Page 60 - enLIGHTenment Magazine - September 2016

FINE

TUNING

While no one was surprised to see
of “bad LED” products still in the market that was
ge ing mentioned.
Lightfair lled with LED products,
“For all of the development in lighting over the
past few years, I am surprised that we still have bad
it’s what else they saw that had
lighting out there,” noted Je Dross, Corporate

people talking. Director of Education & Industry Trends at Kichler.
BY LINDA LONGO
“There is no metric for measuring glare; it’s not quan-

ti able at the moment. So while I see companies [at
YLightfair] o ering more output and more lumens, I’m

ears ago, a endees at the annual Light- not seeing them addressing glare.”

fair International were comprised of Another problem Dross mentioned is the prob-
the architectural community — mainly ability of misinformation reaching the public due

lighting speci ers for commercial proj- to the newness of the technology. For example,
ects, military installations, o ce space,
he pointed out that there have been news reports

retail, and hospitality venues.
about blue lighting being bad for people’s health.

That all started changing about 10 years ago, as
[Editor’s Note: Last year Harvard Medical School
legislation regarding light bulb e ciency and restric- published an article that underscored the idea that

tions were a ecting residential use. Suddenly, what blue wavelengths a er sundown from electronics
was happening on the “bulb” side of the business such as smartphones, laptops, and tablets are dis-

was being keenly watched by members of the resi- ruptive to people’s circadian rhythms at night.] Dross

dential side of the industry. Five years ago, around worried that consumers might assume all blue light
the time LEDs rst started gaining traction beyond is bad, when in truth [and also stated in the Harvard

the architectural world and lighting showrooms Medical School article] exposure to blue light during
noticed an increase in non-residential/hospitality the day is actually bene cial for people’s a ention

projects, there were more lighting showroom per- span, mood, and reaction time.

sonnel combing Lightfair’s aisles.
While selling light bulbs for the home environment
At the San Diego show in May, LED wasn’t nec- never used to require salespeople to memorize a lot

essarily what people were talking about amongst of scienti c information, now in the Age of LEDs, it
themselves. Rather, it was the noticeable amount
does. Selling lighting has become complicated, and

58 enLIGHTenment Magazine | SepteMber 2016
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