A Healthy Future for Office Lighting?

Abstract

For long standards and recommendations for office lighting are based on the horizontal illuminance at the working plane, this to ensure that the visual needs for a reading and writing task are fulfilled. Today, working in a modern office includes much more than just reading and writing. Working on a computer and communication with one or more persons have become the major tasks of an office worker. Thus the lighting requirements have to change too. That daylight is an important factor for a healthy and energy efficient office lighting has become widely accepted. Also knowledge has been obtained about the influence of light on mood and performance; apart from the visual system also the brain responds directly to light Over the last decade research has been performed within Philips Lighting in Eindhoven, to obtain knowledge about the preference and acceptance of office lighting by the workers and about the non-visual effects of light on mood and performance. This article gives an overview of the work that has been done and the implications for office lighting and office lighting design. © 2003, The Illuminating Engineering Institute of Japan. All rights reserved.