How to create a lighting design for offices

A good office lighting design using modern LED luminaires will save your customer energy and create a comfortable and productive working environment. In this blog we will unveil the secrets of good office lighting design to help you win more business.

Interior lighting design

Anyone can light a space but creating a lighting scheme that transforms an area into a comfortable and productive environment takes some know how.

A good office lighting design combines ambient, accent and task lighting to create a sophisticated multi layered scheme.

  • Ambient lighting is the main source of light for general illumination.
  • Accent lighting provides points of focus and highlights areas in a space to add depth.
  • Task lighting illuminates areas for specific tasks.

Use natural light

The first thing to consider is what natural light is available. No one wants to spend their day in a room without windows and natural light is free so it can help save energy, particularly if you use daylight linking sensors for the luminaires closest to the windows.

Ceiling fixtures for ambient lighting

Ceiling luminaires are the mainstay of most office lighting and will provide the general or ambient illuminance that will form the backbone of your scheme. They are normally spread at even intervals to disperse light over a general area.

Accent and task lighting

Wall and spotlights create both accent lighting and specific task related lighting. Remember that people will supplement their lighting needs with desk lamps so make sure there are plenty of socket outlets that are accessible for workstations.

Cut the glare

When it comes to selecting the luminaire remember that most people in an office will be working on a PC, so you will need to select luminaires with a unified glare rating (UGR) of less than 19.

Select the right colour temperature

And you want to create an environment to boost productivity and concentration. Modern LED luminaires can provide light with different correlated colour temperatures, from a warm light of 2000K up to a cool white light of 4000 – 5000K. We would recommend specifying a light of 4000K for work areas.

Lighting control to save energy

Adding sensors to offer more than local on/off or dimmable switches can cut the energy use of lighting to 60% of what your customer would use. Sensors include presence or absence detection or daylight linking. More sophisticated systems may require DALI control or interface into a building management system. Our technical team can help you with this.

Bringing it all together

It is a waste of energy to illuminate all areas to the same level, but you do need to light an area outside the immediate working space. You should light a border of at least 3 metres wide adjacent to the immediate surrounding area to a value of 1/3 of its illumination.

Remember that a typical office block will have different rooms which could have different lighting needs. The lighting for toilets, corridors and stairs will be different than for a working area, as will those of a kitchen or break out area. Download a copy of our Better Lighting for Offices Specification Guide before you tackle your next project.

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