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Typical lumens per square meter


Marvin

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Was having this exact discussion with my sparky on site this afternoon lol. We both gave up eventually and decided to use common sense, plus the clients were sensible enough to buy fittings to ‘road test’ the ones favoured vs areas of concern which helped. 
If you realise that a single pendant in the middle of a 15’ x 15’ room is / was the norm, and that had a 60w bulb ( or “lamp” if you’re a sparky ? lol ) and then some manky shade wrapped around it killing off most of the light output then it brings you back to earth. 
I do lighting design for most of my clients, so come across this quite often. Regs / the good book don’t really give much definitive help because they don’t take into account wall colour, room height, fitting type / material / emission etc so common sense has to prevail imo and  getting fittings to test before final fitting is a good idea for sure. 

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47 minutes ago, Big Jimbo said:

No idea, but i can tell you that in a 10 x 12 foot room 1000 ish lumens is dull as.

 

The light in a given area is measured in Lux. This unit better represents perceived brightness and can be provided as a single figure recommended for a particular task. One lux equals one lumen per square meter so an 11m2 room as above, with a 1000 lumen light source would provide around 90 lux. Something like 200 would be more typical for a general domestic setting but it depends on the type of room. Here is one table of recommended lux levels for different activities. 90 Lux might just be enough in an adult bedroom. Nudge Nudge.

 

Oh, and one more thing... it also depends on the age of the occupants. Over 65's require double those figures.

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Thanks for this @Nickfromwales and @Radian

 

I can see the variables are many and this is why I have seen many differing results.

 

I have been using about 260 lux in kitchens when installing  240v down light GU10s which are daylight, 4 or 5 Watts each, 120 degree angle and it seems to work fine. 

 

Sometimes I add an extra down light if light is required in a particular area.

 

In all the bathrooms (lots) where lighting was required 4 of the above works well on a typical 2 by 2 metre room: 1 for the door, and one each for the loo basin and shower.

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1 hour ago, Marvin said:

I have been using about 260 lux in kitchens when installing  240v down light GU10s which are daylight, 4 or 5 Watts each, 120 degree angle and it seems to work fine

 

+1 I'm also using grid of  4-5W GU10s each producing 400-450 lumens with a 120 beam angle.

 

The wide angle gives fewer shadows and fills in under wall cabinets quite well. Sadly they seem to be getting harder to find in shops, have to get them online. They do have more glare than narrow angle bulbs but I'd rather that than use degree spots.

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On 17/02/2022 at 20:15, Marvin said:

What is the typical amount of lumens for various rooms of a house....

 

Typically this issue is ignored: people put in what they've seen other people do. And mostly what they've installed is wrong. There are several good books, of which this is the best, I found

 

I worked hard on our build to get the right lighting level because SWMBO is partly photophobic: the wrong (excessive) lighting levels actually hurt her.  Too little light and I struggle because my eyes aren't what they once were.

 

This online resource will help you decide ; 

I installed double the recommended lumen levels in work areas, but made sure I could switch half of them off. I also made sure that the GU10s we used were installed in recessed holders so the bright sparkle of the light from the surface of the lens (as opposed to the beam) was shielded.

 

 

Edited by ToughButterCup
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