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Circadian lighting – costing the earth?
According to Care Home Management Online, the average care home in the UK spends around £4,000 on gas and electricity per bed – that adds up Care providers are paying per bed power costs of £4K+.
PNNL points out that hospitals are currently the second-most energy-intensive sector in the USA, using almost three times as much as offices – Integrating Health and Energy Efficiency in Healthcare Facilities.
Some simulations suggest that satisfying circadian recommendations demands up to double the average illuminance levels recommended by the IES – Energy impact of human health and wellness lighting recommendations for office and classroom applications, demanding up to 100% more energy use – Optimized lighting energy consumption for non-visual effects: A case study in office spaces based on field test and simulation.
So how to balance people and planet?
As Florence Nightingale knew over a century ago, daylight and views are the most obvious solution and the best medicine, too: reduced pain medication, reduced length of stay, reduced stress and increased satisfaction among staff… – An Architectural Solution to a Biological Problem: A Systematic Review of Lighting Designs in Healthcare Environments, Indoor environmental quality (IEQ) in healthcare facilities: A systematic literature review and gap analysis.
But given that around 80% of the buildings that we’ll be using in 2050 are already built – Can the UK Deliver Zero Carbon Ready Homes by 2050?, and the average care home is around 20 years old, adding more windows to the existing stock isn’t really an option – U.S. states ranked by their average healthcare facility age, Care bed crisis: can development provide a cure?
That’s where smart lighting comes in.
PNNL measured the change in energy use before and after a retrofit from traditional fluorescent to a dynamic circadian-aware LED system. The retrofit itself delivered over 60% savings. But up to 20% more was saved thanks to the dimming schedule, with low levels at night. In corridors and dining rooms, energy savings were even higher, at 79% compared to the fluorescent systems – Lighting in Senior Care Centers: Comparing Tunable LED Systems to Conventional Lighting Systems in Four Senior Care Centers.
The report points out that simply switching ‘like for like’ fluorescent tubes for LED panels is not the solution. Those savings were achieved through an holistic design solution that started with how the space was used and considered things like where the light was coming from, surface reflectance and spectrum.
That holistic approach contributed to the reduction in falls of up to 43% seen in the same facility – just one of the fascinating findings from that project – Impact of Upgraded Lighting on Falls in Care Home Residents, and shared by Professor Shadab Rahman.
Follow this link to his talk here.
Greener choices – lighting v. ambulance call-outs
David Poxton, Chief Executive of Ashmere Homes is clear that any uplift in electricity bills associated with circadian lighting is marginal compared to other demands on the system.
This small increase is set in context by another of our speakers, Leanne Scroham of Hartland House who points out that preventing falls using a smart lighting system like Nobi System could reduce falls by up to 84%. Given that 43% of falls result in an ambulance call-out, costing £252 each on average, this simple intervention could save the NHS £156,500 every single day – and cut the carbon footprint too.
Follow this link to David’s talk here
And to Leanne’s talk here.
Hyper-ageing well
I’m lucky enough to be visiting Korea, one of a growing number of Hyper-Ageing societies – defined as a country where over 30% of the population is over 60 (guess I’m part of the problem now!) – Active Ageing Index in Korea – Comparison with China and EU countries.
The Korean Government decided to get ahead of the game, launching a number of initiatives, including the Korean Longitudinal Study on Health and Ageing – An Overview of the Korean Longitudinal Study on Health and Aging, and the Frailty and Ageing Cohort Study, following over 3,000 older adults across the country – Trajectories of frailty in aging: Prospective cohort study.
These studies reveal some fascinating results – including the fact that many of the factors that lead to contribute to frailty and shorter lifespan are modifiable factors – education, obesity, living alone and physical exercise – Trajectories of frailty in aging: Prospective cohort study. Less time in sedentary behaviour is linked to reduced obesity and cancer, too – The Impact of Sedentary Behavior and Self-Rated Health on Cardiovascular Disease and Cancer among South Korean Elderly Persons Using the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES) 2014–2018 Data.
It makes sense that getting more exercise usually means we’re spend more time outside, with the benefits of increased sunlight exposure – directly linked to mental and physical health outcomes – The relevance of daylight for humans.
But this is first study to show that exercise outside is better than going to a gym for body and brain – Outdoor physical activity is more beneficial than indoor physical activity for cognition in young people.
Perhaps that’s why these ladies are doing their morning stretches outside!