By Zane Wylie, Sales Representative, Raylinc Lighting
In Zane’s view, an office doesn’t strictly need anything from its lighting that it didn’t need ten years ago. There are simply more options. The biggest shift is how offices are used. Floors are often part empty, so lights no longer need to be on everywhere, all day.
Zane Wylie designs lighting for offices and commercial fit outs. He sees occupancy as the biggest change from ten years ago. “It’s a Friday, there’s five people working where they could fit 50,” he says. “You don’t need all lights on all the time.”
Motion sensors in selected areas mean lights run where people are working and switch off where they aren’t.
Emergency lighting is a requirement, but it isn’t new. Offices had it ten years ago too.
Tunable white lighting follows the daylight outside. It runs a brighter, bluer white through the middle of the day and shifts warmer towards the start and end of the day.
Zane sees it as optional. “It’s just a nice to have,” he says. It’s also something LED makes possible that a fluorescent tube never could.
One fault Zane points to affects the people working under the lights. Poor quality drivers can make LED lighting flicker.
The flicker may be too fast to notice, “but perceptible enough that it can affect people’s wellbeing,” Zane says. The light is getting brighter and dimmer many times a second, and the eye responds to it. That can cause headaches and eye strain, and some people are more sensitive to it than others.
The cause sits in the driver, the component that powers the LEDs. When comparing office fittings, ask what driver they use.
Zane sees them as a practical choice for offices that are often part empty. Lights run where people are working and switch off where nobody is.
Lighting that changes colour temperature through the day to follow natural light: cooler and brighter at midday, warmer in the morning and evening.
It can when poor quality drivers make the light flicker. The flicker may be invisible, but it can still cause headaches and eye strain in some people.
It isn’t new. Offices needed emergency lighting ten years ago as well.
Zane Wylie is a sales representative at Raylinc Lighting, working with engineers in Townsville, Cairns and Brisbane. He holds a Graduate Certificate in Lighting and is a member of the Illuminating Engineering Society.
Contact the Raylinc team to talk through lighting and controls for your next office fit out.