Answering this as someone with 1,000-2,000 lux in my office depending on which direction I’m looking.
If 1,000 lux is enough to keep a human alert and non-SAD, then it seems like shade is no worse than sun
I can’t speak to SAD or health benefits, but 1,000 lux indoors subjectively feels pretty bright. Now that I’m used to it, I wouldn’t mind it being maybe 5x brighter, but whenever anyone else walks into my office they start acting out the “it burns us” Gollum scene from the Lord of the Rings.
Or, maybe people installing lumenators in their homes just stop at 1,000 lux because it’s impractical to get an order of magnitude more lux than that.
I have 8 4-ft 1,800 lumen (18 W) LED tubes plus a 3,600 lumen (36 W) corn bulb. They cover the entire ceiling parimeter of the room, and use 180 W of power. Using 10x more would be impractical.
Although, my lumen-to-lux ratio is low because I didn’t want to feel like I’m sitting in a spotlight. I suspect I could get close to 10,000 lux with my current setup if I put all of the lights together, but I think it would be pleasant. I’ve been tempted to keep my current setup and add a “high bay UFO light” but haven’t felt like doing the wiring.
I could see the spotlight being unpleasant because the brightness differences might cause eye strain, unless the light is really perfectly placed. Sunlight (or even shade) seems much better in this regard. Interesting idea though—I’m surprised how affordable that spotlight is.
Answering this as someone with 1,000-2,000 lux in my office depending on which direction I’m looking.
I can’t speak to SAD or health benefits, but 1,000 lux indoors subjectively feels pretty bright. Now that I’m used to it, I wouldn’t mind it being maybe 5x brighter, but whenever anyone else walks into my office they start acting out the “it burns us” Gollum scene from the Lord of the Rings.
I have 8 4-ft 1,800 lumen (18 W) LED tubes plus a 3,600 lumen (36 W) corn bulb. They cover the entire ceiling parimeter of the room, and use 180 W of power. Using 10x more would be impractical.
Although, my lumen-to-lux ratio is low because I didn’t want to feel like I’m sitting in a spotlight. I suspect I could get close to 10,000 lux with my current setup if I put all of the lights together, but I think it would be pleasant. I’ve been tempted to keep my current setup and add a “high bay UFO light” but haven’t felt like doing the wiring.
Note: If you don’t mind spotlights, 10,000 lux isn’t that hard. Just buy one of these and point it directly at your face.
I could see the spotlight being unpleasant because the brightness differences might cause eye strain, unless the light is really perfectly placed. Sunlight (or even shade) seems much better in this regard. Interesting idea though—I’m surprised how affordable that spotlight is.