Beltrade: How the light affects us?

Last research published in Journal of Consumer Psychology shows that intensity of a light affects our emotions and perceptions. For example, warmer light makes us feel warmer even if the temperature in the room is on the same level.

Researchers also show that: “Other evidence shows that on sunny days people are more optimistic about the stock market, report higher wellbeing and are more helpful while extended exposure to dark, gloomy days can result in seasonal affective disorder. Contrary to these results, we found that on sunny days depression-prone people actually become more depressed.”. The study, in our opinion, provides a huge impact on how we should approach the subject of lighting not only in private but also in public spaces.

That’s why in Beltrade we pay big attention to the lights we recommend for our clients to their projects. So what are the general recommendations you should follow when choosing lightings to your office? Take a look at our simple guide and feel the effects day-by-day!

Choice of illumination is more than crucial in working space. A badly chosen lighting can significantly affect productivity and by that — income of your company. It is worth to note, that nowadays up to 80% of the information we process are processed visually (we read more than we listen; we chat more than we talk).

What more, it’s worth to note, that lighting can affect not only productivity but also the motivation of employees — as in the example given in the introduction to this article.

First of all — always remember about energy-saving technologies, as offices are suing great amount of power every hour and day. In the office lighting system should be flexible — it means, that employees should have a choice if they want a lamp switched on or not depending on the time of the day or task they are working on.

Giving a very general recommendation, we would say, that the higher illumination is — then the productivity will be better. Illumination affects our feeling sleepy. The level of light is measured in LUX (lx), so choosing the lighting for your office you should ache for lighting between 500lx and 1000lx, being more concrete — between 750lx and 100lx. It will make your employees not only feeling stress-free but also will affect positively their productivity.

In the office — always use not aggressive, pleasant and bright light colours (warm white, neutral white). Using colours from bright white (those who are more blue than red) might affect your employees in a negative way and make them feel, for example cold.

It is also important to remember about different types of lights for different times of the day. For example, within a day time, it is good to use a neutral white light, while in the evening it is better to use warm light as it will be more natural for humans body and will help to relax your employees more than stress them.