The other main thing to consider is where you buy the light. You can find many lighting companies but you should research carefully into finding a lighting specialist that designs and produces its own lighting. You need wide choice too, between desk lamp and ceiling light because if you run your own company, you have a responsibility for the well-being of employees. Poor lighting can cause staff fatigue and headaches through eyestrain, equally too through too bright lights. This can result in low productivity and/or absenteeism, and also have a negative effect on our daily moods.
Here are examples of different office décor that dictate the type of lighting required:
What types of lights are used in offices?
That depends on your office needs. It’s hard to ask the question what the best lighting for an office is because it depends on the size of the office, including the personal requirements of the work station. This includes the amount of natural light that enters the room from the window.
LED Office Lighting
The major types of lighting found in an office setting have a tendency to come from LED type bulbs. However, Incandescent bulbs are a common type of light found in older buildings, often Victorian architecture or government and council offices that have rooms with high ceilings. Incandescent lighting fixtures though are on their way out, often replaced by an LED or a compact fluorescent (CFL) equivalent.
However, remember there are no rules on what type of office lighting you should choose based on the décor. You’re free to choose what you want. Here’re some examples from our office light range to give you an idea:
If you’ve a small room with limited staff, then you’ll require spotlights which should be adequate enough to create decent lighting. However, that depends on the size of the windows.
If you’ve large offices, with multiple staff workstations then you’ll require larger flush ceiling lights. Remember too, in the winter months, it’s dark by 4pm so you cannot rely on natural light for a large office space. We don’t need to go into the details of the health and safety regulations involved with poor lighting, but the prompt is enough!
During the 21st century office ‘steampunk’ style has become very popular almost to the point of self-parody. But this isn’t a bad choice of décor. It’s the old British colonial buildings being repurposed and recycled when otherwise they would have been demolished. You only need to visit central Manchester or Leeds to see the volume of office space in old repurposed warehouses is huge.
London unfortunately was over-zealous in its demolition of the old docks and warehouses of the 1980’s when other cities like Liverpool and Manchester renovated and resold as both commercial and residential properties. Hence the reason why you get overloaded with office glass and steel style in London but more of a mish-mash steampunk style in the north – much more edgy! Steampunk lighting, including for desk lamps, does indeed look good in office spaces.
How much light is needed in an office?
For offices with poor natural light, it’s a common choice for staff to have the option of an extra desk lamp too, especially for workers still used to paper tasks, or designers and architects.
Your choice of office desk lamp comes in a range of styles including wooden scandi style, with adjustable stem and head to adjustable clamp lamps and steampunk desk lamps. There are even modern choices of desk lamp such as ice cube style lights with USB phone chargers too. It all depends on the surrounding building décor.
What’s the best style for home office lighting?
It's normally a good idea to add other types of lighting and not rely on an overhead light as this can cause screen glare, and vision problems. This is especially apparent for people who wear glasses or contact lenses. For an office with fluorescent overhead lights, adding either a desk lamp or corrective lighting can help to reduce discomfort from screen glare or headaches caused by poor lighting. Working from home is no different. Actually desk lamps or floor lamps tend to offer the best choice for home offices instead of overhead lights.
If you're interested in mood lighting and how it affect mental health see our other blog posts, or visit our office lighting and ceiling lights sections.
