Human Centric Lighting (HCL) with Gerard Lighting

The sun plays a critical role in all biological processes on earth and sunlight is a crucial part of everyday life. Natural light changes with the season and has a significant impact on how we feel, as do many other changes that take place 24 hours a day.

A busy lifestyle can be challenging to our internal body clock also known as 'circadian rhythm', therefore light plays an important role in how we feel when we wake up in the morning, to the evening when it's time to relax and sleep.

To achieve a good circadian rhythm, we need a good Human Centric Lighting (HCL) solution. HCL systems feature controllable lighting that sits on a spectrum of correlated colour temperatures (CCTs). The systems are designed to evoke human biological responses and support health, wellbeing and performance. CCTs are measured in Kelvin (K) and range from 2700K (warm) to 6500K (cool)-a broad spectrum that gives the ability to evoke different responses on a biological level.

Gerard Lighting's expert in-house engineering and design team allows the swift development of cutting-edge products and bespoke lighting solutions including HCL. Gerard Lighting now offers tunable troffers that can assist in achieving desired outcomes for HCL systems. Products such as Pierlite GenLED, Pierlite DLED and Siteco Scriptus, can now be used in projects that are being designed to achieve WELL standard certification.

Benefits of Human Centric Lighting include:

Improved health and sleep: It's not just about feelings. The impact of light can also be explained by the chemical reactions in the human brain and body. HCL can significantly boost patient and staff comfort, in turn helping to achieve optimum health outcomes. Additionally, it can regulate the production of important hormones and helps in proper functioning of circadian rhythm.

Productivity and enhanced performance: According to Lighting Society Europe, HCL significantly enhances performance and wellbeing, to the point of enhancing productivity by 4.5%, reducing errors by 2% and slashing absentee rates.

Visual acuity: Lighting has a direct impact on visual acuity. Light sources with higher amounts of blue (cool) light stimulate the intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells (ipRGC) photoreceptors, which in turn cause the pupils to contract. This contraction results in better visual acuity and allows clearer vision for longer, as the eye accommodates the light, rather than being stressed by it. While this clarity is not ideal at all times of day, it may aid healthcare and aged-care employees in working effectively for extended periods of time.

Safety: As HCL systems significantly improve visibility, they can reduce the risk of trips and falls, which can be a major cause of injury in Australian workplaces.

Workplaces and offices: Help improve learning, increase concentration and performance while improving efficiency and accuracy and contributing to positive social behaviour and circadian rhythm. It can also assist in reducing fatigue and errors in the day-to-day work.

Education and schools: Help increase efficiency and performance in studies by promoting circadian rhythm. In some cases, it can assist in promoting better sleep. HCL for the classroom can consist of five controls-general light (classroom light), reading, concentration, energy boost and relaxation.

Healthcare and aged-care: Assist in improving learning and concentration in aged-care facilities. It can also help to improve human well-being and health by adapting to support circadian rhythm, potentially assisting with cognitive function amongst aged patients. For hospital staff working at night, HCL can reduce fatigue and help them to serve their patients better.

By providing improved circadian rhythm from Human Centric Lighting solutions, we can get more sleep, which can assist in achieving better health.

For more information, visit www.gerardlighting.com.au today.