In Sweden, lighting accounts for about twenty per cent of electricity use in housing and for about twenty-five per cent of electricity use in nonresidential premises. Globally, the corresponding figures vary greatly. Lighting has several duties and must satisfy a great number of demands. Apart from its primary duty of providing light, lighting must also promote the health of humans and animals and foster wellbeing. It must be energy and resource efficient and have little impact on the environment. Aesthetic and economic requirements are also important.
Formas is funding and has funded several research and development projects with the aim to develop the field of lighting. The projects treat the issue from several aspects.
Internationally
A large international project in the field of lighting is conducted within the IEA Programme for Energy Conservation in Buildings and Community Systems (ECBCS). Around twenty countries, among them Sweden, participate in this project that has the objective to identify and accelerate increased use of high quality, energy effective lighting techniques and integration of these with other building systems so that they satisfy requirements from the standpoints of both design, management and the users. The aim of the project is to evaluate the technical performance of promising existing and future lighting technologies, as well as their effect on other technologies and systems for buildings (for example, daylighting and building services). Technologies and systems must satisfy different requirements with regard to function, resource effectiveness, aethetics, economics, comfort and health.
Psychology
Formas and earlier the Council for Building Research has supported research on the psychological aspects of lighting by means of grants to the Department of Environmental Psychology at Royal Institute of Technology KTH. Environmental Psychology is now, together with Jönköping University College, part of the interdisciplinary centre for energy efficient lighting, Ceebel, which has been set up with the support of the Swedish Energy Authority. The field of daylighting is of great importance and is closely associated with the issue of lighting. At the Department of Energy and Building Design, this matter has been studied in several projects. The field of daylighting is also of great importance for the research carried on at Uppsala University regarding smart windows which has been supported by Formas for a long time, most recently in a project within the environmental investment programme of Formas.
Metabolism
In recent years, Formas has supported a number of projects which study how different types of lighting affect humans and animals in different respects. Stockholm University is running a project on how lighting affects human metabolism. At the Karolinska Institute a project is in progress on how ultraviolet light and dioxins affect human skin. Uppsala University has a project regarding the effect of lighting on birds and the significance of this for e.g. chickens and egg production.
Author
:
Conny Rolén
is Senior Research Officer at Formas