The most important highlights of the 2023 revision of the LG07 guide are home office lighting advice, circular economy and embodied carbon.
The Society for Light and Lighting (SLL) published the new Lighting Guide 07: Offices in December 2022. With the post covid increase of hybrid working, and the wide use of portable technology, the office environment has faced a lot of changes since the guide was last published in 2015. We read the guide and thought that we would highlight the most notable changes.
The first chapter dedicated to Approach to designing lighting in work space is aligned to the guidelines set in British Standard BS EN 12464-1:2021 Light and Lighting. The guide considers the visual comfort of the individual, whilst calling for reduced energy, where appropriate. This approach is based around the level of illumination which is either increased or decreased taking factors like the use of space and the context modifiers into consideration. This can be seen as a significant change to how light levels are considered.
To address the growing trend of working from home, the guide now includes a new part dedicated to Home offices in the chapter on Office types. It acknowledges the reality of people setting up their offices in spare bedrooms and spaces which might lack natural light. The advice is to carefully position the desk to maximise the exposure to daylight and supplement the existing lighting with task lighting. Chapter 13 offers a more practical guide on how to set the workstation in the domestic environment to increase the amount of light and allow people to work more comfortably and be more productive.
The chapter on Energy now recognises Operational energy and a completely new part, Embodied energy. The information on the embodied energy of a luminaire can be found in the Environmental Product Declarations (EPD). The main message here is that impact of energy use and carbon emissions must be considered when designing an office lighting installation. The guide is encouraging to reuse the existing light fittings where possible, or use new control gear fitted into existing luminaire bodies. This might prove to be challenging, as there are so many parties involved in commercial fit out projects. The CIBSE and SLL have produced a new model TM66: Creating a circular economy in the lighting industry, which provides more detailed information on reusing existing equipment and a circular economy.
To find out more details about LG 7, check out our guide to lighting regulations section on our website.
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