The concept of ergonomics isn't exactly new. Nowadays, many modern offices are equipped with standing desks to alleviate neck and shoulder pain. Hospitals utilize patient lifts to avoid back injuries. Even schools are introducing flexible seating arrangements to cater to students who tend to fidget.
However, despite this growing awareness, most people are still largely focused on **physical ergonomics**. You, and many others, may not have heard of lighting ergonomics and how its principles can be applied to improve commercial lighting.
In this article, we'll delve into:
- Understanding lighting ergonomics and its benefits.
- Exploring how lighting ergonomics can enhance both the health and productivity of working and learning environments.
- Providing suggestions on how to address ergonomic issues and upgrade existing lighting setups with more ergonomic solutions.
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## What Exactly Is "Lighting Ergonomics"?
At its core, ergonomics is "the applied science of designing and arranging things people use so that the interaction between people and things is efficient and safe." Essentially, it's about understanding how people interact with their surroundings and optimizing the design and systems for optimal human wellbeing and performance. (It’s not hard to see how this applies to lighting, right?)
There are three main types of ergonomics:
- **Physical**: Typically involves workplace ergonomics and human anatomy/biomechanics. Lighting ergonomics falls under this category.
- **Cognitive**: Concerns how easy it is for users to understand and use a product or system. This is where cognitive ergonomics comes into play.
- **Organizational**: Focuses on optimizing organizational structures like team composition, processes, work hours, and policies that affect how a workplace functions as a whole.
For sighted individuals, vision is the dominant sense by a wide margin—over 80% of new information is perceived visually. This means that good lighting can play a crucial role in accident prevention, boosting efficiency, and reducing discomfort associated with sensitivities and disabilities.
No matter if you're designing a lighting plan for an office building, a hospital, a university, or any other institution, ergonomics should always be considered.
> *"Different wavelengths of light also affect blood pressure, pulse, respiration rates, brain activity, and biorhythms. Lighting plays a vital role in our daily lives, enabling us to function optimally in every environment. Therefore, lighting directly impacts every aspect of human existence."*
> — Mott, Robinson, Walden, Burnette, Rutherford, 2012
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## Why Your Customers Should Consider Lighting Ergonomics
We’ve all experienced trying to work in poor lighting conditions. Whether it’s flickering fluorescent lights or glare from computer screens, bad lighting has a knack for getting under people’s skin.
In a work setting, this is a major productivity killer—after all, if an employee is irritated, they can’t focus. This isn’t limited to office workers, though. Schools and other educational institutions also need to create lighting environments that allow students to concentrate in order to learn effectively.
Lighting ergonomics also plays a big part in ensuring safety and health. Poor lighting can lead to physical problems like headaches and musculoskeletal issues, as well as mental health concerns like depression. It also raises the risk of injury.
When these issues arise, workers and students suffer the most. However, workplaces and schools often face consequences as well, such as lost productivity, damage to reputation, increased absenteeism, and even legal action.
For these reasons, a lighting plan that incorporates ergonomic best practices can be incredibly valuable.
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## How to Identify Poor Lighting Ergonomics—and How to Fix It
You know a lighting problem when you see one. But when discussing ergonomics, it’s essential to go a step further and consider the human impact.
Let’s dive into how various types of poor lighting can affect people and explore potential solutions.
### 1. Insufficient Light
Like most lighting issues, insufficient light can cause headaches, back and shoulder pain (from having to lean forward to see), and other physical problems. It also significantly increases the risk of injury—or even death, depending on the environment.
To prevent areas of insufficient light, ergonomic lighting designers should consider:
- The strength of the user’s vision (whether they’re a worker, patient, or student).
- The types of surfaces in the room.
- The size of the room.
- The tasks people will be performing in the room.
To guard against insufficient light, install lighting with the appropriate illumination levels for the environment. For instance, the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America’s Lighting Handbook recommends:
- 750 lux for office work.
- 3,000 lux for precise assembly work.
- 7,500 lux for precise machine tool work.
Institutions and workplaces can also mix localized-general lighting with task lighting to ensure people have enough light to perform tasks safely and efficiently.
### 2. Glare and Improper Contrast
Improper contrast and glare can cause irritation, headaches, eye fatigue, and musculoskeletal problems. These lighting issues also cause our pupils to constrict, letting in less light—making it harder to work in dimmer areas of a room.
If that darker area happens to be over a workspace, it can make it harder for workers to see fine details, accurately judge movement, and distinguish object edges from surrounding areas.
All of this can increase the risk of injury, manufacturing errors, and lost productivity.
Whether the issue is improper contrast caused by an overhead workspace fixture that’s dimmer than other lights in the room, or glare caused by a poorly positioned light reflecting off a computer screen, there are several possible solutions, including:
- Repositioning light fixtures away from reflective surfaces.
- Reducing contrast by installing brighter lights in dimmer areas.
- Providing flexible lighting controls that allow users to adjust illumination levels throughout the day.
- Diffusing the light with indirect and shielded light fixtures.
### 3. Flicker
Flicker issues aren’t as common now that LEDs are widely used—but they can still be a problem, especially since some people can detect flicker even in lighting with higher frequency levels.
For most people to notice flicker, the frequency has to drop below 100 Hz. When flicker is detected, however, it can be a significant safety hazard. Flicker makes moving objects appear to move slower than they actually do, so it’s particularly important to prevent this issue in workplaces with moving machinery.
Detectable flicker can also cause headaches, migraines, eye strain, and even seizures. For people with lighting sensitivities due to a disability, flicker can negatively impact mental health and productivity by causing high levels of agitation, making it impossible to work in certain areas without distress.
To prevent flicker:
- Increase power frequency with an energy-efficient electronic ballast.
- Advise clients to replace bulbs regularly.
- Use high-frequency options like LEDs whenever possible.
### 4. Poorly Distributed Light
Poorly distributed light can be a safety concern for obvious reasons. People may fail to see an object or piece of machinery moving toward them, leading to trips, injuries, or mistakes. It can also cause headaches and eye strain.
To ensure consistent lighting across an entire room, consider:
- Adding overhead fixtures to increase illumination in poorly lit areas.
- Strategically incorporating indirect light fixtures.
- Looking for areas where furniture, partitions, or dark paint colors absorb or block light, and increasing illumination accordingly.
> *"During extraordinary conditions, lighting and acoustic systems also serve vital functions, providing guidance and enabling egress for occupants and entry for first responders. For fire and smoke control, life-safety codes now require certain lighting and acoustic systems to be designated for this purpose and provided with emergency standby power."*
> — National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, 2005
#### Light and Circadian Rhythms
Our circadian rhythms influence our sleep patterns, hormones, body temperature, appetite, and digestion—basically, they’re key to our overall health and well-being. Recent research shows that lighting can significantly impact our circadian rhythm.
Blue-enriched lighting, like LEDs, is great for daytime work and life. When used during the day, blue light boosts productivity and focus and can even reduce symptoms of mental health disorders like PTSD.
However, nighttime use can disrupt sleep patterns and may be linked to physical problems like diabetes and heart disease. To minimize the impact on your circadian rhythm, consider using red or white light at night.
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## Ergonomic Lighting in Specific Environments
Simply put, lighting exists to ensure comfort and safety. However, different buildings serve diverse groups of people with varying needs and tasks.
For example, lighting that keeps students comfortable and safe might not be the same as lighting that keeps a nurse or a factory worker comfortable and safe. In the following sections, we’ll explore some unique considerations for schools, hospitals, offices, and government buildings.
### Schools, Colleges, and Universities
Safety is the top priority in schools. Generally, this can be achieved by avoiding the lighting issues we discussed earlier: insufficient light, glare, improper contrast, flicker, and poorly distributed light.
Lighting should be designed to help students focus and learn—and recent studies show that correlated color temperatures (CCT) play a significant role in this.
A recent study at Ball State University revealed two key insights:
- Higher CCTs increase alertness, attitude, and energy levels in students.
- Adjusting illumination levels throughout the day improves moods and increases engagement.
Provide customers with an easy way to manage lighting levels throughout the day by integrating microwave detection, Bluetooth switches, and other types of controls into your lighting plans.
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### Hospitals and Clinical Settings
Safety is equally crucial in clinical settings, but hospitals present an additional challenge. They include many different types of spaces, each with its own lighting requirements for safety.
Hallways and waiting rooms, for example, should be brightly lit to allow for accurate assessments and safe movement, and comfortable to reduce patient stress, which can improve health outcomes. Dimmable lighting is essential in exam rooms. While doctors need bright lighting to examine patients, some tests require dimmer lighting. Adjustable lighting makes this possible.
Hospitals also require powerful emergency lighting that enables staff to continue providing patient care until regular power is restored.
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### Office and Government Buildings
In office settings, productivity, employee engagement, and safety are the main concerns. Workers typically spend hours staring at computer screens and reading documents, so good lighting is critical for efficiency and comfort.
In an open office layout, watch out for improper contrast and inconsistent lighting. In such large spaces, these issues can easily arise.
Cubicles, which are making a comeback, also require specific lighting considerations. Cubicle walls, shelves, and other obstructions can cast shadows and block light, but localized and task lighting can help.
As companies embrace hybrid work models, many are using this opportunity to redesign their offices—including upgrading old lighting with more energy-efficient LED lighting. This presents the perfect chance to improve lighting conditions for employees simultaneously by installing new fixtures with flexible lighting. LED light panel fixtures and retrofit kits make these installations straightforward.
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No matter what type of commercial facility your lighting plan addresses, if it involves people, it involves lighting ergonomics. By understanding how lighting ergonomics works, how to explain it to clients, and how to optimize lighting for better productivity and happier, healthier humans, you’ll be set up for success.
Ready to start designing lighting plans with ergonomics in mind? Check out our **Guide to Commercial LED Lighting Controls**.
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Safety is the top priority in schools. Generally, this can be achieved by avoiding the lighting issues we discussed earlier: insufficient light, glare, improper contrast, flicker, and poorly distributed light.
Lighting should be designed to help students focus and learn—and recent studies show that correlated color temperatures (CCT) play a significant role in this.
A recent study at Ball State University revealed two key insights:
- Higher CCTs increase alertness, attitude, and energy levels in students.
- Adjusting illumination levels throughout the day improves moods and increases engagement.
Provide customers with an easy way to manage lighting levels throughout the day by integrating microwave detection, Bluetooth switches, and other types of controls into your lighting plans.
---
### Hospitals and Clinical Settings
Safety is equally crucial in clinical settings, but hospitals present an additional challenge. They include many different types of spaces, each with its own lighting requirements for safety.
Hallways and waiting rooms, for example, should be brightly lit to allow for accurate assessments and safe movement, and comfortable to reduce patient stress, which can improve health outcomes. Dimmable lighting is essential in exam rooms. While doctors need bright lighting to examine patients, some tests require dimmer lighting. Adjustable lighting makes this possible.
Hospitals also require powerful emergency lighting that enables staff to continue providing patient care until regular power is restored.
---
### Office and Government Buildings
In office settings, productivity, employee engagement, and safety are the main concerns. Workers typically spend hours staring at computer screens and reading documents, so good lighting is critical for efficiency and comfort.
In an open office layout, watch out for improper contrast and inconsistent lighting. In such large spaces, these issues can easily arise.
Cubicles, which are making a comeback, also require specific lighting considerations. Cubicle walls, shelves, and other obstructions can cast shadows and block light, but localized and task lighting can help.
As companies embrace hybrid work models, many are using this opportunity to redesign their offices—including upgrading old lighting with more energy-efficient LED lighting. This presents the perfect chance to improve lighting conditions for employees simultaneously by installing new fixtures with flexible lighting. LED light panel fixtures and retrofit kits make these installations straightforward.
---
No matter what type of commercial facility your lighting plan addresses, if it involves people, it involves lighting ergonomics. By understanding how lighting ergonomics works, how to explain it to clients, and how to optimize lighting for better productivity and happier, healthier humans, you’ll be set up for success.
Ready to start designing lighting plans with ergonomics in mind? Check out our **Guide to Commercial LED Lighting Controls**.
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