Lighting a home office

With the second wave of the current COVID19 pandemic, together with a national lockdown and even with a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel, now might be a good time to consider the lighting in the home based office that you have most likely been working in for much of the past 7-8 months. I suppose the greatest major advantages of working from home is no travel in the rush hour to work and back, no traffic jams on the motorway and the fact that its just a short commute to the office where you do not even have to get dressed. All that is great, but you know the best thing about working from home is that you get to choose the room colour, how the space is configured and importantly the opportunity to determine a lighting installation which suits you best.

With that in mind, its time to consider how to light that space to provide an aesthetic pleasing office which is well illuminated, has a high level of brightness, little glare and all on a domestic style budget. Before getting down to the selection of fittings, consider the natural lighting and the window position in relation to the workstation, the position of power sockets and the location and orientation of the desk. Glare is an important consideration with the natural light as much as it is with the artificial light. Remember this is your office and it must work with you and be a productive space with the correct atmosphere.

Lighting the home office requires three components of lighting, that being the ambient lighting, the task lighting and the accent lighting, where the right combination of each will produce the optimum working environment. Ambient lighting is the light to illuminate the space as a whole and provides a uniform level of illuminance within the room, however too little will make for a dark space and possibly make you tired during the day and too bright will make it difficult for the other components to have a positive effect within the space. The lighting needs to be designed to a level which illuminates the space allowing for the general work to be undertaken and also easy movement around the room and in the majority of cases, overhead lighting, either recessed or surface mounted can achieve this.

Task lighting is probably of most importance in that it enhances the ambient lighting by providing focus on specific areas of work. There is a benefit in providing colour tuneable lighting for the commercial or home office and the provision of a light fitting incorporating a colour tuneable white lamp offers the user the opportunity to adjust the colour temperature from a warm 2700K to a cold 6500K whilst also the having the ability of a dimmable solution from 10-100% of output. This is achieved using the OCTO WIZ A60 Tuneable White Smart Lamp, in E27 and B22 base options, which at 806 Lumens for 8 Watts with a colour rendering of 90 makes it an ideal qualitative solution for the task lighting component of the installation.

Accent lighting is the least required form of lighting for the home office, however the installation of this can enhance the environment allowing it to be personalised to your needs and this can take the form of illuminating wall mounted notice boards, certificates or diplomas within the space.

Remember that a qualitative lighting solution, no matter how small, can illuminate the space without drawing the user’s attention to the lighting equipment by providing an alternative focus point for the eye. A home office requires a bright cool light keeping you alert during the day and therefore productive, whilst the addition of a colour tuneable light source can provide that additional beneficial effect.

Controlling the lighting by way of manually dimming or via a control system allows for the artificial illuminance to be at a level which best suits the user and takes account of the external natural light, thus offering the opportunity of achieving energy savings.

All this need not cost the earth, however spending some money will provide for an aesthetically pleasing working environment which is bright, with little glare and making it to be a good place for home working.