An unfortunate preoccupation with the sun
:: Friday, August 8th, 2008 @ 1:49:27 pm
:: Tags: Thoughtful

Since I moved into my new cave, I’ve been obsessed with light and the position of the sun. For a period of a week, I spent an hour a day browsing light therapy and 5500°K lighting products. I even bought some, and have asked a designer to look into huge light panels for the wall (preferably LED to avoid any further baking from heat given off by generating light).
It’s a good thing I’m located right in the middle of everything here in San Francisco. I’m driven out of the house by hunger nearly every day, and luckily, summer days are long,and it’s almost always still light when I venture out. I’m glad that I’m getting a good dose of natural light every day, even if I am not getting much of it when I sit here in front of my computer.
Plus, I’m isolated here, and it’s really the only time I get to see people. I guess people watching is better than nothing.
My personalized Google homepage has adapted to my new obsession, and the entire right-hand column is now full of statistics on celestial bodies and time. Since I can’t tell where the sun is from inside here, I guess I’ll have to rely on the interwebs.
So… yeah, I love my new place. But it has its drawbacks.
What about installing one of these light periscopes? Even if you can’t get trough the roof you might want to be creative and mount it sideways…….
I’m pretty sure the neighbors on all sides would not be OK with me putting a big pipe through their respective buildings. :)
In the shade, sunlight is 1000 - 2000 lux. Testing with a light meter, I found you get that with about 100 watts (6000 lumens) of fluorescent bulbs 2-3 feet away. Not having the exact K hasn’t mattered.
Great for the short days of San Francisco winters. Also this is interesting reading on timing and duration for bright light exposure: http://www.blog.sethroberts.ne.....ght-sleep/