How bright should a desk lamp be?

Aim for about 500 lux measured on the desk surface, the level EN 12464-1 sets for office reading and writing. Brightness on the box is quoted in lumens at the bulb, which is a different thing. A lamp sitting 40 to 50 cm above the desk usually needs 400 to 800 lumens to land there.

Do you need a desk lamp if the room has a ceiling light?

Usually yes. A ceiling light sits behind you and throws your own shadow across the desk, and it rarely puts enough light on the work surface itself. A lamp aimed from the side opposite your writing hand fixes both, and lights the desk without lighting the whole room.

What colour should bias lighting behind a monitor be?

6500K white, because that matches the white point most screens ship at, so the wall behind the monitor does not tint what you see. Keep it at roughly 10 percent of the screen brightness. Colour strips are fine elsewhere in the room, just not directly behind the display.

How many watts does a USB-C hub need to pass through?

85W or more if a laptop charges through it, because a hub keeps some of what it is fed. A hub advertising 100W input often delivers 85W onward and uses the rest itself. Check the pass-through figure, not the input figure, and match it to the laptop original charger.

Can a USB-C hub run a 4K monitor at 60Hz?

Only if the spec says 4K 60Hz outright. Plenty of cheaper hubs cap HDMI output at 4K 30Hz, which makes cursor movement look smeared and laggy. The hub, the cable and the laptop port all have to support 60Hz, so the weakest of the three sets the result.

Subject

Everyday Tech

Nobody photographs their charger, and it is still the thing most likely to wreck an afternoon.

5 min read

Bias Lighting and LED Strips: How to Light the Wall Behind a Monitor

Light the wall behind the screen at 6500K, keep it dim, and buy a strip that reads as one clean line instead of a row of dots.

5 min read

Desk Lamp Guide: Brightness, Colour Temperature and Where to Put It

About 500 lux on the desk, a colour temperature that fits the hour, and the lamp on the side opposite your writing hand.

5 min read

USB-C Hubs, Chargers and Cables: What to Check Before You Buy

Most desk power problems come down to one hidden number: watts per port, watts the hub keeps, or watts the cable can carry.

Two jobs, and people only light one

Desk lighting is two separate problems. One is light on the work surface so your hands and anything on paper are actually visible. The other is light behind the screen so your eyes are not staring at a bright rectangle in a dark room. A single lamp cannot do both well, because the first wants light aimed down at the desk and the second wants it aimed at a wall.

The task side is the one with a standard behind it: about 500 lux on the surface, CRI 90 or better, and the lamp on the side opposite your writing hand so your own hand stops shading the work. That last one sounds fussy and it is the fix people notice first. Where to put a desk lamp covers the placement and the colour temperature question together, since the two interact.

The wall side is cheaper and gets ignored. A strip behind the monitor at 6500K, dim, reads as one clean line of light rather than a row of visible dots — the difference is COB versus SMD, and it is worth knowing before you buy, which is most of what a bias lighting setup gets wrong.

The numbers: 500 lux, 6500K, 85 watts

Three figures cover nearly everything on this pillar. 500 lux on the desk. 6500K behind the screen. And 85W of pass-through power, because a hub fed 100W does not hand 100W to your laptop — it keeps a slice. That gap between the input number on the box and the number that reaches the machine is where most desk power disappointment lives, and the four checks before buying a hub are all about finding the real figure.

Where to start if the desk already works

Start with the lamp, because bad task light is the thing you feel by 4pm. Bias lighting second. Power last, unless something is currently failing, in which case power is first and everything else waits.

One honest caveat on hubs: a single cable to a laptop is genuinely tidy, and it also means one failure point for screen, network, keyboard and charge. Some people are happier with two cables. Either way the cables have to go somewhere, and running them properly under the desk is the same afternoon of work. Before any of it, check the desk itself — the measurements that decide a desk include whether there is depth behind the monitor for a lamp base at all.

Common questions

How bright should a desk lamp be?: Aim for about 500 lux measured on the desk surface, the level EN 12464-1 sets for office reading and writing. Brightness on the box is quoted in lumens at the bulb, which is a different thing. A lamp sitting 40 to 50 cm above the desk usually needs 400 to 800 lumens to land there.
Do you need a desk lamp if the room has a ceiling light?: Usually yes. A ceiling light sits behind you and throws your own shadow across the desk, and it rarely puts enough light on the work surface itself. A lamp aimed from the side opposite your writing hand fixes both, and lights the desk without lighting the whole room.
What colour should bias lighting behind a monitor be?: 6500K white, because that matches the white point most screens ship at, so the wall behind the monitor does not tint what you see. Keep it at roughly 10 percent of the screen brightness. Colour strips are fine elsewhere in the room, just not directly behind the display.
How many watts does a USB-C hub need to pass through?: 85W or more if a laptop charges through it, because a hub keeps some of what it is fed. A hub advertising 100W input often delivers 85W onward and uses the rest itself. Check the pass-through figure, not the input figure, and match it to the laptop original charger.
Can a USB-C hub run a 4K monitor at 60Hz?: Only if the spec says 4K 60Hz outright. Plenty of cheaper hubs cap HDMI output at 4K 30Hz, which makes cursor movement look smeared and laggy. The hub, the cable and the laptop port all have to support 60Hz, so the weakest of the three sets the result.