How bright lights will increase productivity in the office?

To achieve success in any field, a suitable environment is very essential. In the modern world, we have separate and enclosed spaces called offices. The office environment has a tremendous impact on employee’s productivity. Like anything else, office design has also undergone a long evolution. 

Evolution led us in the past and even now leading us towards attaining all the possible factors like creativity, happiness, and productivity. All these elements have a larger hand in the success of a business. To get the best out of their teams, businesses are ready to invest more and more in their office design.

 

The connection between office lighting and productivity

 

Many studies reveal surprising facts about the connection between office lighting and productivity. Some important insights are that there is a significant connection between lighting and depression, lighting and creativity, and lighting, and productivity. 

 

It was found that the high glare office lights have ill-effects on the mental health of the employees. The studies also highlight the usefulness of natural light in an office. Thus, seeking the help of lighting designers and working for office lighting can give birth to a space of creativity and collaboration. They apply the state of the art lighting designs without compromise to best suit the requirement of space.

 

About the lighting system, we do improvise the workplace experience by thinking about building design in a completely new way. There are emotions related to buildings, and many of these emotions are conjured from the results of lighting on people. A dark, poorly lit space is sterile and cold. The hum and slight flickering of old fluorescent lamps are corrosive to concentration as well as therefore performance. The best spaces, where lighting works with the environment, evoke a positive feeling of happiness, healthiness, and energy.

 

Stress has become a common word with anybody who is working. In many of the companies, stress allowance is also provided. Our amazing human body naturally copes with stress by emitting cortisol - the stress hormone. 

 

It will normalize the responses whenever the mind is pushed to take difficult decisions, panic situations, etc. But what is the relation between stress and lighting? Different lighting options can influence the stress effects. In the office setting, we do not get the natural cure for stress. Knowing these adverse impacts, glare control diffusers, go green initiatives, informal office setups are becoming popular. 

 

Lighting has a special place in Ergonomics

 

Lighting is a very important aspect of ergonomics. After all, every facility in an office is to make sure that the operations take place smoothly. Lighting consultants also suggest many combinations that can have a great impact on the employees and their productivity. To the betterment of Ergonomics, Business Parks are more preferred now. As it is capable of giving all the facilities and shareable by many offices in a single place, it has become very popular. However, the best lighting facilities in Business Parks can only make it complete.

Improving productivity by improving lighting

 

You can improve productivity by choosing the right lighting. Top Lighting consultants in India suggest that desk workers rely on two kinds of light sources. One is a general indirect lighting source that can brighten up the room and the other is the task lighting. To make the client satisfied, they prepare all the necessary drawings and the detailed workings of the drawing. First, they develop the Lighting Master plan along with the Lighting Controls and Lighting Management Systems.

 

Forms of lighting

 

• Natural light

 

The position of windows in an office building is highly valuable. They provide valuable natural light. Light can affect mood and behavior. It can make the employee more satisfied and ultimately the productivity increases. This is generally practiced by using glass facades, but most of the spaces with glass facades have drapes pulled over, which completely defeats the purpose of daylight harvesting. 

 

• Overhead lighting

 

Overhead lighting will complement other forms of lighting. It does not come among the list of the brightest. If the overhead lighting is fluorescent or LED, the ambient lighting can be used to give the right intensity of light.

 

• Ambient lighting

 

This kind of lighting is very soft and subtle. If the employees are facing difficult or stressful situations, ambient lighting can do a lot of help. It will create a soothing and calming environment because of its low intensity.

 

• Corrective Lighting

 

If their employee's work demands them to stay in a particular place and work for long hours, corrective lighting has to be installed. It can be set behind the monitor. It will reduce the extensive glare that generates from the screen. In short, corrective lighting means the right setup and the right amount of light required to do a job properly.

 

Human Centric Lighting

 

Human-centric Lighting is a Lighting design approach where the Design of a Space is conceptualized keeping in mind the ‘Occupant’ as the Central focus of the Design, rather than the Functionality, Ambience, or Aesthetics of the space. The Tunable white circadian Lighting system installed across the open office space exactly replicates the sunlight outside during the day shift. During the start of the evening shift we simulate the sunlight during the day in a shorter span of six hours and during the night shift, we restart the day shift algorithm at higher illumination levels. Thus, we are able to keep the day shift workers fully in sync with the natural environment during long work hours and during the night shift when the staff is working against natural working conditions, the Circadian lighting system is set to simulate the day conditions which naturally shifts their cycle by 12 hours, thus helping them work with the same efficiency as the day shift workers.

 

We designed a hybrid lighting management system, which is both BMS and IOT system compatible. The daylight sensors introduced in the project dims down the artificial lighting based on daylight availability and at the same time controls the motorized drapes along with the windows which automatically rolls based on the daylight availability as well as the location of the sun with respect to the glazing, such that the direct glare from the sun and the reflected glare from nearby buildings are automatically cut off by adjusting the height of the drapes. Similarly, the occupancy sensors used on the project also collates information in terms of the number of people occupying the space, heat radiation between their bodies and the surrounding environment, the humidity level in the space, etc.; and feeds the information through the LMS control unit to the BMS and the IOT system via BACNET which in turn can control the airflow and temperature of the HVAC system