Let’s examine how lighting affects your ability to do your job.

I’m enjoying the increased daylight now, what about you? I try walking each day and it’s so nice not having to walk in the dark. Imagine trying to work in the dark. It may be OK if you’re reading x-rays or screening films, but if you’re not, an improperly lit work environment will affect more than your work output. It can impact your health by causing eye strain and headaches, not to mention altering your mood. Ever hear of Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)?

Enjoying the increasing daylight got me thinking about how important (and often overlooked) the lighting in our offices is. There are three general types of lighting: ambient (overall), accent and task lighting. For our purposes we'll focus on ambient and task lighting. We’ve come a long way from those flickering, yellowish fluorescent bulbs. LEDs, which can use 25%- 80% less energy and can last 3-25 times longer, have come down considerably in price, making saving energy even more affordable.

Ambient lighting sets the stage for our work and study environments and can come in many forms. Here are some ceiling mounted LED fixtures from Barbican:

Even if you have tons of natural light streaming into your office, and lucky you if that’s the case, ambient lighting helps even out the available light, especially on those not-so-sunny days.‍

Task lighting is equally important. If you have overhead cabinets in your workstation, you need under-cabinet lighting to prevent your worktop from being shrouded in shadows. If you don’t have overheads, there are lots of great desktop lights, like the Astra LED from Workrite. Some task lights even come standard now with occupancy sensors, meaning if you walk away and forget to turn off the light, it will wait for a time and then turn itself off. How’s that for smart?

If you have any questions about how to bring more light to your office, drop me a line! Enjoy your week and month; we’ll talk soon.