How Many LED Lights Do You Need For Sufficient Lighting?
Ever wondered how many LED lights or LED lumens are needed to light-up a room perfectly?
A lumen is a lumen. So, six hundred LED lumens would offer exactly the same amount of light as six hundred incandescent lumens.
Even though it is correct that a lumen is merely a measurement unit, one could argue that, since LED lights offer a greater CRI (Color Rendering Index), one can utilize fewer lumens and experience the same clarity.
How many LED lights are enough? The question in itself is tough, and when faced with having to calculate how much LED lighting you require to form a well-lit space.
Here’s how to figure out how many LED lights you need for sufficient lighting.
What To Consider For Sufficient Lighting
Lumens
Lumen output, also referred to as light or brightness output, is a measure of the overall quantity of visible light produced by a light source per unit of time. Its study is known as the “luminous efficiency function.”
Watts
It is a measure of how much energy (or electricity) a light bulb uses to reach its stated brightness. All types of light sources, incandescent, halogen, fluorescent, or LED, have different lumen/watt ratios.
Wattage Equivalence
Now that we have conflated lumens and watts, it is convenient to talk about lights in terms of watts. Therefore, in case a hundred-watt incandescent generates 1,500 lumens, and a 10-watt LED does the same, the 10-Watt LED might advertise “100-watt equivalent” on its label.
Efficacy
The total quantity of lumens a bulb generates for every single watt it uses. The greater the number, the more efficient the bulb.
Breaking it Down: How Much Light is Sufficient?
First and foremost, figure out the room square footage. Multiply the length times the width of the room to obtain the accurate room square footage. For instance, in case the room is ten feet wide and ten feet long, the room square footage will be approximately a hundred square feet.
Figure out the Foot Candles by Room Purpose or Room Type. A foot-candle is how bright a light is 1-foot away from its primary source. Lighting needs/requirements are dependent on the type of room being lit. E.g., a kitchen or a bathroom would need more foot-candles as compared to a bedroom or a living room.
Figure Out the Total Number of Required Lumens
A lumen is a unit measurement of light. In order to figure out the total number of needed lumens, you would simply have to multiply your room square footage by your room foot-candle requirements.
For instance, a hundred square foot living room, which requires ten to twenty foot-candles, would require one thousand to two thousand lumens. A hundred square foot dining room, which requires thirty to forty foot-candles, would require three thousand to four thousand lumens.
Conclusion
For an estimated space of two hundred and fifty square feet, you would require around five thousand lumens as your first light source (twenty lumens x two hundred and fifty square feet).
In your eating lounge, you would require around thirty lumens per square foot on your dining table (to view, not analyze, the food), so if your table is 6 x 3 feet, that’s five hundred and forty lumens.
Unable to figure out the total number of LED Lights needed to light-up your room? Let our experts help!