What's the best lighting for an office?
For many of us, the time spent at our desk corresponds to the majority of the time spent in a day. Irritation, fatigue and headaches can be caused by poor lighting in an office space. It's essential to make the right choices in terms of lighting, brightness and intensity to reduce eyestrain, and thus gain in efficiency and comfort.
Hoopzï, a French brand of suspension luminaires, has a range of clever luminaires that adapt to all situations to light up student office corners, teleworkers' desks or professional workstations.
The founder of the Hoopzï brand details in this article the points you need to pay attention to in order to have good lighting, to avoid:
- being dazzled
- reflections on your documents and/or computer screens
- to accumulate eyestrain that can cause concentration problems, headaches and back pain.
How to light an office?
Are you using a specific room to work in, or have you set up an office area in one of the rooms in the house? Whatever the configuration, your office lighting can't be provided by a single lamp.
The details you need to pay attention to are:
Prefer natural lighting
Your priority is to benefit as much as possible from daylight. If you have the opportunity, position your desk near a window. But more exactly? So how do you position your desk in relation to the window?
If your desk faces a window, the main risk is glare; sunlight will most certainly come and disturb you. If you turn your back to the window, it's your visual comfort that will be harmed, as you won't be able to see your screen properly because of reflections.
The ideal position is actually to position your desk perpendicular to a window and equip it with blinds that protect you from glare.
Enough light
Your office needs to be sufficiently lit so that you can work properly when natural light isn't enough. The recommendations are to adopt a minimum of 250 lux, which can go up to 500 lux depending on requirements.
Lux corresponds to the luminosity received per m2. The lumen is the quantity of luminosity 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 text must be at least 100 lux which gives you an idea of what one lux represents.
For a visually comfortable workspace (reading, taking notes), you should allow 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, you need a minimum luminosity of 1000 lux.
Associating light sources is therefore absolutely necessary to work properly depending on the time of day, but also on whether you're working in front of a computer screen or not.
During the day, you may not need to turn on any lights. In the early evening, however, a Bala suspension in the direction of your desk will be necessary to provide the appropriate luminous flux. Finally, at the end of the evening, general lighting provided by a suspension 2 bulbs will dress up your room.
Choosing your desk positioning
As we've said, the ideal position for a desk, to take advantage of natural lighting, is a location perpendicular to the window.
If this isn't possible, place your desk against a wall close to 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 strongly illuminated 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're using a desk lamp, it's best if its luminous flux is projected towards the desk.
Our shade Dote, made in France from recycled oyster shells, is a directional shade intended 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 great deal of precision, we don't recommend using bulbs of less than 500 watts and lighting with warm-white LED bulbs. The bulbs sold on the Hoopzï site are perfect for desk lamps and have the advantage of being blue-light-free. Artificial blue light is not recommended and is best avoided.
What type of lighting for an office?
Mixing direct and indirect lighting: ensuring pleasant ambient lighting conducive to concentration.
Daylight, indirect light from general lighting and directional light for the workstation are the three luminous fluxes that need your attention.
If your office space doesn't have an electrical feed to install a pendant with ceiling light, we recommend installing a 4.5-meter long swinging pendant with switch and E27 socket. This type of pendant allows you to easily and quickly install a pendant wherever you want.
So all you have to do is plug your cord into this electrical socket - thanks to the 4.5-meter cord length, you'll be able to install a suspension very easily. And if you'd like to add a lampshade to this Bala cord that's possible, take a look at our range!
Our pendant desk lighting can be used with or without a lampshade thanks to two removable rings. Fabric-covered electrical cords come in 30 colors, the Bala Hoopzï is also a beautiful decorative accessory, which will be able to blend into the colorful ambience of your home.
For directional lighting, the Bala is also a good solution, as it can be installed as a pendant or wall-mounted fixture, allowing you to avoid cluttering the office 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 pretty decorative accessory for blending the useful with the aesthetic.
Hoopzï: for individuals and professionals
Hoopzï, luminaire supplier for professionals and private individuals, makes safety the most important criterion. A luminaire is an electrical installation and is therefore subject to electrical standards.
It's important to buy CE products and check EN 60598-1 and EN 60598-2-1 certification. We advise against making your own luminaires without prior training, whether you're equipping a private home or a professional.
The Hoopzï range has all the compliance certificates required (ERP) and issued by an independent control laboratory.
Are you a professional looking to offer professional pendant lighting to your customers? We offer a collection of luminaire sketchup files, in multiple formats, to dress up your visual creations.
L'Équipe Hoopzi
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