recommendations for office lighting?

[phendyr]

Hello all,
new-comer here, found the forum while searching for information on office lighting. I appreciate anyone's help/knowledge to point me in the right direction.

The company I work for is moving to a new office building, and the office I will have is roughtl 15'x15' and does not have any windows for natural lighting. It has two florescent ceiling lights, but I want to create a more natural/comfortable lighting source for me to work in.

My work is a web designer, so a lot of staring at monitors. I don't know much about what the proper lighting source type would be to use, or proper positioning. I was looking at the Z bar LED light,

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0028LDVUK/?tag=cpf0b6-20

and thought it might work well by not taking up much space, and fitting over my 2 monitors or off to the side (again, I don't know proper positioning)

Any advice on lamps and layout would be greatly appreciated.

 

[kethd]

Although the desk lamp you are considering is pricey, I think you are looking in the right direction. The most important key efficiency decision you can make is to put light where you want/need it instead of lighting up the whole space.

If you care about your "carbon footprint", if you can turn off the overheads most of the time and use task lighting, you are likely to come out way ahead.

Even if you have a bountiful budget, I hope you can find a task light with better feedback than that Z bar to spend it on -- you want something that you will really like, and will really go on working!

Since your are mostly working at a computer monitor, a minimum of general room lighting should actually make things easier... wonder if there are specialty keyboard lights -- or maybe a lighted keyboard?

If you are very picky about the quality of your work light, it will take a lot of research to find lights that have a good chance of pleasing you -- and only real-world experience will guide you to your heart's desire. Seems like you would be best off asking friends, trying things out, and only buying something you have tried.

Either that, or find a very high-end retail shop with display samples of everything, that will let you exchange purchases with no hassle?

 

[phendyr]

Thanks

Thanks Kethd for the feedback,
it is no doubt difficult to find good research about how to go about setting up the lighting, let alone which actual lights to purchase. I am able to turn off the overhead florescent lights, and use whatever lighting I bring in.

Yes the Z-bar is pricey and although I don't want to spend a lot, I realize there are differences in quality and LEDs used I guess, so I'm willing to step up beyond office max lamps

 

[Ken_McE]

the office I will have is roughtl 15'x15' and does not have any windows for natural lighting. It has two florescent ceiling lights, but I want to create a more natural/comfortable lighting source for me to work in.

What are the details of the existing fixtures? In what ways are they unsatisfactory?

 

[phendyr]

they are your typcial in-ceiling florescent office lights, 2 tubes per light. It's bright for the small room, but still has that 'office lighting' aspect to it - I don't know how else to describe it I want to create an atmosphere for working on a computer/screen, that helps me to focus where I need to.

I've read that having a task light focused on your work area, helps to maintain a 'primary' area that your eyes naturally focus on, but that you can also create 'layers' of light using ambient and other light sources to help create that 'mood' and an inviting place to work.

I guess I'm looking to reduce eye-strain as well as make this a cool/fun/inspiring place to work, different than the typical office space drudgery.

 

[purduephotog]

I'm familiar with the Zbar. Somewhere I have the luminance levels and what it amounted to is that if you want to use it, you have to bounce it off the ceiling otherwise you get too much glare on the monitors/ too bright.

It is a great light, however.

Web designer, web designer- doesn't tell me what you do. Do you clicky photoshop or do you code and look at screens? In either case, you probably should have the lights alot dimmer to reduce strain.

Calibrated monitors? Lighting should match.

Can you elaborate some more?

 

[phendyr]

I do both the design (photoshop) and the development (writing code).

I just started working at this company and have yet to calibrate the monitors. Tomorrow I'll take a snapshot of the office for an example.

 

[purduephotog]

I do both the design (photoshop) and the development (writing code).

I just started working at this company and have yet to calibrate the monitors. Tomorrow I'll take a snapshot of the office for an example.

Ahhh, there ya go Photos are worth thousands of descriptions.

If you have your typical overhead lighting like we do here, it stinks and produces lots of glare. The critical viewing and work rooms are rather dim (2 fc of light falling on grey walls, 6500K) and the monitors are calibrated to a particular AIM at 6500K as well.

The Zbar is warmer than that and I noticed some significant variation.

Our operating environments are designed for 10 hour shifts- so we control everything tightly when we can. You may not have that luxury.

Edit: When I say I've looked at the Zbar- I've been at facilities that have a total of around 150 units. So I've seen them on, off, at all angles, and I've found the bar's variation within the chips to be unacceptable to my discerning eyes. However you may never ever care about that if you bounce it off the ceiling. It does have very well designed optics that appear 'black' at all angles except the critical ones where the light is reflected- that is the huge plus on it as it is zero glare and eye sore points for pretty much all uses. Even on it's lowest power setting, some 30 inches above the desk aimed down, it exceeded our recommended specifications for ambient light... but bounced on a 15' ceiling it passed with flying colors.

There are some excellent 92 CRI FL tubes that Philips makes- some 82 CRI tubes as well. The 82 CRI tubes you can get from depot for 1$-1.50$ a tube, adn the 92 CRI's I've only seen online for 3$-4$ a tube in packs. This is at 6500K.

There are no high CRI 6500K LED lights ... but there IS the Quantum Dot LED light by Nexxus Lighting. Someone here has been promoting it... we have around 90 of their units in a few of the labs- I've had a mixed opinion on them brought about by how we use them- dimmed- because the dimmers don't do very well with the lights and introduce ALOT of flicker. I haven't seen the spectrum of them either, unfortunately, but a coworker has and said it's pretty good. They're expensive- around 100$ a piece I think in bulk.

 

[phendyr]

sorry got 'sidetracked' with work and forgot to take a photo, I'll take one when i'm back on Wednesday.