Lighting Challenges

The primary objective of the lighting of the workplace is to create a comfortable stimulating visual environment. Visual comfort of the occupants of any space is critical to human productivity. Lighting is no longer confined to the provision of horizontal task luminance because of extensive screen use.

The eye responds first to well-lit walls and ceilings rather than floors. Careful control of surface brightness and contrast ratios and employing higher lighting levels on ceilings hence forms a major part of the design. To achieve this, the design should use lamp sources which have highest energy efficiency and lowest environmental impact. Furthermore, the design should utilize simple, discreet, user friendly controls to save energy.

Lighting Design

The visual comfort of a lighting system affects the well being and motivation of workers and so contributes to their performance and productivity as well. Visual comfort can be considered in terms of the glare created by the luminaries themselves, the discomfort of reflected images in the task, and unpleasant patterns of brightness and shadow in the working area. People do not see the light that strikes a surface; they perceive and react to the contrast between the brightness of objects and surfaces. Thus, workers’ comments about lighting (too bright, too dim, glary, uncomfortable, etc.) relate to how light is distributed around a space, as well as to “how much” light falls on a specific task or work area.