Energy-efficient office lighting

Reducing horizontal general lighting to the level of task-related illuminance is a first step towards reducing energy costs. Because work in modern offices is mainly carried out on self-illuminating screens and making notes on paper only happens occasionally, the horizontal room-related general lighting can be reduced to 300lx. Employees can switch on local task lights if they temporarily need higher illuminance levels.

Concentrating the workstation lighting on essential functional areas such as the desk enables further significant energy cost savings. Because desks only take up a limited part of the floor space compared to the complete office, this aspect significantly affects energy requirements. For general impressions of brightness, uniform vertical lighting is more decisive and also more efficient.

A further major potential for energy saving is the integration of sensors for dynamically adapting the lighting level during the course of a day. In this regard two strategies are used:
use of daylight and presence detection. Measuring the incident daylight allows the intensity of the lighting, especially in areas near to windows, to be significantly reduced. Presence detectors on the other hand mean that lighting is automatically switched on only when employees use the room.