Lighting in the workplace

The security and comfort demands on workplace lighting have taken on a growing importance. In the same vein, the general improvements of housing have made employees more demanding and more sensitive to the aesthetics of their places of work.
Whether it be the case of a new building, a refurbishment or a complete renovation of a building, it is absolutely possible to accommodate some basic principles which will reduce fatigue and monotony.

Natural lighting

Generally speaking, buildings must be designed and arranged in such a way that natural light is used to provide light in the working environments. To put it more clearly, the construction supervisor should favour using natural light wherever it is possible.

There aren't any fixed minimal levels of lighting. It is advisable to ensure that workstations are not too distant from the windows, as applies equally well to furniture and equipment, and that the workstation and it's source of light are no more than 1 metre apart from each other.

Artificial lighting

The lighting levels must meet the minimal values necessary in consideration of the nature of the work activity. The minimal lighting values are as follows: a lux rating in the forties for interior traffic zones, 60 for stairways and warehouses, 120 lux for working areas, changing rooms and wash areas, and finally 200 lux for hidden areas appointed for continuous work (lux measuring tools are available in public shops).

In order to create a pleasantly lit environment, you also need to take care of working surfaces and floor coverings that are often too reflective or blinding. Additionally, in order to reduce visual fatigue, it is important to minimise excessive lighting contrasts in working areas, on working surfaces, and for general background lighting as well. Lastly, as a regulatory requirement, the colour rendition index must be higher than 80.

Shop fittings

Beyond the standard regulatory factors, shops and stores employ light for a visual and marketing-oriented effect; it's not just a matter of lighting, but of beautifying at the same time. Unfortunately there are not any universal lighting principles for commercial premises, since the lighting techniques employed rely on the type of clientele - general public or top shelf, the type of product, the size of the products, etc. Combined together, these criteria will determine the best choices. Standardisation is a simpler matter in commercial environments, but the principle of a case-by-case approach is dominant as the intended goals change with each circumstance.

How can the "pull-factor" of a store be enhanced with lighting? The interior lighting constitutes an essential bonus. Intensity, light fittings, novelties and market trends.

Lighting is not just used to help people see better. It is a tool for promoting products in order to sell them better or transform their visual appearance. Lighting becomes a concrete factor that, well engineered, will create a particular atmosphere. A signature sign for your store. And then comes the most interesting contribution: your own creativity. "Highlighting" with light must be integrated as a core component of your lighting project. Attract the customer, and encourage his return visit by making him feel well.

As effective externally with a banner sign, as it is internally with an overall atmosphere, architectural lighting will deliver a different message depending on whether it's an intimate restaurant, a fashion clothing boutique, or a shopping arcade. It all starts elsewhere out in the parking lot, both during the day and at night,
when a well-lit path should direct the shopper to the display window. Light must then be omnipresent. The primary lighting, that you naturally switch on as evening falls, should not be neglected during the day. Within display windows, sunshine and natural lighting create shadowed zones that won't promote the articles that are presented. This needs to be corrected with electrical lighting. Start with the rear of the store and vertical beams of light, with small points of light that encourage the visitor to enter further. Then create some highlights that make it possible to prominently feature some key articles or promotions, and set them up as if they really were on a stage.
Lighting is successful when a basic formula is applied in terms of the overall ambiance: adapt the apparent colour of the light to the intensity of the lighting. With the understanding that the more the level of lighting is increased, the more that visitors will gain an impression of being in a larger environment. The rest is a matter of positioning and the type of store: from pharmacies and chemists (with a laboratory atmosphere and cold lighting, generally well lit, diffuse but without shadowing) to a charming and intimate little restaurant (filtered, soft, warm lights, with a generally weaker level of lighting). Equipment:

Follow the fashions, but the primary factor to be taken into consideration is: the time period of illumination.
The usage hours, framed by the store's opening hours, can sometimes be very long and last for an entire day, even also for the entire night as well. So preference should be made for light sources with strong flux and high quality flux ratings with absolutely minimal energy consumption properties. For example, where stores in a shopping centre regularly exceed lux ratings of 1,000 (reaching up even to 3,000 to highlight an aisle end display), an exclusive clothing boutique will manage beautifully with 300 to 400 lux, provided that this is supplemented with small zones of light close to any mirrors and changing rooms.
Lighting specialists are resorting less frequently these days for halogen-based solutions that consume too much energy compared to the lighting effect that they generate. Compact discharge bulbs now deliver comparable performance with a substantially lower consumption. There are two sensational technical innovations today that are now at your disposal:
metal halide lamps with ceramic cores (absolutely fabulous given their compactness and quality of light, they integrate discretely and very simply into little spot fixtures) and white sodium lamps that make it possible to obtain very pleasant tones with excellent colour reflection. Expected life spans are a very important consideration. Any blown bulbs can quickly disrupt and unbalance a lighting plan. These days, incandescent bulbs are being increasingly discarded in favour of elongated, tubular or compact fluorescent bulbs, some of which boast lifecycles of 70,000 hours (versus 1,000 for an incandescent bulb and 5,000 for certain halogens).