COMPARISON BETWEEN FLUORESCENT AND LED LIGHTING ON VISIBILITY AND VISUAL COMFORT IN SCHOOL CLASSROOMS

The impact of technological differences between LED and traditional light sources on visibility and visual comfort is still insufficiently understood. The aim of our current study is to evaluate the impact of fluorescent and LED lighting on visibility and visual comfort for students in classrooms when watching a projector screen. 19 students participated in the experiment. Luminaires with fluorescent lamps were compared to luminaires with LEDs at an ambient illumination level of 300lux. At 5 seating positions and 5 different screen luminance levels, the students were asked to tune the contrast of the letters on the projection screen to 1) a value that corresponded to the visibility threshold of the letters, and 2) a value that corresponded to a comfortable threshold for reading the text. The results indicate no significant difference in contrast visibility and in comfortable contrast between the fluorescent and LED based ambient lighting.