Advances in Light Quality Provide Designers With a Tool for Creating Human-Centric Workspaces
Does your office have the correct level of light quality?
Lighting plays an important functional and aesthetic role in architecture, contributing to user safety and enhancing the built environment. Today, lighting upgrades in commercial buildings continue to focus on reducing energy usage, with a lesser emphasis on light quality.
The proliferation of energy efficient commercial building products has allowed the sector to improve its energy efficiency. According to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA), in 2011 lighting was responsible for 38 percent of all electricity consumed in the commercial sector, by 2017 that number had been reduced to 11 percent. Considering the long lifetimes of LEDs, the environmental impact of lighting as it pertains to maintenance and replacement has been significantly reduced. As the efficacy of LED light sources is reaching a plateau, an argument can be made to re-focus the discourse on lighting quality and how it can improve the experience of those who inhabit the spaces.