5 Tips to Improve Your Home Office Lighting
While not much can be done about the lighting in your office building, creating a functional and well-lit workspace for your home office is another matter. For anyone still working from home or even just using an office for personal accounting and other matters, we’ve got five tips to help you improve your home office lighting.
#1 Utilise Natural Light
Who doesn’t love a bit of sunshine during their day? Working in a dark, dingy room with no windows can really dampen your mood and your productivity while sunlight can produce warm lighting that improves the work environment. The only problem with natural light is the glare it can cast across your work surfaces and computer screens. Try setting up your workspace facing north or south so that the sun doesn’t throw a shadow at any point during the day.
#2 Eliminate Glare & Shadows
The glare caused by natural light isn’t the only thing you might need to eliminate to create better lighting for your home office. If you are using artificial lighting, always consider where the light is coming from. Depending on the angle you set up your light, a light source set behind you will create a glare on your screen, not to mention shadows across your desk. If you often write at your desk, you will want to set the light source up opposite to the hand you write with, so you are not casting shadows across your paper.
You may also want to avoid working under the direct glare of overhead lights, especially if they are fluorescent. Instead, look for ways to diffuse the ambient light that will illuminate your office space. Ambient lighting is low intensity, creating a more peaceful space and when the goal is to illuminate without creating glare and shadows, this is what you’re looking for. We recommend lampshades that can soften and scatter harsh lights or use an upward-shining floor lamp to bounce the light off walls and ceilings.
#3 Switch to LEDs
Every light bulb in your house should be LED by now. They’re better for the environment and they’re a cost-effective solution (though more expensive to buy they are cheaper to run and install plus they last much, much longer!). Conveniently, they’re also better for your workday. Most LEDs have a lighting control system to dim or brighten the harshness of the light and some can even change the light setting from warm to cool and white. Unlike many other types of bulbs, such as fluorescent, LED lights are less likely to cause eye strain and headaches which will negatively affect your productivity.
#4 Invest in a Lighting Control System
Adjustable light settings are cost-saving system that is worth the investment. Most LED lights these days will come with adjustable light settings whether dimmable or with colour-changing options. In some newer LEDs, you can set light cycles, which gives you the opportunity to adjust your office lighting throughout the day to make work more comfortable and productive. Stick to cooler, brighter colours during the morning (such as natural light and blue ambient light) and progress to warmer, yellow colours as the day winds to a close. These adjustable settings will also allow the bulb to live a longer lifespan.
#5 Create Task Lighting
One of the best things you can do when setting up your home office is to invest in high-quality task lighting. As one of the three main types of lighting (the other two being accent and ambient), task light is designed to supplement ambient lighting to create an area of illumination which helps reduce eye strain and increase focus. For example, an adjustable desk lamp is ideal for any computer work or paperwork while a standing lamp may be more suitable for a filing area or larger desk where you need to review things in detail.
Contact us
If you want some more tips and tricks or you’d like a professional opinion on your home office set up, our team at North Lakes & Surrounds Electrical can offer advice on the best placements, brands and types of lighting to help improve your work from home lifestyle. Give us a call today on (07) 3053 3118.
