In recent years, facility managers have been paying more and more attention to the quality of office lighting. The reasons are clear – not only growing employee complaints about eye strain, headaches and poor concentration, but also more frequent checks by labour inspectors and health and safety authorities are pushing companies to comply with the standards.
The aim of this article is to help you adjust your office lighting so that you meet the standards, keep costs to a minimum and at the same time improve employee comfort and productivity.
Which standards and regulations apply to office lighting?
In practical terms, the requirements can be divided into two levels. The first is the mandatory minimum that the employer must meet by law, which follows mainly from occupational health and safety regulations and hygiene requirements for the working environment.
The second level is the technical minimum defined by the EN 12464-1 standard, which sets requirements for the lighting of indoor workplaces, including:
- administrative areas,
- open-plan offices,
- meeting rooms,
- archives,
- technical rooms,
- receptions.
To give you a clearer idea of the lighting levels and visual parameters required for different types of office space, we have prepared a table summarising three key parameters:
- maintained illuminance (lux), which provides enough light for reading, writing or computer work;
- colour rendering index (CRI/Ra), which determines how accurately and faithfully colours are rendered;
- maximum glare (UGR), which rates uncomfortable brightness and reflections that can tire the eyes.
| Type of workplace / activity | Maintained illuminance (lux) | Min. CRI (Ra) | Max. UGR (glare) |
|---|---|---|---|
| General office work (writing, reading, PC work) | 500 | ≥ 80 | ≤ 19 |
| Detailed work requiring high contrast (technical drawing, CAD) | 750 | ≥ 90 | ≤ 16 |
| Conference rooms (presentations and meetings) | 500 | ≥ 80 | ≤ 19 |
| Reception, waiting areas (less demanding visual tasks) | 300 | ≥ 80 | ≤ 22 |
| Archives, technical rooms (reduced light, mainly for orientation) | 200 | ≥ 60 | ≤ 25 |
Important: The values in the table are limits below which lighting should not fall if the working environment is to meet basic ergonomic and safety criteria.
The most common breaches of standards in modern offices
Even in new or recently refurbished offices we very often find that the lighting does not actually meet the requirements of the standards.
Let us look at the most common shortcomings found during office audits.
- Insufficient lighting of desks – values often only 200–350 lux instead of the recommended 500 lux.
- High glare (UGR > 22–25) – typical of LED panels without diffusers.
- Cold light (6,500 K) with low CRI (<70) – reduces visual comfort and tires the eyes.
- Uneven lighting (U₀ < 0.4–0.6) – dark corners and shadows cast by furniture.
- Insufficient lighting of vertical surfaces – monitors, whiteboards.
- Poorly placed daylight sensors – lead to unnecessary lighting near windows and raise energy costs.
Interestingly, most shortcomings in office lighting are neither intentional nor the result of negligence. Often the lighting is the responsibility of a person or team who makes sure the system works but has no specialist knowledge of lighting technology.
Another common reason is a change to the design during construction – the originally specified luminaires are replaced with cheaper alternatives that work, but cannot keep glare at the right level or deliver uniformity and good colour rendering.
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Practical solutions – how to comply with the standard
- Replacing fluorescent tubes with LED luminaires with diffusers and CRI ≥ 80 – modern LED sources are easier on the eyes, reduce glare on work surfaces and save a lot of energy.
- Rearranging furniture – removing large shadows cast by cabinets or partitions improves lighting uniformity.
- Local desk lamps – suitable for detailed work, CAD or technical drawing.
- Changing the colour temperature to 4000 K (neutral white) – eliminates the eye strain caused by cold 6500 K light.
- Presence and daylight sensors – automatic lighting control increases comfort and brings significant energy savings.
Conclusion
These measures are practical, quick to implement and, when used correctly, can solve some office lighting problems without an expensive refurbishment. Keep in mind, however, that these tips may be enough for a basic improvement in comfort, but nothing replaces a professional lighting design.
It includes professional illuminance calculations, analysis of glare and uniformity, simulations of lighting conditions and a proposal for the optimal layout of luminaires for the specific space. It is a professional design that often reveals problems that cannot be seen with the naked eye but have a major impact on employee comfort and performance.
📞 If you want to be sure that the lighting in your office meets both the standards and people’s real needs, get in touch with us – we will be happy to prepare a professional design and recommendations tailored to your premises.
