Types of artificial lighting
•The percentage of light output above and below the horizontal.
1- Direct Lighting:
•When luminaries direct 90 to 100% of their
output downward.
•The distribution may vary from widespread
to highly concentrated
•depending on the reflector material, finish
and contour, and on the shielding or control
media employed.
•Can have the highest utilization of all types,
but this utilization may be reduced in varying
degrees by brightness-control media required
to minimize direct glare.
•Reflected glare and shadows may be a
problem with direct lighting unless close
spacing are employed.
Types of artificial lighting
•The percentage of light output above and below the horizontal.
2- Semi-direct Lighting:
When luminaires direct 60 to 90% of their
output downward.
With a small upward component to
illuminate the ceiling and upper walls.
upward component will tend to soften
shadows and improve room brightness
relationships.
Types of artificial lighting
•The percentage of light output above and below the horizontal.
3- General Diffuse Lighting:
When downward and upward components of light
from luminaries' are about equal (each 40 to 60% of
total luminaire output).
distribute the light about equally in all directions.
combine the characteristics of direct lighting and
indirect lighting.
Brightness relationships throughout the room are
generally good and create softens shadows from
the direct component.
Types of artificial lighting
•The percentage of light output above and below the horizontal.
4- Indirect Lighting:
Lighting systems which direct 90 to 100% of the
light upward to the ceiling and upper sidewalls.
In a well-designed installation, the entire ceiling
becomes the primary source of illumination, and
shadows will be virtually eliminated.
Also, since the luminaires direct very little light
downward, both direct and reflected glare will be
minimized if the installation is well planned.
It is also important to suspend the luminaires a
sufficient distance below the ceiling to obtain
reasonable uniformity of ceiling luminance
Since the indirect lighting the ceiling and upper
walls must reflect light to the work plane,
Types of artificial lighting
•The percentage of light output above and below the horizontal.
4- Semi- Indirect Lighting:
Lighting systems that emit 60 to 90% of
their output upward.
The characteristics are similar to those of
indirect systems except that the downward
component
However, if the downward component
becomes too great and is not properly
controlled, direct or reflected glare may
result.
Lumen
A lumen (symbol lm) is a measure of the total amount of visible light emitted by
a source in any particular direction.
Lux - the metric system
Lux is a measure of illuminance which basically means it's a measure of how
much light there is over a given surface area. One Lux (lx) is equal to one lumen
per square meter.
1 lx = 1 lm/m2
Lighting calculation
Footcandle - the imperial system
Footcandle is also a measure of illuminance for those of you who prefer to work
in feet. One Footcandle (fc) is equal to one lumen per square foot.
1 fc = 1 lm/ft2
Calculation - Step 1
We're going to work out the amount of light
required for a kitchen.
Using the table above we can see that we need
108 lux (or 10 footcandles) for ambient lighting
538 lux (or 50 footcandles) for task lighting for
food preparation
Calculation - Step 2
In this step we need to work out the area of
the kitchen.
Let's say we have a 4m x 3m kitchen we
multiply these two numbers together to get an
area of 12 square meters.
To get the number of lumens we multiply the
lux requirement from step 1 by the area.
This gives us 12 x 108 = 1296 lumens.
If you're working in feet, calculate the area in
square feet and use the footcandle value from
the light table
Number of bulbs for ambient lighting
Let's say we were going to use a fluorescent light source for the ambient
lighting. Fluorescent tubes that emit 800 lumens each are available.
One tube wouldn't be sufficient, but two tubes would give 1600 lumens which
would be plenty for our 1296 lumen requirement.
Task lighting in the kitchen
Here we're going to work out the surface are
that needs to be lit for food preparation.
Let's say we want to light the countertop
which measures 4m x 0.6m. That makes the
area 2.4 square meters.
To get the number of lumens the calculation is
2.4 x 538 = 1291 lumens
If you're working in feet, calculate the area in
square feet and use the footcandle value from
the light table
A production area in a factory measures 60 metres x 24 metres.
Find the number of lamps required if each lamp has a Lighting Design Lumen (LDL)
output of 18,000 lumens.
The illumination required for the factory area is 200 lux.
Utilisation factor = 0.4
Lamp Maintenance Factor = 0.75
N = number of lamps required.
E = illuminance level required (lux)
A = area (m2)
F = average luminous flux from each lamp (lm)
UF= utilization factor, an allowance for the light distribution of the luminaries
and the room surfaces.
MF= maintenance factor, an allowance for reduced light output because of
deterioration and dirt.
N = ( 200 lux x 60m x 24m ) / ( 18,000 lumens x 0.4 x 0.75 )
N = 53.33
N = 54 lamps.
Utilization factor
method used for an estimated calculation of lighting installations. It is used to calculate the
number of luminaires required for the target illuminance on the working plane or the
illuminance achieved by a specified number of luminaires.
The utilization factor method is based on the fact that the average horizontal illuminance for a
room of a specific size can be calculated using the total luminous flux of the installed
luminaries and the light output ratio along with the utilization factor.
