Does your home really work?

The average home in the UK is over 50 years old (*). In the USA it’s over 35.(*) They were designed for a world before smart phones or laptops – if you can imagine that. And nearly half of all men and almost one-third of women in the UK still live with their parents into their early thirties. (*)

Around half of us work from home for at least part of the week by choice or by necessity according to this ONS survey.(*) Over half Americans log in to the office from a bedroom or a communal space.(*) Over half of students from the poorest backgrounds in the UK log into school from a shared space too (*). They will spend at least 5 hours every day on-screen on school-work alone (*). That study time has been boosted by a staggering rise in home tuition – a mind-expanding £1.7 billion in the UK in 2019.(*)

How can lighting help?

The average home is neither bright enough to give us the ‘wake up’ signal we need – or dark enough to allow us to switch off (*) . The impact of this twilight existence was brought home during lock-down – it has been linked to a three-fold increase in myopia diagnosis in school-aged children (*), increased anxiety and depression(*) and obesity(*) . This review explains how lighting improves performance across the board, from memory, mood and attention to sleep (*)

So what can you do about it?

Most of us are not about to call in a designer – although listening to the brilliant designer Rebecca Weir and Iain Johnson discuss their collaboration, you can see why so many of their clients come back year after year (*).

According to a survey of over 800 clients by LEDWholesale, most of the people buying lights for the domestic market are men between 35 and 44 years old (73%). They buy a single lightbulb to replace a broken one. Three-quarters said they know exactly what they want and not interested in advice on what to buy. (*)

Until now there really was very little choice for the domestic retrofit market. But a new generation of consumer products are beginning to approach the quality and quantity of light we need – although they will never replace the sunlight. Link these new lighting products to a smart switching system and they can save money, cut light pollution and be a selling point too. 

It’s not rocket science – and it doesn’t need to be expensive.

Bright days – The new EN-12464-1 standard for lighting in the workplace is a good place to start. Bright light during the day – daylight from time outside, plus windows, boosted by bright cool light – is not a one size fits all. The reflectance or ‘shininess’ of the surfaces – and the position of your desk – can help you get up to 20% more out of your lighting – according to recent research by Fagerhult. Cuttle’s principle of Perceived Adequacy of Illumination (*) is an interesting read.

Dim evenings – The high blue content – or ‘biological potency’ of the lighting in the average home stops many of us getting a good nights’ sleep – another key predictor of performance (*)– it’s like caffeine for the brain (*). Professor Steven Lockley suggests you simply switch off overhead lights and shift to warm low-level lighting around two hours before bed.

Dark nights – You may think you’ll score points by checking your inbox after dark – but that exposure to blue light will stop the brain moving through the deep sleep cycles that are so vital to memory formation and mood – one experiment on mice showed that two hours exposure to the equivalent of a mobile phone screen over a couple of weeks triggered depressive-like symptoms(*). Switching off matters for your energy bills too. Simple dimmers and occupancy switches can cut your bill by up to 27% (*). An estimated 35% – or $3 billion of artificial lighting is wasted by being poorly aimed or unshielded’ at night in the US alone. (*)