Office lighting
The modern office lighting
Jobs long ago stopped conforming to the classic "nine-to-five" model. Jobs are becoming more digital, complex, and diverse. Companies are realising that employee creativity and engagement are their greatest assets. In addition, the workplace is increasingly expanding onto the road and into the home office. That is why it is more important than ever to have open, meaningful spatial concepts that combine work and life.
In addition, the workplace is increasingly expanding to include mobile working and home offices. This makes open, meaningful room concepts with optimal light quality more important than ever. For over three quarters of all employees, well-being at work is a key motivator. Where people enjoy going to the office, feel a sense of belonging, and can work with concentration their performance and health improve in the long term. Modern office environments must therefore recognise the needs of their employees and place them at the centre.
Light as a central satisfaction factor
The right lighting adapts flexibly to its application. Individual workplaces with daylight require different office lighting than the often-windowless meeting rooms or access zones such as corridors and entrance areas. LED office lighting also acts as a design element in modern open offices to visually separate work zones such as desk areas, conference tables, and creative booths. The solution offers holistic office lighting planning with varying lighting scenarios.
Using smart-sensor technology, the office lighting can be adjusted to natural daylight or switched off at unoccupied workplaces. Dynamic LED office lighting solutions increase well-being and deliver improved long-term job satisfaction.
Efficient office lighting
The figures speak for themselves: Over 75 percent of office lighting is outdated. The energy-saving potential in office buildings is huge. In addition to reducing operating costs, increasing productivity and creating a "feel-good atmosphere" at the workplace through good lighting is also a major issue.
High-quality lighting solutions contribute to improved visual comfort and well-being at the workplace. In conjunction with intelligent lighting control, the luminaires create a pleasant atmosphere and save energy. Integrated sensor technology controls the light according to daylight incidence or presence and adjusts illuminance and light colour according to the ambient factors.
Office planning example
In this open-plan office with 24 workstations, 12 fluorescent profile luminaires were replaced with 6 BETO LED luminaires. The glare-free luminaires not only save 48 percent energy, but can also save an additional 15 percent when controlled, allowing the lighting to be adapted to the needs of the room.
Efficient luminaires for the office
Sensor-controlled office lighting for New Work
Grandstands of the horse-racing track
Read more about the New Work concept and the options modern, sensor-controlled office lighting offers for improved comfort at the workplace.
Luminaires for office lighting
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We will be happy to advise you.
Inspirations for optimal office lighting
Be it individual or open-plan offices, meeting rooms, reception or entrance areas – office buildings are versatile, yet require homogeneous lighting concepts. Get an overview of our current office lighting projects and discover exciting project inspirations for your next office proposals.
Exciting topics for modern office lighting concepts
We are here to answer your questions about office lighting design
| The minimum requirements are defined in standard EN 12464-1:2021 “Lighting of work places”. If there is no natural light, artificial lighting should meet this minimum standard. For visual tasks such as “writing, typing, reading and data processing” in an office environment, the minimum requirements for workplace lighting are defined as follows: |
| - Uniformity Uo | ≥0,60 |
| - Colour rendering Ra | ≥80 |
| - Glare rating RUGL | ≤19 |
| - Cylindrical illuminance e Em,z | ≥150lx |
| - Wall illuminance | ≥150lx |
| - Ceiling illuminance | ≥100lx |
| - Modelling Em,z / Em | 0,3 - 0,6 |
| - Reflective glare | eliminate |
| - Limit direct glare | Luminance ≤ 1500cd/m2 bzw. ≤ 3000cd/m2 |
Luminaires with a high proportion of indirect light are more suitable than those that emit direct light. This reduces contrast and glare. The spatial design and the positioning of the luminaire in the room are also crucial. White ceilings and walls within the user’s field of vision are ideal. The luminaires should not be positioned directly above the screen, but to the left and right of workstations. This prevents glare.
There are no specified requirements for colour temperature in Kelvin, for luminous flux in lumens or for efficiency in lumens per square metre for office lighting.
The latest version of EN 12464-1-2021 specifies a minimum illuminance of Em ≥500 lx and a revised value of Em ≥1000 lx for horizontal work surfaces. Lighting research* in recent years has shown that four quality parameters must be considered together as a whole. These are light colour, illuminance, colour rendering and contrast between the work surface and the walls in the field of vision.
| To determine the optimal lighting for a work place, preferences* were assessed. The highest preference for colour temperature ranges from 4200 K to 5500 K, with 4900 K being the most popular. For illuminance this was between 850 lx and 1700 lx, with the highest preference* being 1300 lx. Colour rendering of CRI≥87 was considered to be “good” and colour rendering of CRI≥95 was considered to be “very good”. Contrast between the work surface and the walls in the field of view was 0.6–0.8. This means that at 1300 lx on the horizontal work surface (x 0.7), there will be approximately 900 lx on the walls. This meets the requirement for a cylindrical, melanopic illuminance of >250 MEDI Lux specified in DIN T/S 67600, thereby stimulating workers’ biological rhythms. |
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With glare-free office lighting, the light emission aperture is not visible from the work station. As this is not possible in most cases, the luminance of the light emission surface is limited: for CAD work where a black background is used, the luminance should be ≤1500 cd/m2. For general data processing with a white background, the luminance of the light emission surface must be ≤3000 cd/m2. |
| In addition, the luminaire is assessed in terms of its position in the room relative to the work station using the UGR method (uniform glare rating). In an office environment, the RUGR value must not exceed 19. For technical drawing, the RUGR must be ≤16. |
There are no guidelines for home offices. Those working from home are free to choose their own lighting quality. The important thing is that there is plenty of natural light available during the day. Having the desk near the window is a particularly good idea. We can check how much natural light there is using the daylight factor: Illuminance indoors at table height in the centre of the room / illuminance outdoors measured horizontally * 100%. A DF of 2%–8% is considered to be a good level of daylight. It should also always be possible to see outside from the work station. This is important in order to relax the eyes.
The highest preference scores* for artificial lighting were recorded as: 4900 K, 1300 lx, CRI≥95 and a contrast (between the work surface and the walls in the field of view) of 0.7.
**Source: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Tran Quoc Khanh, Department of Lighting Technology, TU Darmstadt
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Vibrant working and living space
Landau + Kindelbacher Architekten have implemented a new office concept across 2,500 square metres in a central location in Munich for h&z, an international management consultancy. Interior designer Christine Sellmeijer provides insight into the project's vision and explains the role lighting plays.
