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Lighting fact #29

A lot of unique sunlight properties, like its very specific luminosity and hardness, cannot be emulated by standard electrical lighting. And we don’t even mention vitamin D.

Moreover, sunlight changes during the day and that what we call “natural dynamic lighting”. Thus, all types of  lighting we are projected at our home, school, workplace, gym, hospital, and other public places should take current time of day into account and light properties to closely simulate natural sunlight, providing the right type of light at the right time. Only in this case we will be able to benefit to our health.

SVET is a light solution that can do exactly that, in addition to being fully remote-controllable.

To find more about how SVET mimics natural light check out our website - http://svet.io/

And stay illuminated!

#SVET

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SVET LED Light Bulb & Philips Hue: Time To Choose (part 2)

In the previous post, we covered the main differences between the SVET and Philips Hue light bulbs. This post highlights detailed tech specs of two products looking very similar at first sight.

To quickly sort out the differences, we created a simple infographic that explains in numbers why SVET, as a new generation of human-centric lighting, outranks Philips Hue in many ways. 

Also, we would like to share some graphs that will show why SVET can reach rich spectrum.

Find out more about SVET on our website. 

by Aleksey Dubov, Founder @ SVET

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SVET LED Light Bulb & Philips Hue: Time To Choose (part 1)

A lot of questions we get via social media, emails and during conferences can be bluntly boiled down to one: what's the difference between SVET and Philips Hue? To an average consumer, the products may indeed look very similar in purpose and technology, so the question is certainly justified. 

In order to answer this question as thoroughly as possible, we made a detailed comparison of the SVET and Philips Hue light bulbs, so you can be ahead of the game the next time you’re out for quality home or office lighting.

The comparison is split into two articles. The first one will cover the main differences without any technical details, while the second one will be more technical, explaining the differences in specs.

So, starting off, the three most important points anyone should consider when choosing a smart lighting solution are as follows: health benefits, quality, and usability. Let’s figure out what each of these means.

Health Comes First. Entertainment Comes Second

The Philips Hue Light Bulb, being a side-product of the Philips company, was created as an extension of their wide range of entertainment hardware. Following the company’s philosophy, it’s an entertainment product first and foremost, and a lighting solution second.

Apart from the standard Hue bulb, Philips offers a range of other light bulbs, like Hue Go, Hue Beyond, Hue Phoenix, Hue Bloom and so on, each better suited for different applications and tasks. This variety is great because it allows you to select an option best suited for your needs and interior. It constitutes the ecosystem of Hue products (the Hue family). 

Specifics aside, all Hue family light bulbs have the same basic technology and mode of operation. They produce shades of white light and are able to blend different colors to enhance your interior space. With full control over the lighting Hue bulbs produce, any creative ideas can come to life with a single touch of a button (provided you configured everything correctly). 

With the amount of customizability Hue provides, it’s possible to set it up to improve your living conditions by outputting healthy light. To do that, though, you must know which light is right for every hour of the day, and in what quantities. Needless to say, this kind of is tuning is only available to experts.

At the end of the day, probably the best way to describe Hue light bulbs is “interior mood lighting”.

On the other hand, SVET light bulbs are a new generation of high-quality LED bulbs with several features designed specifically to improve health. The light SVET bulbs produce mimics natural sunlight dynamics, supporting your biological rhythm (or the so-called “circadian rhythm”) on a daily basis.

The SVET's technical capacity and collaborative research with Fraunhofer Institute made it possible to develop a number of personalised lighting scenarios for various everyday activities. For example, SVET has built-in functionality to help you sleep better, decrease stress on wakeup, increase productivity, and make relaxation easier. No matter the mode you choose, SVET's light will remain dynamic: it will constantly change according to the Sun's cycle, taking into account current season, time of day, location, and your personalised settings.

Hue products have human-centric presets too, like the Relax, Reading, Concentrate, and Energize modes. The big difference is, all these presets are static – the light remains the same during the day and night. This makes it not suitable for prolonged use, as the same lighting can have vastly different effects depending on the current time and other factors.

The dynamic nature of all SVET lighting scenarios makes SVET able to prevent SAD (seasonal affective disorder). Achieving this with Philips Hue can be challenging if you have unusual work and sleep hours, or if you live in a time zone where sunlight is less regular, such as Finland, or WA, USA.

The other thing about SVET that makes it more health-focused than other smart light bulbs is its biological safety feature. It ensures that no matter the settings (SVET allows you to fully customize light output) you will not harm your circadian rhythm. For example, it will prevent you from selecting a mode or light color which can hurt you at that time of day.

In manual control mode, SVET allows you to have all the entertainment of mood lighting, but with the addition of health-improving features and safety measures.

Quality Of Lighting Defines Your Home Environment

The quality of a light bulb is determined by its lifespan and the quality of light it produces. The lifespan of a Philips Hue is 15,000 hours, while SVET bulbs boast the lifespan of 30,000 hours. The full warranty of both Philips Hue and SVET is 2 years, but SVET additionally has a limited warranty of 5 years. During this time SVET light bulbs are guaranteed to maintain the same level of light quality.

Going into the details of light quality, we should start by comparing the color rendering index of Hue and SVET. The CRI range of Philips Hue is 80-90, while that of SVET is 90-96. It’s considered that the greater the CRI, the better the light source, since the higher CRI means more natural colors (with sunlight being the point of reference for CRI 100). However, the CRI metric is not linear. The difference between CRI 90 and CRI 95 is double the color rendering quality.

Another aspect of light quality is the spectrum. SVET has rich spectrum, while the spectrum of Philips Hue is poorer. Having rich spectrum allows you to see more colors in your surroundings with minimal distortions. Generally, rich spectrum translates into increased eye comfort.

Additionally, SVET uses analog dimming to remove flickering in all lighting scenarios. Simply put, SVET light bulbs are flicker-free. Philips Hue bulbs don't employ this technology, which leads to flickering when changing the brightness. It’s best to avoid flickering whenever possible, as prolonged exposure to flickering lights may cause headaches and migraines, or even worsen the symptoms of other serious conditions, like depression.

Usability, Control And Connectivity

According to the Philips Hue website, the Philips Hue comes with a starter kit, which also contains a power adapter, an Internet network cable and a bridge. Setting up a room with smart lighting, in this case, can amount to a lot of work.

Consider the following: after you screw in the bulbs into the sockets according to the manual, you need to mount the bridge to a wall somewhere. The bridge will serve as the link between the Internet, your mobile device, and the Hue bulbs. It connects to WiFi via the router, and can connect up to 50 Hue bulbs at a time.

With SVET, the setup process is much easier. 

And by the way, each time you buy and install a new light bulb, it’s added to a shared network. One network supports up to 200 light bulbs.

The best part of SVET technology policy is the ability to configure all settings via the SVET app for the whole lighting system at once. After that, you can forget about the app and use only your wall switch to turn the light bulbs on and off. The bulbs will not only remember the settings; they will automatically adjust the brightness and CCT based on time of day. 

With Philips Hue, you have to set up your lighting manually every time using the app or Internet. You can always achieve automation with the IFTTT service, but your light bulbs must remain turned on all the time.

SVET allows you to further personalize your light day by setting your usual (or desired) wake-up and bedtime. After that SVET automatically gives you a necessary portion of blue light in the morning (doubling as a light alarm clock), white light during the day and warm light to ease you into sleep in the evening, according to the initially selected mode. Even if you come home and turn on the light in the evening, it will know what time it is and which scenario should be executed.

We hope the article helped clear some confusion regarding these smart lighting solutions. With the world becoming more conscious of light quality and its influence on human health, it’s truly marvellous how easy it becomes to improve lighting conditions – and life quality – for people of all incomes and demographics. 

Like water and air, light is something we consume daily, and its quality (or lack thereof) should be given careful consideration by anyone looking to live healthily. Thankfully, we have no shortage of choice of quality light nowadays.

Read more about Philips Hue and SVET.

by Aleksey Dubov, Founder @ SVET 

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Lighting Fact #28

Did you know that, generally, women prefer warmer, softer colors than men? This can be considered in all lighting modes but, of course, it is always up to the individual user, what he/she chooses as preferred color. 

So the next time she wants to do it with lights on, you’d better respect it. What’s your favorite color?

Find out more at http://svet.io/ 

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Lighting Fact #27

Let’s face it, we all get older. The trick is to go through it and do it properly and in a healthy way. Light is last but not least in this story. 

With age, the eye becomes less transmissive, especially for short wavelength (blue) light. Therefore lighting environments should be brighter for elderly (for vision and chronobiology) and blue-enriched. For example, a 50-year old person should be projected 40% more light than 25-year old and a 80-year old person — 100% more light than 25-year old.

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Lighting Fact #26

Stress and anxiety are frequent outcomes from working in a setting of intense (especially fluorescent) lighting. Research has shown that annoyance from bright light leads to medical stress. Moreover, fluorescent lighting has also been linked to aggravating other psychological disorders such as agoraphobia (extreme or irrational fear of open or public places).

Change your flat, harmful indoor lighting to health-friendly with SVET.

Find more at http://svet.io/

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How exposure to artificial lighting may affect your stress levels

Have you noticed yourself working longer hours and stressing out more often? Having a larger influx of work may mean bigger bucks or a sweet bonus at the end of the pay period, but is it all at the cost of your stress? Is there a way of having it all?

Sometimes, stress comes naturally at work, and there such a thing as good stress when you are passionate about what you do. But the reality is, much of it is excess and it's not all your fault (don't always blame the boss either, although it's easy to).

When you are under harsh lighting all day (every day), it messes with your stress levels. In addition, the side effects include headaches, fatigue, anxiety, a decrease in sexual function (which is stressful in itself), and even performance effects. 

'Over-illumination' or 'improper spectral composition of light' can lead to health consequences, and are particularly significant when an improperly matching color spectrum of light is illuminating the workplace. Proof of scientific research about the correlation between stress levels and over-illumination can be found here.

Replacing your dangerous stress causing light bulbs with SVET smart lighting is the solution. SVET can't make your boss less crazy, or make your unreasonable deadlines go away, but it can change your actual workspace into a more productive and relaxed environment (at the same time) with SVET's smart technology. 

SVET bulbs are set to change color, tone, and temperature throughout the day to get the body back in sync with the sun, the way its supposed to be. In addition, there are no harsh chemicals like mercury and lead here.  

by Aleksey Dubov, Founder @ SVET 

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Are your main rooms well-lit?

There are 4 basic steps to a well-lit room, and we would like to share them with you because we all know that the right lighting can make or break a room. It's vital to create an inviting environment that encourages people to linger around your home and business. One of the biggest mistakes (and most annoying) is to go overboard on lighting, resulting in a room too bright. 

You don't want guests/clients to feel like they're waiting in a hospital emergency room, do you?

1. The first step when lighting any room is to ask yourself: What happens in this room?

Different activities require different types and levels of light. A well-lit living room will have four different types of lighting: general/ambient, task, accent, and mood. These are used at different times of day and for different purposes, and we will break down how to use and mix them, but before we do, here are the functions:

General or Ambient

Ambient lighting (aka general lighting) provides an area with overall illumination. It radiates a comfortable level of brightness without flicker and glare, allowing you to smoothly walk around. In some spaces such as laundry rooms, the ambient lighting also serves as the primary source of task lighting. It can be accomplished with chandeliers, ceiling or wall-mounted fixtures, recessed or track lights, and lanterns. Having a central source of ambient light in all rooms is fundamental to a good lighting plan.

Task

Task lighting helps you perform specific tasks such as reading, grooming, cooking, painting, and balancing your checkbook. It can be provided by recessed and track lighting, pendant lighting, under cabinet lighting, portable floor lamps, and desk lamps. Task lighting should be free of distracting flicker, glare, and shadows, and should be bright enough to prevent eyestrain and fatigue.

Accent

Accent lighting adds drama to a room by creating visual interest. As part of an interior design scheme, it is used to draw the eye to houseplants, paintings, sculptures, weird coffee table books, souvenirs, and other prized possessions. It can also be used to highlight different textures of walls, and other essential elements such as window treatments, or outdoor landscaping. Accent lighting generally requires at least three times as much light on the focal point as the lighting surrounding it. Accent lighting is usually provided by recessed and track lighting or wall-mounted lights.

Mood

Mood lighting creates any desired mood of an area, whether that mood is relaxing, romantic, bold, soft, or colorful. Restaurants and massage therapy centers use mood lighting when they dim the overhead lights and place candles or funky lamps on the tables. The technique is also used in theater to communicate the desired mood to an audience. Mood lighting is also where splashing colors on the walls or using colored bulbs may come in.

How to accomplish these types of lighting?

The first step of awareness on the lighting functions is complete after reading halfway through the blog post!

1. Localize your light source.

A common misconception is that you need to light the whole room. Try instead to balance the room by incorporating multiple points of light. Choose your light source, and then determine how to diffuse it. The right lampshade and bulb make all the difference.

2. Always add a dimmer.

For multipurpose rooms and hallways, dimmers are key. They allow for flexibility depending on the time of day, event, and mood. In addition, they help save energy, increase your bulb life and help save extra money on your electricity bills.

3. Know your bulbs.

Most energy saving bulbs on the market are actually toxic, so do your homework before you choose the right light bulbs. Consider you light bulbs to be a solid investment in your home, you wouldn't put low-quality pipes connected to your toilet to run the risk of a constant mess, so don't treat your precious bulbs any different. And please, fluorescent tubes should be avoided at all costs, for the sake of your health, and home design scheme. They make everything look off color and the impact of the overly bright lighting can lead to fatigued eyes.

by Aleksey Dubov, Founder @ SVET 

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Why to get Down with Green Lighting if You Haven't Already

Green movement is a huge trend and green lighting is next. Join the movement now!

In new research from the Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH), researchers concluded that green light is vital in influencing non-visual responses and impacting the body’s natural internal body clock by the release of hormones such as melatonin, which is connected to sleepiness, and affecting photoreceptors in specialized cells in the eye (the research was published in the May 12 issue of Science Translational Medicine).

Steven Lockley, PhD, senior author and researcher in the Division of Sleep Medicine at BWH stated, “Our results suggest that we have to consider not only blue light when predicting the effects of light on our circadian rhythms, hormones, and alertness, but also other visible wavelengths such as green light.”

Researchers enrolled 52 healthy volunteers in a 9-day study in the Intensive Physiological Monitoring unit at BWH, which is free from all time cues including windows, clocks, internet, television or any other indicators for the time of day.

“Our findings suggest that by dynamically manipulating the color, duration and pattern of light, current available light therapies could be optimized and new therapies could be developed.  These findings have the potential to play an important treatment role for a number of disorders including circadian rhythm sleep disorders, seasonal affective disorder and dementia.  They could also be applied to the use of light as a drowsiness countermeasure, particularly during night shift work, or anywhere were sleepiness might affect performance or present a safety concern” Lockley said.

by Aleksey Dubov, Founder @ SVET

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Lighting fact #25

Low color temperature light creates a smooth lowering of central nervous system activity. Thus, low color temperature illumination can be used effectively in a bedroom or other such environment where it is desirable to facilitate lowered physiological activity.

According to studies “Effect of Illuminance and Color Temperature on Lowering of Physiological Activity” by Noguchi H, Sakaguchi T.

Find more at http://svet.io/ 

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The Relationship Between Sleep and Light

Have you ever woken up right before your alarm goes off, and were surprised and impressed at your body's natural sense of time? Humans, as well as plants and animals, have an internal clock that is in sync with nature's cycles of night and day. 

An area situated deep in the brain called the hypothalamus, acts as a timekeeper and regulates many of our body's functions like sleep, when it's time to eat, and overall energy levels.

Sunlight detected by cells in the retina of the eye sends messages to the brain that keep us in the usual 24-hour cycle (circadian rhythm). These light cues release many different types of chemicals in the body, causing shifts in our physiology and behavior. For instance, as it gets closer to the evening, the light in our environment gets dimmer, the hormone melatonin begins to increase and the body's temperature drops—both of which help us to become less energetic and more likely to relax and ease into sleep. 

With the assistance of morning light, melatonin levels are lower, the body's temperature begins to increase, and other chemical changes, such as triggering the hormone cortisol, occurs to help us feel awake and ready for a productive day.

So, the relationship with sleep and light, just like any other relationship relies on balance, communication, respect, and being good in bed. Balance the lighting you are exposing your body to, it's obvious that your body has made it clear on what times it needs which type of lighting. 

Communication needs to be solid between the light you expose your body to, so it can send clear signals for a proper night of sleep, every night. Respect your body's needs, or it won't respect you and you won't get good sleep, every night. And that, will block from feeling good once you lay down to sleep, until the moment you wake up.

If your lighting is not giving your body a sufficient amount of light needed in order to be at your optimum best in bed, well, it's time do dump the old bulb and get SVET. 

by Aleksey Dubov, Founder @ SVET

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Lightning fact #24

Did you know that red color increases blood pressure acting like a stimulant (later followed by depression), while blue color causes a drop in blood pressure (later followed by an increase)?

Next time when choosing colors to paint your walls, think twice because it may harm your health.

Find out more about SVET lighting at http://svet.io/  

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Why Lighting Matters

Our habits, lifestyle, and views have changed radically over the past century. But when it comes to lighting we still use the one that's based on 19th-century technology that harms our health on a daily basis. Lighting matters and here is why.

The sources of light in your home, at the office, and anywhere else you are absorbing the most lighting affects your physical, mental, and emotional states.

There is always new research popping up, including a published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, about how exposure to certain types of artificial light before sleeping, and during the night, in general, can increase the risk of type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, and even cancer.

Why put some much emphasis on lighting?

Our bodies need a properly measured quantity of light at the right intensity and at the right time of day to act as crucial indications for our internal body clock (and it's not just the quantity that matters, it's the quality). The internal body clock should naturally balance with the ultimate timekeeper: the sundial.

Light in the morning is the natural indicator that helps us wake up and get ready to start a productive day, while softer and dimmer light at night cues us to get ready for undisturbed sleep.

"Light is critical for our health and well-being. Ensuring that we receive adequate light levels at the appropriate time of day benefits our alertness, mood, productivity, sleep patterns and many aspects of our physiology," claims Dr. Victoria Revell, a chronobiologist at the University of Surrey.

What is the right amount of light?

The proper amount of light we need really depends on the time, and the activity in motion.

During the peak of a productive day, we need higher levels of light to stay focused on work, school, watching the kids, etc... However, as the day is closing in, during the evening is actually the time to relax (a concept that many people are starting to disbelief).

At night, your light bulbs should be dimmed and the TV, laptop, tablet and any other bright electronic device should be switched off an hour before sleeping. But, it's 2016 and it's nearly impossible. The most bulbs don't know exactly what time of day needs which type of lighting, so your lights are not dimmed conveniently for you to the right tone, intensity, color, and temperature so you can wake up how you are supposed to... Fresh and ready to go!

Artificial lighting is the problem

The issue with using most artificial light bulbs at night is they decrease your levels of melatonin – a hormone, which is produced by the pineal gland (that sits in the middle of your brain) around 9:00pm to 8:00am.

Melatonin is vital to our body's health because it's what makes us happy and works in balance with our natural circadian rhythm. When the melatonin is off, physiological, mental, and emotional functions are affected, in turn, affects everything around us including our loved ones. It especially affects our ability to think clearly, sleep well, have a regular and healthy sex life, and regulation of blood pressure and glucose levels. In addition, melatonin deficiency can lead to severe depression, insomnia, and even diabetes according to some sources that believe stress is a crucial enabler for diabetes.

Light therapy can help, so don't knock it until you try it.

Getting the proper quality and quantity of light can be challenging if you have unusual work and sleep hours, and/or if you live in a time zone where all the lighting can get tricky in general such as St. Petersburg, Russia, or Anchorage, Alaska.

So why not try SVET? In just a few simple steps like twisting a SVET bulb into a regular socket and downloading the App, you will have the right lighting you need without harsh chemicals like they have in most conventional bulbs, and it's made out of recycled materials. The is genius bulb is set to mimic the sun, and get your body back on its natural track.

"Light therapy (phototherapy) may help with depression, seasonal affective disorder (SAD), jet lag, and sleep disorders. It may help reset your "biological clock" (circadian rhythms), which controls sleeping and waking.  Light therapy may be most effective when you use it first thing in the morning when you wake up. Response to this therapy usually occurs in 2 to 4 days, but it may take up to 3 weeks of light therapy before symptoms of SAD (such as depression) are relieved," according to WebMD.

by Ani Kalafian

For more information on how SVET can help revolutionize you light-style, please visit http://svet.io/.

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Lighting fact #23

Did you know that on average, women go to bed earlier and wake up earlier than men, and they are more likely to rate themselves as morning types than men on standardized questionnaires.

What about you: are you a lark, an owl, or a hummingbird?

Take the quiz below to find out.

Learn more about SVET at http://svet.io/ 

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SVET took part in Enchant VC’s accelerator program. And it was fun!

We are happy to announce about the graduation of Enchant VC’s accelerator program for startups in Singapore!

In the past ten weeks, we have been hustling to achieve a significant progress, as a startup, to deliver our promises and set new milestones.

We have passed the intense program which included product development, market validation, and professional growth.

We spread the word about our SVET light bulb around the fast-growing Asian region during 4 conferences — Tech in Asia 2016, CES Asia 2016 Shanghai, RISE 2016 Conference and Echelon Asia Summit 2016 Singapore.

Aleksey Dubov, Founder @ SVET, did more than 80-hours of pitching and networking.

We met the enormous amount of investors, media, and supporters.

We found the trusted manufacturers in Shenzhen focused on "smart lighting", and we just found good friends.

And the most important — we took the independent route and launched the crowdfunding campaign directly on our website http://svet.io/. Now our SVET bulbs are up for pre-order! Finally, our idea of healthy lighting became a reality and we proudly share it with you.

We celebrated our achievements with our colleagues from Enchant VC and other startups who went with us along the journey at one of the World's 50 Best Bars 2016 - 28HKS.

Stay tuned and illuminated!

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Lighting Fact #22

Did you know that LED-technology was developed for NASA’s plant growth experiments in space and shows promise for delivering light deep into tissues of the body to promote wound healing and human tissue growth.

Above you can find the photo of a blooming zinnia flower in the Veggie plant growth system aboard the International Space Station shared by commander Scott Kelly on his tweeter.

Find more about SVET at http://svet.io/ 

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What is lumen and how many lumens do we need?

Have you ever felt tired or sleepy,  had headaches, low mood, absenteeism, and job dissatisfaction in a room with the poor illumination?

Well, it's all because of LUMENS.

Lumens are a "new" way of knowing how bright a lamp is, literally lumens  equal light output. The higher the lumen rating the “brighter” the lamp will appear. It's a cornerstone of indoor environmental quality. Proper lighting benefits your learning, boosts your productivity  and provides a better relaxation.

Even a few minutes under poor light can kill it all. That's why the rearranging your home is not complete without rearranging and adjusting your lighting, as well.  

Inappropriate lighting isn’t just a waste of energy. It contributes to low or high contrasts, glare, poor color rendering, and inadequate distribution. And when you are distracted or frustrated your mental and physical satisfaction substantially decreases. Poor illumination also detracts from home safety. If people can’t properly see what they are doing, accidents and mistakes are more likely to occur.

For example, SVET light bulb outputs at max brightness 1000 lumens, which exceeds a standard LED bulb producing around 470 lumens. Over the SVET app, you can easily create any type of lighting depending on where you want to have it by setting reading mode, concentration mode, daylight mode or by setting your personal preferences.

To make sure you have proper lighting at your home, here is a basic guide helping you to measure how many lumens are required per Sq M (10.76 sq ft) for the different room settings.

To pre-order SVET go to our main page — http://svet.io/. 

And stay healthy!