Office Lighting
For general lighting (recommended lighting level 300 - 500 lux), it is acceptable in principle to use normal domestic luminaires. It makes good sense, however, to choose a "professional" luminaire with linear three-band fluorescent lamp. In the office, there are many attractive designs of luminaire available, especially for 16 mm-diameter lamps. For office lighting, too, the market offers a wide variety of desk-top luminaires, ranging from decorative domestic models to elegant office luminaires.
Study lighting tasks can be addressed by either purely direct or direct/indirect lighting. Lamp light colour should by warm white. When selecting, positioning and angling luminaires, care needs to be taken to ensure they do not cause direct glare or cast reflections onto a monitor screen. An alternative here to surface-mounted ceiling luminaires or pendant luminaires for purely direct lighting is a system of direct/indirect lighting, where part of the lighting is directed for reflection by ceiling and walls. Only general lighting has indirect components; desk-top luminaires always cast their light straight onto the desk top.
Ceiling floods as wall or standard luminaires are an option for the direct/indirect lighting component. To prevent direct glare or reflections on screens, they should emit dimmable light at a height well above the head of a person who is seated. The alternative: direct/indirect luminaires for office linear three-band fluorescent lamps. Here, the lamp is screened from below by a reflector which directs the light up towards the ceiling. In some luminaires, the reflector also lets a small amount of light escape downwards. These luminaires need to be pendant-mounted.
For task lighting at the desk, there is a wide range of table luminaires available. Alternatives are wall luminaires or standard luminaires with arms. Desk-top luminaires should be adjustable and swivellable so that they can be positioned to meet individual needs, especially to ensure avoidance of glare.
Accent lighting
A desk-top luminaire should never be the only luminaire switched on. This is because where surroundings are relatively dark, its light causes reflections on the monitor screen, giving rise to disturbing reflected glare. Also, when our eyes switch back and forth between a bright screen and a dark room, they have considerable difficulty adapting. The correct solution is largely uniform brightness, which calls for at least one more luminaire to be switched on.
Supplementary accent lighting is also good. Illuminated pictures or light in a shelving system or display cabinet enliven the atmosphere of a room. Where low-voltage tungsten-halogen lamps are used, they should be wide-angled (flood) models. Narrow-angled (spot) lamps tend to create sharp light/dark contrasts or cause reflected glare on screens. Like all luminaires in the room, spots on a wire and rod system or power track need to be angled so they do not cause reflected glare in the office.
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