Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) appears in various forms for many circumpolar inhabitants. Hibernation is the extreme case, in terms of of SAD-influence. We also see SAD effects in humans, but on a smaller scale. In humans we see seasonal mood swings and/or changes in metabloism. These phenomena appear to track with variation of light-level, by season.
I enjoy enhanced morale under ample lighting. It's really just a matter of practicality. If a cranny is dim, I'm more leery of reaching into it. If a drawer is too dark, I won't bother going through it. These small inhibitions add up. Generally speaking, decline of physical activity correlates to reduced lighting levels. I'm more likely thrilled while examining stuff under sufficient illumination. My mental acuity is thus optimized. This begs the central question of how to generate ample quantities of light, within the budget of the home user. Luckily, favorable answers can be found in the high intensity discharge (HID) family of ligh sources. Innards from an "outdoor" 175-Watt phosphor-coated mercury-vapor security-light gives good baseline-performance, with some adaptation. Other devices from the HID family offer the advanced user a palate of desirable characteristics to choose from. My experimentation followed a sequence beginning with my experimentation with 175 Watt mercury-vapor systems. The pilot project can be seen below. The following prototype is the pilot in a product-line I'm calling SAD Lighthouse. My aim is to brighten up the user's home, rather than just the user's face (as is done with standard-issue SAD-Light boxes). |
