My contribution to the April issue of tED Magazine, the official publication of the NAED, included a roundtable by experts on the future of lighting. Reprinted with permission. Keep in mind the article was written before the COVID era, so some of these answers might be a little different today.
While the LED revolution can claim victory, other major transformative lighting trends are developing. Low-voltage power distribution, circadian-supportive lighting, connected lighting, the Internet of Things, light-based communication, sustainability, and 3D printing may similarly change lighting as we know it. From manufacturing to how products are designed and used, the future of lighting will present new challenges and opportunities in a category that has become increasingly complex but also lucrative.
To get an idea of what this future might look like based on today’s trends, tED’s Craig DiLouie, LC, CLCP talked to five experts in the field.
DiLouie: In Europe, the Repro-light Project is working on the “luminaire of the future”—modular based on standardized component connections, field-serviceable, upgradeable, and able to connect to sensors and a networked control system easily. The true “luminaire of the future” can be even more than that, however. What do you see as a fully featured architectural luminaire in the future?
Kevin Leadford, Acuity Brands Lighting: A primary driver of lighting design in interior environments has long been the visual task. It characterizes the nature of visual work, and light level recommendations are provided to achieve adequate visibility. Traditionally, contrast has been produced via illumination but over the past several decades much of our visual work has migrated to self-luminous video displays requiring no external illumination. Though it’s a bit hyperbolic, most of our visual work can now be performed in complete darkness. The thought is a startling one, but that’s just the point. We find it objectionable, and yet we lack an alternative basis upon which to make light level recommendations. This prompts a fundamental re-evaluation of lighting needs. We must gain a more apt understanding of what is valued, and that will in turn shape our future.
The lighting spectrum has been an area of intense focus in recent years, especially as it relates to circadian rhythms. We accept that spectral composition can impact our physiology and well-being. But, isn’t this equally true of the temporal dimension? Natural lighting conditions are dynamic. When clouds pass overhead or light filters gently through the leaves of rustling trees we are subconsciously reminded of our deep connection to nature. But music possesses similar dynamic qualities. So does an indoor waterfall. These things aren’t alive in the formal sense, but rhythmic change is intuitively associated with life and vibrancy. One can imagine lighting systems of the future that stimulate, motivate, nourish and rejuvenate us, purely via dynamic behavior. This is what most intrigues me.
Kevin Leadford is Vice President, Innovation – Architectural Products and Services for Acuity Brands Lighting, Inc.
DiLouie: The last 20 years have seen scientists understand the nonvisual role of light as a significant factor in circadian health. We’ve come from discovery to a deeper understanding to the cusp of actionable design recommendations. What do you see as the role of electric lighting in 2030 in shaping interior spaces that are supportive of human health, notably circadian health?
Mariana Figueiro, Lighting Research Center: Our research over the past two decades, including both lab and field studies in populations such as office workers, U.S. Navy submariners, older adults living with Alzheimer’s, and children in schools has shown that lighting designed to maximally impact the circadian system will significantly improve sleep quality, depressive symptoms, daytime alertness, and more. Through these lab and field studies, we have come to understand how to quantify the amount, spectrum, duration and timing of light exposure needed during the day and at night to entrain our circadian clock to our local position on Earth.
Based upon that understanding, Underwriters Laboratories (UL) recently published Design Guideline for Promoting Circadian Entrainment with Light for Day-Active People, DG 24480. The main goal of DG 24480 is to encourage lighting designers, specifiers, and other practitioners to provide daytime levels of illumination in buildings that help people return to the more natural pattern of bright days and dim nights under which we evolved (i.e., sunlight during the day and firelight at night). Developed for public benefit, this guideline provides the foundation for lighting innovations and practices that serve the public better than is common today. We are hopeful that lighting professionals will begin to apply current research to help people live better right now, and in the future, perhaps circadian-effective lighting will be standard practice.
Mariana Figueiro, PhD, Director of the Lighting Research Center at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
DiLouie: Lighting controls have gone from energy-saving devices to systems to intelligent, data-producing systems capable of implementing a range of benefits that go far beyond energy. As buildings potentially shift to low-voltage power, the Internet of Things develops, and demand for circadian-supportive lighting increases, how do you see lighting being controlled in a fully featured building in the future?
Charles Knuffke, Wattstopper: We’re going to witness a rapid change in buildings, where the occupancy sensor networks currently part of the lighting control system will morph into a network of wireless and wired high-value sensors providing data about their spaces—occupancy, temperature, carbon dioxide, light level, glare, noise, etc.—to all the building systems. This will allow any system in the building—HVAC, fire alarm, access control, power metering, battery status, and of course lighting controls—to securely subscribe to information about the building environment and react accordingly.
The sensor network will securely—there’s that word again!—share data with companies acting as independent optimization consultants. By using AI, they will focus on how to best run the building for enhanced productivity, resiliency, and low power consumption, all while sharing information with the Grid Operators so they can ensure a stable power system.
Lighting and other systems providing individual comfort and safety will interact with occupants in a much more intuitive level—users will make changes by simple verbal commands, gestures, and/or whatever the cell phones of the future have turned into. Sequences of operation for systems will be more complex but be more intuitive for the user since clear feedback about what the system is doing will be provided. Major conglomerates will have agreed on data exchange standards, allowing owners to focus on each system’s front end interfaces, with the ability to easily swap one manufacturer’s controls out for another.
In the world of lighting, fixture efficacy will be secondary to the client’s expectation of high-quality, spectrally dense, tunable fixtures.
Charles Knuffke is Systems VP & Evangelist, Wattstopper, Legrand, North and Central America, and chair of the Lighting Controls Association.
DiLouie: LiFi is making strides, most recently with a planned union with 5G and potential partnerships to integrate receivers into computing devices. Where do you see LiFi now, what could it look like in the future, and how will it be used to benefit building owners and users?
Kevin Poyck, Signify: Wireless communications through LiFi is continuing to evolve. We are now seeing a shift from pilot projects to full-scale implementations. Enterprises are seeing the value of LiFi applications: anywhere connectivity is poor, unavailable or restricted. LiFi is secure, stable and fast—it can handle a lot of data without any discernable latency—all of which are critical for offices, retail and hospitality settings, and a variety of other industries. What’s also exciting is that LiFi is ushering in a new era of open innovation; collaboration will be key for improving the technology further.
It’s challenging to say exactly what LiFi will look like in the next five to ten years, but we are confident it will be a significant growth technology. We won’t see it completely replace existing wireless technologies but rather be complementary to them. Take 5G, for example. A hybrid approach with LiFi can only help provide customers with more speed and reliability—especially important with the continued increase in data and demand for mobile connectivity. We’ll also see LiFi evolve and be adopted similar to Wi-Fi—it will be faster, more efficient and integrated into both smaller devices and with new technologies. LiFi is already making its way into airplanes, buses and trains—in the future, applications in autonomous vehicles and virtual reality will likely be possible.
Kevin Poyck is CEO of the Americas for Signify.
DiLouie: Additive manufacturing—popularly known as 3D printing—has gained adoption in some industries and shows promise for shaping the ongoing lighting revolution, with one major manufacturer recently announcing it is planning 3D printing facilities in the U.S.A. How do you see 3D printing impacting lighting design, manufacturing, and distribution in the future?
Nadarajah Narendran, Lighting Research Center: LED technology has matured to a point that energy savings is guaranteed in most applications. With this maturity, LEDs have become a commodity, and light fixtures have significantly dropped in price. This price erosion has caused U.S. manufacturers to struggle to remain competitive. Many fixtures produced in faraway factories suffer from poor quality and performance that can lead to disappointed customers. Furthermore, fixtures produced overseas may arrive to a construction site and not fit with the overall look envisioned by the architect or lighting designer. Custom light fixtures using traditional manufacturing methods are very expensive.
Additive manufacturing (AM), which has been rapidly changing other industries, has the potential to solve many of the issues faced by the lighting industry. Some of the benefits of AM (3D printing) include custom fixtures and components, improved visual appeal and functionality, faster new product introductions, reduced fixture cost, and the reduced need for stocking systems and parts (SKUs). AM could allow for printing fixtures at the construction site that fit with the intended design and also allow for rapid design changes. At the Lighting Research Center, we envision a future of on-site, on-demand manufacturing of cost-effective custom light fixtures; however, research is required to make this a reality, particularly in AM materials and machines. A new industry consortium of key AM machine, material, and lighting manufacturers is collaborating to investigate how lighting and AM can work together to build a new business model and achieve the revolution envisioned, and members are already benefiting from the knowledge gained.
Nadarajah Narendran is a professor and director of research at the Lighting Research Center at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
