapour lamps are installed within a short distance from the plants, the risk of ignition is present.

Furthermore, there is a great difference between LED luminaires’ and sodium vapour lamps’ lifetime. Sodium vapour lamps typically have a lifetime of around 10,000 hours, which is five to six times below the lifetime of a light-emitting diode. Seeing that the grow light has to be turned on during most of the day, sodium vapour lamps must be replaced on an annual basis, which can turn out to be a great expense. This replacement can be limited to happen every six years with LED.

Finally, the energy efficiency is a crucial factor, inasmuch as it is possible to save 70% on utility bills. For that reason, LED lighting is a greener and far more economical solution.

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An interior designer will probably dare to say that there are many “rules” when it comes to choosing the right lighting for salons. It’s all about, making the customer feel welcome as well as giving employees good working conditions. In this week’s blog post, we share our thoughts why choosing the right lighting for your salon is important.

Be aware of accurate color rendering

Maybe you’ve heard this before; someone has had their hair dyed by a hairdresser, and when they went out in sunlight – the color of the hair suddenly changed? This specific situation will any salon avoid. The simple solution would be to get lamps installed with the right color rendering. As we said so many times before, color rendering is determined by an index that reflects the light source’s ability to reproduce colors in relation to daylight. We recommend using lamps with CRI value of 86 or higher.

Highlight interior and the guests with color temperatures

You can choose bulbs in different color temperatures ranging from hot to cold light. A warm temperature (2,700K-3,500K) is most flattering on guests’ skin and will complement most interiors. Colder color temperatures can be equated with daylight, which is typically not the best color temperature in a salon.

Eliminate shadows

How your guests feel when visiting your salon is extremely important as a positive experience enhances the customer experience. The easiest way to minimize shadows on the face is to place your lighting by the mirror on each side. Spot luminaires in e.g. the ceiling will create shadows and we’ll not recommend to using these.

Use good quality lighting

LED bulbs have revolutionized energy-efficient lighting, giving you great benefits that are ideal for salons. Although these types of lamps typically have higher costs now and then, you should see it as a investment that is worth it. LED lighting has a longer lifespan, uses less energy and provides long-term savings on, among other things, maintenance and replacement.

There are many manufacturers that offer LED lights, so choosing the lighting that matches your needs can be difficult. Look for LED bulbs that replicate halogen bulbs with a high CRI and light quality.

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When it comes to interior design and lighting, the bathroom is most likely the room in the house that receives the least attention. Some do not think about it at all, others are convinced that a single fixture in the ceiling is enough. For us, proper lighting in the bathroom is important and it can affect our mood either positively and negatively.

This week’s blog post is about how you implement the lighting in layers, increase the overall mood of the room and match the atmosphere to any moment.

Task Lighting

To create a good atmosphere, the light in the bathroom must be practical, i.e. it’s about getting the right lighting that illuminates your face clearly and in detail when you, for example put on make-up or shave in the morning.

The most common mistake we see people make is to place lowered ceiling luminaires directly over the mirror. It will throw shadows on your face, making daily morning rituals more difficult to perform. To avoid this, you can set up vertical fixtures or lamps that are mounted on each side of the mirror, which will shine evenly and give a clearer picture of your face. Advantageously, you can choose dimmable lighting, which allows you to adjust the brightness depending on e.g. the time of day. The shower is a secondary area where this type of light is applicable. For example, if you have a glass door in your bathroom, a dedicated fixture will most likely be needed. Otherwise, we recommend a recessed light with a glass lens.

Ambient Lighting

Ambient Lighting is important to pay attention too when installing the right level of light. It may include lighting fixtures illuminated from above, such as built-in lights and ceiling lights. This type of light should act as indirect light and not spotlights. If the bathroom can’t get natural light in, ambient lighting can actually compensate it if you choose lamps with a natural color temperature. LED products such as a surface mounted ceiling lamps, pendant lamps or lamps hidden behind a molding dropped several inches below ceiling height can be an obvious choice.

Accent Lighting

Accent lighting is used to draw attention to features, architecture or functions. It is probably the most overlooked type of lighting in bathrooms, but you really get the opportunity to decorate and make your bathroom look unique.

Make the World more Sustainable

An overlooked way to create a good atmosphere in your bathroom is when choosing the bulb. As you probably know, LED bulbs are environmentally friendly and use less energy than traditional incandescent bulbs. The color temperature can vary from warm to cold light, and is an excellent alternative to real daylight – especially for darker areas in the room. If you want to take it a step further, we recommend installing LED lighting with a dim function where you adjust the light according to the need you have in a given situation.

When choosing LED light bulbs, you are contributing positively to a better environment, achieving energy savings and investing in versatile and attractive bathroom lighting.

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You probably know it. You drive in your car in the evening hours. Suddenly, the pedestrian, previously invisible in the dark, becomes visible between two streets lights or perhaps the shadow of two parked cars. It can be a dangerous scenario and can we do anything to avoid it at all?

This week’s blog post is about how a combination of sensors in the city landscape, either via street lights or roadside lights and the development of intelligent car lights, can actually solve this particular problem.

Can Street Lights and Cars Make Road Traffic Safer?

Experts talk about what they call the “camouflage effect”, which is, when light conditions blur the contrast between an object and its surroundings. This is the case when the human eye has to capture objects under these conditions, as does the so-called eyes of autonomous vehicles.

Scientists at the Light Technology Institute in Germany have developed the Propix headlight, which can adapt its light distribution to the environment. By combining stationary street lamps with this headlight, optimum visibility can be achieved. The light can help to reshape photometric distributions to completely suppress certain areas while other areas light up. Meaning, when the sensors sense an “obstacle” placed in a blind spot for the eye or cameras, the lamp will automatically react and illuminate or dim the light – what we also know from LED lighting.

They believe that if we can equip cars with an additional sensory organ that can sense movement, road traffic can be made even more safe, which is also the goal of this headlight and the technology behind it. They are still not quite there, and it is planned to test the technology in a test area for autonomous driving. The challenge lies in the interaction between the different sensors in street lighting and the headlight, says chief scientist Cornelius Neumann.

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