The impact of lighting on today’s society

Population size is one of the most important metrics in human understanding and in gauging strategies at global, regional, national and local levels.

Understanding it helps to estimate the number of human beings in the future in order to weave socio-economic, environmental and demographic strategies. The UN has been doing this work for over 50 years and the latest projections say that in 2050 the world population will be 9.8 billion and in 2100 around 11.2 billion.

Currently, more than 50 per cent of the world’s population lives in urban areas, consuming between 60-80 per cent of energy, and by 2050 it is expected to reach 66 per cent. This increase triggers a greater need for construction, which in turn generates an increase in energy needs, where lighting is responsible for 20-25% of the energy consumed and 6% of CO₂ emissions worldwide.

With localised population growth, strategic pressures are being generated to implement more efficient technologies on the market. In the last decade, Lightenjin, as a player in the lighting market, has driven the shift towards energy transition with the replacement of conventional ‘analogue’ technologies with the implementation of ‘digital’ technologies, where the increasing energy efficiency of LED technology, coupled with long lifetimes (50,000 to 100,000 hours), provide more than valid reasons for its implementation.

Today, the imposition is based on a paradigm shift in the function of lighting. The multifunctionality associated with the element that provides lighting goes beyond the condition of providing lighting levels necessary for performing tasks and promoting safety. Today, we work on lighting from the perspective of a facilitating element, to respond to human and animal needs, at a food level, in the prevention and control of the spread of viruses and bacteria.

Currently, one of the challenges is to improve energy efficiency to reduce consumption resulting from lighting and use this energy for larger functions. There are around 320 million lighting points worldwide and it is expected that by 2027 there will be around 363 million. Of these lighting points, currently, less than 5% integrate control systems. Projections indicate an increase of around 30% by the end of 2027. It is also known that the integration of control systems on public roads could reduce energy consumption by up to 30%. If we do the same exercise in terms of buildings, the reductions could be greater.

If population growth projections are confirmed, these reductions could serve the purpose of lighting in places with notable demographic masses, different from the current reality. It could also respond to a need to create spaces/means in cities, using customized artificial lighting, which promotes the growth of basic necessities in order to eliminate food shortages resulting from population growth, which are difficult to fill with sustainable rural production. For example, Taiwan is integrating farms into underground subway stations to grow vegetables without the use of pesticides and in a sustainable way.

Another major challenge is to promote quality lighting in workspaces, capable of controlling our circadian rhythm. The cycle of waking up with the Sun, working under the Sun and going to bed at sunset is a cycle intrinsic to the natural cycle of human beings. With the discovery of the light bulb, this cycle allowed human beings to live 24 hours a day under regular exposure to intensity and color temperature. We now know that in the retina there are photosensitive cells (ipRGC), responsible for setting our biological clock. Targeted excitation of these cells can suppress melatonin production and favor the production of dopamine, serotonin and cortisol. Exposure to lighting with a greater blue component during the day can promote alertness and increased productivity. Exposure to lighting with a greater yellow component favors the production of melatonin to promote stages of relaxation. Thanks to developments in LED technology, it is possible to customize light spectrums with color temperature regulation to adopt the natural light spectrum. The light intensity should also be adjusted to a Gaussian curve in order to mimic the intensity profile of the Sun. Today, given the limited exposure context and the low quality of natural light, we spend around 90% of our time indoors. It is important to have lighting systems that can regulate the intensity and color temperature, with a view to simulating the response curve profile of the main mediator of the circadian rhythm, the Sun. The installation of lighting systems that favor the control of the circadian rhythm is so important that it can be interpreted as a preventive element in the development of diseases related to cardiovascular, reproductive, mental, gastrointestinal health and even the development of cancer.

In the same way that certain wavelengths favor our well-being, there are also wavelengths responsible for breaking DNA bonds, leading to cell death. These wavelengths (UVC/B radiation) can be used for physical inactivation of viruses and bacteria. Without human exposure to this type of radiation.

At Lightenjin, the study of different wavelengths is today a field of research in order to respond to the needs of current and future society. The possibility of selecting these, linked to control systems, makes lighting a multifunctional system with many potentialities yet to be explored.

Vânia Freitas
Lightenjin Dep. Research Development and Innovation Coordinator

see the magazine pages here – https://lightenjin.pt/pdfs/revista-rede-do-empresario-2024-06.pdf