Can Designs and Measurements Based on the Circadian Stimulus Model Stand the Test of Time?
Authors: Eric Bretschneider, Ph.D INTRODUCTION When considering the potential circadian impact of lighting, lighting designers have a choice between three different models: melanopic equivalent daylight illuminance, or m-EDI [CIE 2018]; equivalent melanopic lux, or...
Circadian Lighting – An Engineer’s Perspective
Ian Ashdown, P. Eng, FIES, Senior Scientist, SunTracker Technologies Ltd. Published: 19/11/14. Whether you call it “circadian lighting,” “biologically effective lighting” or some other name, the principle is the same: the color and intensity of light can be used to...
Light Transmittance through Greenhouse Glazing
Ian Ashdown, P. Eng., FIES, Senior Scientist, SunTracker Technologies Ltd. Published: 18/10/01. Look at a greenhouse manufacturer’s product specifications and you will see that the light transmittance of single-pane clear glass is typically 88 to 91 percent....
Far-Red Lighting and the Phytochromes
Ian Ashdown, P. Eng., FIES, Senior Scientist, SunTracker Technologies Ltd. Published 18/06/04. Most LED grow lights feature blue and red LEDs whose peak wavelengths – approximately 450 nm for blue and 660 nm for red – have been chosen to coincide with the spectral...
The Science of Near-Infrared Lighting
Ian Ashdown, P. Eng., FIES, Senior Scientist, SunTracker Technologies Ltd. Published: 18/07/13 There is a common-sense argument being presented in the popular media that since humans evolved under sunlight, our bodies must surely make use of all the solar energy...
Melanopic Green
Ian Ashdown, P. Eng. FIES, Senior Scientist, SunTracker Technologies Ltd. Published: 18/09/03 Numerous medical studies have shown that exposure to blue light at night suppresses the production of melatonin by the pineal gland in our brains and so disrupts our...
Solid Angles
Ian Ashdown, P. Eng., FIES, Senior Scientist, SunTracker Technologies Ltd. Published: 2014/07/26 Do you suffer from math anxiety? A surprising number of us do (e.g., Wigfield 1988). I would tell you the exact numbers, but you would need to understand...
Understanding Mesopic Photometry
Ian Ashdown, P. Eng., FIES, Senior Scientist, SunTracker Technologies Ltd. Published: 2013/10/08 If you are involved with outdoor area or roadway lighting design, you will undoubtedly encounter such terms as mesopic multipliers, scotopic lumens, and S/P...
Thoughts on Color Rendering
Ian Ashdown, P. Eng., FIES, Senior Scientist, SunTracker Technologies Ltd. Published: 2014/01/05 UPDATE 14/10/06 - LightingEurope, the "Voice of the Lighting Industry," has just published their LightingEurope Position Paper on Color Quality. To summarize:...
The Kruithof Curve
Ian Ashdown, P. Eng., FIES, Senior Scientist, SunTracker Technologies Ltd. Published: 2015/01/12 UPDATE 16/04/09 - This metastudy: Fotois, S. 2106. "A Revised Kruithof Graph Based on Empirical Data," Leukos. (Published online 08 April 2016, DOI...