Setting up your child's first desk? Proper lighting is key

Not only you, but also your children need a good setup to work from home. Since schoolwork is usually done in the afternoon or evening, good lighting is key.

German industry expert Iris Vollmann shares some tips on how to assure the best lighting for your schoolchild's workplace.

Balanced basic illumination

An evenly-lit room helps your child to concentrate. Basic lighting relieves strain on the eyes which otherwise must constantly make adjustments to varying levels of brightness.

This means that the child should not only have an individual lamp on the desk, but that the main source of light in the room should also be switched on.

Indirect lighting from the ceiling or walls is usually the most pleasant. This can be achieved with wall or floor lamps, or, alternatively, with diffuse ceiling lamps or track systems with wide-beam lights.

The desk lamp should not be blinding

On the desk, lighting should consist of two components - an anti-reflective pendant light with direct and indirect light components installed above the desk and a rotating and swivelling table lamp.

Position the table lamp so that the writing hand does not cast a shadow on the page. The lamp should not cause reflections on the computer screen or on gleaming surfaces on, or near, the desk.

Adapt lighting according to the time of day

The colour of artificial lighting should be in tune with the time of day. Before noon and in the early afternoon, Vollmann recommends a neutral white colour of at least 3,500 Kelvins - a scale used to measure the colour temperature of a light bulb. "The high blue components are good for alertness and concentration," the lighting expert explains.

"In the evening, a subdued, warm light of maximum 2,700k is best so that the sleep-wake rhythm is not unnecessarily disrupted. This also means switching the computer screen to night mode."

Sufficient illumination strength

The level of basic lighting in a study should be at least 300 lux - the unit measuring the amount of light falling on a surface. Vollmann recommends light sources with about 600 lumens - the measure of how much light is emitted from a bulb. This value can be found on the lightbulb packaging. The desk itself should be illuminated with at least 500 lux, a level provided by a lamp with 1,000 lumens.

Whether the lighting in the child's room is in fact performing at that level can be measured with a luxmeter or a light meter app.

Feel free to apply all those tips to your own workspace as well!