How Can You Light An Office Without Overhead Lighting?

Lighting an office without overhead lights can seem pretty difficult if you don’t have access to it. But once you get into it, it can give you enormous benefits. Lighting an office without overhead light is quite fun and challenging too.

If you are lighting an office without overhead lights, you can use desk lamps, wall lamps, LED wall lights, smart bulbs, floor lamps, LED Flameless Candles, tree lamps, and plug-in pendants. You can even send light upwards to the ceiling to make it fall downward using the light scheme technique.

Don’t have access to overhead lighting? You might think this is a disadvantage but trust me other bright opportunities come with this disadvantage so, it’s not actually a disadvantage.

Office lighting is deeply related to health and productivity. It also contributes to the overall environment and aesthetics of the office. Lighting an office without overhead lighting brings a lot of advantages with it.

In this article, we will tell how you can light an office without overhead lighting and some amazing tips on how you can improve the lighting of your office.

So, keep on reading to find out more, and let’s get started.

How Much Light Does An Office Room Need?

Before we start our main quest, we have to find out the basic things we need. The first question is how much light does an office room need?

Well, different rooms require different lighting depending on their sizes and how much natural light you are getting. A normal 100 sq ft room requires 2000 lumens to light the room. Now you can follow this measurement to count the rest of the lumens. This also varies depending on the office space.

There is a simple way you can do with this method

1. Determine the total area of the room. For doing that, just simply multiply the length and width of the room together.
2. Find out the footcandle requirement of your needs.
3. Now, multiply the room square ft by the footcandle number (offices require 20-75 footcandles).

The footcandle number has a variation depending on the space, here are some footcandle sizes for different office spaces.

Accounting: 50-100

Conference Areas: 20-70

Corridors: 20

General and private offices: 50-100

Reception area: 0-20

Printing or working area: 20-50

So, determine the light requirements of your office room first with this simple method. After that, the rest of the work will be easy to do. Suppose, if your office needs 6000 lumens you can install wall lights with 1000 lumens each. Or you can even use different varieties of lights.

To get the 6000 lumens, you can install 3 wall lamps of 1000 lumen and 4-floor lamps with 500 lumens each, we only have 1000 lumens left to light the room. Install 2 wall scones with 500 lumens each facing the ceiling with the help of the indirect lighting technique.

Best Kind Of Lighting For An Office Room With No Overhead Lights?

Wall lighting is the best kind of lighting for an office room with no overhead lights. If you cannot use the ceilings, use the wall. And some people even use the floor because it adds ornamental value to the office.

Wall lighting might seem like hard but trust me it has numerous benefits. Install lights on the wall according to your needs. You can arrange them in a decorating order to make them look better.

Also, when installing them, think of your surroundings. Do not install lights directly facing you or your desk. This might harm your eyes, and make them strain while working. Arrange them according to your comfort.

There are other options available too, such as LED smart bulbs and light fixtures. Smart bulbs will let you control the light. Some even come with a remote. Getting them will be a great benefit.

Lamps are a great option for lighting an office without overhead lights. You can easily install them on your desks or corners of the room. Doing this will increase the interior value of your office.

Install LED fixtures on the wall, and there are some fixtures that can be installed on desks.

Creating Enough Light In An Office Room With No Overhead Lights?

Creating enough light in an office room depends on two options, whether you have any windows or not. For your convenience, we will discuss both in this article.

With Window

Our first suggestion with the window would be, to make the best use of natural light in the daytime. This way you can save some extra bucks on your electricity bill. In the daytime, you can keep the windows open to get some more natural light. This will also increase the airflow in the office.

Without Window

Lighting an office without any window is not any hassle. It’s a fun work you can do and learn a lot. In this case, you have to mimic some windows. Yes, you have to create fake windows. You can install LED strip lights at the corner of your windows, this will also let you get enough lights. This fake window can be your greatest solution for lights.

Using Light Scheme To Light An Office Without Overhead Lighting

You might have heard about the light scheme, in case you didn’t let me tell you about the light scheme. It’s a fun topic.

The light scheme is the percentage of light falling from upwards to downwards from the light source. There are four types of the lighting scheme.

Direct

90-100% of light emits from the light source downwards.

Semi-Direct

60-90% of lumen emits from the light source downwards.

Indirect

Light is thrown upwards at the ceiling to get 90% diffused light.

Semi-indirect

Light is thrown upward to get 60-90% of diffused light.

Diffused

This is done by light fixtures.

Here we will mostly talk about the indirect light scheme. In the indirect light scheme, the light is thrown upwards at the ceiling to get 90% diffused reflection and the light gets reflected in the whole room. This is a useful process, and the lights create an aesthetic look in the room.

You can use this to send the light upward and install any reflector or make the ceiling paint white to get the best results. You can also install light fixtures to get diffused light around the room. This type of light is actually healthy as it gets diffused first.

Using Wall Lights In An Office Room With No Overhead Lights

Wall lighting is the best kind of solution for an office room with no overhead lights. There are various types of wall lighting available on the market. You can get smart bulbs, wall lamps, LED tube lights, etc.

Installing wall lights will give you the ultimate solution to this problem. There are also cheaper options available on the market to buy lights from. Try to install LED bulbs as they are energy sufficient, and durable.

Choose LED lights according to your needs, there are some bulbs that will let you dim them with a remote. Also, there are more customizable options available. LED lights are durable, they will help you save extra money in the long run.

You can install two or three LED lights on a wall to get the best result, that will also depend on the amount of light you need in your office. You can also install three lights together on a wall to make a light source like the sun, this will also enhance the overall lighting.

Using Lamps In A Room With No Overhead Lights

Lamps are a great solution for lighting an office room with no overhead lights. They also look cool and aesthetic when installed. Installing them will increase the decorating value of your office.

You can also use desk lamps on your desk to get more lights. Lamps are also great for indirect light. If you are having a migraine and still have to work, just turn on the desk lamp. It will send indirect light without worsening your migraine.

You can also install big lamps at the corners of your room, this will make the room look cooler and neater.

You can buy LED lamps as they are energy sufficient and durable. They will help you save some extra bucks in the long run.

Creating Fake Windows

This is a total fun concept and new. Creating fake windows of lights is fun. To do this you have to install a fake window and install some LED fixtures in it, after installing everything cover it with a haze glass. And boom.

Trust me, the result will amaze everyone. You just have to visualize it. In this way, you can get more light and have a virtual window! Voila, there you have it, a surrealistic window.

Utilize Natural Light

If you have access to natural light in your office, it will be better to make the best use of it. Remember natural lights are good and fundamental for us. But even if you don’t have access to it, do not worry about it. We have plenty of other options available.

But still, try to utilize more sunlight if you can get them.

Plug-In Pendant Light

These pendant lights do not require to dance like a chandelier on the roof. They are designed in such a way that you can hang them on the wall. They are pretty good for any space without overhead lighting.

Buy some of these to add more variety to your office as they do not need to be hung from the roof. To install wall pendants, attach the hook to your wall and set the pendant light in it with the wiring running through the hook.

LED Flameless Candles

LED flameless candles are super cool-looking light-emitting bulbs. They are good for desk lighting or reception lighting. You can even keep them in the conference room. They will easily light the room by adding some ornamental value.

These flameless candles look like real candles, and they are a great source of diffused light. You can even keep them for decoration purposes.

Floor Lamps

Floor lamps can easily light the room for you. There are varieties of floor lamps available on the market. Floor lamps are great for lighting, and they also fulfill the decoration purpose.

You can use taller and brighter ones, also use some small ones with them gathering in a corner. You can use several of them to get evenly distributed light throughout the whole room. Place reflective objects near them to enhance the light.

You can also replace their bulbs with LED smart bulbs. This will let you get more control over the lighting.

Use Smart Bulbs

Smart bulbs can help you a lot. LED smart bulbs are customizable, and they will let you get more control over your lighting. Use LED smart bulbs in lamps, pendant lamps, and floor lamps.

Smart bulbs are energy sufficient and durable. They will help you save extra money on your electricity bill. Because they are more durable than other bulbs, they will last longer.

Mirror

Mirrors are the secondary options for an office without overhead lighting. Install mirrors near light sources such as pendant lamps, floor lamps, or even the fake window.

Light will get easily reflected throughout the mirror. Plus, mirrors can add decorative value to your office. Place some plants near mirrors to make it look even better. Also placing greens here and there in your office will make it look classier.

Wall Scones

Wall scones are a type of light that can be installed on a wall into a box.  The concept is similar to wall fixtures, but wall scones are much more modern and stylish.

You can also direct their way of light because they have lids. The light source is covered, normally with glass.

Tree Lamps

Tree lamps are another type of light that looks like a tree. It can be used for decoration purposes, but you can also replace the lights with brighter ones to get the best result.

Try to install smart bulbs in them.

Wrapping Up

There are many types of lighting available on the market and there are many alternatives too. These options are quite amazing and cost-effective.

In this article, we tried to give you the idea of how you can light an office without overhead lighting. My recommendation will be, to try to use more than one type of light. When installing lights, try to maintain symmetry between them as this will distribute the light evenly.

I hope you found this article helpful to improve your office lighting without any overhead lights. So, let the actual work begin now.