We’ve talked about Human Centric Lighting (HCL) and its potential to forever change the way we think of artificial lighting. We truly believe it is the future of our industry. That’s why it was about time start practicing practice what we preach. As of last Christmas, all lighting in our office is following the course of natural daylight.
We’ve done several projects with human centric lighting in the past, so we were already convinced of its benefits. There’s a reason a lot of our products are HCL-capable. If you believe in a certain technology, you need to take the risk and invest in it, even if it’s not something your clients are demanding yet.
That was the deciding factor in equipping our own office with HCL. It’s as they say: do what you say and say what you do. We’ve had our new Inpact 150 TW-fixtures for three months now and we are very happy with our upgrade. The existing fixtures had been in use for over ten years, so the lighting was due for replacement. That’s the dilemma we’re always struggling with. We’d love to show off our newest stuff, but we also want to prove just how long our products last.
A day in our office
With the new HCL-fixtures we are once again ready for the future. We’ve added all of them to our wireless Zen-Lite control solution and created a fully automated program. At 7:00 AM, the light starts at 3000 Kelvin, so still quite warm. The temperature increases gradually till it reaches 5200 Kelvin at noon, though we could easily set it so it goes all the way up to 6500 Kelvin. That will always be a matter of personal preference. As soon as it’s getting darker outside, the temperature drops again, down to 2700 Kelvin at 7:00 PM.
The pub next door
The changes in temperature and lighting output happen gradually and without any flickering, thanks to the latest drivers. The funny thing is: almost as soon as you start using HCL-fixtures, you stop noticing that the light changes during the day. We got used to it so quickly. It’s only because we have a small canteen next to our office that doesn’t have HCL that we notice the stark difference with traditional lighting.
We jokingly refer to that place as a pub because the lighting there is so warm and cozy in comparison. The funny thing is, as we are getting ready to head home in the evening, the lighting in our office is much warmer. Suddenly the canteen lighting looks cool and bright in comparison.
The magic of daylight
The effects of HCL on our productivity are quite noticeable as well. You feel more active during the day, because you have lighting that elicits the same feeling. Cool and bright lighting makes you feel like you can be more productive. And the gradual change from warm to cool and back to warm leaves your eyes less tired at the end of the day.
That’s the beauty of following the daylight. You don’t really notice it, but you definitely feel it’s magic.