Full Spectrum Lighting - Do You Want It part-1
Sorry, but this is a bit long.....page and note notations do not relate to any information in this data, but to a project from which it came.....
Full spectrum lighting is another area of companion birding where much is written, but all is not what it may seem. As with many things in our lives and the lives of those we have chosen to take under our wing, there are not many easily understood answers here. Whether the added expense of installing and using what is sold as full spectrum lighting (FS lighting) is a worthwhile investment, is something we must determine for ourselves, based on the information we have available.
Full spectrum lighting generally refers to man-made fluorescent and HID lighting sources which purportedly provide, among others, a range of ultraviolet light which allows our feathered friends to synthesize Vitamin-D3. “The term full-spectrum was coined in the 1960s by photobiologist Dr. John Ott to describe electric light sources that simulate the visible and ultraviolet (UV) spectrum of natural light.” To begin with, one needs to understand that the term `full spectrum’ is simply a marketing tool, coined by GE marketing personnel, and not a scientific standard. After WW2, the move was from incandescent lights to a higher output & more even lighting for the money invested. Schools were used as the stepping stone to market the new fluorescent lighting back in the 1950s. Prior to the war many classrooms were lit with 12-16 single bulb hanging light fixtures. GE came up with a marketing package where they convinced school systems that `Full Spectrum’ fluorescent lighting was healthier for their student charges. Millions were spent re-lighting classrooms. Money well spent, when comparing the quality and quantity of light that this new type of lighting replaced. During this same period of time, Dr. John Ott (PhD type), a photographer & photo biologist, was tinkering with lighting relevant to obtaining better pictures. He got patents & the `Ott Light’ appeared on the market….not as anything to do with reptiles or birds though, this was still for photography, both still & motion. See link 19 for some background on John Ott.
In recent years there have been a lot of questions raised about the validity of the various claims made by the different manufacturers & marketers of `full spectrum’ lighting. An excellent study was done by a university in Germany, though the data has only been published in German (at least when I did my research 3-4 years ago). Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute has also done studies and most of their data is understandable. When reading about ‘full spectrum Lighting’ you need to have an open mind and understand that there are virtually no government regulations that require ‘truth in advertising’ about this subject, so what you read in the slick sales hype gives you the impression of one result, while what you really get is not what you thought you paid for.
For most of us, our knowledge on FS lighting comes from the multitude of websites that proffer information about FS lighting. The problem here is that these sites are often merely copying information from another source or worse yet, they have extrapolated those parts that served their purpose and have added such other information that only furthers their perspective, many times leaving the average reader either confused or believing misconstrued or blatantly false sales pitches.
Understanding full spectrum lighting can be confusing, where most of the written material, covering the subject, is of a technical nature, or the information conflicts from manufacturer to manufacturer, as do the performance claims made for their various products.
In Lighting Answers, vol 7, issue 5, the Lighting Research Center offers: “Different companies have different ideas about what constitutes a full-spectrum light source, and what it is about full-spectrum light that yields the claimed benefits.” The confusion may lighten some when you realize that: “The term full-spectrum is not a technical term, but rather a marketing term……”
Although published in the National Cockatiel Society Journal, July/August, 1999, Lighting and Your Bird, an article by Patrick Thrush, is a good place to start, regarding FS lighting and caged birds, and follow that with his article entitled Using Full Spectrum Lighting With Birds.
For a better understanding of how light plays in a day in the life of our feathered friends, Patrick Thrush’s article, Simulating Natural Photoperiod: The Stepped Lighting Approach, should be helpful. The inclusion of this section was prompted by a message thread, about full spectrum lighting, in one of the internet newsgroups I am a member of. My thanks to Howard Thomas, whose response to another’s post was the catalyst: “…..to be effective (for health benefit), the full spectrum bulbs must be at least 24 inches long – 48 inches is even better. Those miniature screw-in bulbs do not produce UV light long enough to be of benefit. With the miniature bulbs, the UV light drops off as early as 2 weeks after initial use. Although they produce a really nice light for viewing and reading, they are of little or no use for producing vitamin D in the birds.” Were full spectrum lighting products to be capable of producing true full spectrum light, they would be somewhat cumbersome and quite unsightly in our homes. I would also expect that they would quickly fade our furniture and draperies, as well as carry health warnings about the risks of extended exposure to them.
This is continued in: Full Spectrum Lighting - Do You Want It part-
Sorry, but this is a bit long.....page and note notations do not relate to any information in this data, but to a project from which it came.....
Full spectrum lighting is another area of companion birding where much is written, but all is not what it may seem. As with many things in our lives and the lives of those we have chosen to take under our wing, there are not many easily understood answers here. Whether the added expense of installing and using what is sold as full spectrum lighting (FS lighting) is a worthwhile investment, is something we must determine for ourselves, based on the information we have available.
Full spectrum lighting generally refers to man-made fluorescent and HID lighting sources which purportedly provide, among others, a range of ultraviolet light which allows our feathered friends to synthesize Vitamin-D3. “The term full-spectrum was coined in the 1960s by photobiologist Dr. John Ott to describe electric light sources that simulate the visible and ultraviolet (UV) spectrum of natural light.” To begin with, one needs to understand that the term `full spectrum’ is simply a marketing tool, coined by GE marketing personnel, and not a scientific standard. After WW2, the move was from incandescent lights to a higher output & more even lighting for the money invested. Schools were used as the stepping stone to market the new fluorescent lighting back in the 1950s. Prior to the war many classrooms were lit with 12-16 single bulb hanging light fixtures. GE came up with a marketing package where they convinced school systems that `Full Spectrum’ fluorescent lighting was healthier for their student charges. Millions were spent re-lighting classrooms. Money well spent, when comparing the quality and quantity of light that this new type of lighting replaced. During this same period of time, Dr. John Ott (PhD type), a photographer & photo biologist, was tinkering with lighting relevant to obtaining better pictures. He got patents & the `Ott Light’ appeared on the market….not as anything to do with reptiles or birds though, this was still for photography, both still & motion. See link 19 for some background on John Ott.
In recent years there have been a lot of questions raised about the validity of the various claims made by the different manufacturers & marketers of `full spectrum’ lighting. An excellent study was done by a university in Germany, though the data has only been published in German (at least when I did my research 3-4 years ago). Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute has also done studies and most of their data is understandable. When reading about ‘full spectrum Lighting’ you need to have an open mind and understand that there are virtually no government regulations that require ‘truth in advertising’ about this subject, so what you read in the slick sales hype gives you the impression of one result, while what you really get is not what you thought you paid for.
For most of us, our knowledge on FS lighting comes from the multitude of websites that proffer information about FS lighting. The problem here is that these sites are often merely copying information from another source or worse yet, they have extrapolated those parts that served their purpose and have added such other information that only furthers their perspective, many times leaving the average reader either confused or believing misconstrued or blatantly false sales pitches.
Understanding full spectrum lighting can be confusing, where most of the written material, covering the subject, is of a technical nature, or the information conflicts from manufacturer to manufacturer, as do the performance claims made for their various products.
In Lighting Answers, vol 7, issue 5, the Lighting Research Center offers: “Different companies have different ideas about what constitutes a full-spectrum light source, and what it is about full-spectrum light that yields the claimed benefits.” The confusion may lighten some when you realize that: “The term full-spectrum is not a technical term, but rather a marketing term……”
Although published in the National Cockatiel Society Journal, July/August, 1999, Lighting and Your Bird, an article by Patrick Thrush, is a good place to start, regarding FS lighting and caged birds, and follow that with his article entitled Using Full Spectrum Lighting With Birds.
For a better understanding of how light plays in a day in the life of our feathered friends, Patrick Thrush’s article, Simulating Natural Photoperiod: The Stepped Lighting Approach, should be helpful. The inclusion of this section was prompted by a message thread, about full spectrum lighting, in one of the internet newsgroups I am a member of. My thanks to Howard Thomas, whose response to another’s post was the catalyst: “…..to be effective (for health benefit), the full spectrum bulbs must be at least 24 inches long – 48 inches is even better. Those miniature screw-in bulbs do not produce UV light long enough to be of benefit. With the miniature bulbs, the UV light drops off as early as 2 weeks after initial use. Although they produce a really nice light for viewing and reading, they are of little or no use for producing vitamin D in the birds.” Were full spectrum lighting products to be capable of producing true full spectrum light, they would be somewhat cumbersome and quite unsightly in our homes. I would also expect that they would quickly fade our furniture and draperies, as well as carry health warnings about the risks of extended exposure to them.
This is continued in: Full Spectrum Lighting - Do You Want It part-
