Ask YC: What is the best lighting source for a room with no windows?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=123879

by ACSparks • 18 years ago

14 17 18 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

We moved to our new offices, and they are great, except for the fact that I now work in a room with no windows. There is only an overhead fluorescent light.

I usually program for 10-12 hours a day, and have now noticed that my eyes hurt, and I am getting bags under them.

What is the best way to light the room so that my eyes are happy again?

migpwr• 18 years ago

They make floor lamps that point up to the ceiling and reflect light off of it... I personally like those the best. They're inexpensive and usually have 3 settings.

iamdave• 18 years ago

These are awesome, but be careful and place them strategically. Lighting affects mood, and if you place them around a lot of plants, you'll end up casting a lot of distracting shadows and productivity goes kaput.

On that same token, if you opt for these kinds of lights, it's best to place them in a room with brightly colored walls that wont absorb the light, and you'll only end up wasting money both on the lights, and on your energy bills just trying to keep your office bright.

Otherwise, they are awesome fixtures.

cdr• 18 years ago

In my computer room, I use one of these with a "white" light bulb - a traditional bulb with blue glass that makes the light much more white. They seem brighter, too. I don't care as much for florescent lighting, so that's worked best for me so far.

rrival• 18 years ago

Full spectrum lighting, used to treat Seasonal Affective Disorder, is a decent sunlight replacement, though it's sort of expensive.

ardit33• 18 years ago

Even better, I just moved from Boston to SF, and now I have an awesome view of Golden Gate bridge, and the bay, and the rest.

When the sun is setting it is just beautiful. The whole office area is well lit by natural light. It makes me a happy person.

(Having cubes with low wall also helps alot).

In Boston, I was miserable, working in a cube with high walls, away from any window, and when you go out, it gets dark by 4:30 pm. I just had the winter blues. No wonder Bostonians are so cranky and rude. You could tell when the weather got better, people were happier and nicer.

jsjenkins168• 18 years ago

You can source a generic 6500k light (try to get close to 98 color rendering index) for pretty cheap at most local hardware stores. My guess is this is all what these "full spectrum lights" essentially are, re-branded and marked up.

I use 2 6500k lamps as a bias lights (reference white) when coding and also for watching movies. The light will appear a bit "blue" at first (compared to most other lights), but you will get used to it. Color temp is like you are always working outside in the midday sun, its great.

dualogy• 18 years ago

I've heard about this problem repeatedly before. Why are people apparently seriously building and renting offices without windows outside of Western Europe? I mean, you're spending 10-12 hours a day on sophisticated things of (hopefully) very high value that is (hopefully) rewarded accordingly in the marketplace---and yet, such a simple and essentially free thing as daylight is outside your scope? Why is this? What's the point of windowless offices? This is just quite obviously a serious factor for potentially making your people suffer in subtle ways. In tech, you don't want them to suffer, no? What am I missing?

mixmax2• 18 years ago

I didn't even know that anyone besides sweatshop workers and miners worked in offices without windows.

Sounds totally unthinkable to me, I would never get anything done.

Guess I'm lucky working from my boat with 22 windows and a view of the sea wherever I look :-)

mosburger• 18 years ago

I used to work for a fairly well-known manufacturer of disk drives. In their typical paranoia, they intentionally ensured that our labs had no windows to mitigate the possibility of corporate espionage.

pmjordan• 18 years ago

There's clearly a market for it. People make shortsighted decisions based on price all the time. Often the person making the decision isn't the one with the office in the middle but the one at the corner...

You get more usable floor area per ground area if you fill your whole plot of land with a huge cuboidal office block with no inner courtyards and light channels. It's easier and cheaper to build.

Result is more profit.

mixmax2• 18 years ago

Somewhat related:

Has anyone ever experimented with RGB LED's and some sort of controller hooked up to a PC? That way you would be able to change the colortemperature of your lightning source, and get a really cool way of lighting up your office or home. You could even attach some light sensors so that the ambient light level stays the same. When the sun goes down the lights slowly turn on to compensate. Would be cheap in electricity too.

mechanical_fish• 18 years ago

A reciprocating saw should get you through to daylight soon enough. They just don't build offices like they used to.

ken• 18 years ago

Skylight. You don't even have to be near the outside, e.g., "Solatube".

tim2• 18 years ago

Ah yes, I know exactly what you need.

I too programmed for an uncountable number of hours in a similar setup at my university dorm. What I did is keep those bright lights on while wearing a baseball cap. This is very easy on the eyes and keeps you alert.

Why is this the best setup? Studies have shown that having lighting from the sides but not the top, simulating somewhat of an artificial sunset in the horizon, keeps people awake and alert for longer periods of time. Plus, that narrowed field of vision seems to help with concentration. Don't dismiss this until you try it.

I did have a window but I put my back to it. The view was pretty depressing anyway.

Tichy• 18 years ago

Time to look for a new job?

patrickg-zill• 18 years ago

You should have at least 3 different light sources in the room. Try to have diffuse lighting, as diffuse as possible.

walter_b_marvin• 18 years ago

Yep get more sleep. Take a nap in the middle of the day

Ask YC: What is the best lighting source for a room with no windows?

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