Specialty and Architectural Lighting — Workplace

With the cost of employing people orders of magnitude more expensive than the cost of operating a lighting system, it is important to strike the right balance between energy efficient lighting and the productivity of employees. It is no secret that light affects people in a multitude of ways. Some ways are more obvious than others. If there is not enough light on a work surface, eye strain becomes a problem and less work gets...

Have you ever wondered why your eyes and head sometimes hurt after sitting in your office for awhile? Look up at the lights for a possible answer. You may not notice anything other than a fluorescent fixture. But what's happening inside the fluorescent tubes is fluctuating light output. Input power frequency variations inherent in the relationship between the magnetic ballast and the lamps cause the fluctuations. The pulse is too rapid for most people to...

The importance of indoor air quality for work and classroom environments has become, with a strong push from the COVID virus, a top-of-the-list priority for building owners and managers as workers and students return to offices and schools. The strategies for cleaning indoor air of pollutants that adversely affect occupants differs depending on the contaminant. For protecting occupants from a virus or bacterial infection, a common approach is to use ultraviolet germicidal (UV-C) equipment to...

As more and more people now work from home, especially since the COVID era, one of my challenges when starting out is keeping awake and focused during the day. One way to address this issue is by changing the lighting in the home office to increase energy during the day while reducing glare on computer screens. Replaces Bulbs With a Higher Color Temperature If your home is filled with common incandescent and CFL light bulbs,...

Owners and facility managers looking for a way to disinfect the indoor air in offices, medical centers, retail stores, schools and residential care facilities will find that their HVAC system may provide the safest and most cost-effective approach. Buildings equipped with a ducted heating, ventilating and air-conditioning (HVAC) system are prime candidates for in-duct ultraviolet (UV-C) units that can provide whole-building air sanitizing. UV-C germicidal lamps emit 253.7 nanometer wavelength irradiation that, in sufficient doses,...

Sometime in the future, whether it be a month, six months, or another year, offices and commercial buildings will reopen to employees and the public. One big change, though, is that both workers and visitors will expect a higher level of cleanliness for any building they walk into. Ultraviolet UVC lighting has been in use in commercial buildings for decades, but concern is growing over reducing airborne pathogens. Building owners, managers, and maintenance departments can...

When comparing LED troffers and retrofits to fluorescent troffers, the most LED fixtures will either exceed or match the specifications of the fluorescent fixtures. LED lumen output often matches that of various fluorescent configurations but it, along with control compatibility, requires careful consideration to ensure the LED installation will meet the needs specific to the application.

In a previous article, we looked at retfofits for general lighting situations. Many buildings, regardless of the main purpose they are used for, will have T12 fluorescent tubes, magnetic ballasts and a ton of incandescent and halogen bulbs and HID lamps that may present retrofit opportunities. In this article, we'll bring the focus to office spaces and buildings with large illuminated areas like parking garages or warehouses. The building is an office combined with a...