What is the best way to control glare levels?
Glare is the eye experiencing an abrupt and large change in brightness in its visual field. Therefore any light fitting can cause glare by being much brighter than the rest of the room. If a light, or part of a light, that can be seen directly, is more than 10 times brighter than the immediate surrounding surfaces this may be source of discomfort. A car headlight does not cause glare during the day, but does so at night, because of the drop in ambient level. Glare thresholds can be passed with visible light sources of almost all types and therefore, particularly in workplaces, we would usually recommend indirect light or light that shrouded by lenses or diffusers.
