From Light Creation to Light Utilization: Paradigm Shift and Cognitive Revolution in China's Lighting Industry
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China's Light All-Media Hong Bing, after reading this article, sincerely applauds!
Having worked in the lighting industry for thirty-nine years, our generation is too quick to fall into data traps. Comparing lumens, competing on illuminance values, calculating cost per watt—after all these rounds of comparison, it seems we have slowly forgotten the most fundamental question: for whom is light truly meant to shine?
The phrases "emit more light, generate less heat" and "where does light come from, where does it go" precisely articulate China's lighting industry's complete journey from technological breakthrough to value return. The former represents the hard-core responsibility of academician Jiang Fengyi's generation, who devoted their lives to overcoming chip challenges, giving us the confidence to produce high-quality light and solving the fundamental issue of "whether we have it." The latter is a soul-searching question about the current state of the industry: even with high luminous efficacy, if beam distribution is imprecise, light is not effectively received by the human eye or fully utilized in scenarios, it becomes invisible waste, equivalent to another form of "heat generation."
From "creating good light" to "making every ray of light count," this brief ten-character shift represents an Industry's awakening from hardware thinking to service thinking. Stepping out of parameter-driven competition and returning to scenarios and human-centricity is what lighting should truly be about. Lao Hong recommends reading this carefully; it is well worth deep reflection.
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During the decades of rapid development in China's lighting industry, industry cognition is undergoing a profound and critical structural transformation. The industry development philosophy has evolved from the classic "emit more light, generate less heat" to the new paradigm of "where does light come from, and where does it go." This conceptual iteration is far more than a simple technical upgrade or parameter optimization; it represents a fundamental paradigm shift in China's lighting industry from source-based physical logic to scenario-based photonics logic, marking the industry's formal departure from the era of extensive manufacturing. It signifies entry into a new stage of high-quality development characterized by scientific rigor, human-centric design, and systematic approaches.
The two core concepts are sequentially connected, progressively elevated, and form a closed loop; they are not in opposition or replacement but represent the complete advancement path of China's lighting industry from technological breakthrough to value realization. This approach completely breaks the long-standing industry misconception of 'parameter-only theory' and reshapes the technical logic, evaluation system, and value core of modern lighting.
I. Emit more light, generate less heat:
Breakthrough at the foundation, solidifying China's lighting technology base
"More light, less heat" is the foundational development logic established by Academician Jiang Fengyi for China's lighting industry, representing a breakthrough in original innovation from 0 to 1, and fundamentally addressing the core issue of whether China's lighting industry possesses core technologies and can independently produce light.
The core of this concept is to answer the most fundamental question of lighting—where does light come from? For a long time, overseas manufacturers have firmly monopolized the field of LED core chips through patents and technical barriers, constraining the independent development of China's lighting industry. Academician Jiang Fengyi's team has deeply cultivated underlying chip technologies, successfully overcoming world-class technical challenges such as and yellow-light LEDs. They pursue extreme internal quantum efficiency of light sources, with the core goal of maximizing the conversion of electrical energy into photons, reducing thermal losses, and achieving "high-efficiency light generation, low heat dissipation" .
From an industry perspective, this fundamental revolution is of great significance. It has completely broken the foreign patent blockade, enabling China to possess independently controllable "optical chips," solving the core industry challenge of "whether there are sufficiently bright and efficient light sources," and laying the technical foundation for the large-scale development of China's lighting industry. It can be said that without breakthroughs in underlying chip technology, there would be no global advantage for China's lighting industry.
However, as the industry has developed to this point, it has also formed a widespread misconception: most practitioners simply equate "high luminous efficacy of light sources" with "quality lighting and energy efficiency", falling into the trap of single-parameter thinking. They focus only on chip luminous efficiency, yet overlook the real-world scenarios where light lands, usage efficiency, and human visual experience, thereby laying the groundwork for subsequent issues such as wasted efficacy, light pollution, and experiential imbalance in the industry.
II. Where does light come from and where does it go:
Scene Awakening, Redefining the Core Value of Lighting
If "more light, less heat" is the upstream technology revolution in light generation, then "where does light come from and where does it go" is the downstream application revolution in light usage. This represents the industry's value upgrade from 1 to N and the awakening of scenarios, with the core representative being the adaptation of the luminous efficacy theory system.
This concept transcends the single-dimension of light source hardware, re-asking the ultimate proposition of lighting: where does light go? The Luminous efficacy theory clearly states that high-efficacy light sources developed from chip R&D are merely the foundation of quality lighting, not the entirety. If light cannot precisely match scene requirements, resulting in issues such as light scattering, ineffective spill light, glare causing eye discomfort, and misaligned illumination direction, then regardless of how excellent the light source parameters or luminous efficacy may be, it is essentially wasted energy consumption.
In traditional industry perception, only thermal energy converted from electricity is considered energy waste. However, the adapted luminous efficacy theory reconstructs the definition of energy saving: all light not effectively utilized by the human eye or the scene is invisible "heat generation," causing both energy waste and light pollution. This theory no longer uses single-source luminous efficacy (lm/W) as the core evaluation standard; instead, it focuses on three core dimensions: optical utilization rate, scene adaptability, and visual matching degree, truly returning to the essence of lighting "serving people and serving scenes."
This cognitive upgrade completely breaks the industry's "high luminous efficacy = good lighting, high luminous efficacy = true energy saving" cognitive cocoon. It solves the second core problem of industry development: after creating good light, how to use every ray of light efficiently, shifting the lighting industry from a competition based solely on hardware parameters to a value-based competition focused on scenario adaptation, efficient light usage, and healthy light usage.
III. Conceptual Closed Loop:
Driving the lighting industry toward dual upgrades in scientific rigor and human-centricity
"Open-source light creation at the foundation" and "lighting flow control for scenarios" are two concepts deeply integrated and mutually empowering, building an unprecedented complete methodological closed loop in China's lighting industry, driving a dual transformation of scientific standard upgrades and human-centric experience upgrades.
From a scientific perspective, the industry evaluation system has undergone a disruptive iteration. Traditional lighting relied solely on (lm/W) as a single hardware metric to judge product quality, assessing only the conversion efficiency at the light source level while ignoring full-chain losses in luminaire photometry, scene application, and human eye reception. With the fusion of dual concepts, the industry has officially established a system-level evaluation standard. Centered on effective visibility and scene energy consumption ratio, it covers the entire process from chip emission, luminaire photometry, scene implementation, to visual perception. Academician Jiang's underlying technology achieves "efficient electrical-to-light conversion," aligning with luminous efficacy theory to realize "efficient light deployment." One opens the flow, the other restricts outflow, jointly achieving true full-chain system energy saving.
From a human-centric dimension, the core value of lighting returns to its essence. "Where does light go?" is no longer limited to the physical illumination range, but extends to human visual health, circadian rhythms, and activity needs. The advocated luminous efficacy of adaptive lighting promotes demand-based light distribution, precise light control, and scenario adaptation, deeply aligning with current trends in healthy lighting, circadian lighting, and smart lighting. Lighting is no longer simply "illuminating space," but rather outputting just-right light based on living scenarios, operational requirements, and human physiological characteristics, completely moving away from industry issues such as glaring bright light, stray light disturbing residents, and excessive ineffective illumination.
IV. The Essence of the Cognitive Revolution:
From hardware manufacturing to light environment services, industry upgrading
Looking back at the development and iteration of China's lighting Industry, this cognitive revolution from "more light, less heat" to "where does light come from and where does it go" is essentially a comprehensive dimensional upgrade of Industry thinking, industry discourse power, and development patterns.
Academician Jiang Fengyi's underlying innovation has enabled China's lighting industry to break through the technological bottleneck, ascend to the global pinnacle of light source manufacturing, address the industrial shortcomings of "bottlenecked and lacking core technologies," and establish China's hardware manufacturing advantage in lighting.
The proposal and implementation of the luminous efficacy theory have filled the industry's gaps in standards and value. After mastering core light-creation technologies, China's lighting industry has finally gained an autonomous scene evaluation system, a localized lighting value logic, and industry authority tailored to human living needs, completely breaking free from the passive situation of following overseas standards and relying on parameter-driven involution.
The shift from "creating good light" to "making the most of every ray of light," captured in just ten Chinese characters, represents the most profound transformation in China's lighting industry: a comprehensive upgrade from traditional hardware manufacturing thinking to a light environment service mindset. Industry competition is no longer about comparing hardware specifications of chips and luminaires, but rather a comprehensive contest involving light environment quality, scenario adaptability, human health value, and system energy saving efficiency.
This is not merely a technological iteration, but a profound return to the philosophy of lighting. China's lighting industry is steadily transitioning from the extensive era of large-scale manufacturing to an advanced age characterized by human-centric design, precision and efficiency, green energy saving, and sustainable development, offering Chinese solutions and wisdom for the high-quality development of the global lighting industry.
Provided by Shanghai Yiyong Optoelectronics Technology Co., Ltd.