HOW MANY LUMENS DO I NEED FOR A ROOM

Consider you visit a wonderfully constructed room full of aesthetic furniture but architecture did not 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 that is the light effect is capable to dim the shine of the beauty or it can also brighten it up and it happens in this case too. How many lumens we need for a room depends upon many things including its geometrical figure, size of the room, the purpose of the space, color scheme, and the location of the light too. This guide will tell you the quantity of lumen you need to brighten your targeted space.  

LUMEN :

Whenever you buy a light there is a product label on the box of the light on which you can read the lighting facts of that light. This product label helps to understand the buyer about the right choice of light. On 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?

 The lumen is the brightness of the light or you may call it the light output that 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. In actuality, 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 VERSUS WATT :

If you will use LED light, its lumen will be 88 and it will consume 8-10 watts.

If you will use CFL, its lumen will be 800 and it will consume 13-14 watts.

If you will use a regular incandescent, its lumen will be 800 and it will consume 60 watts.

If you will use halogen its lumen will be 800 and it will consume 43 watts.

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 do you need for a room.

LUMEN CALCULATING GUIDE :

Lumen guides you to the right choice of light for your room. But size, length, or purpose of your room can vary. So here is a Rule of Thumb that will help you in selecting the right lumen for your room.

First Step:

Room Square Footage:

First of all multiple the length of your room to the width of the room. Lets suppose your length of your room is 10 feet long and its width is 10 feet wide, so you multiple the 10 into 10 i.e 100 square feet. That is how your room square footage is 100sq.ft.

Second Step :

Now revive the purpose of your room in your mind. Keep in your mind that different kinds of rooms need a different amount of lumen.

Third Step :

Now you need to establish a footcandle for your intended space. Footcandle is the measurement of light that you need on one foot away from the source of light. Here we suppose that we need 15 footcandle for our room.

Final Step :

In the final step just multiply the room square footage by the footcandle of your intended room.

For Example. We will multiply 100 room square footage to 15 footcandle which will be 1500 lumen.

That means you need 1500 lumen to brighten up your 100sq.ft room. 

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 majorly depend upon its footcandle. We have a rough idea that how many footcandles we need for different places.

For your kitchen, you will need 30-40 footcandles generally.

for your kitchen sink, you will need 70-80 footcandles.

For your kitchen stove, you will need 70-80 footcandles.

For your bedroom, you will need 10-20 footcandles.

For your bathroom, you will need 70-80 footcandles.

For room dining room you will need 30-40 footcandles.

For your living room, you will need 10-20 footcandles.

For your hallway, you will need 5-10 footcandles.

Now apply that lumen calculating rule here, Multiply length square foot of your room by its width square foot. Then multiply the answer by the footcandle 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 that how can we light up our spaces but you will be confused when it comes to lighting up tricky areas of your place. So here we make it easy for you.

Hallway:

If your hallway is constructed in a tricky way or a bit longer or in case 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 narrow place in your house. But your choice of the right light can resolve this problem too. You can easily get wall light made up of different materials from the market, that can easily resolve your this issue too.

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 then you have to choose a bulb with the 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.