CE Pro July 2023 - 24

Lighting
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Start Making Light
More Handy for
Customers
Light can help people see what they
are doing so they can do it better, but
that means designing good light for
our hands - brighter and better placed
than on a ceiling. By David Warfel
THERE ARE five promises of
light that are end benefits of
better illumination - light
can help us do better, know
more, feel better, focus
clearly, and change easily.
They are the why of what
we do as lighting professionals.
But each promise might
also have a subtitle - light
for something can help you
do better, know more, feel
better, focus clearly, and
change easily.
In the case of the first
promise, let's discuss how
light for your hands can
help you do better. Clients
may want to complete
tasks with more ease, more
safety, more comfort, more
efficiency, or higher quality.
Think about folding laundry,
chopping vegetables,
packing a bookbag, reading,
crafting, and so on. We
need light, but it must be in
the proper place.
Sadly, this is not what
most people have. In many
cases, we have light that
helps us get headaches, feel
24 | CE Pro July 2023
uncomfortable, makes us
squint, and causes irises and
pupils to work overtime.
Homes are full of fixtures up
high, near the ceiling, where
our hands are not performing
their tasks. No one chops
a tomato on the ceiling.
Most light is, quite simply,
in the wrong place, of the
wrong kind, or both. Light
can help us see what we
are doing so we can do it
better, but that means we
must have good light for
our hands. This must be the
strongest light in a room,
perhaps brightest. It may
come from the ceiling, but
many options for better
hands lighting come from
elsewhere like a wall or lamp.
Getting the light down
low, closer to our hands,
has several benefits. First,
it provides stronger light
where it is needed. Second,
lowering the light source
will help reduce glare. Even
recessed downlights - the
workhorse of the welldesigned
kitchen - may
Homes shouldn't have a similar gridded lighting design to a
gas station. To perform myriad tasks, we must have proper
light for our hands and proper placement of it.
cause glare or eyestrain.
Finally, light down low can
come from a variety of
sources, making it possible
to achieve more for less
through strategic use of
lamps and task lights.
Most homes feature
lighting that puts the best
light on the ceiling, floor, or
in our faces. We concentrate
on downlight spacing
instead of thinking about
what we need the light for,
like our hands. That means
we might end up with light
that causes subconscious
discomfort (we are biologically
constructed to dislike
light from above; note how
our eyes are sunken underneath
a shelf and eyebrows
to block overhead light).
This gridded layout may
be acceptable for gas station
pumps, but is it what
clients need at home? In the
simple diagram of a living
room on this page, light
for our hands should be
in the middle of each seat
for reading and knitting,
and on the coffee table for
board games and snacks.
This might come from a
recessed downlight over the
coffee table, but lamps can
be better for reading and
crafting. The lighting plan
is completely different, but
much more effective.
Strong, shadow-free
light on a kitchen counter
is ideal for cooking. Strong,
low-angled light is ideal for
reading or drawing. Each
task, each function, has its
own best light. But it will
almost always be where our
hands are.
Of course, this light is
only one of five or six layers,
or gifts of light, that make
a complete environment.
Some layers might come
from the same fixture, but
often we will utilize different
fixtures to do different
things.
DAVID WARFEL is Chief
Evangelist of Light at design
firm Light Can Help You
(lightcanhelpyou.com).
cepro.com
LIGHT CAN HELP YOU
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CE Pro July 2023

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