4 ms·
Ask HN: Office lighting recommendations?
What's everybody using for office lighting?
My halogen torchiere broke off at the base this morning. It was hard to find one in 2003 and now they're gone from stores (liability).
I've tried traditional incandescent lighting in the office but it's too dull. The halogen has sharper and warmer light.
I read a bit about Full Spectrum's products but they're more expensive and proprietary.
Are there any other good options I've missed? Thanks.
- brk 17y agoI gave an overhead modern chandelier-type light in my office. It uses 10 12V Halogen bulbs and is connected to an X-10 enabled PCS dimmer switch. I can control the lighting from the switch, my desktop, or my iPhone :)
- percept 17y agoThanks (my upvote didn't work for your comment). I didn't mention that I'm in a rental so I'm looking for a floor lamp or similar option. Maybe an array of desk lamps similar to your chandelier. ;)
- weaksauce 17y agoI like the natural incandescent lights(sort of full spectrum, basically an incandescent with a coating on the inside) not too much more per bulb but it really makes a difference to my eyes.
- pasbesoin 17y agoI have an incandescent torchiere, in which I've now placed a full-spectrum compact fluorescent bulb. Works just fine, and adjusting color is just a matter of picking out a different bulb. My recommendation for cheap, indirect lighting. And yes, indirect lighting is great, in my opinion. There are (dedicated) fluorescent torchiere lamps. I have a couple from GE, both dim-able. One has worked for many years like a champ. The newer GE one had the balast (non-replaceable -- at least without hassle) progressively fail over the course of a year or two -- slower and slower startup times; now completely dead. A third such torchiere -- same bulb, also dim-able -- a floor model I picked up more recently that is made by another manufacturer, is also dead. So, my recommendation is to stay away from this design. P.S. If one lamp doesn't seem to produce as much light as the halogen torchiere, try two lamps. The incandescent type are quite cheap, and with compact fluorescent bulbs (maybe LED bulbs, someday), your energy use should still be pretty low.
- percept 17y agoThanks, I think that's probably my best option. Have you compared these to halogen torchieres?
- pasbesoin 17y agoNo, I haven't. It's been some time since I've seen a halogen torchiere. I would suspect the compact fluorescents are dimmer and, depending on the bulb, less "pure white" in perception. The Verilux compact fluorescent bulb I am currently using has a fairly "cold" tone, despite being advertised as "Full Spectrum / Daylight Spectrum:. I have an OTT "Natural Light" bulb and a GE "daylight" bulb (6500K) that I haven't tried, yet. If nothing else works, I'd follow the recommendation of another commentor here and try an incandescent bulb that achieves a full spectrum effect via a rare earth element coating. Note that GE has some incandescent bulbs whose glass has a blueish cast -- "Reveal", I believe they name them -- that are cheaper. However, the Reveal bulbs do not achieve the same effect. I have had such coated incandescent bulbs, of higher quality -- Chromalux is the brand name I seem to recall -- and was quite pleased with their appearance. I did not use them in a torchiere, but they were in a flexible lamp twisted to shine up and provide indirect lighting off of the ceiling. Maybe just get a candidate bulb first and see what you think. Stick in in a desk lamp or similar and bounce the light off the ceiling. It's higher power consumption, but you may just want to try the Chromalux first. If this is fun, wait until we lose the incandescent bulbs... ;-) Sorry if my follow-up sounds less definitive than my original reply.
- percept 17y agoI can see this is going to be a project. ;) The light really is more hazy and dull in the office with the (four!) incandescents in the overhead fan.