Commercial Office Lighting

1
Commercial Office Lighting

• As a business owner, you are obligated to provide
  your employees with a comfortable and productive
  place to work. This is why it is important to
  carefully choose the lights under which they
  work. The wrong commercial office lighting can
  have a detrimental effect. If you have installed
  lighting in the past, you already know that every
  project is different, and general advice can only
  go so far. You will still need to consult with an
  expert concerning the finer specifics of your
  commercial fluorescent office lighting project.
  Then you can decide if you want to follow these
  general tips to choose and install the lighting
  yourself, or if you will need to hire an
  electrical contractor.

2

• In the past, working in an office was often very
  tiring, even before doing any work. People in
  waiting rooms have experienced eye strain and
  fatigue just from sitting underneath older
  generation indoor fluorescent lights. This
  resulted from the poor power control of older
  magnetic ballasts in these antiquated commercial
  office lighting fixtures. It would produce a
  barely audible humming sound as well as a
  discernible flickering. Additionally, the bulbs
  in those fixtures had a mixture of gases and
  metals which cast a slightly yellowish glow,
  which leads to eyestrain. Can you image how much
  worse it is for your employees, who also have the
  added stress of their work with which to deal?
  Since fluorescent lamps have such a long life,
  you might still have some of these older bulbs in
  your older lighting fixtures. If your lights are
  older than ten years, you will need to install a
  new commercial office lighting control system for
  the betterment of your employees.

3

• Things to look for in commercial office lighting
  fixtures are those which offer easy access to the
  bulbs and ballasts for quick replacements. Your
  choices will most likely lean toward dimming
  fluorescent light fixtures. These energy
  efficient lamps are easy to install and save on
  operating costs by requiring less electricity to
  light and fewer bulb replacements than
  incandescents. The most commonly seen are ceiling
  mounted, either flush or atop, lamps. These will
  use the traditional tube shaped fluorescent
  lights. Today's fluorescent wall mounted lights
  have better color rendering than those of the
  past. No longer will your employees have a
  yellowish look to their skin. Eyestrain from that
  yellow light is also reduced. The brightness of
  the lights will also help them to work more
  productively.

4

• If you do not want to install tube fluorescent
  lighting fixtures for your commercial office
  lighting, but you still want the energy
  efficiency of fluorescent bulbs, you could have
  traditional lights that require a screw-in bulb
  such as an incandescent. By replacing these
  incandescents with compact fluorescent bulbs, you
  can lower your energy costs, and, depending upon
  the number of lights you replace, lower the
  temperature in your office. This is because
  incandescent lighting  waste much of the energy
  they use in producing heat. This can affect the
  air conditioner thermostat and make the cooling
  system run needlessly.

5

• Energy savings will be very important when you
  are choosing your  commercial chandelier office
  lighting. You need the brightest of lights for
  the least amount of energy used. Finding this
  combination only benefits you and your employees.