Room Lighting Levels

 

Outdoors on a clear day, lighting is approximately 10,000 lux. By a window inside, the available light is more like 1,000 lux. In the center of a room, it can drop dramatically, even down to 25 to 50 lux, hence the need for both general and task lighting indoors.

A broad guide is to have general, or ambient, lighting in a passageway or a room where you don't perform concentrated visual tasks at 100–300 lux. Raise the level of light for reading to 500–800 lux, and concentrate task lighting on your needed surface at 800 to 1,700 lux. For example, in an adult's bedroom, you need lighting to be lower to wind down your body for sleep. In contrast, a child's bedroom may be where he or she studies as well as sleeps, so both ambient and task lighting would be needed.

Similarly, in dining rooms, the ability to change the number of lumens through different types of lighting (ambient or over the center of the table) or dimmer switches can make the space more versatile, from an active area during the day to a relaxing space in the evening. In the kitchen, pendant lights above islands and range hoods with lighting over the stove are additional ways to use task lighting.

The following is a list of minimum lighting levels for residential spaces.

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