Standard
The New Buildings Institute outlines advanced strategies for lighting open offices with suspended indirect T8 or T5HO luminaires and T8 undercabinet task lights. These strategies require a minimum ceiling height of 9'-6" and consume 0.8 to 0.9 w/sf.

Improved
Furniture-mounted indirect lighting uses fewer luminaires and T5HO lamps to achieve comparable lighting for offices with ceilings as low as 8'-0". Panel-mounted task lights liberate primary work-zones from overhead cabinets for an increased sense of spaciousness.

Better
Use task ambient luminaires at primary workzones to increase ceiling uniformity and ambient light levels without increasing energy use. Expand lighting at task areas and use standard output lamps throughout to simplify relamping.

Much Better
Re-arrange workstation elements to maximize the use of task ambient lighting and eliminate task-only and ambient-only systems. Standardize lamping, provide multiple areas of task lighting and surround brightness in each workstation, and reduce energy use to 0.7 w/sf.

Best
Use low-landscape storage elements to maximize openness, and consolidate task ambient lighting at primary task areas. Use fewer luminaires and paired 3-ft standard T5 lamps to reduce energy use to 0.68 w/sf* (0.62 w/sf.* using single 5-ft lamps.)