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Ask HN: What type of lamp (or light/lumen) do you use in your home office?

26 points by boredemployee ↗ HN
Hi! I'm wondering what lamps other devs are using in their home office while working.

I have this thing in my eyes called "eye floaters" and I find it particularly annoying when I'm in very bright environments.

Tips are more than welcome!

46 comments

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scrapheap
I tend to notice those "eye floaters" more as I get older. I find that white backgrounds on the screen make them a lot more noticeable, so I now use dark modes in some apps and have changed my desktop's background colour to a darker colour.
Silica6149
Did the eye doctor say anything about the amount of your floaters? I was warned that if I started seeing a lot more than what I currently do, then it's an emergency...
scrapheap
A sudden noticeable increase in the number of floaters should definitely be treated as an emergency as it can be symptom of some conditions that result in blindness if not treated quickly.
boredemployee
yep. i have been suffering with some new floaters since some months, but just went to see the doc recently and he said its all good with my retine, i still need to do other complementary exams tho to make sure. might be valuable to add that i found out that toxoplasmosis can be responsible for it and, coincidentally or not, i got a cat since last year. let's see whats going on.
morninglight
Thanks for the heads-up about toxoplasmosis. This was something new for me.

I just Googled "toxoplasmosis eye floaters" and almost fell off my chair. Very interesting.

boredemployee
felt the same way! it's incredible how easy one can get fucked up for these tiny parasites out there.
twobitshifter
I just got my first floaters and they’re very distracting, I didn’t realize it was a common condition until the eye exam. I was told that my brain will filter them put as they become known but that they never go away. The concern would be if i started seeing flashing lights or they were very dark floaters.
krnlpnc
Using Phillips warm glow leds for a few years now and no complaints
eternityforest
Warm and neutral white LEDs everywhere except the fridge.

I use cool white there just for the impression of coldness and cleanliness.

I have a pretty cheap LED desk lamp but other than that I just use the ceiling fixtures.

theden
Warm for everything, it's made a huge difference for me—mainly for mood, I find the "corporate" white too sterile. Even better if you can get smart lightbulbs which allow to set the brightness
mgbmtl
I have a Phillips Hue dimmable on the ceiling.

I can set it to warm, and also dim in the evening (or if I notice that my balding forehead is glowing too much during a video call) :-)

I had floaters if the light source was in my field of vision (ex: desk lamp near my screen).

bluedino
I use the $45 6-packs of LED "T5" lights on Amazon. There are various sellers, I did my whole basement with them. Much better than the old fluorescent lights that were there.
sgt
Floaters is very common for people with myopia. Nothing to be worried about in most cases but can be annoying. If you try to focus on them (or remind yourself that they are there), it gets worse.
ochre-ogre
I don't work with colour so I prefer warm yellow lighting to white.
dorkwood
I work with color and still prefer warm yellow lighting. No complaints so far.
pluijzer
I use a warm colour, almost orange as the main light. When needed I have less warm, but still warm desk-lamp. Like mentioned in a precious comment for me it improves my mood also a lot.
smcleod
I use two or three high CRI (95+) yuji LED bulbs that are 3500K (warm daylight) and around 1100lmns. These are in lamps as side lighting facing away from me (so that the light shines on the walls).

In the mornings I also have some bright down lighting that is a bit cooler - probably around 5000K, the light from these is noticeable at the top of my vision to help me wake up and become alert.

For non-work lighting I have Philips Hue bulbs everywhere and are very happy with those.

But for very high CRI these bulbs are excellent: https://www.yujiintl.com/high-cri-led-lighting.html

pigtailgirl
-- Philips Hue Gradient Signe Table Lamp - looks good - super super solid base (not knocking it over for sure) - works on BT doesn't need a hub - I like to change the color - color of light drastically changes my mood - I'm sure there are cheap alternatives however this is what I use --
zhte415
Daylight. I'm fortunate to have 270 degree windows.

If the evening and still working, two 16W (100W equivalent) floor standing lights from IKEA, of which one or both may be turned on, behind me, not in field of vision, cream or mild yellow.

I found floaters worse when working with dual monitors and regularly flicking my eyes between screens. I now primarily work with one screen, a very standard ThinkPad experience; focus on a single screen has also brought a workflow change. If needing an additional screen I have a projector (meetings, thinking, walking around) or an external screen which I almost exclusively reserve for video calls and no more (workflow change).

danaris
Same; I'm fortunate enough to have my home office set up in our sunroom.

When it gets dark enough, I have a floor lamp with 5 fairly generic LED bulbs, controlled by an Eve smart plug.

poisonborz
+1 for Philips Hue - just get E27 bulbs that you can pair with any style of lamp you like. Note that now there are "standard" 800 lumen and 1100 and 1600 Lumen versions - but confusingly the bigger lumens are not for the whole color spectrum. You need to check tests/youtube videos if they are worth for your use case/color preferences.

You could get colored bulbs for much cheaper, but the build quality/stability/compability is unmatched.

Generally I find colored lights to be awesome - not only can you set warmth (from striking white if you are looking for something in the room, to warmest yellow when relaxing) seeing your surroundings in different colors per night does add a lot to your mood.

lloeki
Similar story, only I got Ikea Tradfri E14 and E27 bulbs, non-colored, that go from very warm (orange-ish even) to very white, and dimmable brightness. I guess getting into colored reduces the number of non-colored leds and thus max brightness and "accuracy".

The good: Entirely local. No cloud needed (and none exists). Hub does not phone home, except to query for updates, which is done without any extra metadata (this has been scrutinized[0] by multiple people). Updates have very synthetic but sensible changelogs. Hub provides an API over CoAP that has been reverse engineered[1], and is actually quite sensibly designed. Bulb-remote pairing and operation does not require hub at all, which is only used by the app for advanced features and discrete control. This means one can choose not to have a hub at all, or that should LAN be down for any reason - or for guests that don't have the app/lan access - there is a graceful degradation path from the app to the remotes.

The bad: Lowest dimmer setting could be lower, at night I feel it's still quite bright. Not blessed by HomeKit for Adaptive lighting. I wish mains-powered remotes that replace physical switches existed, possibly with an additional small emergency physical switch, instead of CR2032 thingies (I blocked the physical switches so that the bulbs are never powered off, which would kill automation when guests or old habits cut power via the switch. If I want to cut power I do it via the circuit breaker panel. Also the constant power draw when off is small enough to be largely offseted by automation).

The ugly: my E14 bulbs have some coil whine when light is out. Issue is known and widely reported, not sure if it's been fixed in recent production batches. Luckily I use them in places where we're absent when they're off (e.g not bedroom).

The used-to-be-ugly: at first everything was perfectly working, then some updates broke stuff: hub loss of IP connectivity seemingly after DHCP lease expiration, some bulbs would desync/crash, requiring pairing them again, and other connectivity issues. IIRC this lasted a year and then a batch of updates were released addressing each issue in turn.

Usage/main goal: adaptive/circadian lighting throughout home. Working from home, this has been lifechanging.

[0]: https://mjg59.dreamwidth.org/47803.html

[1]: https://github.com/glenndehaan/ikea-tradfri-coap-docs

jmpman
Loved my Philips Hue bulbs, but they only lasted about 2 years and then all started failing. At their price, it was hard to justify for such a short lifespan.
poisonborz
When did you purchase those? There was a quite different Gen1 in 2012. I roll without problems for 5+ years with dozens of bulbs.
jmpman
2018, Philips Hue Color bulbs. Was a 4 pack plus a hub for $137.73 They all failed within a few months of each other.
batch12
Hm. I just assumed everyone saw 'floaters'. I see the big ones that float atound and tiny ones that zip along paths (I assume those are blood cells). They can be distracting. I can't look at something white or bright without them being obvious. Do you see static too or is that just me?
cassianoleal
I have tons of them as well. Different sizes and shapes. Mostly just floating around, fairly static.

I think I first noticed them when I was a teenager. It never bothered me. Mostly I don't even notice them but when I do I usually just smile a bit as I find it amusing and carry on.

h2odragon
Statistical outlier: I like it dark.

Basement room with no windows. 5x, 3W "warm white" LED bulbs around the room, all aimed at walls or corners and shaded so there's no direct light anywhere. I can read in this light but others can't see well at all in here and I have to turn on more lights for them.

lsiunsuex
+1 for Philips Hue. Almost all lights in the house and landscaping are colored bulbs / strips. Not related to the floaters, but the upper kitchen cabinets have light strips as well as under the bathroom vanity - both tied to their own philips motion sensors. Just make good night lights when you enter a room.
yabones
I like to have things well-lit, but only with indirect light and no "hot spots" that I find distracting. What works best for me:

* North side of the house, so no direct sunlight and nice even shadows

* Lots of lamps - currently have four lamps around the room, some pointing up at the ceiling and some with large shades to even out the light.

* Warm colours - All the lamps are incandescent or around 3-4k kelvin.

* Timers on all the lights - Old school mechanical timers - I always forget to turn things off at the end of the day, so it's nice to just leave and not worry about it anymore. Also nice for the AM, coming into the room already lit up and looking cozy.

kayodelycaon
13’ x 9’ room with:

3 x 1600 lumen daylight bulbs in a ceiling fixture on a dimmer switch.

2 x 1100 lumen Phillips hue color bulbs in a lamp behind my laptop screen

1 x 2400 lumen color led strip for under desk lighting

It’s decently bright in here when everything is 100%. I normally dim the lights to a comfortable level depending on how I feel.

For late-night D&D, I go with dim yellow lighting and turn off the ceiling lights.

jaimex2
I thought we all just hacked in the dark with hoodies.
ChrisMarshallNY
> I have this thing in my eyes called "eye floaters" and I find it particularly annoying when I'm in very bright environments.

They become more prominent, as we get older.

I use one of these: https://www.taotronics.com/products/tt-dl16-led-desk-lamp

Works fairly well, and cheaper than many.

I had to put a sticky pad on the wireless charger, though. The teeny rubber corners are worthless, and everything slides off.

teilo
My office/music studio is in my finished basement. I use two open bulb fixtures, 4 bulbs each, with Sylvania TruWave soft whites (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08MWYMZCK), on an LED dimmer switch set to around 60% (most of the time).

I used to use a bulb from Prometheus (https://darksucks.com/products/ultra-high-cri-led-lightbulb) that had excellent color rendering, but they were expensive, and despite their 3 year warranty, half the bulbs failed in 6 months. I finally got tired of asking for replacements and just gave up.