Local Business Lights Up Redwood City's Sustainable Technology Sector

With a simple flip of a switch, a life can be illuminated. Though often taken for granted, the technology of lighting allows us to work, play and live more vivaciously in the darker waking hours of the day.

But this simple task has involved complex equipment.

Redwood City business, Lunera, has incorporated leading technology, sustainability and health into the way we live in light. Lunera lights not only have a more than 20-year lifespan, but have suggested light therapy whose effects range from reducing Alheizmer's effects to regulating teens' sleep cycles.

“People are going to be more guarded about accepting new technology,” said Lunera founder Don Peifer. “But we want to make a product that can be trusted.”

Check out the video to the right to hear founder Don Peifer's explanation of how the light works.

The company uses LEDs, or light-emitting diode, in their design. The relatively new lighting technology has created a booming business based on the lifetime and quality of light, Peifer said.

“It’s absolutely shocking how fast it has taken off,” he said.

According to Peifer, fairly soon 90 percent of community lighting will be LEDs.

“We’re creating a vocabulary that everyone understands,” he said.

The company was founded in 2007 in New York City, but Peifer came to Redwood City to take advantage of the market and gifted employees that are readily available here.

“Being out in the valley allows me to sell a product that can sell itself,” he said. “It still shocks me today how much talent there is.”

The reasons for switching to LEDs are simple, Peifer explains. Compared to commonly used fluorescent lighting, LEDs not only live longer but also are a safer choice.

“It’s an amazingly complex and esoteric technology,” Peifer said of fluorescent lights.

Fluorescent lights, which take 20 minutes to heat, often become a heat trap.

“Heat adversely affects the lifetime of lighting in general,” he said.

According to the companies website, LEDs used on average of 12 hours each day have a lifespan of 22.8 years.

When using LEDs, electricity consumption decreases 30-50 percent and although the initial costs of LEDs are higher, the lasting quality and simple maintenance of LEDs presents the better option.

This decrease of energy consumption also greatly reduces carbon dioxide emissions, Peifer said.

The hazardous material mercury is a byproduct of fluorescent lights, Peifer said; the products at Lunera are free from hazardous materials.

The lights are most popular in commercial offices, schools, hospitals and warehouses, but Peifer assures that the individual will soon understand the benefits of Lunera.

“The next stage is to create some intelligence in the residential environment,” he said.

Peifer explained the studied health benefits of certain lighting over others and how he is making a conscious effort to use LEDs to benefit his customers in lasting ways.

“I imagine lighting that will helping people in health,” he said.

According to Pfeifer, studies have shown that light therapy can greatly reduce the affects of Alzheimer’s and allows neonatal infants to be released from the hospital four weeks earlier.

“The human retina is the most amazing organ,” he said.

Several health benefits are associated with producing light that accommodates the circadian system and the affects of blue light are becoming more and more acknowledged, Pfeifer said.

As the Baby Boomers come to retirement age, many older customers will seek a light that will be long lasting and can adhere to their personal health needs, he said.

However, light therapy also assists younger generations by helping regulate the sleeping cycles of teenagers.

“Teenagers won’t be sitting in homeroom dozing off,” he said.

The company has been receiving a credible reputation, winning and will soon be lighting several Facebook buildings in Oregon.

But whether seeking to reduce your carbon footprint, regulate your teens' sleep cycle or simply light a room, Lunera has a foundational goal attractive to just about everyone.

“The one common denominator,” he said. “You’ll always see soft, beautiful light.”