Subject: Re: Office lighting

From: [email-masked] (Jeff Carpenter)
Date: 23 May 1995 19:06:31 -0400

>I received a call from someone yesterday who is working with the
>lighting in a single-story office building.  The business is
>illuminated with deep cell parabolics or possibly even egg-crate
>louvers.  Recently, to cut down on solar gains, the company
>applied a heavy tint to the windows.  Now, from the exterior, the
>luminance of the luminaires is so low that the combination of
>this and the tint make the office appear closed during the day.
>My initial reaction was to tell her to add some luminance to the
>space: wall sconces with a high luminance or possibly even a neon
>OPEN sign, but something to allow a passer by to see that the
>office is open.  This is not the first instance I've heard of
>this type of problem.  I heard of a supermarket that added
>specular reflectors to strip fixtures and created the same
>"Closed Illusion".  They ended up cutting slits in the specular
>reflectors so that the bare lamps were visible from the exterior
>(and it worked).  There are probably more window film
>manufacturers out there than there are reflector manufacturers.
>Is this becoming a common problem, or are these just isolated
>incidents?  Have any of you successfully solved these same type
>problems?
>
>Thanks,
>
>Gregg Mackell
>([email-masked])

I don't have a very high opinion of specular reflectors and I wouldn't mess
to much with the inside light levels in this case if they are happy with it.
On option off the top of my head would be to wall-wash the glass window from
the inside.  I don't know what kind of results you would get but any local
manufacturer's rep that wants to make a sale should be willing to do a
mock-up for you.  The idea would be to light the inside of the glass to a
fairly high intensity, so the interior would seem brighter.  Again, I don't
know what kind of material your working with.  I would like at (depending on
the interior) a wall-wash compact fluorescent downlight or a linear
flourescent mounted from the ceiling.

Just some ideas.

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