Lighting at work

Akrasia

Hey everyone.

My company are in the process of moving into a new building and they have asked for suggestions for what features we would like in the new building

I think one of the most overlooked aspects of a building is the lighting. Currently in our present office we have standard flourescent strip lighting and having to sit under these for 40 hours a week is pretty depressing

I remember reading some research about how our circadian rhythm is regulated partially by the colour of the sky, and that they are developing intelligent lighting systems that subtly change colour to emulate the time of the day

This is similar to the principles behind the 'full spectrum lighting' that people buy to combat the winter blues or just make the workplace a more pleasant place to be in.

Has anyone in here tried ergonomic lighting systems at home or at work. Does anyone know any resources that would sell the most scientifically advanced lights for the workplace?

The facilities manager will want something that she can justify so it would either have to have a strong benefit or a neutral cost, so LED lighting would be preferable because it is cheaper to run even if more expensive to install, but is LED technology able to produce the right light spectrum?

Thanks for your input

Stoner

Akrasia wrote: »

Hey everyone.

My company are in the process of moving into a new building and they have asked for suggestions for what features we would like in the new building

I think one of the most overlooked aspects of a building is the lighting. Currently in our present office we have standard flourescent strip lighting and having to sit under these for 40 hours a week is pretty depressing

I remember reading some research about how our circadian rhythm is regulated partially by the colour of the sky, and that they are developing intelligent lighting systems that subtly change colour to emulate the time of the day

This is similar to the principles behind the 'full spectrum lighting' that people buy to combat the winter blues or just make the workplace a more pleasant place to be in.

Has anyone in here tried ergonomic lighting systems at home or at work. Does anyone know any resources that would sell the most scientifically advanced lights for the workplace?

The facilities manager will want something that she can justify so it would either have to have a strong benefit or a neutral cost, so LED lighting would be preferable because it is cheaper to run even if more expensive to install, but is LED technology able to produce the right light spectrum?

Thanks for your input

This would be a huge expense and I've never seen it installed in an office.

LED is cheaper to run but IMHO no better for this.

Lighting with high frequency fluorescent fittings in a scheme that is "in the spirit" of LG7 with a high uniformity of light, say 0.8 can help.

I'm also aware of studies shown that adding a second source of artificial light helps greatly.
So mixing the fittings, lamp source and colour. This could simply be a line of LED or CFL down lights, but subconsciously there is an alleged benefit to different sources,

A lighting control system combined with dali or dsi ballasts in the fittings would help with keeping the levels consistent.

Little things like lamps in corners, or breaking the colours up with texture helps a lot, a good interior designer can make a huge difference.

IMHO the light for LED modular lighting is very direct, they are usually flat panels and the don't really try to spread light across the ceiling, just down. The fact that they are more efficient and currently trendy is allowing them to be used in designs with less stringent restrictions that would be demanded from fluorescent fittings.

Alf Veedersane

Some of the sustainability assessments for buildings account for lighting under Indoor Environmental Quality so it's not overlooked everywhere but certainly in Ireland once the lights are seen to provide sufficient light, that's all that is considered.

The most important consideration in creating good-quality lighting is not the lamp type but the level of light, the light colour, light distribution and glare control.

There's no reason why LEDs can't be used, once they use good enough

Hanley

Awesome thread. I've no input other than saying I use f.lux on my Mac to change screen lighting as the day goes on and it's awesome

Stoner

Zumtobel would be a good place to start for fittings, mix that with design and interior design and you'd achieve something exceptional. It will all come at a cost, and a compromise could be achieved.

deandean

Ask for 'polychromatic tubes' in the new fluorescent lights. And have a good high lux level (i.e. lots of lighting).

Stoner

Hanley wrote: »

Awesome thread. I've no input other than saying I use f.lux on my Mac to change screen lighting as the day goes on and it's awesome

http://justgetflux.com

I don't know if this works but thank you for sharing it. I'm going to look into it later on. If it works it a great idea, and would fit into studies I'm aware of.

Akrasia

Cool. I've installed the F.Lux on my work machine. We'll see how that goes.
Thanks for all your suggestions

ted1

Task lighting is very important. and makes life easier as well as proven to be more economical.

LEDs are great, but not for all use. there was a good article in Septembers issue of electric on LED Tubes http://www.electricmagarchive.com/septoctober2013/index.html#/38/

I find dialux very good for doing lighting schemes.
http://www.dial.de/DIAL/en/dialux-international-download.html

what type of work will be done in the Office?


you should try to get your hands on
"The SLL Code for Lighting" and "The SSL Lighting Handbook"

Ever thing you need to know is in these.