Our Mission - Your Light
Incandescent bulbs of the past had health benefits due to the near-infrared spectrum they generated, but they used about six times the energy of current LEDs. With about 20% of the world’s energy used for lighting, something needed to change.
As the lighting industry developed fluorescents, compact fluorescents and LEDs to deliver much needed energy efficiency, it focused on lighting spaces instead of light’s interaction with the human body. At the time, the positive health benefits of near-infrared energy were largely unknown.
The near-infrared spectrum that is present in natural sunlight was not included in these energy efficient bulbs. They only included the visible light spectrum.
Unintended Consequences
Emerging research suggests that lack of certain sunlight characteristics could be linked to health problems.
The Challenge
Lighting veteran Scott Zimmerman saw the growing amount of research to support the positive impact that near-infrared energy has on the human body. Zimmerman, the holder of more than 80 patents, got to work exploring how to reintroduce that near-infrared energy into LEDs without sacrificing energy efficiency.
The Result
NIRA near-infrared enhanced LED lighting, which mimics natural sunlight, is the first and only energy efficient LED light that contains the invisible spectrum of near-infrared energy your body needs1.
Meet Scott Zimmerman
Founder of Silas, Inc., maker of NIRA lighting
Scott has more than 35 years of experience in the fields of lighting and displays. His innovations and inventions have been used successfully in a wide range of military and commercial products that include night vision displays, liquid crystal display backlighting designs, and lighting fixtures.
Over the past few years, Scott has been focused on quantifying the health effects of natural sunlight. His efforts led to the development of the NIRA product line with its patent pending design that reintroduces near-infrared into our homes and offices. This research, co-authored with Professor Russel Reiter, was recently published in Melatonin Research 2, a peer reviewed medical journal, and featured in LED professional 3. In response to the pandemic, Scott extended this work toward developing novel lighting and HVAC systems that suppress disease spread. He authored a peer reviewed paper on this topic that was published in the Journal of Infectious Disease and Epidemiology 4.
