In Finland, we work in a wide range of lighting conditions. The direction and amount of light varies with the seasons and times of day. Sometimes there is glare and sometimes it feels like there is no way to get enough light, even with all the lights on. For office work, a light intensity of around 500 lux is needed at the workstation to make it easy to see and to work more accurately.
Here’s an expert’s opinion on our article: the text below is taken from: http://www.tyonako.fi/tyonakeminen/nayttopaatetyon_ergonomia/
Työnäkö.fi
Healthy and safe screen-based work
Lighting in the working environment plays an important role in vision. Good lighting means sufficient light so that the worker can see printed, handwritten and terminal materials clearly, without being dazzled by excessive light. In an office, sufficient illuminance in the working area is around 500 lx. Lighting takes into account individuality, as vision depends not only on the lighting but also on the age of the person, visual acuity and the size and contrast of the screen and the object being viewed. Light needs are determined by the worker; there are large individual variations in light needs. The spotlight should only illuminate the material, not the screen.
As a person ages, changes occur in the sense of sight, which progress individually. Visual acuity decreases, contrast sensitivity is reduced, the field of vision may become narrower, depth of vision is reduced, and the eye’s sensitivity to light and adaptation to low light is impaired.
Reading from a screen should be as easy and low-impact as possible. Reflections and glare interfere with vision. Glare can also be caused by strong variations in the luminance of too bright or adjacent black and white surfaces in the environment. In this case, the luminance values, i.e. the differences in luminance, are too large. In addition to the size of the character, the contrast of the character against the background also affects what you see on the screen. There must be no bright light sources in the field of vision near the direction of gaze. When dazzled, the person corrects his or her position, e.g. by sitting e.g. diagonally or by tilting their head towards the screen to see better. The screen and keyboard should be positioned so that the lighting does not cause reflections on the screen or keyboard.
