How Many Lumens Do I Need For A Room – A Detailed Guide
How Many Lumens Do I Need For A Room? Consider visiting a wonderfully constructed room full of aesthetic furniture, but architecture didn’t focus on its light effect. What will you feel? You could feel some burden on your eyes. We all know the obvious reason for it is that the light effect can dim the shine of the beauty, or it can also brighten it up, and it happens in this case too.
How many lumens to light a room depends upon many things, including its geometrical figure, the size of the room, the purpose of the space, the color scheme, and the location of the light too. This guide will tell you the quantity you need to brighten your targeted space.
Let’s discuss How Many Lumens Do I Need For A Room?
Until now, you have read what the lumen is? Below we will discuss how many lumens you need for a room:
Lumen’s Calculating Guide
Lumen helps you to light up your room without ceiling lights. But your room’s size, length, or purpose of the room can vary. So here is a “Rule of Thumb” that will help you select the right lumen for your room.
First Step
Room Square Footage
First of all, multiply the length of your room by the room’s width. Let’s suppose your room’s length is 10 feet long, and its width is 10 feet wide, so you multiply the 10 into 10, i.e., 100 square feet. That’s how your room square footage is 100sq.ft.
Second Step
Now revive the purpose of your room in your mind. Keep in mind that different rooms need a different amount of lumen.
Third Step
Now you need to establish a foot candle for your intended space. A foot candle is the measurement of light. You need one foot away from the light source. Here we suppose that we need a 15-foot-candle for our room.
Final Step
In the final step, multiply the room square footage by the foot candle of your intended room.
For Example. We will multiply 100 square room footage by 15-foot-candle, 1500 lumen.
That means you need 1500 lumen to brighten up your 100sq.ft room.
The Variables Of Lumen Light
As we discussed earlier, the lumen light’s effect on a room or space depends upon certain variables. Let’s take a look at some of them:
1. Geometrical Figure Of The Room
The geometrical figure of the room has a significant impact on deciding how much light is required to brighten up the space. A rectangular or square-shaped room will need more lumens as compared to a long and narrow one. The light will evenly distribute in the former case while in the latter; it will concentrate on particular areas.
2. Size Of The Room
Another crucial variable is the size of your room. A small room won’t need as much lumen light as a big one. It would help if you kept this factor in mind before making any decision about which lights you should buy for your space.
3. Purpose Of Space
The purpose of the space is also an essential element that decides how many lumens are needed to lighten up the area. If you want a relaxing ambiance, then go for dimmable ones by including lighters that have low lumens output. If you prefer brightening the area after sunset, then a high lumens combination since significant output is necessary to accomplish this job.
Choose The Lumen According To The Room
Different kinds of rooms need a different amount of lumens. Such places need more light than others, like your kitchen requires more light than your bedroom. How many lumens you need for different spaces will depend on the foot candle. We have a rough idea of how many foot candles we need for different places.
For your kitchen, you will need 30-40 foot candles generally.
For your kitchen sink, you will need 70-80 foot candles.
For your kitchen stove, you will need 70-80 foot candles.
For your bedroom, you will need 10-20 foot candles.
For your bathroom, you will need 70-80 foot candles.
For the room dining room, you will need 30-40 foot candles.
For your living room, you will need 10-20 foot candles.
For your hallway, you will need 5-10 foot candles.
Now apply that calculating rule here. Multiply your room’s length square foot by its width square foot. Then multiply the answer by the foot candle of that specific space (given above ). You will get the total lumen that you require for your desired room.
Lighting For Tricky Areas
We have discussed above how we can light up our spaces, but you will be confused about lighting up your place’s tricky areas. So here we make it easy for you.
Hallway
If your hallway is constructed in a tricky way or a bit longer, or if it does not get much sunlight, then selecting an overhead pendant light can minimize your problem and light up your hallway better.
Staircase
It could be the darkest or little place in your house. But your choice of the right light can resolve this problem too. You can easily get wall lights made of different materials from the market, easily resolving your issue.
Lumen
Whenever you buy a light, there is a product label on the lightbox on which you can read the “lighting facts” of that light. This product label helps the buyer understand the right choice of light. Which they tell you about the brightness of that light; this brightness is measured in lumen. But the question that arises here is what the lumen is.
What are lumens? The lumen is the brightness of the light, or you may call it the “light lumen output” which is denoted by “lm.” It means that the higher the lumen, the brighter the light.
Difference Between Lumen And Watt
Choosing the right amount of lumen for your room might be a new thing for you as we have heard that we need to know the watt while buying a light bulb. Lumen is the brightness of light, whereas watt is the amount of electricity a bulb needs to glow. So we need bulbs that consume fewer watts and give us high lumens.
Lumen V/S Watt
If you use LED light lumen, its lumen will be 88, consuming 8-10 watts.
If you use CFL, its lumen will be 800, consuming 13-14 watts.
If you use a regular incandescent, its lumen will be 800, consuming 60 watts.
If you use halogen, its lumen will be 800, consuming 43 watts.
Foot Candle: A unit of measuring light
Foot-candle is a unit of measurement that tells how much light is reaching a particular surface. One foot candle is approximately equal to the amount of light cast by a candle onto a one-square-foot surface that is located one foot away from the candle.
The number of lumens you need to light a room will vary depending on the size of the room, the purpose of the space, and the desired level of illumination. For example, a small bathroom might only require 30 to 40 lumens per square foot, while a large living room might require up to 80 lumens per square foot.
As a general rule of thumb, you should use at least 50 lumens per square foot for basic task lighting in most rooms. If you want to create a more inviting atmosphere or make a space feel brighter, you can use up to 100 lumens per square foot.
Color Temperature And Brightness Of The Room
Lumens not only depend upon the type of room but also on its color temperature which is classified into three different types:
Warm light: it ranges from 2700K to 3000K. This temperature makes a room look comfortable and relaxing like living rooms or bedrooms.
Cool light: it starts from 3500k and higher. These lights are perfect for studying, working, and doing other tasks as it improves concentration. We can use this light in our kitchens and offices.
Daylight: it lies between 5000k to 6500k. It gives the feeling of sunlight which means we can use this anywhere including corridor ways and laundry rooms too.
Now you know the quantity of lumen you need according to the color temperature of your room!
Conclusion
So here we have discussed lumen and the difference between lumen and watt, how many lumens you need for a room. And then, we concluded that if you want to brighter your space, you have to choose a bulb with more lumen, and if you want to dimmer your space, you have to choose a bulb with fewer lumen. So next time when will you go for shopping to buy a light, make sure you choose the right lumen for your room.
