Lighting at the Housing fair in Finland 2015

The annual Housing Fair in Vantaa 2015 is the 46th event of its kind. 98% of Finland’s adult population knows the event. Lighting designer Ilkka Pekanheimo has evaluated the lighting of the houses at the Housing fair in Vantaa.  This leaflet tells more about the idea of housing fairs.

It’s amazing to think that even though we spend two-thirds of our time living under artificial lighting, we’re not paying attention to the consequences of this light for our body and mind. Whereas people are concerned about organic food, pure water and clean air, the element by which our very life came into existence – light – is often forgotten.

At the House Fair 2015, there were houses, where all lighting was done by using led lamps. This leads to a new problem in lighting:  led strips are reflecting from the shiny surfaces. Hence, one should choose the type of surface before lighting with led strips. Do not choose black shiny surface to the kitchen if you use led strips. If you choose shiny surfaces, choose indirect lighting.

One problem at the fair were blending lights, unfortunately found in almost all the houses. The colors of the interior were made incorrect by lighting in almost all the houses.

There is no 100 % correct opinion on the lighting. I hope that this evaluation would create discussion and would contribute to make the lighting quality better in homes in Finland and in the whole world.

In my Finnish blog you can see 400 lighting pictures. If you would like to see 6000 home lighting pictures more from Housing fairs 1998 – 2014, contact Ilkka Pekanheimo.

Best lightings

• House 22, LakkaLaine.  Excellent indirect solutions, only a few glaring luminaires. The color rendering index of the lamps was not good.  The color temperature is too low.
• House  26, Villa Kapee.Excellent indirect solutions, only a few glaring luminaires. The color rendering index of the lamps was not good.   The color temperature is too low.
• House 29, Villa Chili.    Excellent indirect solutions. The color rendering index of the lamps was excellent.  The light was pure white, the color temperature was 5000 – 5500 K. Beautiful colors, no glaring. In utility room you can see comparison of light: red chili in the right box is lighted with 5500 K light and in the left box with 2900 K light.  You can see also the difference in the color of the flower. The difference is amazing.

In fact, Villa Chili is the only house at housing fair, which is lighted with 5500 K daylight. If I would evaluate only the light quality, lacking of glaring, and the correct colors of interior design, Villa Chili would be the winner.

Some good and bad examples from the fair

A daylight led strip (5500 K) is installed into aluminium bar, painted with white. The bar is in the position of 45 degrees and light is directed to the wall. The wall is painted yellow like yellow chili. This color makes a warm atmosphere to the room. The daylight led shows the color of the wall as original.

There is a led strip (5500 K) at the front rand of the kitchen cabin. It is directed to the back wall with help of the aluminium bar in the angle of 45 degrees. You can see very well on the desk, no glare, no reflecting light. The wall is painted yellow.

All working surfaces should be lighted. You should put indirect lighting also on the cabin. The light color of the kitchen hood should also be the same color. Children and short people should not see the light under the cabin.

Better alternative would be indirect lighting. These small led luminaires cause a restless atmosphere and too little light in the room. I prefer 5500 K led panels and bigger size.

A daylight led lamp in outdoor luminaire should show the colors of the nature as original. In this luminaire the lamp is too yellow. Also in the winter the snow would be white in daylight lighting. If you have dogs in the house, it does not matter. A better alternative for bollard luminaire is indirect lighting: put the led strip on the upper rand of the white wall and put a small moulding on it so that you will not see the strip, only the reflecting light.

Avoid these upwards directed luminaires. They cause a very bad glare, when you walk near the luminaire or when the children crawl on the floor. They have no lighting meaning, maybe they light only the birds, which are flying over. This is a useless luminaire.

When you paint the ceiling with strong red color in the children’s room, it may be a color psychological mistake only if it is strong red. Avoid also small led lamps, they are too bright when you see them from the bed.

A good way to light a bathroom. The 3 mm opal plastic should be ca. 72 % transparent and you can light it with led strip or led tube.

Switch off the light!

Try 5500 K 8 – 12 W daylight lamp in these luminaires. The luminaire turns pure white and the colors in the room correct. You can also see better in the room.

A led strip is reflecting from the dark working desk. Avoid this by using 45 degree aluminium bar for led.

This is bad light.

This is good lighting. In the evenings you need candles on the table.

Indirect light is a beautiful way to light. The light should be continuous no dark intervals should be. I prefer pure white, 5500 K daylight. This is too yellow. You do not need the small lamps on the ceiling. They make a restless atmosphere.

Lighting by RGB is according to my opinion an unnecessary trick. There are no studies to show, how the continuously changing color affects to peoples well-beeing. The effect is not undoubtedly positive. The eyes will strain, when they always must adapt to a new color world. Also the color of interior decoration changes all the time.

An excellent non-glare way to light a jacuzzi. How ever, this light may be the “white” from RGB. The color rendering index of RGB white is only 20, so never use it. A continuous changing RGB here is awful, but it is my opinion. Do not care about it.

An indirect lighting near to timbers is an excellent way to light. Even better, if you use 5500 K pure white light. The color of the wood would be original.

I would put colorful paintings on the wall and not these luminaires, which are changing the color of the wall. Lighting by indirect way.

The spot lights in the light bar is an easy solution but not elegant. The lamps are very glare when you look at them. The colors of the interior decoration will be destroyed because of the bad quality of the light. Too yellow, may be 2900 K. It should be 5500 K, in my opinion.

The correct installing place of the led strip is in front of the cabin and it should be directed to the back wall. You should not see the light at the long distance of the kitchen to the room. It has no use.

This is one of the worst way to light. The light causes glare and when it has a 2700 K lamp, the light destroys the colors of the room. If possible, turn the lamps towards the ceiling.

Life on a Leaf- a total work of art – lighted by daylight

1.12.2009

Have you ever wondered why among all these millions of box shaped buildings, you will never see a house shaped like a shoe, a flower or a leaf?
This is the question, which set out artist Jan-Erik Andersson on a long and adventurous journey to build his own leaf shaped house in the middle of Turku city in Finland. The house project, called Life on a Leaf, is also the art part of Andersson’s studies for a doctorate degree in visual arts at the Academy of Fine Arts in Helsinki. Read more…

Daylight lighting by Ilkka Pekanheimo, AD-Lux Oy

One of the most interesting projects of the lighting designer Ilkka Pekanheimo in 2007-2009 was the lighting of artist Jan-Erik Anderssons Life on a Leaf house in Turku. Every leaf spine is lighted with a daylight simulating dimmable light. This method was tested first and found to be excellent.
Ilkka Pekanheimo has promoted the use of daylight simulating light in Finland over 20 years already. Today more and more houses and also work places are completely lighted with full spectrum dimmable daylight lamps. In the Leaf house there are nearly 70 full spectrum Viva-Lite lamps, almost all high power, 49W or 54W lamps.  Bluebell winter garden is lighted with daylight Citizen-LED lamps.
Ilkka also had the idea to build a lighting fixture kit. The fixture is missing the framework. This is a very economical solution, because the electronic ballast of the fixture can be installed within the rooms temperature. If it would been inside of the fixture, the heat of the lamp would make the life time of the electronics much shorter. The lighting of the Leaf house has been realized with this fixture kit with Helvar’s dimmable electronic ballasts.

Ilkka Pekanheimo checks which bulb would suite on of the fixtures.

Ilkka Pekanheimo, who has been a consultant for planning the full spectrum fluorescent daylight system in the house, checks which bulb would suit one of the fixtures.
Because we see better in daylight lighting, our eyes are less tired and the colors of the furnishings are real. The medical studies from Ilkka Pekanheimo have helped a lot in the promotion of full spectrum daylight, which also has significant health effects.

The wooden shelves, which function as a half open wall to the loft, are installed. They still need to be painted. The ornate metal railings, which will include Shawn Decker’s sound installation, are fastened to the concrete bridge. The dimmable lights under the roof beams function beautifully.

This method of lighting further saves energy. As no incandescent and halogen lamps are used, it positively addresses the effects of climate change. All lights, except from the installation in the dining room with 26 retro lamps from the 60:ties and 70:ties, are full spectrum fluorescent lights, many of them dimmable. These lamps can be replaced later with LED-lamps, when incandescent lamps are no more available.

More information.