Out of the shadows

Glamourpuss Tiny's silky peaches-and-cream with gray fur glows with golden highlights in the early morning light at Goomp's a couple of weeks back.

"Maybe you're not getting older. Maybe you need new lighting," goes an ad for Philips's new "natural light" bulb, reports the Wall Street Journal (subscription only):

The latest weapon in the battle against Father Time is the light bulb. While film stars and newscasters have long understood the power of lighting to make people look more attractive, they're now being joined by another demographic: Baby-boom homeowners hoping to get rid of glaring overhead light that emphasizes wrinkles, eye bags and double chins.

Back at home, Babe (in foreground) and Tiny demonstrate the felicitous effects of natural light and shade when the sun is still low in the sky as they catch up on their meeping in the side yard.

"It turns out that it does take a lot of people -- and cash -- to change a light bulb. Jobs can range in price from $20,000 to $150,000 and up, with just a single dimmer switch running $35":

Lighting designers say the best way to create more age-friendly light is through a technique called "layering" -- long favored by cinematographers and TV cameramen to erase ugly shadows. For homeowners, this means packing rooms with dozens of angled lights that bounce off ceilings, wall, counters and floors to fill in the shadows cast by overhead fixtures.

But what would any enlightenment movement be without the forces of darkness waiting to rush in?

The let-there-be-light movement comes at the same time conservationists are trying to get people to be more energy-efficient . . . Among the conservationists' prime targets are energy-eating incandescents . . . the traditional dollar-a-bulb variety favored by some designers for their flattering amber glow. Instead, conservationists are pushing fluorescents, which last longer and use about a third the energy of an equivalent incandescent bulb. Starting in October, California will become the first state requiring that at least half the wattage in new home kitchens be fluorescent.

It wouldn't work at night, of course, but the ideal way of improving light quality and reducing energy costs -- while increasing occupant happiness -- is "the art of daylighting."

Comments

[Teresa]

I have a hard enough time keeping up with the lightbulbs we have now...

Although I do like the daylighting thing *grin*... maybe candles at night... save all that electricity for our computers.

[pb]

Had to link this. I've been preaching this stuff for years: sick and depressed people need to either get out into the sunshine, or open their drapes and blinds. And I can speak from experience, and as a True Believer: the full spectrum lights work miracles!

[Patricia]

"Baby-boom homeowners hoping to get rid of glaring overhead light that emphasizes wrinkles, eye bags and double chins."

I just walk around with a gauze filter in front of my face all the time.

(and, jeez, your cats travel?! I'm impresed.)

[Ed Flinn]

The house, built in the 1880's, that I grew up in had windows everywhere, which was, I think, meant to save money on expensive lighting.

All of them drafty double hung sash windows though which, by the time I was growing up, meant any savings in lighting were more than eaten up in Winter heating bills.