International Day of Light: 16th May 2018 – “Stop taking light for granted”, says connected lighting brand WiZ

It’s the International Day of Light on May 16^th and one of its aims is to improve education, our understanding of light and how we can improve the quality of life through energy efficiency and wellbeing. Light often gets taken for granted or is only seen as gadget but it has a big impact on us in terms of health, moods and productivity. For example, many of us wonder why we get headaches whilst in the office working but are not aware that it is probably due to sitting in the wrong white light. It’s not just brightness of light but tonality as well that is a contributing factor.

Kate Baker, UK market manager at WiZ, the makers of innovative connected lighting with over 64,000 shades of white and 16 million colours, comments: “We all take light for granted because it’s everywhere and technology has made it accessible for everyone. But the understanding of how we interact with light is missing – we often don’t work at our desks in the right light and our sleep is affected from the type of light emitted from our smart phones. When we talk about light, the conversation needs to move to one about tonality and how we use and perceive it.

“Smart lighting is a flexible solution to help people choose the perfect light for any space and any purpose at the flick of a switch, a swipe of their app or by speaking a few words, whilst being energy efficient at the same time. Light has an important role to play not only in terms of our own wellbeing but the wellbeing of the planet as well.”

WiZ conducted research into our understanding of colours and their effect on people (UK adults, 2017):

• Blue is Brits’ second happiest colour (13 per cent), but also voted the top colour for provoking anxiety (22 per cent)
• Yellow makes a quarter of us feel happy (23 per cent)
• Surprisingly, some shades of green are in the top 3 colours which make us anxious – traditionally seen as a calming, natural colour
• More than a quarter of the population (26 per cent) weren’t aware that different shades of white light could impact your emotions and wellbeing
• A fifth (19 per cent) weren’t even aware there are different shades of white
• 81 per cent don’t plan different shades of lighting for different moods

Top 10 colours that make us happiest:

1. Yellow   23
2. Blue      13%
3. Pink      10%
4. Red       9%
5. Green    8%
6. Purple    8%
7. Orange  5%
8. White     4%
9. Black     1%
10. Other     0.2%

www.wiz.world