Are you happy with your office's lightings?

[Tourist Trap]

What kind of computer work do you do mostly? Maybe you can do some design work on a (non-electronic) whiteboard in between computer work. We have a whiteboard in every office. And I always make drawings on whiteboards whenever I entry someone's office. I cannot think clearly without drawing stuff.

I did that in previous jobs, but the current job the need is less. I do work out simple sketches with gnome DIA, but unfortunately that project seems to be doomed. Mostly they are flow schemes of some kind and architectural overviews of the setup of our (vision-) systems.

I'm doing mapping for the civil construction. It's mainly Autocad based, and very eye intensive. Due to the fact this is necessary to be very accurate, this is very tempting to stay stuck at screens, even forgetting to take a break. That's why the ambiance at work is capital. Behaving like a robot would just make you sick and do bad job.

I totally agree that we need to keep using papers, pen, and white boards in the office. And here I would second you if you mean that's a way to escape a little the attraction of screens, even a few minutes a day. Moreover, it's efficient and useful! We have of course no such things at my current office. It's really a nightmare :D

Natural light has this also as advantage, it makes you feel the time passing in order to program a pause after say 20 minutes to 1 hour of intensive work. In any case, I luckily never met such an uncomfortable office before, so until now it was ok. Of course for me the ideal is to work with a window by side. It's where I feel best.

In any case, I'm leaving this job next week, after a few monthes, since it's just not possible to keep working this way. It occures that unfortunately, some employers are still today not aware of ergonomy, and its effects on productivity and happiness at work. I can't pay for such a lack of common sense. I wanted to share this anyway, in order to get some better insight on this topic.

I've been doing lighting design professionally for over 30 years. During that time, the rules of thumb for lighting in a workspace (specifically workstation) environment has changed quite a bit.

Hi Linuxbob, thanks for your feedback. Did you never install some of those ligthing that are supposed to imitate the effects of natural light? Did you ear about that?

[Linuxbob]

Linuxbob sounds like a person who would not tolerate windows in any shape or form.
Who works in the terminal gloom with a bare flickering light bulb hanging by a yellowish cable, and a moth circling around.

Actually, I've had to work in a lot of 'mushroom farm' places, and I detest them. The more windows, the better, as far as I'm concerned. I was just relating my own professional experience as a lighting designer.

[Linuxbob]

I've been doing lighting design professionally for over 30 years. During that time, the rules of thumb for lighting in a workspace (specifically workstation) environment has changed quite a bit.

Hi Linuxbob, thanks for your feedback. Did you never install some of those ligthing that are supposed to imitate the effects of natural light? Did you ear about that?

TT, that is called dynamic lighting. Philips has such a system. Essentially, the lighting system can be programmed to vary the intensity and color temperature of the general lighting in a space during the day. I have not had a project use that system yet; in fact, I am not aware of any systems having been installed in the States. There is much more concentration here on bringing in as much natural light as is practical while maintaining some control over the heat gain. Therefore, I also see a lot of daylight harvesting systems being used: automatic sensors will dim electric lighting when enough natural light is available to make electric lighting unnecessary. Since almost every LED luminaire now in production is capable of being easily dimmed, such systems are fairly simple to implement. Automatic lighting controls are becoming mandatory in the US with the newer energy efficiency codes.

[Tourist Trap]

TT, that is called dynamic lighting. Philips has such a system. Essentially, the lighting system can be programmed to vary the intensity and color temperature of the general lighting in a space during the day. I have not had a project use that system yet; in fact, I am not aware of any systems having been installed in the States. There is much more concentration here on bringing in as much natural light as is practical while maintaining some control over the heat gain. Therefore, I also see a lot of daylight harvesting systems being used: automatic sensors will dim electric lighting when enough natural light is available to make electric lighting unnecessary. Since almost every LED luminaire now in production is capable of being easily dimmed, such systems are fairly simple to implement. Automatic lighting controls are becoming mandatory in the US with the newer energy efficiency codes.

Ok, thanks for making it clearer (I was thinking of something else but I'll check for it later). I just can't believe right now that I ignored lightings for so long. And now it starts becoming my new passionata :D
Really encouraging that you in US are making it mandatory. This means that this will probably follow here in the old Europe!

[Linuxbob]

Really encouraging that you in US are making it mandatory. This means that this will probably follow here in the old Europe!

Actually, most of the US tends to run behind Europe on energy efficiency. The US energy codes are based on the IECC (International Energy Conservation Code.) The IECC is also the basis for the energy efficiency guidelines required for LEED certification, and are very well received in Europe. Of course, LEED is not a prescriptive requirement as far as building codes go. But the IECC has been adopted into the building codes almost everywhere. The current IECC edition in force is from 2015.

California is the real leader in energy code development. What is required in Cali this year will be everywhere in the US eventually. Cali is the test bed for new energy requirements stateside.

[Linuxbob]

Ok, thanks for making it clearer (I was thinking of something else but I'll check for it later). I just can't believe right now that I ignored lightings for so long. And now it starts becoming my new passionata :D

Perhaps you are thinking about light sources that provide more of a daylight 'quality'. If so, yes I have used daylight quality sources before. The most important detail in those projects was having the ability to control the amount of light (either by dimming or selective switching.)