CEDIA is committed to monitoring the evolving smart home industry and responding accordingly by producing relevant resources to support integrators in understanding new technologies and standards.
CEDIA white papers take a deep dive into applications, recommendations, and advice on a wide range of industry topics: from software and hardware to best practices, standards, and formats. The white papers are heavily researched and crafted thoroughly by industry experts to break complex subjects down for professionals.
Recently, CEDIA introduced three new white papers discussing Human-Centric Lighting. These white papers were written by technical writer and educator, David Meyer and were reviewed by lighting designer Andy Bull and CEDIA Director of Technical Education Programs Ken Erdmann.
Let’s take a look.
Human-Centric Lighting Part 1: Why We Need It
Humans evolved spending bright days outdoors and nights in relative darkness. Our physiological systems have functioned for millennia around this distinct daily cycle. But now we spend most of the time indoors, with artificial light enabling varying degrees of light at any time of day or night.
We’re well adapted psychologically to artificial light, harnessing it to elongate our days and to enhance convenience, productivity, and entertainment. But it comes at some cost to human health and wellbeing.
This white paper is part 1 of 3, taking a deep dive into the science of photobiology as the basis for why humancentric lighting is so important. Topics include the composition of light, how light affects human physiology, and the developing standards for how to optimize light at different times of day and night.
This white paper will explain how integrators can optimize the light throughout the day and night to best support human health and wellbeing.
“The figures that I discovered during the research for the paper revealed that we as a society spend somewhere between 85 and 90% of our time indoors. I’ve since found out that this figure has actually been revised upwards and is now 93% in the United States and 92% in the UK. This is unhealthy for humans, especially if the quality of that light is poor, so this is where integrators come into the equation.”—David Meyer, Technical Writer and Educator
Human-Centric Lighting Part 2: Artificial Light
The advent of artificial light has extended our days and enabled more indoor lifestyles. Incandescent lights that were ubiquitous in the 20th century are being phased out due to their inefficiency, but it turns out their energy-efficient replacements are less healthy for our photobiology and are exacerbating disruption to our circadian systems.
This white paper explores the most common lighting technologies and the attributes that together determine the quality of artificial light — color temperature and accuracy, spectral power distribution and blue light content, brightness, and flicker. It also investigates the juxtaposition of energy efficiency mandates versus humancentric lighting needs and standards for determining circadian illuminance in the smart home.
“During the writing of this paper, it became apparent to me that while LED lighting has been amazing in offering so many options with form factor and color rendering, in some ways, it’s also been regressive compared to old-school incandescent lights. But given we’re hardly about to revert back to incandescent, it’s important to know what to look for in LED lighting to enhance the lit space and its occupants’ health and wellbeing.”—David Meyer, Technical Writer and Educator
Human-Centric Lighting Part 3: Design
This document explores the design aspects of human-centric lighting in the home. It requires a holistic approach, considering the spectral mix, quality, and timing of light throughout the day and night to best deliver the functional and photobiological needs of a home’s occupants to benefit their comfort, productivity, and wellbeing.
“The writing of this 3-part white paper series required extensive research, much of which was deep diving into medical research studies on photobiology. There’s somewhere in the order of about 3,000 such papers out there with a lot of compelling findings. I read about 200 of them. I figured that integrators are unlikely to have the time or inclination to do that, so I did it for them to help explain the all-important WHY behind human-centric design.”—David Meyer, Technical Writer and Educator
CEDIA white papers are free to download for CEDIA members. Visit cedia.org/education/white-papers to get a copy.
