What is the best lighting for an office ?
For many of us, time spent at our desks represents the majority of our day. Irritation, fatigue and headaches can be caused by poor lighting in an office space. It is essential to make the right choices in terms of lighting, brightness and intensity to reduce visual fatigue, and thus gain in efficiency and comfort.
Hoopzï, French brand of suspension light , has a range of smart lighting fixtures that adapt to all situations to illuminate student office corners, teleworkers' desks or professional workstations.
In this article, the founder of the Hoopzï brand details the points you need to pay attention to in order to have good lighting, in order to avoid:
- to be dazzled
- having reflections on your documents and/or computer screens
- to accumulate visual fatigue which can cause concentration problems, headaches and back pain.
How to light an office?
You use a specific room for work, or you have set up an office area in one of the rooms of the house ? Whatever configuration you find, your office lighting cannot be provided by a single lamp.
The details you need to pay attention to are as follows: :
Favor natural lighting
Your priority is to make the most of the day's light. If you can, position your desk near a window. But more precisely ? So how do you position your desk in relation to the window? ?
If your desk faces a window, the main risk is glare, the sunlight will most certainly disturb you. If you turn your back to the window, it is your visual comfort that will be affected because you will not be able to see your screen properly because of the reflections.
The ideal is in fact to position your desk perpendicular to a window and to equip it with blinds which protect you from glare.
Sufficient brightness
Your office should be sufficiently lit so that you can work properly when natural light is not enough. The recommendations are to adopt a minimum of 250 lux, which can go up to 500 lux depending on needs.
Lux corresponds to the brightness received per m2. The lumen is the quantity of brightness projected by a luminous flux. In general, 1 lux receives a luminous flux of 1 lumen per m2.
Each bulb manufacturer must indicate on each packaging the number of lumens projected, 10 lux corresponding to the lighting of a candle.
The minimum brightness for reading a text must be at least 100 lux which gives you an idea of what the intensity of a lux represents.
For a visually comfortable workspace (reading, taking notes), you should plan for between 300 and 500 Lux. Depending on your activity, the number of lux required for precision work increases. Thus, to carry out mechanical work such as watchmaking, it is necessary to have a minimum brightness of 1000 lux.
Combining light sources is therefore absolutely necessary to work correctly depending on the time of day, but also depending on whether you work in front of a computer screen or not.
During the day, you may not need to turn on any lights. However, in the early evening, a Bala suspension towards your office will be necessary to provide the appropriate light flow. Finally, at the end of the evening, general lighting provided by a 2-bulb suspension will dress up your room.
Choosing the position of your desk
As we have said, the ideal position for a desk to take advantage of natural light is a location perpendicular to the window.
If this is not possible, place your desk against a wall near a window, but in any case avoid positioning it facing the window or with its back to it. In one case, it would be your screen that would be brightly lit and in the other the sun would dazzle you.
Moreover, You should avoid any light source that could affect your field of vision. If you are using a desk lamp, it is best if its light output is projected towards the desk.
OUR lampshade Endowment , made in France with recycled oyster shells, is a directional lampshade designed for this use. It can be used with a 4.5 meter long Bala cord suspended above the desk or on the Asym floor lamp positioned close to the desk.
Finally, except for activities requiring a lot of precision, it is not recommended to use bulbs of less than 500 watts and to use warm white LED bulbs for lighting. THE bulbs sold on the Hoopzï website are perfect for desk lamps and have the advantage of being blue light free. Artificial blue light is not recommended and it is best to avoid it.
What type of lighting for an office?
Mix direct and indirect lighting : provide pleasant ambient lighting that promotes concentration.
Daylight, indirect light from general lighting and directional light for the workstation are the three luminous fluxes that should attract your attention.
If you do not have an electrical outlet in your office space to install a pendant light with ceiling light, we recommend installing a 4.5 metre long portable pendant light with switch and E27 socket. This type of suspension allows you to easily and quickly install a suspension wherever you want.
So all you have to do is plug your cord into this electrical outlet - thanks to the cord length of 4.5 metres, you can install a pendant light very easily. And if you want to add a lampshade to this Bala cord, it's possible, take a look at our range!
Our suspensions office lighting can be used with or without a lampshade thanks to two removable rings. The fabric-covered electrical cords are available in 30 colours, the Bala Hoopzï is also a beautiful decorative accessory, which can be integrated into the colourful atmosphere of your home.
For directional light, the Bala is also a good solution because it can be installed as a pendant or wall light, which allows you to avoid cluttering up your desk with a floor lamp.
Discover our office lighting and accessories
Hoopzï gives you access to the most modular desk lamp on the market, to meet all your needs. A significant advantage is that it comes in 30 colors, a nice decorative accessory to combine the useful with the aesthetic.
Hoopzï : for individuals and professionals
Hoopzï, a lighting supplier for professionals and individuals, makes safety the most important criterion. A light fixture is an electrical installation and is therefore subject to electrical standards.
It is important to buy CE products and to check the EN 60598-1 and EN 60598-2-1 certification. We do not recommend, whether for the equipment of an individual or a professional, to manufacture a luminaire yourself without prior training.
The Hoopzï range has all the required certificates of conformity (ERP) issued by an independent control laboratory.
You are a professional and wish to offer professional lighting suspensions to your customers ? We offer a collection of files sketchup lighting fixtures, in multiple formats, to enhance your visual creations.
The Hoopzi Team
