Ideal Lighting in Workplace

Did you have ideal lighting in your workplace? Have you ever felt that when it’s sunny outside, sitting in an office with artificial lighting all day is bound to make you feel miserable? According to a research report, working without natural light can also be detrimental to your productivity, health, and overall well-being. Lousy lighting is associated with a range of ill-health effects, such as eye strain, headaches, fatigue, stress, and anxiety (Dr. Pragya Agarwal, 2018). Unfortunately, poor lighting often gets overlooked in the workplace.

The office environment you spend 40 or 50 hours per week has a substantial impact on your mental health. Those who spend their time in offices with exposure to natural light got an incredible 173 per cent more white light exposure in the workplace and slept 46 minutes more per night on average. According to a 2013 study, “there is a strong relationship between office daylight exposure and office workers’ sleep activity and quality of life.” (Jenna Cyprus, 2018).

The benefits of ideal lighting in the workplace are:

• Prevent the risk of occupational accidents and health problems
• Better concentration and accuracy in work
• Make the office environment comfortable for work
• Improve work performance
• Better visibility, improve efficiency and increase work speed-enhancing production

Comfortable lighting was one of the most highly rated wellness factors. The quality of lighting in the workplace allows workers to concentrate better on their work and completed works with fewer mistakes, which can lead to a 10-50 per cent increase in productivity. Proper lighting can decrease errors by 30-60 per cent as well as lessen eyestrain and headaches, nausea, and neck pain.

If your office does not have windows that can brighten up your working areas, studies say that providing artificial light in the right brightness and colour can give your employees that much-needed boost. Monday blues may be caused by bad lighting. Thus, if you have a bad mood in your workplace, try changing the lights. Daylight colours, like white and blue-white, give the same feeling of being in sunlight and the benefits of it.

Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) outlines potential hazards that could be caused by the lighting around your computer. One example is a washout that happens when bright lights around your screen make it difficult to see or read. Another example is glare, a computer screen reflecting light into its user’s eyes. Task lighting should have an adjustable positioning so that any potential glare or contrast can be easily fixed as needed.

How to Choose Office Lighting

Many workplaces have different lighting techniques for their offices, depending on the nature of work handled at that particular office. However, there are common things that office owners should consider when choosing the appropriate lighting for their offices. For example, detailed work, such as inspection, assembling of small parts, or technical drawing, needs a great deal of light. Coarse work, on the other hand, such as loading or unloading materials, handling of materials or packaging, requires less light.

Office spaces are evolving away from the individual cubicle setting in favour of an open-office environment. In this new, open environment, the ambient room lighting is focused on creating a sense of unity and community in the room and among office tenants. It should provide the most direct light in the individual workstation while allowing the natural dim spots in walkway areas where people are not meeting to talk. Offering individual task lighting will enable workers to adjust personal workstations to their own needs and preferences.

It is vital to provide an adequate level of light required for optimal job performance. According to the US General Services Administration (GSA), every type of work environment requires a certain amount of light for workers to perform under. Setting up ideal lighting in the workplace requires you to consider ideas outside the initial lumens output. When changing or choosing your lights, consider the following factors:

1. Pick the right style – The best bulbs for office lighting are usually the fluorescent, 6500k bulbs. Their intensity is not exaggerated, and it resembles the regular daylight.
2. Supplement overhead lights with task lighting – The best type of lighting material to be used in your workstation are always the gooseneck lamps. They can cast more or less light at a particular place.
3. Use indirect lighting – To cater to eye strain problems due to direct lighting, you must choose side lamps instead of direct overhead lighting.
4. Choose neutral colours for the office – Choosing the appropriate colour for your office walls, and the floor is also vital when choosing your lights.
5. Introduce natural light to space – If your office doesn’t have access to natural light, you should look for bulbs or lamps that mimic natural sunlight.
6. Choose the right size of the bulbs – The right size of the bulbs depends on the size of your office.

When you are moving into a new office building, it is wise to rethink your lighting options from the beginning, instead of settling for whatever has been left by the previous occupants. The type, brightness, and colour of your lights should be based on the layout of the room and their functions. Even the room’s ambient lighting should be designed with your type of workspace and functions in mind to have a comfortable workplace environment.

Energy Use and Savings

Do you often forget to turn off the lighting when you leave a room? Then there is a potential 30% saving in the energy cost for the lighting for your office. You can automate turning the light on and off with a movement detector. There are several versions, both for surface mounting and building in and for various prices. A movement detector can save up to 30% in energy. Moreover, the detector itself also uses a small amount of electricity for its operation.

Are you still using bulbs for your lighting? Updates in lighting have provided offices with more energy-efficient options. LEDs are leading the way in office lighting. They use less energy than other lamps while providing more output. Fluorescent lamps have also had an energy makeover. Replacing old fluorescents with newer models could offer you significant savings.

Lighting Maintenance

Your company should practice basic maintenance strategies between professional visits, including:

• Cleaning dust off fixtures, lamps, and lenses every 6 to 24 months. Tip: Never clean an incandescent bulb while it is turned on. If the cloth is damp, the cooling effect of the liquid may shatter the hot bulb.
• Replace lenses if they appear yellow.
• Clean or repaint small rooms every year and larger rooms every 2-3 years because the dirt collected on these surfaces could reduce the amount of light they reflect.
• Consider group light replacement. Standard lamps lose up to 30 per cent of light output over their service life. Replacing all the lamps in a lighting system at the same time saves labour, keeps illumination high, and avoids stressing ballasts with dying lamps.

Replacing lights and fixtures is an essential part of lighting system maintenance. There are two types of replacement:

1. Spot replacement
2. Group replacement

Spot replacement is replacing lamps as they burn out and is the most commonly used technique in traditional maintenance programs. Group replacement is replacing a set of lamps all at once. Lighting maintenance can play a significant role in reducing energy use.

Atalian technical maintenance unit is capable of managing the maintenance of any type of technical installation. We work closely with you to create a solution that is right for your business, with the versatility and technical expertise of our highly experienced team of mobile and site-based engineers, delivering all your building maintenance needs. Contact us today!