Creating Lighting in Your Office or Work Space

Lighting in your work area needs to be appropriate for the work you are doing.  Using a soft or

Desk Lamp

indirect light to prevent eyestrain and related headaches is very important.  Deciding on where to place electrical lights or taking advantage of natural light needs to be considered.

Electrical Lights

Adequate overhead lighting is important to see things.  However, a ceiling light is often too far away for concentrated work.  In this case, your will need a lamp.  To save surface space, consider mounting lamps and lights on the wall.  Lamps should tilt so that it shines on your work surface and not directly in your face.  In addition, it should not reflect off a computer monitor into your eyes, cause a glare on the monitor, or a glare on work surface.  Lamps with a three-way option allow setting the light level as needed for reading, detail work, or offset for monitor brightness.  To save power in a work area where you may be doing off-hour work, consider a motion sensitive light or a small plug-in lamp, such as a night-light.  This will not affect others who may be working nearby,  prevent accidents if arriving before everyone else in an office , and will make it easy to find your work area in the dark without disrupting others. 

Natural Lighting

Using light through a window may be a low cost complement to electrical lighting during the day.  Windows can provide excellent and effective sunlight.  However, activity outside the window may be distracting.  You need to consider if these distraction may be good or bad for you while in your work area.  If  your window overlooks a garden or water, it might be a relaxing diversion from stressful work, but keep it a short diversion.  Excessive traffic outside a window can be a bad distraction. Windows may provide a sense of more light if the sunlight bounces off a white wall opposite that window, thus making the entire work area well lit.  Also, be aware that uncovered windows can affect the room temperature causing it to feel colder or warmer during specific seasons and certain times of day.  You can control or diffuse window light and better control temperature changes through the use of curtains or blinds.