Digidim 505 : Technical information : Page 59

Planning the lighting of indoor workplaces

From May 2003 companies in European CEN-countries, have a mu-

tual standard for the planning of lighting of indoor workplaces.

The standard EN 12464-1:2002 – Lighting of work places – Part 1,

has been developed by the technical committee CEN/TC 169 “Light

and Lighting”.

EN 12464-1 applies to the following countries : Belgium, Bulgaria,

Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, Hungary, Ireland,

Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, The Nether-

lands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Switzerland,

Spain, United Kingdom, Sweden, The Czech Republic, Germany and

Austria.

Lighting of indoor workplaces

The following text is an interpretation of the main guidelines in the

European standard for the lighting of indoor workplaces EN 12464-1.

The standard does not cover all aspects of planning a lighting

installation, and reference should also be made to the SLL code for

lighting.

Workplace lighting

The European standard EN 12464-1 highlights the minimum il-

luminance requirements of an actual working area rather than the

entire room. The guidelines recommend that the lighting outside

the working area should be adapted to the conditions that apply

inside the working area. The values stated in the collection of tables,

refer to the lowest illuminances in the workspace of a visual object,

that can be either horizontal, vertical or placed at an angle. The

illuminances documented consider the lowest average values for

working under normal conditions. However, the illuminances can

be adjusted by the increments set out below if the visual conditions

deviate from the normal conditions.

20–30–50–75–150–200–300–500–750–1000–1500–2000–3000–5000 lx

The demands on illuminances used in the workplace, should be

regularly reviewed to overcome the following situations; dicult

working conditions, activities that demand great accuracy or high

productivity, impairment of visual eciency, viewing objects with

ne detail or in low contrasts of light or the use of DSE terminals for

long periods of time.

In practice, the specied illumination can be reduced under the

following conditions; when visual objects have an abnormally large

size and high contrast or when visual work is in progress for short

periods.

In workplaces with continuous occupancy the illuminance must

not drop below 200 lx. Continuous occupancy refers to work that is

performed for more than two hours.

The recommended values assume that the employees have

normal sight. If a greater number of people have some form of sight

impairment, this should be taken into consideration when designing

a lighting installation.

Light planning

European Lighting Standard EN 12464-1

Lighting the visual object

The main principle is that the light falls in such a manner that the

greatest possible contrast is placed on the visual object, which may

have a horizontal, vertical or sloping position. It can also consist of

varied structures or have dierent combinations of surface charac-

teristics, matt, bright etc,resulting in varied reﬂective characteristics.

A basic prerequisite for good visual comfort in the workplace, is

that the work object’s position and shape, in relation to the direction

of light, does not cause any form of unpleasant glare or glare that

impairs the vision e.g. dazzling luminaires or disturbing reections.

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