Intentional lighting protects our body clocks, wildlife, and view of the stars

By Carolyn Jones| Photography by Jeffrey E. Tryon

As the sun sets over the Hopewell Valley, fields and woodlands fade away just as houses and street lights snap into view. The effect is a patchwork of darkness and dazzle as my eyes work to adapt.

I turn onto a quiet road, passing a darkening nature preserve on one side and bright properties on the other. My destination offers visual relief. Unlike many harshly-lit places I’ve passed, this property glows rather than shines.

Humans’ desire to tame darkness is timeless, from our flickering caves to security lights. But I’ve noticed those lights aren’t always well placed. This is especially notable when a car’s high beams blind me, or when a work surface is blocked by shadows. I’m eager to know how lighting designers conjure exactly the right kind of light. That’s why I’m here tonight.

I’ve heard about Brady Hill from DarkSky Hopewell, the environmental nonprofit dedicated to reducing light pollution in the Hopewell Valley. The group helps property owners adjust their outdoor fixtures so the light shines only where it’s needed and nowhere else. Hill, a lighting designer, is the tech behind the mission.

When I pull into the gently-lit driveway, Hill, a tall man in his sixties, comes out to greet me. He is accompanied by his partner, horticulturist Nancy Angle. Suki the dog weaves between our legs. Together they lead me into their home. It’s a 1,600-square-foot ranch split by a mid-century modern addition. Designed by Belle Mead architect Thomas C. Lee, it’s this glowing structure that draws me inside.

As an electrical contractor with over 40 years of experience, Hill knows a thing or two about smooth lighting. I’m not surprised then that the house radiates the kind of golden light I associate with luxury or retreat. Each room is clearly lit but also conveys calm. I am surprised to learn this effect has nothing to do with chandeliers.

That’s because it’s not about the fixtures, Hill explains as he gestures toward the kind of recessed ceiling lights seen in almost every American home. Instead, he says, atmospheric lighting emerges from three things: soft, warm bulbs, angled beams, and layers of intentional light. This can all be achieved with fixtures bought from any store.

There’s a reason to light a space thoughtfully, other than just for the ambience, he adds. Placing the right light in the right place at the right time boosts well-being, not just for the person beneath the lamp, but for their broader community, too. To start, he says, be kind to your eyes.

Aerial photo of a typical suburban housing development at night with bright lights. (Shutterstock.com)

A WORLD WITHOUT GLARE

Hill exudes the relaxed demeanor of someone who takes things as they come. But there’s one thing that gets his goat: glare. That’s the feeling when a light shines directly into your eyes, creating a brief but uncomfortable flash. The light contracts your pupils, reduces your vision, and in certain situations reduces safety. Hill hates glare so much, he says, he sometimes unscrews bulbs at restaurants if the light affects him.

That’s not because he’s especially sensitive. Glare is a known villain of the lighting world, and its effects are felt along a range, albeit subjectively. On one end, glare causes visual discomfort — that feeling when a light is too bright or harsh — and on the other, it creates visual disability. This is when one’s sight is compromised because of bright light, a problem made worse when the surrounding area is dark. The experience of being blinded by headlights is a classic example, though one doesn’t have to look far to find lights harsh enough to pummel the eyes.

Not surprisingly then, glare is absent from the Hill-Angle home. Instead, Hill has carefully located each light source — approximately 75 fixtures in all — so you never look directly at the bulb. In every room, conical beams of light emerge from several points in the ceiling, providing clear yet subtle light. The width of these beams, measured by their angle, is the key, Hill explains. The optimal angle is 45 degrees. Hill points to the canned lights in his kitchen. They are fitted with reflector flood lamps instead of regular bulbs, and rather than sitting flush against the ceiling, as many canned lights do, his are recessed further up. The deeper recess has the effect of both shielding the bulb and training the beam onto the work surface at the optimal angle to eliminate glare. Additionally, the bulbs are dimmable, allowing him to dial the brightness up or down as needed. The effect is a well-lit kitchen minus the unpleasant dazzle I associate with recessed lights.

There’s another trick for achieving a smooth glow throughout the house. Every LED bulb in the home is the same color temperature — 2,700 Kelvin — allowing for uniformity from one room to another. It gives the feel of an incandescent bulb, without the attendant energy costs. When it comes to atmospheric lighting, Hill says, the temperature of the bulb is a matter of personal taste. However, he warns, switching color temperatures between rooms reduces visual comfort.

“It’s like listening to one radio station on two different radios,” he says. “It’s just a little jarring.”

Brady Hill and his dog Suki.

LIGHT AS DRAMA

Indeed, for Hill, lighting a home is akin to stagecraft. Every decision is about function, but it’s also about tone and mood. By layering different types of lights, he illuminates for ambience, focused work, and highlighting specific features of his home.

Thus, by training under-cabinet lights onto kitchen counters, for example, he banishes shadows where there’s chopping to be done. However, a shielded lamp summons those same shadows around the pool table to spotlight the drama on the baize. Similarly, a shielded and angled bulb above an oil painting heightens the paint’s luminosity, while diffused light in the bedroom conjures a golden-hour glow. Meanwhile, unseen lights tucked behind roof beams accentuate the warmth of the wood-framed addition, creating the allure that drew me in from outside.

There’s also an element of playfulness. In his workshop, Hill retrofits standard fixtures into ones better suited to his neighbor-friendly goals. For example, he took a standard carriage light — essentially a glaring bulb inside a glass case — and replaced it with two hidden LEDs, whose light is amplified by tiny mirrors. Installed against a wall of climbing hops, this luminaire casts a subtle glow across the patio. Hill achieves safety-level lighting for the fraction of what it would cost to use a regular bulb. No neighbor’s bedroom is flooded. No light goes to waste.

Similarly, Hill designed a shield for a standard post light, many examples of which I’d passed on the way to his home. This kind of fixture is the worst offender in terms of light trespass and waste. Unshielded lights such as these throw light to the ground, into the surrounding yard, and upwards into the sky. However, Hill’s metal cap reduces the beam spread of his by more than half, sending light only toward the drive. A closer inspection reveals the cap to be a repurposed wok, and I realize it was this single fixture that illuminated my path from car to front door. Its soft aura is intentional. Like all the lights inside Hill’s home, this one is fitted with a 2,700K bulb.

AVOIDING BLUE-RICH LIGHT

Yet feel-good as they are, those warm bulbs aren’t just about extending welcome. They are also central to Hill’s vision for the kind of responsible lighting that underpins DarkSky Hopewell’s work. It’s an idea that a growing range of experts — from ecologists to astronomers to public health specialists — support.

The concept starts with waves. Specifically, visible light comes in a spectrum, from the longer wavelengths that appear warmer to our eyes (such as red or orange), to the shorter waves that appear colder (such as blue and violet). LEDs can produce light anywhere along that spectrum. LEDs that produce more blue light appear brighter white than the 2,700K lights in Hill’s home. These bluer LEDs register between 3,500-5,700K on the lightbulb box, and are often labeled “daylight.”

But there’s a problem. Like real daylight, which is also infused with blue-rich light, the waves emitted by cooler LEDs signal to the brain to stay awake. The brain obliges by suppressing the production of the sleep-inducing hormone, melatonin.

But what happens when the nighttime environment is awash in the signal to stay alert? The result, according to years of scientific research, points to poorer sleep — of course — but also to a laundry list of conditions potentially worsened by circadian rhythm disturbance, among them cardiovascular disease, diabetes, depression, and certain types of endocrine cancers.

For this reason, there’s a growing awareness in the lighting world that the way we illuminate our living space directly impacts our health. Known variously as biological lighting or circadian-aware design, lighting experts strive to limit nighttime exposure to excessively blue-rich light.

Best practices start with removing white LEDs from sleeping areas. Human-friendly lights also strive for shielding, dimming, and glare control. These are essentially the techniques I found in Hill’s jewel-box home, a place I had felt relaxed in without knowing why.

Yet this approach isn’t just about happy humans. Blue-rich light also affects wildlife. Studies show artificial light interferes with the biology of almost all living things, affecting how they interact with their environment, from hunting to feeding to pollination to migration. That pile of dead moths one finds beneath streetlights is emblematic of the effect our lights have on the natural world. The more we favor blue-rich lights, the greater that disturbance becomes.

The negative effect can also be seen in the sky. Hill points toward several glows on the field opposite his home. The two larger light domes indicate Philadelphia and New York, while the smaller one rises from Princeton. These coronas comprise the cumulative effect of all the lights attached to warehouses, billboards, streets, malls, and parking lots, plus all the decorative and safety lights on our homes. As blue-rich light scatters into the sky, it creates sky glow, resulting in the loss of true darkness and a diminished view of the stars.

DarkSky International, the global advocacy group, estimates that worldwide, light pollution is growing by about 10 percent a year. Our skies are brightening at an alarming rate.

While Hill can’t combat light pollution in major cities, he can prevent it in his own yard. For this reason, his security lights are both timed and motion sensitive, his outside lamps are shielded, and the beams passing over Nancy’s pollinator garden are coated with an orange epoxy to filter out blue-rich light.

As he points out these fixes, I notice bats swooping across the skyline. Dark shrubs twinkle with fireflies and there’s rustling in the shadows nearby. Perhaps it’s Hill’s ecologically-sensitive lights, or perhaps it’s Nancy’s bug-friendly flowers, but one thing is clear: this yard pulsates with life.

Fireflies in an eastern woodland. (Shutterstock.com)

TOWARD COMMUNITY-FRIENDLY LIGHTS

Hill’s vision dovetails with the efforts underway in several New Jersey towns to transition toward more community-friendly lights. The all-volunteer crew with DarkSky Hopewell recently retrofitted the outside lights on two commercial properties in the Hopewell Valley. By installing bespoke shields and replacing the bulbs with warmer options, the team reduced energy costs, removed glare, and prevented harmful blue-rich light from escaping into the sky. At one site, Hill sprayed the lights with an orange paint to minimize ecological impacts on a nearby wetland area. The paint filters out blue-rich lightwaves, he says, but the same effect can be gained by purchasing bug-friendly bulbs online.

The group is also working with Hopewell Borough officials to introduce an ordinance that requires dark sky-compliant lighting for new construction and major renovations. A similar ordinance is in development in Princeton. According to Steve Mariconda, president of DarkSky New Jersey, there are now about 18 municipal ordinances on the books across New Jersey, with several more in development. The aim is to reduce New Jersey’s light pollution — fixture by fixture, town by town.

For Hill that’s a worthy goal, one that can be achieved by convincing decisionmakers that it’s the right thing to do. The science of responsible lighting, as collated every year in DarkSky International’s State of the Science report, is on their side. But for Hill, having a well-lit environment is also a no-brainer. By installing warm, shielded lights, the personal benefits are felt immediately, no political influence required. Even better, anyone can do it in the one place they already have influence over: their own homes.

Aerial photo of New York City at night. (Shutterstock.com)