Today’s office comprises of numerous rooms or areas with different purposes. Depending on the room or area’s function, you have several options to choose from when it comes to light control.
First and foremost, the lighting needs to be designed for those working in the office, with a focus on their visual needs and comfort, in essence, good lighting design. But lighting is not just about visual tasks. Light can also help support biological functions – alertness and well-being and it also has a major emotional impact. People feel better and are more comfortable in good light! In a perfect world, everyone would be able to control their own lighting based on their own needs but we also know that this is not always practically possible.
Many of today’s lighting solutions offer very high energy efficiency and, combining this with light control, you can reduce energy bills even further.
Energy-saving
Control with presence detection utilises sensors to identify when there is someone in the room and then dimming or switches off the lighting completely when the room is empty. There are two ways of doing this:
- Presence control – the lights will come on automatically when presence is detected and be switched off or dimmed to a certain level when there is no one present in the room or area.
- Absence control – someone needs to switch on the lighting, but it will be automatically switched off or dimmed to a certain level when there is no longer anyone present in the room or area.
With Constant light control, a sensor measures the light level on the surfaces in the sensor’s detection area to make sure that there is sufficient light. If there is a sufficient amount of incident daylight, the control system will save energy by dimming or switching off the electric lighting.
Employee comfort
In addition to the positive effect of good lighting design, a lighting control system can also contribute to increased comfort for those working in the office. The light output can be designated for the user groups or surfaces where the requirements are most stringent, and via the control system, lighting levels can be adjusted for other less demanding user groups or areas.
The possibility of individual dimming means that the user can adjust the light depending on the visual task or their mood. Research has shown that the option of being able to control their own light is very positive for people.
If someone remains at the office until late at night, the lighting should not be switched off completely in areas where no one is present even if it is the best way of saving energy. Here we recommend dimming the light to a low level instead of switching it off. Sitting in a lit area surrounded by the dark can be very stressful.
More options
Using light control, it is also possible to create subtle effects on the exterior by lighting rooms at the front of the building at a low level during the night. Make sure that you have the same colour temperature and night-light levels in every room, or this will have the opposite result.