LED there be light

MANILA, Philippines - Lumen — the measure of the light’s brightness.

“When shopping for your LED light bulbs, you need to consider its lumens,” says Johnny Chan, president of Rockford Marketing Corporation, a trading company engaged in distribution of electrical and lighting fixtures. “Traditionally, we’d look at the wattage or how much energy the light bulb consumes. But what’s also important to look at is its lumen or how much light it gives us.”

Improper lighting can affect our eyesight or even our mood. Different types of spaces such as offices, schools, hospitals or homes would require different types of lighting solutions. Energy efficiency is also a major consideration. LED light bulbs produce far less heat and consume far less energy. LED bulbs are about 80 percent more energy efficient than other bulbs. “It’s actually helping government in energy saving,” Chan says.

There are many different brands of LED light bulbs that are now available on the market. “Unfortunately, there is no market standard at the moment,” Chan says. “Too many are produced with complete disregard for the quality, as long as it gives light. There is a safety standard that should be followed but none on quality. So everybody is claiming quality, but how can they prove it? If there is a quality standard, then it can be measured and it should pass the test. Then the customer will not be cheated.”

Rockford Marketing has been an importer and distributor of quality products for the past 40 years. “We’ve been doing business with Panasonic of Japan as well as Nippon Electric,” Chan adds. “For the last 25 years, we had been appointed by Osram Germany as its sole distributor of its top quality LED lights.”

Recently, Rockford has gone into manufacturing. It introduced Orbik, its own local brand of lighting products.

 “Lighting is a powerful tool. It’s like a woman’s makeup,” architect Conrad Onglao remarked at the Orbik product launch, which was held recently at Café Naya at the Palace Pool Club in BGC. He spoke about the traditional as well as non-traditional approach to lighting.

“In the olden days, there was usually just one source of light at the center of the house,” he observed. “Now, there are more sources of light that are used to focus on particular areas or corners of the house, or to call attention to or highlight certain pieces, such as a wall décor or artwork.”

Task lighting provides focused light where it is needed, such as for reading or working in the kitchen. Stark white lighting, which keeps you awake, is used in banks and offices as opposed to warm white lighting, which makes you more relaxed and is used in homes and  hotels, Onglao noted.

Interior designer Cyndi Fernandez-Beltran of Moss Manila shared some practical lighting tips for homeowners:

Omega-rich:Proudly holding up a photo of her idol, her dad Fernando ‘Da King’ Poe Jr., and (right) as a kid on the cover of Expressweek magazine (March 1, 1973)

1. Decide on what mood you would like to have when you step into your house. From there, you can figure out what type of lighting you will use.

2. Specific rooms in the house require specific types of lighting. For general lighting, I recommend warm white, which is a mix of yellow light and daylight. It is not stark, like what you have in hospitals. You want to make your home as homey and intimate as possible

3. Use movable fixtures such as floor lamps. Lighting for the home should have multi levels to create mood and a play of shadows.

4. Scale should be considered. The lamp shade should not be bigger than the base of the table. Factor in the kind of material for the lampshade, which can block the light so that the illumination is only at the top and bottom, as opposed to one which is translucent. Length should also be considered. A common mistake is to put two lamps that occupy 50 percent of the console table.

5. Built-in light on the sides of your mirror works well for you when you put on makeup so nothing is hidden. What you want to avoid is light that is directly over your head because it will cast shadows on your face.

6. Factor in decorative lighting. A lot of times, decorative lighting comes as an afterthought, which shouldn’t be. Lights should be pre-planned, so you can also determine where to put the switches. You don’t want to see wires running all around the place.