15 LATEST MATERIALS AND METHODS OF LIGHTING, MODERN FEATURES OF LIGHTING DESIGN AND FIXTURES-HOME AND COMMERCIAL SPACES

D. Sumathi

        Light has been always considered sacred and special in our culture. It is the primary requisite of life, basic of all living system and an important element for life. Without light, there would be no visible form, colour or texture, nor any visible enclosure of interior space. Lighting a space is an important element in determining the beauty and comfort of the home. Light is an art element as well as a utilitarian element. The first function of a lighting design is to illuminate the forms and space of an interior environment, and allow its users to undertake activities and perform tasks with appropriate speed, accuracy and comfort. A well-lighted room can ease tensions, help to create harmony, make reading and TV watching a greater pleasure and heighten the enjoyment of furniture, paintings, and rugs. Poor lighting can spoil the over-all effect of the most expensively decorated room, while proper illumination can make a simply decorated room seem far more exciting. The lighting in a space changes the mood of the space just as it does the perceived size of a room. Placement and type are important aspects of interior design, and they work in conjunction with color selections, room size, availability of natural light and furniture selection.

The objectives of this lesson are:

1.      To study the latest materials and methods of lighting

2.      To become aware of the types of lighting and lighting fixtures used in interiors

3.      To give clear cut idea about the latest trends in lighting and lighting fixtures in homes

4.      To acquire knowledge on trends in commercial lighting design

Sources of Artificial Lighting

There are two common sources of artificial light—the incandescent bulb and the fluorescent tube.

Incandescent Lighting

Incandescent light is formed by heating a highly resistant tungsten filament with an electric current until it glows. It contains a continuous, warm, yellow colour spectrum. It

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produces heat and is costly. It is used in ceiling and portable fixtures such as table lamps. This lighting is flattering and best for warm mood lighting. These lamps are available in a wide range of wattages. A type of incandescent light is the tungsten halogen lamp. The filament of the small lamp is surrounded with halogen gas. As the tungsten burns off, the halogen reacts with the tungsten, creating a bright light. This type of light enables one to direct light to a certain area and to strengthen the light by placing the bulb inside a reflective (PAR) lamp. Low voltage lighting has a built-in reflector with a tungsten halogen bulb that produces superior accent lighting or spotlighting. Low voltage halogen is the lamp of choice where artwork is displayed.

Fluorescent Lighting

Fluorescent light is created by an arc between two electrodes inside a glass tube filled with very low pressure mercury vapour. The arc or discharge produces ultra violet (invisible) radiations in wavelength that excite or activate the white powder (phosphorus crystals) lining the lamp. Phosphorous fluoresces (glows), converting the ultra violet energy into visible light energy. This light is a relatively shadow less, even light, making it ideal for general lighting of environments where task lighting would be impractical or undesirable. In homes, fluorescent lighting is most commonly used in luminous ceiling panels, recessed into a drop ceiling and covered with texture, translucent panels. These lights are also commonly used in under-the-cabinet lighting over counters, in bathroom lighting and over work surfaces in hobby rooms or offices. This type of even, clear light provides an environment where work can take place for hours without lighting-cost fatigue.

Compact fluorescent lamps (CFL) are initially more expensive, yet they consume as little as one-fifth of the power and last up to thirteen times longer than incandescent lamps. CF lamps also offer a choice of colours and degrees of “warmth”. Dimmable fluorescent lighting system consists of electronic dimming ballast, control wiring, power wiring, a wall-box dimmer switch, and dimmable fluorescent fixtures. Coloured fluorescent light is cold-cathode lighting, commonly called neon lamps. These use different gases or vapours to produce colours. High intensity discharge (HID) lamps are high-pressure electric discharge lamps are commonly available in three types, each with different uniqueness, depending upon the gas vapour inside and the phosphor coating. HID lamps have been used primarily for industrial applications and outdoor lighting

Types of lighting and lighting fixtures used in interiors

From the point view of service, three types of lighting are felt necessary namely, general, task, and accent lighting. Light which are used generally to light up the room are known as ambient or general lighting like the wall lights, chandeliers etc. It must be sufficient to guarantee safety of movement and should be of high level for simple tasks. It fills the undefined areas of a room with a soft level of light. The general lighting should be provided in various intensities. Ambient lighting usually comes from indirect fixtures that afford a diffused spread of illumination

Task lighting illuminates a particular area where a visual activity takes place. It is often achieved with individual fixtures that direct light onto a work surface. These lights offer high intensity lighting without high general illumination. This light is produced in particular places, usually by portable floor and table lamps, but also by straight or curved lighted rods and by lights behind ground glass that is flush with the wall.

Accent lighting chiefly fills an aesthetic need: a spotlight dramatizes or highlights an art object. Accent sources give local rather than general illumination. They are supplementary to the general light sources. The effect of accent lighting is instantly appreciated when one enters a room with much sparkling light. Down-lighters, up-lighters and wall washers can also become accent lights.

Types of lighting fixtures

Movable Light Fixtures

Table lamps, floor lamps, and small specialty lamps are easy to buy, easy to take along when one moves, and are the movable light fixtures. Table lamps show individuality and style, at the same time they serve as sources of light. Variety, mobility, and ease of installation add to the appeal of such lamps. The height of the bulb within the shade also affects the circle of illumination. Floor lamps offer great flexibility. The traditional floor

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lamp provides a continuation of levels, serving either as a reading light or as a source of soft ambient light. Pharmacy lamps offer options for tasks such as reading and sewing. Lamps with adjustable arms provide greater range and flexibility. Bright torches available in halogen and incandescent versions, bounce light onto the ceiling for a dramatic form or indirect lighting especially for high ceiling rooms. Specialty lamps in new varieties are constantly appearing in the market. These lamps can fill a definite need while remaining movable and requires standard wiring. A lamp designed for an artist’s table can be called a specialty lamp. Recessed ceiling fixtures are used to provide illumination in down-light offices without the intrusion of a visible fixture. For this reason, they are effective in rooms with low ceiling and sleek lines. Recessed fixtures can be added in existing areas provided where there is enough space between the ceiling and the roof above.

Surface Mounted Fixtures

Installed either on walls or on ceilings, surface-mounted fixtures are integral to most home lighting designs. Ceiling and wall fixtures provide general illumination in traffic areas such as landings, entries and hall ways where safety is a consideration. Kitchen, bathrooms and workshops benefit from the added light from ceiling fixture used in conjunction with task lighting on work surfaces. Chandeliers and pendant fixtures add sparkle and style in high ceiling entries and above dining and game tables.

These decorative fixtures can give direct or diffused light or a combination of the two mini-lights and strip-lights are partly for fun and partly for effective task lighting. They add a splash of light and colour and may be used to provide very good effect in highlighting high windows and other architectural features. Track lighting offers great versatility of installation. Available in varying lengths, tracks are extended electrical lines from the outlets they hold. Architectural lighting includes luminous panels, built-in indirect lighting, recessed and adjustable fixtures and surface-mounted and suspended fixture

Luminous panels are strips or lines of lights, usually fluorescent, over which glass or plastic translucent panels are placed. The translucent panel glows.

Built-in indirect lighting– Indirect lighting is placing a light behind a built-in or portable feature.

Types of indirect lighting placed behind deflectors include the following:

Cornice lighting: A light behind a board mounted into the ceiling washes light down onto the wall.

Valance lighting: A light used over the top of windows washes both the ceiling and the window treatment.

Bracket lighting (Up and Down): Valence lighting mounted lower on the wall washes the upper (and perhaps lower) wall with the light.

Bracket lighting (Up only): A light placed just below the ceiling has the board or deflector beneath it.

Soffit lighting (in a Kitchen): A light built into the soffit shines downward from the top of the cabinet

overhead.

Soffit lighting (in a Bath): Soffit lighting provides even illumination for personal grooming. Fixed and

adjustable lighting: This includes various luminaries that are “fixed” or set into the ceiling called recessed luminaries and those that are adjustable. Adjustable luminaries can be recessed or surface mounted. Recessed down light Canisters set into the ceiling cast pots of light downward.

Latest trends in lighting and lighting fixtures in homes

Light Emitting Diode (LED) and Compact Fluorescent Lights (CFL) bulbs have revolutionized energy-efficient lighting.

LEDs – Light emitting diodes are solid light bulbs which are extremely energy efficient. When first developed, LEDs were limited to single-bulb use in applications such as instrument panels, electronics, pen lights and more recently strings of indoor and outdoor lights

• Diffused bulbs: In this style, clusters of LEDs are covered by a dimpled lens which spreads the light out over a wider area. These bulbs have many uses such as area lighting for rooms, porches, reading lamps, accent lamps, hallways and low-light applications where lights remain on for extended periods.
•  Dimmable Globe LED bulbs: It is mainly suited for bathrooms. These bulbs produce light equivalent to a 40-watt incandescent bulb, yet only consume 10 watts of power. These bulbs have a 200 degree beam angle to cast light in a wide area.
• Track Lighting pin base: It is available in MR-16 (pin base). LEDs are ideal for track lighting. These do not contribute to heat buildup in a room how long they remain on. They are 90% more efficient than incandescent, and last 10 times longer than CFLs. The frequency of changing bulbs is greatly reduced.
• Flood Reflector LEDs: These are now available for standard recessed lighting pots and housings. They range from 7.5 to 17watts, with beam widths from PAR20 to PAR38.
• Flame Tip, Candelabra Base LEDs: It is designed to replace incandescent candelabra bulbs. These flame tip LEDs deliver the equivalent light of 25-35 watt incandescent while only drawing 3.5 watts of electricity. Because of the heat sink in the base, light doesn’t diffuse downwards as much as a typical incandescent candelabra bulb.
• LED Tube Lights: It is designed to restore fluorescent tube bulbs. These LED tubes are available in 8 and 16 watts, which replace traditional 25-watt and 40-watt T8/T10/T12 fluorescent tubes. Because fluorescent lights are often installed in high ceilings in commercial sites, there are additional savings because the regularity of changing bulbs is greatly reduced.

Trends in lighting design in commercial spaces

1. Offices – As modern office building often allow little or no day light to reach major interior areas, artificial lighting become the primary illumination source. In the past it was considered satisfactory to simply afford overall lighting plenty to deliver a preferred standard desktop level. Tests shows that increased levels of lighting tends to improve speed of work and reduction of errors progressively supplied by ceiling mounted fluorescent fixtures.

High levels of uniform lighting often delivered from fixtures of poor design tend to create glare both from fixtures and from reflections on task materials at desktop level. Such lighting is also wasteful of energy and therefore costly because areas that have no need for high light levels are receiving the same levels as actual work surfaces. Realization of such problems has led to the development of alternative approaches, such as task ambient lighting in which overall or ambient light is set at much lower levels.

The effects of glare from ceiling lights can be eliminated by the use of fixtures incorporating lenses or parabolic reflections. Suitable fixtures appear as dim or dark when viewed by workers seated at work surfaces. Positioning of task lighting sources at the sides of work surfaces or the use in fixtures of special lenses made up of tiny prisms that direct light sideways can reduce reflected glare. Task lighting can also be locally switched so that lights remain off at work stations that neither are nor occupied resulting in energy savings.

Visual comfort at computer workstations is really important in minimizing work stress and physical complaints among office workers. Proper lighting is a key factor in avoiding such problems. Lighting that creates glare on the glass of screens is a common problems that requires careful placement of fixtures and protecting the screen from glare. Light levels must be carefully set at individual workstations to ensure that the brightness of the screen. The brightness level of nearby surroundings and of task materials close to a VDT screen should be no more than three times that of the screen itself.

Private offices and conference rooms require the same attention. In these spaces, as well as in general offices, some accent light is often desirable to relieve repetitiveness by providing an alternative visual focus, so that a concise look away from work materials offers visual relaxation and stimulus.

2.Health care facilities – Lighting in hospitals, clinics, and medical offices involves a intricate variety of issues concerning the comfort and wellbeing of patients and visitors and the working needs of doctors nurses and staff. Waiting areas and circulation spaces require moderate light levels (30-50 foot-candles), while medical office consulting rooms, like other private offices, are best served by similar ambient light levels with additional high intensity lighting available for specific examination and treatment routines.

Surgery requires very high light levels from specialized fixtures designed exclusively for operating rooms. Nurses’ stations need 100 foot-candles or more of illumination at work surfaces. Patients’ rooms often illuminated in older facilities with dull general lighting at low levels, actually call for lighting adjustable to several differing intensities. A low level (30-50 foot-candles) is needed for daytime.

In addition a higher level should be available from portable or otherwise movable light units, for examination and treatment. Reading lights are also needed for the use of patients in bed. In semi privative rooms and wards, separate lighting controls should be placed at each patient’s area to assure only least disturbance of other patients in the same room.

Well-designed lighting can help to decrease anxiety and discomfort in medical facilities. Families and other visitors, as well as patients, are powerfully influenced by the overall appearance of such establishments and tend to understand comfortable and appropriate lighting as an indication of competent professional care management.

3.  Retail stores and showrooms – Store managers understand that the ambience of store and appearance of merchandise on display strongly affect customers decisions about purchasing. Lighting plays a major role in communicating the character of a store and must be in harmony with the sales policies of particular firm. Shops that feature low prices and rapid turnover of merchandise are best served by high intensity light levels with little concern for artistic subtleties. A basic level of 100 foot-candles is common with special displays using levels as high as 500 foot candles supplied by directed spotlighting.

In stores offering increased customer assistance and an emphasis on better quality merchandise rather than bargain prices, a moderate level of ambient light is appropriate (50-70 foot-candles), with possibly lower levels for circulation spaces and higher levels for merchandise on display. Brightly lit accent displays combined with the lighting of perimeter walls and displays (100-300 foot candles) help to enlighten the character of the store.

Selling spaces and can focus on attention on items features seasonally or in special promotions. Specialty shops stressing style and quality are best served by lower light levels, approaching those of residential lighting. The desired atmosphere may suggest private club or fine hotel. General lighting of 20 to 40 foot candles is appropriate with higher levels (up to 60 foot-candles) on actual merchandise.

In addition to these generalizations, one must consider the specific merchandise to be displayed in order to choose suitable light sources and fixtures. Uniform general lighting can wash out highlights and make good look soft, even dull. Point source lighting tends to develop highlights and highlight texture. Although some highlighting is desirable for almost any merchandise, it is especially favorable to products that glitter jewelry photo equipment and small appliances look best under high contrast concentrated lighting. Furniture and rugs are better served by softer lighting, although rugs and textiles (including the fabrics of clothing) look most eye-catching. when a emphasize texture.

4. Restaurant

Restaurant lighting parallels store in many respects, with the character of the lighting playing an important role in communication price level, quality, and speed of turnover. Restaurant selection is strongly influenced by appearance and the level of customer satisfaction although obviously affected primarily by the food and service is also determined by visual impressions, among which lighting is of ultimate importance. Bright, uniform light suggests a briskly paced atmosphere usually associated with luncheonettes dinners and fast-food chain outlets where speed and low prices take priority over quality and service.

In restaurants with table service, a mid-range ambient light level (30-50 foot-candles) makes circulation easy and is adequate for table illumination. Hotel dining rooms and mid-level restaurants are generally well served by such overall lighting. Dimmers make it possible to alter lighting levels as the season and time of day suggest. Fluorescent light, unflattering to both food and patrons is best avoided in favors of incandescent and halogen sources.

Smart lighting

Smart lighting technology is exciting because of the wide array of results and benefits that it can achieve. Controls embedded into each fixture deliver exciting results, including dramatic savings on energy costs. In fact, a Business Insider report shows one packaging company slashed energy costs by 75% and improved worker productivity by 20% at one of its plants by installing smart LED lights.

Examples of smart lighting at work:

1. Lights can be set to dim at certain hours but brighten, and even emit an audible alarm or warning when motion is detected, alerting security personnel to intruders and letting trespassers know to smile for the security cameras.

2.Lighting controls can be programmed to correspond with meeting schedules. When sensors in the conference room lights detect no movement during a scheduled meeting time, they can be switched off and the event can be cancelled in their schedule.

3. Smart lighting control systems can be programmed to meet energy efficiency codes, like those set forth by ASHRAE. By measuring temperatures, room occupancy, and energy loads, the smart systems adjust by harvesting daylight or turning off in empty rooms to keep the building’s energy use within set parameters.

Incredibly, many of these smart lighting systems can be wirelessly controlled by our phone or tablet, from anywhere in the world. From auto scheduling to changing colours, to day lighting, to built-in speakers, smart lighting is dramatically changing the facilities by the way we use light.

Conclusion

To conclude, lighting is not only illuminating the place with necessary light fixtures but also creating warm surroundings through decent lighting. The information given in this lesson would give an idea or even help the owners of the residence and shop owner to install lighting systems in their places that are effective in meeting the demands of the concerned people while reducing the energy used for lighting.Good and efficient lighting is essential for every home and vast improvements have been made during recent years, both in artificial lighting and in making the best use of natural lighting. Artificial light becomes primary in homes, where most people spend much of their time after dark. Thus is an important part of every home and one should take utmost care for the lights they arrange in room.

Web links

• www.google.co.in
• www.livingstyles.co.uk
• Collinsdictionary.com
• http://energy.gov>energy saver>m.wikipedia.org/wiki/flores
• Http://www.e-education.psu.edu>node