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Lighting issues - The fix has made the problem worse!
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Morning all,
A recent internal inspection identified lots of issues with the clients lighting; missing tubes, missing diffusers, burned starters, dark areas, no emergency lighting etc. I highlighted the issues and had great response from the site managers who took action and have replaced a large number of the light units over the weekend replacing them with suitable 28W LED light tubes. ...Now everything is blinding bright, Ladies in HR are complaining of glare on the screens Etc. I've checked the LUX in these areas and it falls between the 300-500lux in the office space as appropriate but in some areas its as high as 1000lux. These are all the same make/model of light units. The spec should be suitable for use. I was just seeking advice on the best way to combat this, do we;
- change the units again,
- add screen glare filters to monitors,
- reduce the number of light units,
- add additional diffusers,
- install some form of dimmer switch,
- any other suggestions?
I feel bad that the managers have really made effort to rectify the highlighted issues in good time, great efforts made and now the problem isn't lack of light but too much of it! Thanks in advance
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Rank: Super forum user
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Originally Posted by: Self and Hasty I've checked the LUX in these areas and it falls between the 300-500lux in the office space as appropriate but in some areas its as high as 1000lux.
If this is a general office 300 - 500 Lux is a bit OTT according to HSG 38 (page 28/47) which gives an average 200 / minimum 100.
https://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/priced/hsg38.pdf Swapping out existing emitters for LED's is fraught with many design issues for the workspace even down to the "colour temperature" of the units. At the last factory where we upgraded the lighting it was not only changing the bulbs but reducing the number of sources to prevent over saturation - we took out 1/3 of the previous fittings and then re-distributed the ones we were keeping. Dimmer switches like air conditioning are a bad idea because everyone is an individual.
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4 users thanked Roundtuit for this useful post.
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Rank: Super forum user
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Originally Posted by: Self and Hasty I've checked the LUX in these areas and it falls between the 300-500lux in the office space as appropriate but in some areas its as high as 1000lux.
If this is a general office 300 - 500 Lux is a bit OTT according to HSG 38 (page 28/47) which gives an average 200 / minimum 100.
https://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/priced/hsg38.pdf Swapping out existing emitters for LED's is fraught with many design issues for the workspace even down to the "colour temperature" of the units. At the last factory where we upgraded the lighting it was not only changing the bulbs but reducing the number of sources to prevent over saturation - we took out 1/3 of the previous fittings and then re-distributed the ones we were keeping. Dimmer switches like air conditioning are a bad idea because everyone is an individual.
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4 users thanked Roundtuit for this useful post.
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Rank: Super forum user
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The other thing I strongly recommend you consider is what the photobiological data for the LED lamps is. This derivation and provision of this is a legal requirement under the Low Voltage Directive (UK Electrical Equipment Safety Regulations). It is very important with LED as they are very capable of delivering UV light outside the visible spectrum, which can cause harm. Unfortunately you have fallen foul of a lack of design of the lighting system. You need to revisit the whole lighting scheme and base the design on the new fittings not the old ones. Your other issue could be flicker. LED's run on DC, this is rectified from the AC mains within the fitting or lamp. The system used is a switched mode power supply (SMPSU), cheaper units will pulse the LED proportional to the mains frequency (50Hz) modified by the SMPSU rectification and smoothing. The cheaper the unit, the simpler the design of the SMPSU, but simple units don't have good flicker control, they alow a ripple to reain on the DC, which causes fluctuation in the light level of the LED>
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2 users thanked paul.skyrme for this useful post.
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Lighting issues - The fix has made the problem worse!
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