Lighting to play a major role in the ‘new normal’

Mr Rami Hajjar, Cluster Leader for South East Asia, Signify (formerly Philips Lighting), explains how developments in lighting technology are proving to be beneficial.

Mr Rami Hajjar

Rami Hajjar (RH): Advancements in lighting technologies are indeed playing crucial roles in addressing current and future global challenges.

LED lights have already allowed people around the world to lower their carbon footprint in a simple and quick manner. By switching to LED lights which can last up to 100,000 hours or more, compared to traditional fluorescent lights that last 10,000 hours on average, less waste is produced. New lighting technologies adopt ‘circular economy’ principles to ensure that waste is minimised during the ‘end of product lifespan’ and are designed with ‘postlife’ in mind. Lighting solutions are now designed with recyclability as an important consideration and together with innovative services such as ‘lighting as a service’, are enabling users to have the benefits of a well-illuminated workplace, without incurring high maintenance costs.

As the rapidly growing global population puts pressure on food security, significant changes in agriculture are needed to ensure that there is enough safe and affordable food for everyone now and into the future. New lighting technologies have become a key way to sustainable agriculture, where artificial lights are being used in horticulture to increase supply without driving up resource usage.

The new Philips LED A-class bulbs consume 60% less energy compared to standard Philips LED bulbs and have a longer lifespan.

‘Grow lights’ can either complement natural daylight or replace it completely. They make possible the creation of a controlled farming environment even in places deemed unsuitable for growing food. This puts the ability to tweak quality and enhance yield, in the hands of growers, along with many other advantages. Such lights also reduce the usage of land, water and pesticides, and the distance food travels to reach our plates, thereby lowering environmental impacts. Signify focuses on providing science-based solutions for indoor agriculture. Our horticultural lighting range supports vertical farms, to grow crops indoors in multi-layered systems that take full advantage of available space. By using LEDs, indoor farms create significantly less impact on the environment than large-scale traditional outdoor farms that use diesel-powered heavy machinery and huge amounts of water, and destroy large areas of land. As urbanisation continues and the amount of arable land shrinks, crop growers could move towards farming indoors and upwards. The key to making this successful lies with smart, energy-efficient artificial lighting and Signify is continuing to create such solutions. For example, Signify is partnering &ever (an indoor vertical farming company) and the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) to conduct research focusing on reducing energy consumption and optimising yield in indoor vertical farms.

Lighting technologies are making important contributions in efforts to fight against COVID-19 and transition our society towards normalcy. Lighting, in particular ultraviolet-C or UV-C lighting, is playing an increasingly crucial role in disinfecting our homes, workplaces and public spaces. UV-C technology uses radiation, in the wavelengths from 100 nm to 280 nm, that is highly effective in killing microbes such as viruses, bacteria, fungi, spores and mould, by breaking down their DNA. Apart from disinfecting surfaces, UV-C can be used to kill the SARS-COV-2 virus in the air. A ceiling- or wall-mounted UV disinfection luminaire can achieve the equivalent effect of 20 air changes per hour. For instance, Philips Upper-Air UV-C disinfection devices, that are wall- or ceiling-mounted, at a height of above 2.1 m, can effectively kill the SARS-COV-2 virus and other microorganisms in the air, while people are still in the room. Tests performed by Innovative Bioanalysis in a Certified Safety Reference Laboratory in California, USA, have shown that the Philips Upper-Air UV-C device removed most of the germs (including the SARS-COV-2 virus) in a room after merely two to five minutes and was found to kill 99.99% of germs in a room within 10 minutes. In Singapore, many establishments, including Changi Airport Jewel, Tan Tock Seng Hospital and some hotels have already piloted UV-C disinfection systems to sanitise air and surfaces. As we transition to living with the endemic, UV-C will play a bigger role in supporting the disinfection of public transportation, offices and industrial, public and retail buildings, keeping people safe, as more activities resume.

RH: As we all start to adopt sustainable strategies in existing and new buildings, smart lighting has to be mentioned. IoT-connected lighting is the future, with its ability to improve sustainability through data collection, well-timed maintenance and energy savings, while improving the experiences of building occupants, through personalised lighting recipes, daylight imitation and various programmes that can be utilised with the data collected.

UV-C lighting is playing an increasingly crucial role in disinfecting homes, workplaces and public spaces.

The Interact Office Workspace app enables companies to use their connected lighting infrastructure for indoor navigation.

Interact Office is Signify’s smart IoT-connected lighting solution for office buildings. It is a solution that prioritises employee performance without compromising on comfort. It also optimises the lighting system, to save energy and reduce the building’s carbon footprint. Occupants are able to utilise scene management to personalise their environment, creating the ideal lighting scene for their tasks. Occupants are also able to use indoor navigation that uses real-time lighting data to find the location they need to go to. Using geolocation and lighting data, safe-distancing practices can be encouraged, as well, through the safe-distancing feature that shows uncrowded areas in the office. Signify’s Interact Industry focuses on creating a smart warehouse or manufacturing facility. It encourages productivity and efficiency while increasing safety at the workplace. Using the same technology as Interact Office, which is repurposed for warehouses and manufacturing facilities, Interact Industry can enable more efficient indoor navigation, while its hyper-accurate indoor positioning, logistics and production features can be optimised with the use of customised software. Apart from that, there is also the space management ability, with heatmap visualisations, that provides users with the data to introduce inventory strategies and optimise space usage.

RH: Lighting is essential and is in every corner of a building. Its established and widespread network allows sensors to collect data that complements other systems or functions. This is also true of the lighting infrastructure of cities and countries. For example, as part of the Smart Nation Sensor Platform’s (SNSP) Lamp Posts as a Platform (LaaP) project in Singapore, lamp posts are fitted with sensors and cameras that complement urban planning and operations. Also contributing to data communication is Signify’s Trulifi wireless connection. Trulifi is a high-speed, wireless system that uses light waves as opposed to traditional radio waves to connect. It provides a consistent, low latency, secure connection for users and can be integrated into existing lighting systems. Trulifi employs Light Fidelity (LiFi) which uses visible light to transmit data. Currently, LED lamps are able to produce LiFi which is used much like the familiar WiFi which uses crowded radio waves, instead. LiFi provides an uninterrupted connection via a dongle.

RH: Innovation is at the heart of every Signify solution. One example is our Interact platform that can be scaled and catered to various businesses and organisations. For example, our Interact Retail uses scene management and light recipes to highlight promotions and different zones, encouraging visitorship, while Interact Office uses scene management to support employee well-being by allowing for individually personalised lighting for different workspaces. Apart from that, Signify’s NatureConnect allows for nature to be brought indoors. It is built on proven biophilic design principles, mimicking daylight patterns indoors, to ensure that occupants receive the right amount and quality of light. Such a solution is very much in line with Singapore’s approach that seeks to create a garden cityscape where buildings are designed with biophilic principles that combine urbanism and nature. In support of Singapore’s ‘30 by 30’ plan to self-produce 30% of Singapore’s own nutritional needs by 2030, Signify is launching a Center of Excellence, with the support of the Economic Development Board. The Center of Excellence encourages vertical indoor farming and provides local growers access to 80 years of horticulture lighting experience and research, and introduces them to smart IoT-connected farming that utilises innovative grow lights and lighting recipes. Together with the existing climate controls in the farms, these lighting recipes will allow for a controlled environment, much akin to a lab compared to a traditional farm, and lead to better yields, both in quantity and quality. For consumers, we have also launched exciting innovations from our Philips Hue product line, this year. In June, we introduced our fully revamped Philips Hue app. Over 100 improvements have been made to the app, to give the consumer more control and improved performance, functionality and communication with the smart lighting system. In September, we launched Philips Hue + Spotify, the first-of-its-kind deep integration of lighting and music, that provides a unique immersive experience.

RH: Lighting has immense potential that has not been maximised by both consumers and businesses. Its pervasiveness, in all aspects of our lives, provides enough reasons for us to pay more attention to it. Ninety percent of our time is spent indoors, resulting in a high reliance on artificial light. By optimising indoor lights, we can significantly improve the quality of our lives and our efficiency at work. Adopting innovative lighting services will also enhance energy savings, sustainability and well-being.