Ask YC: What do you use for personal workspace lighting when natural light is not available?

5 points·jamesbritt··5 comments

I'm lucky to have my office desk next to a window, so I get some decent natural light during the day, but when I want to work into the evening I find that my current GE "Reveal" full-spectrum 60-watt lamp isn't quote enough.

What do folks here do to get good lighting when the Sun isn't around?

View on HN

I have one of these:

http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/40141079

It sits directly behind my monitor and lights up the room so that I am not blinded by my monitor. It isn't enough to read by, though, so if I need to do that I use a regular desk lamp. But for computing, this sort of setup is ideal (IMHO anyway).

A halogen torch lamp with variable output. Nice indirect light and no flickering.

I agree--I find the light of halogen lamps to be crisp and without the hazy effect of traditional incandescent bulbs, making it easier to work for long periods of time without excessive eye fatigue.

About five years ago I moved to a new place and had a very hard time finding halogen torchieres in stores. I never learned exactly why, but I suspect it was due to liability issues, because this was around the same time they started putting bird cages on top of the lamps.

Yeah, a lot of the torch lamps these days are using CF bulbs since they are more efficient and don't have the big fire dangers. :-(

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=123879 from 53 days ago

Reply on news.ycombinator.com