White Full Spectrum LED technology
As discussed before, the differences between sunlight, our natural source of light, and artificial light, comprising indoor daylight (sunlight altered via glazing) and electric light, disturbs our psycho-physiology. Incandescent lighting was great, even ineffective from an energy efficiency point of view, and this technology is being banned worldwide. Fluorescent and compact fluorescent was a first stage replacement with a few disadvantages: mercury toxicity in case of breakage and at end of life disposal, flicker, and unbalanced spectrum.
LEDs are the new panacea in terms of energy efficiency, but they have an unbalanced spectrum with a predominant peak in the blue, short wavelength around 450nm. This might have ocular health disadvantages in the long term and it is not adequate for night time. A new emerging technology in solid state lighting is the full spectrum balanced emission of visible light.
There are already solutions in the marketplace that are beginning to be adopted, even if energy efficiency becomes comprised due to the broader spectrum emission. Once we start to consider human health and wellbeing in the picture, the long term efficiency of this emerging technology will overcome the blind vision of only considering energy. At the end, it is about human sustainability, and this must be our major priority.