SoLux's inventor, Kevin McGuire, testing product
SoLux's inventor, Kevin McGuire, testing product
There is a story out of the middle east told of a man on his
hands and
knees searching for something in front of his house. His neighbor
happens
by and joins his neighbor in his search. After awhile the
neighbor asks his
friend, " What are you looking for?" The man replies
that his wife lost an
expensive piece of jewelry and being the good husband he is
searching for
it. Satisfied, the neighbor continues the search until finally he
asks,
"Where do you think she lost it? The man answers, " She
lost it somewhere
in the house." A bit bewildered, the neighbor questions,
"Then why are you
looking for it out here?" The man replies, "The
lighting is better out here."
At one time or another, we have all heard someone say: "Take
it outside and
look at it before you buy it. That way, you really know what
color it is."
or "These overcast skies are depressing me. I can't wait
till the sun
comes out." or "The weather is too nice to stay
inside."
Whether it is used for accurately judging colors, or the
possibility that it
affects your mental health, 'daylight' is one of the most
necessary and
naturally desired quantities on earth. Most plants adjust
themselves to
maximize their exposure to it, and people will pay thousands of
dollars to go
on a vacation where there is more sunlight or will spend their
limited break
time stepping out into the daylight to refresh themselves.
Because of this seemingly innate need for daylight, there has
been a lot of
effort by commercial lighting companies to produce some type of
relatively
inexpensive lamp that accurately simulates the daylight spectrum.
Several
approaches have been taken, but all have fallen short.
After a brief review of the lighting industry's past attempt's,
we will introduce
you to a new commercial lamp whose spectral simulation of
daylight is
vastly superior to what has gone before.
The Past
Standard incandescent lamps (including tungsten-halogen)
cannot provide the
spectrum found in daylight because they are materials limited.
Their
filaments would vaporize if heated to the point where it would
provide the
correct color to simulate daylight. Typical tungsten-halogen
lamps have a
deficit of blue light and a surplus of yellow and red when
compared to 5000K
daylight.
The most common claim to simulating 'daylight' is done in the
commercial
fluorescent lamp industry. Poorly defined phrases such as 'full
spectrum,'
and misunderstood and misleading terms such as 'color rendering
index' (CRI)
are marketing tools frequently used to try and convince potential
customers
that fluorescent lamps accurately simulate daylight. However, a
spectral
comparison of the one of the latest 'high CRI' tri-band phosphor
fluorescent
lamps and daylight at the same correlated color temperature (CCT)
shows the
spectral spikes typically emitted by fluorescent sources that are
not found
in natural daylight.
HMI and HID lamps are a more recent type of commercial lamp that
has several
manufacturers claiming to have simulated daylight. Again, a
spectral
comparison between a typical one of these sources and daylight at
the same
CCT reveals extreme spectral discontinuities from these type of
lamps that
are not found in natural light.
Unfortunately, until recently, commercial lamps have not provided
a spectral
output that very closely follows the spectrum of daylight. But
now, that is
no longer true.
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