Lumenique’s Kevin Willmorth recently published a blog post questioning the use of the term “humancentric lighting” and raising concerns about how it is being marketed and applied.
Without mincing words, his post begins:
I do not use, like, or support, the term “Human-Centric Lighting” or HCL, and the marketing of it. Nor am I convinced the bullish marketing of the term makes it any more attractive or legitimate. The term has been tagged onto so many crack-pot claims, unsupported promises, and misapplication of hand-selected, overly simplified misleading single-line extractions from legitimate studies, and anecdotal claims by unqualified “experts” – that it has become nothing more than an extension of the now discredited “Full Spectrum” marketing that has plagued lighting for decades.
The confusion of white light tuning for lighting color effect has now been bolted to human-centric lighting, as more and more marketers rush to stake a claim on this populist movement. I am weary of the numerous “studies” supporting claims, that are nothing more than simple biased surveys of lighting customers, with no effort to remove the Hawthorne Effect, or other bias, that I no longer believe any of them present any meaningful data worth wasting time considering.
He goes on to talk about abuses, what research is telling us now, and that our advancing understanding of the relationship between lighting and health may necessitate new expertise and possibly even a new profession.
Click here to check it out.
