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In the past thirty years, some major changes have occurred in the lighting energy field, and discount lighting has remained a key player in it. Commercial and business lighting accounts for half of the lighting energy used in the United States, so the desire to conserve energy would be a huge saving for both the companies and the country. It was not too long ago that many homes and businesses attempted to save money by turning lights off or down.
In the 1920s and 1930s, research began to show a strong link between productivity in people when there was an environment filled with bright lights. It was suggested that the increased energy costs would be more than compensated by the increase in productivity. The battle for discount lighting began at that time for cheaper lights with more lighting power. In 1938, General Electric bought a patent from Edmund Germer and his coworkers for the first invention of the fluorescent lamp, which began the first steps toward efficient discount lighting in the United States today. In 1893, that invention had began at the World’s Fair with Nikola Tesla’s fluorescent light invention. Many utilities hesitated to promote the new fluorescent lighting until World War II, when they were installed in the new war plants by the thousands thinking of the long-term financial gain. Meanwhile, the average person in the home were still slow to adopt this cheaper discount lighting method, and it wasn’t until 1950s to 1960s that it became commonplace. The fluorescent lamp was the origin of discount lighting, and are much more efficient than regular lighting, lasting 10 to 20 times longer. Until the 1970s, energy was very cheap and the larger business offices still felt that a brighter workspace made the employees work more productively. This “blanket of light” theory called for uniformly bright stores and offices. Electric companies created new guidelines and helped their customers change their energy use patterns, install more efficient equipment, and to allow them to save money. Stores and business offices installed new style dimmer switches; and timers and sensors were developed to save on energy. But the “blanket of light” theory was fast becoming a thing of the past as something new was approaching. Putting light where it was needed instead of everywhere and all over became part of the designers’ new drawing board ideas. This was called “task lighting,” which was a much more sophisticated usage of natural light in high designs, designed on save on money and gave discount lighting a new meaning in today’s world. |
Lighting Types and Bulbs