The Intersection of Healthy Living and a Clean Environment
It started with a simple mission when the husband and wife team of Tom Palmer and Nancy Gerald set out to build their first yoga studio – to stand out from all the other studios by being the cleanest, healthiest yoga studio in the market, if not the country.
The Lighting Design
Palmer began his research by looking at Ultra Violet (UV) disinfection lighting, which utilizes 250-265 nm wavelengths. While certainly effective, this technology is unfortunately harmful to humans and many inorganic materials. Exposure to these wavelengths can cause severe damage, limiting its use in applications where the area is occupied by humans or sensitive materials.
Palmer’s research journey brought him to SpectraClean™, a new solution from Hubbell Lighting that features the University of Strathclyde’s High Intensity Narrow Spectrum (“HINS”) lighting technology. Through SpectraClean the disciplines of lighting science and microbiology converge to create a new technology that combines white and narrowband 405 nanometer (“nm”) visible light to meet ambient and task lighting requirements while providing a continuous, unobtrusive disinfection option for forward-thinking facility owners and operators.
The SpectraClean fixtures, combined with state-of-the-art BPE Energy Recovery Ventilators and PEM Surface flooring, reinforce the brand promise OYP has made to its students – a clean and safe environment to practice yoga. Haglid Engineering & Associates, Inc.®has certified the indoor air quality at OYP exceeds that of 90 percent of typical buildings in the United States thanks to BPE HVAC technology that exchanges indoor stale air with fresh outdoor air.
When students enter the studio, they are met with the smell of nothing – which is unique in a hot yoga facility. SpectraClean plays a key role in this. The germicidal effects of narrowband visible light work to suppress a wide range of bacteria, molds, fungi and yeast. This antimicrobial light induces the production of damaging reactive oxygen species in harmful microorganisms to accelerate cell inactivation. Antimicrobial disinfection through illumination is proven effective with proper dosage levels on pathogens suspended in air or attached to a variety of surfaces, materials and objects.
Check out the case study story after watching the video.
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