Lighting designer Ilkka Pekanheimo, Autumn has come and the days become shorter, now would be the right time to buy day light illumination. Why?

First of all, human eyes are designed to live under daylight, they work best in full spectrum daylight. Many homes benefit from having more daylight.

 

It is quite amazing, that people spend up to two thirds of their time in artificial light and yet they don’t pay attention to the quality of this light.

What are the benefits of daylight lighting to activities such as reading and viewing colors?

The reading speed may be up to 20% higher. There are many school studies illustrating this point.

 

And if you look here at the colors, the blue color on the left side is correct, as in outdoor daylight lighting. In warm tone light (on the right) the blue turns to purple. The more the eye ages, the less we will see in the warm color lighting.

 

This becomes a big problem when people buy energy-saving light bulbs in supermarkets, – these contain a lot of the yellow light. Almost all say that they do not see properly in this light.

 

Just try and replace the existing lamps with full spectrum daylight bulbs and see, how much easier it is to read and see the colors. Then, gradually, a room at a time, improve the lighting.

Related posts:

1. Full-Spectrum Light (issue 20)

Five Ways to “Brighten” Your Life
by GREG TAYLOR on AUGUST 25, 2010

Our partner Viva-Lite shares their perspective with us in a guest blog this week. If you haven’t checked out their full spectrum lights yet, make sure you do. They make a huge difference in your mood, your health, your productivity and the way you work. Below, Viva-Lite’s founders offer their top five places to switch to full spectrum lights and brighten your life:

1. Offices and factories.  Are you in charge of people who are spending the majority of their day under artificial light?…..

You can read the full blog here.

Related posts:

1. Organic Goat Farm Lighted With Viva-Lite
2. Viva-Lite Valkeakoski Housing Fair Video
3. Museum Lighted with Viva-Lite

A special treat was one house lighted fully with VIVA-LITE and created by lighting designer Ilkka Pekanheimo from Ad-Lux:

About the Housing Fair:

The ca. 40 fair houses built on the verdant housing fair area in Valkeakoski form a multi-faceted combination. An extensible, unique house for a first home, a TV-house and a passive house with a vivid design are good examples of the extensive selection of houses. The fair includes houses built in both traditional and modern styles, one- and two-storey solutions, stone and wood houses – not to mention the latest trends and experimental building.

Related posts:

1. At the Kuopio Housing Fair in Finland
2. Organic Goat Farm Lighted With Viva-Lite
3. Impressions From The Northern Light Fair

Dave – one of our kind customers in Australia has sent us the following pictures of an energy saving lamp with the Viva-Lite Spectrum and the Sunlight as a comparison:

Both photos were taken through so-called “Spectral-Glasses” which you can get in many stores and on the internet. Or buy them directly in the Viva-Lite International Online-Store and compare for yourself…

Related posts:

1. The Colour Rendering Index (CRI)
2. 2nd International Full Spectrum Lighting Conference
3. New Year Amaryllis – Happy And Alive!

Viva-Lite is happy to announce that it has won the eco site website award in the “Health” category. Eco Site Awards is the Website Awards Site To Help Promote Green Thinking in the categories of Health, Ecology and Safety.

“In a world that relies upon commerce to exist sometimes these four things seem to take a back seat to our financial goals. Yet, without them, we cannot survive or exist in harmony with each other and our world.”

Eco Site Awards

Related posts:

1. PM to present Vero Excellence in Business Support Awards
2. Viva-Lite Valkeakoski Housing Fair Video
3. Carbonfund.org spotlights Viva-Lite

The Prime Minister of New Zealand, Hon John Key will present the Vero Excellence in Business Support Awards on 28 May in Auckland at a black-tie gala dinner attended by 600 business leaders. VIVA-LITE is a finalist in the awards and will be attenting the Auckland Business Expo as well.

“Our small and medium businesses play a critical part in our economy, the Prime Minister told Bizzone managing director Sarah Trotman, organiser of the awards. “They provide Kiwis with the essential goods and services they need. They help drive innovation across our economy. And they can become – with good leadership and support – our large businesses of tomorrow.

In these challenging economic times he said it’s important that we do what we can to help small businesses succeed. “That’s why the Government has introduced a Small Business Relief Package aimed at reducing red tape and making it less expensive for small and medium businesses to manage their cash flows and pay taxes,” he says. “It’s also important to acknowledge and celebrate the organisations and individuals who help our small businesses maximise their potential. I’m looking forward to presenting at the Vero Excellence in Business Support Awards on 28 May. I hope to see you there.”

The Vero Excellence in Business Support Awards are sponsored by Vero, BDO Spicers and National Business Review and are a key event during the annual Bizzone Business Expo, New Zealand’s largest event for business.

Entries for this year’s Vero Excellence in Business Support Awards were stronger than ever says Bizzone managing director Sarah Trotman. “New Zealand businesses are being well supported by companies that are not buying into the doom and gloom mentality,” she says. “The evaluators were thoroughly impressed by the quality and higher number of entries – choosing winners this year will be extremely difficult.”

Finalists were spread throughout New Zealand and include VIVA-LITE with five others in the category one-to-many.

To see this year’s finalists, go to www.bizzone.com/awards/2009-finalists.aspx or to get tickets for the awards dinner call 0800 249 397.
To get a free ticket for the Auckland Business Expo, please follow this link: www.bizzone.com/guestof/viva-lite

Related posts:

1. Finalists win from being excellent
2. Solving the Business Winter Blues
3. Exhibiting Viva-Lite on Auckland Business Expo

Tips on how to be an excellent organisation were shared at a breakfast for this year’s Vero Excellence in Business Support Awards finalists on 11 February where Viva-Lite is a finalist.

Vero CEO Roger Bell, who hosted the breakfast, told guests that the awards are getting stronger every year as businesses get more competitive.

“People have seen their competitors enter and have followed suit,” he says. “Business people now realise that if New Zealand is to be world class they need to follow a framework that engenders excellence. And with these awards you don’t end up just being be excellent in one area alone like customer services; excellence goes right across leadership, strategy, your people, your processes and the way you handle knowledge and information and of course the results from all of those elements.”

All 49 finalists agreed that being “excellent” is vital for the growth and prosperity of their organisations; providing excellent business support is key so that businesses don’t just compete on price but on the quality of their offering.

BDO Spicers’ National Chairperson Judith Stanway said: “Growing a business requires excellence, dedication, tenacity and great partners. BDO Spicers is the leading national accounting and business advice firm for New Zealand’s mid market and SME businesses. We know what it takes to grow businesses and our passion is supporting others in business to achieve their potential. That’s why we are proud to be a sponsor of the Vero Excellence in Business Support Awards.”

The winners of the Vero Excellence in Business Support Awards sponsored by Vero, BDO Spicers and the National Business Review will be announced at a gala dinner held during the Bizzone Business Expo, New Zealand’s largest event for business on 28 May.

Keep your hopes up and your fingers crossed for Viva-Lite!

Related posts:

1. PM to present Vero Excellence in Business Support Awards
2. Solving the Business Winter Blues
3. Lighting up Other Lives

“People can get very low emotionally in the middle of winter due to the lack of natural light,” says Toby. “People feel entirely different working under these lights as they reduce tiredness and mood swings especially if it relates to the winter blues. But the lights also improve energy levels.”

Toby and Margit say that small businesses can reduce the number of sick days by changing their lighting. “For people who get headaches in the office, this improves them. Normal fluoro tubes only have three colours and we try to bring in as much of the suns natural spectrum as possible.”

While 80 percent of their turnover is from overseas, Toby and Margit say that New Zealand is just starting to understand the difference lighting can make. “In the US and northern Europe this technology has been known for quite a long time and it’s starting to catch on here now. Everything really has started to happen this year.”

Recently Viva-Lite has been announced as a finalist in the Vero Excellence in Business Support Awards. “We are really surprised at being a finalist. We’ve been doing it for ten years so it doesn’t feel like overnight success but we’ve done all the ground work and are very prepared for the New Zealand market.”

Their lives on Waiheke appear pretty laid back while online it’s another story. Margit’s Wellness Shop is very busy and sell’s an eclectic mix of things from tongue-scrapers to sting healers. “I play the piano at Whitakers. I could have been a concert pianist but I like to be able to make it a little more pleasant for people to work. To help others in this small way makes it very enjoyable for me,” said Toby. For information go to viva-lite.com

(c) and published by Waiheke Gulf News in January 2009. Photo (c) by Minka Firth.

Related posts:

1. Solving the Business Winter Blues
2. Finalists win from being excellent
3. PM to present Vero Excellence in Business Support Awards