Lighting in a home office
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What would be the preferred method of recessed lighting in a large home office? The home office is in a large bedroom (16’x15′). There are two desk areas. It is an older home and the ceiling is accessible from the attic space. The space has two good sized windows on the north elevation but is still somewhat dark during the day. I’m curious if it would be better to use LED recessed lights, low voltage, or halogen. Would the layout advice be similar for all 3, i.e. no more than 3′ from wall and 4 lights for a room this size?
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Replies
Karen,
One of the best resources on efficient lighting options is the High Performance Lighting Guide from IBACOS:
http://web.archive.org/web/20061106220525/http://www.ibacos.com/hpl1.html
The mantra for efficient indoor lighting is more is not better, match the lamp to the task and plan for flexibility by including portable desk and floor lamps into the lighting plan.
I use the 12 watt Cree LED cans for fixed work positions that will not require dimming such as our drafting stations and plan review tables. http://www.westsidewholesale.com/lighting/cree-new-6-led-recessed-downlight.html their diffusion side to side is exceptional and the light quality and absence of glare are great, The bulb life and light quality is very good at 92 CRI and 2700K warm white but they are expensive, don't dim worth a flip and 2700K is not a particularly warm light compared to the yummy glow of a dimmed incandescent.
So we use incandescent and dim-able halogens for conference room lighting where we want to be able to quickly adjust the light levels up for viewing documents, magazine clippings and down for a flattering warm light for quiet conversation as well as when viewing images on screen such as built projects and budget analysis.
For individual work stations we all use the 27 watt daylight fluorescent tubes from Dick Blick art supply. the floor lamp is very versatile and the 11 watt slimline can provide fill light to a computer work station pretty effectively. http://www.dickblick.com/vendors/daylight/
The previous answers are all very good and informative. You had made mention of halogen. This type of light source generates alot of heat so may not be advisable for an office setting. In the previous suggestion where they spoke to the light sources not being dimmable, an idea you could use is to install multiple switching to control the amount of light and energy being used.
Martin,
here is an updated link to the High Performance Lighting Guide
http://www.ibacos.com/high-performance-lighting-guide
Don