Topics Important for the up-to-date Interior Lighting Professional

Abstract

To avoid disappointments with LED lighting installations, detailed knowledge of the typical characteristics of the many different solid-state light sources is essential, while already long-available information on vision and colour seeing has to be combined with entirely new fundamental research on the relationship between lighting on the one hand and vision, performance, comfort, health and well-being on the other hand. Lighting has apart from visual effects also far-reaching non-visual biological effects. These effects influence the way our body “operates” and therefore, influence our health, well-being and alertness. Interior lighting installations today have to be designed so that they provide both suitable visual and non-visual biological effects, while adverse effects of lighting, like flicker, blue light hazard and disruption of the biological clock, are avoided. LEDs offer the possibility to use them not only for lighting but also for data transmission. The use of LED lighting as a means for data communication is referred to as “light beyond illumination”. Visible Light Communication (VLC), LiFi, and light itself used as sensor are part of this subject. The modern lighting professional has to get familiarised with these new technologies and applications. The author of this article published in 2019 the book “Interior Lighting, fundamentals, technology and application” with Springer [1]. It discusses in 500 pages all topics important for the up-to-date interior lighting professional. The present overview article is entirely based on this book and follows the same chapter structure. Each chapter also describes, as an example, one or two crucial aspects in more detail.