What Lighting Is Good In A Computer Environment?

Woodrow Stool asks: "My business is software development and I am updating my home office. Does anyone have any experience with the latest and greatest task lights for workstations, such as the Eclipse? Any other suggestions for the best reasonably priced task lighting for a workstation environment?" I love my Eclipse, but I wonder if there are better options out there.

Track Lights

[Anonymous Coward]

Put in some track lights. You can adjust them later as needed.

A 60-watt floodlight above and just behind you to give light in your area, but not glaring off the screen. If your face is in shadow then there won't be a reflection of you on the screen. There are suggestions that your head needs daily light (and some in your eyes, which could be from indirect light off a wall behind the monitor).

Aim some spot or pin lights at your table workspaces and keyboard. (pin lights have very narrow beams, spotlights have narrow beams, floodlights scatter the light widely) Splatter some floods or bulb light across walls/ceilings but not behind you where they'll reflect off the monitor.

Here Comes The Sun

[XPulga]

Build a rail in east-west direction, mount workstation on, wait until dawn, and then just keep up with Earth rotation.

The light of dawn after a night of bug hunting is the most inspiring light that can drive the user into awe.

Of course someone could take a snapshot of the window upon dawn, measure luminance with a photometer and build an LCD display the size of a window to emulate dawn. Volunteers ;-) ?

Daylight bulbs

[Bazman]

A friend of mine has a daylight bulb in his home-office. Its a standard filament lightbulb but puts out a much bluer light than the standard type. Its not a halogen bulb either. He says its much better for reading and computer work.

Searching for 'Daylight bulb' on google gives me loads of links to reptile and amphibian sites, so I guess they are recommended for animals! See if your local pet store stocks them!

Baz

Re:Halogen Lamps

[m0nkyman]

halogen is good, but be careful with the el-cheapo units that point up... heat + dust = fire hazard.

In terms of proper lighting, I like using overhead track halogens aimed at the walls to provide ambient lighting, and a desk lamp to give task lighting for my books and papers.
I tend to buy good bulbs, and pay attention to the colour temperature of the output. It's worth it, and if you do graphics work, it's damn near essential.

Go to a good lighting store and ask about bulbs. You'll be amazed at the differences there are in width of beam and colour temperature.

Florescent Lamps

[whydna]

I have a florescent torchiere lamp like you are talking about. It also provides the nice ambient lighting/compact size/etc. I enjoy it because it burns cool and looks nice too. I got mine at Lowe's hardware... I think it was like $20-$25.

Just a suggestion... might save you a few bucks on a/c bills (of course if you live in a cold place, perhaps the halogen's are better) =]

-andy

the inside of a tanning bed

[Spectr3]

Just kidding. It's best to have little to no light directed at your monitor, to reduce glare, but you should have some light, preferably from a window behind your monitor. I prefer to compute in something of a twilight setting, but that's a preference thing. Thinkgeek [thinkgeek.com] has a nice looking light [thinkgeek.com]. The only troublesome thing about it is that it runs at 60hz. Alas, I do not have one, so I can't tell you anything else with certainty.

oops

[Spectr3]

hmmm...perhaps I should have read the real question instead of the title. Anyway, light behind you is BAD, light in front of you (but behind your monitor) is GOOD.

25 watt light bulb 5 feet behind the monitor

[banbeans]

and another one on the desk which is only on for reading papers,,,,,
in a room with no windows of course....

all the light in my room...

[j|m]

... comes from my flaming iMac, spontaneously combusting after trying to run Quake III Arena.

"Case fans? We don't need no steenking case fans!"

Re:Florescent Lamps

[dmatos]

Hey, I'm a Canadian, eh? There are approximately three days per year that we can take off our sweaters without catching frostbite. :)

Halogen Lamps

[dmatos]

You know, the standard lamps with the halogen bulbs that you could cook a turkey on. I like mine because all the light from the bulb is directed upwards to the ceiling. This allows for ambient lighting in the room, but is still more than bright enough to read documents on your desk, etc.

These have a couple of other benefits as well. They are relatively inexpensive (I forget how much mine cost, but I got it at walmart:) and the bulbs last a very long time. I've had mine for three years now, and it's still as bright as ever. Plus, being a university student, I move very frequently, and this light breaks down quickly and easily into a 1' X 2' X 4" box. A definite plus in my books.

Of course, you may need more heat sinks/fans in your computer, because this will raise the ambient temperature in your room a fair amount. Mine is 300W, but I frequently need and am greatful for the extra heat it kicks out (low-budget student housing).

keep it dim

[MasterOfDisaster]

Depending on what you're doing, the light from a nice CRT can usualy provide enough light to see the keys on your keyboard, however if you have to read things that are off your screen, track lights are always good. I have mine on my wall, reflecting off the celing

Re:Halogen Lamps

[Ninja Penguin]

I have found that if I put my $25 Lowes Halogen lamp on the top shelf of my desk, to the right of my monitor, and place several manila folders full of various printouts between my bookends it redirects the light quite well and really cuts down on the glare. P.S: If you're like me and after hours of hack-hack-hacking away you are easily impressed, get one of those little things in the glass bulbs with the black and white fins that spin in the light and set in on the base of the lamp. Those halogen lamps really make them twirl!

Re:Daylight bulbs

[NevarMore]

Check pet and garden stores for these. I work at a feed/garden/lawn store (http://thefeedbarn.com/) and we sell daylight bulbs for 48" flourescent sockets, at about $15 each. A buddy of mine raises lizards and gets his daylights in all shapes and size from his local pet store. They're nice but a bit expensive.

halogen torch light

[1337-p0z3r]

I love indirect light. What I've currently got is an incandescent torch light (but I find halogen to be much better) situated beside my computer desk. That way the wall behind the monitor isn't lit up too much, the ceiling behind me isn't lit up to produce glare, but I get a good amount of light on my work surface. Ideally I'd have my monitor in a corner, and the torch light behind the monitor. Your office will dictate what's best, but as long as the torch light is close to the monitor, you shouldn't get much (if any) glare.

Quite standardly, YMMV.

"There's a party," she said,
"We'll sing and we'll dance,
It's come as you are."