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There are three main metrics when it comes to measuring light output -Lumens, Candelas and Lux (Metric). Lumens: Sheer volume (amount of light that is radiated) Candelas: Intensity or strength (Narrow or Spread out). Narrower, higher candela. Lux: the illumination intensity of an area; customers usually care about this a lot. How the light hits whatever you’re shining it at. Lighting designers/architects ask for IES files because they want to figure out how the light is going to be delivered to the space Lumens: Benefits of LEDs is that you can integrate it into the fixture There can be 850 Lumens on a spec sheet but that’s not what can be coming out of a fixture. That is the lumens from the source. Ex: Incandescent Light bulb has 850 Lumens from the source but only delivers 450 Lumens because it lacks efficiency LED delivers 750 Lumens in this example because it’s more efficient LED Chip mounts to reflector, which focuses light into a lens, and the lens goes into a diffusor which softens it; makes beam angle wider but it is for the aesthetics of the beam Lumens that we put on our spec sheet are delivered lumens Every time you have light go through something else/different medium;you lose some of that light Beam Angle: Where you hit 50% of your maximum intensity; all based on your candelas If you have 1000 lumens focused, and maximum intensity is 2000 candelas, your angle is where you hit 50% of that intensity on either side (1000 candelas) Field Angles is based of 10% on either side Cutoff: Where there is no light Types of Beam Angles: Narrow Medium Wide Beam> Extra Wide Beam How do you change the angle? -Optic (Lens, reflector, etc.) will help focus lights in different ways, dependent on the Optic OpticFC/Lux: The farther you go;the less light hits the space. For example: 50 foot candles arewhat you want on an office desk. How do they measure all this? They take a giant sphere (integrating sphere) and put the light source in the middle. They close it and it gets measured, and that’s where you get the report. Integrating sphere also measures all your color and lumensoIt traps everything in the middle, nothing escapes, so you get a pure reading. In order to get a beam angle, you have a humongous system with mirrors called a goniophotometer and they measure the beam angle. These systems costa lot of money, which is why companies generally use labs to figure these things out, which is why labs are always backlogged and will take time to come back with results. LM79 is an official report that comes from a third party government approved safety lab. Therefore, even if we had this equipment, unless the government came and certified/inspected us, we wouldn’t be able to produce our own LM79. Wow, that’s a lot of information about lighting. Now you can go tell all your friends about it, let ’em know Ideoli taught you!

From our production runs in manufacturing facilities around the world to our global travels via a variety of transportation modes, we take safety very seriously in all forms. Not only is it the right thing to do to protect ourselves and those we work with,it also helps us meet our commitments to clients, as injuries and other safety incidents can cause serious delays. Fortunately, many individuals and businesses like us are participating in National Safety Month, which takes place in June and focuses on reducing the top causes of injuries and death at work, on the road and in homes and communities. This year, notes the National Safety Council, the focus is on: 1. Hazard Recognition2. Slips, Trips and Falls3. Fatigue and Impairment We recommend thinking about how these risks take shape in your own workplace or other environments, and see if there are ways you can take preventative action. Meanwhile, we’ll be sure to do even more to educate our employees and partners on hazards at our manufacturing facilities and project sites; usingthe right equipment and awareness to reduce slips, trips and falls; and recognizing the signs and dangers of fatigue and impairment and then stopping work as needed. Everyone can get involved in reducing the risk of injuries. Stay safe! 

Choosing the right lighting can be a difficult endeavor, as you not only have to consider energy usage and style but also how the color of the light source will illuminate your space.  However, lighting color is not absolute but rather based on a complicated set of factors such as how much energy the bulb emits, which affects what color you ultimately perceive. Still, one way to benchmark lighting color is to use the color rendering index (CRI), which quantifies the ability of a light to reveal colors accurately in comparison to an ideal light source. CRI involves a scale from 0 to 100 percent, with 100 being the same as daylight. Thus, you often want to find a light source with a CRI of 90 or higher, which is considered excellent and will reflect the objects in your space close to how they would appear in natural light. While in certain instances you may not want natural light, it’s often beneficial to keep colors as relatively true as possible. For example, a grocery store might think it’s a good idea to use an LED light source that has a lower CRI but which spikes the amount of red emitted so that their meat look better than it actually does. However, once the customer gets home and looks at the meat under their own light source, the meat may not look as good and they may think it’s starting to spoil or something else is off with the quality of the product. That’s why we often recommend aiming for a high CRI, barring special circumstances. By understanding CRI, you can find lighting that better illuminates the colors in your space, which can ultimately help you please clients.