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High Performance Lighting Guide

Principles

Bedrooms require general ambient illumination for basic room use and circulation. These lighting designs are intended to provide 5 FC or higher illumination, meeting IESNA Guidelines. These light levels may also be satisfactory for some room tasks such as TV watching or dressing. Other tasks, such as reading, may warrant the provision of specific task lights. These would normally be portable lamps selected as part of an interior design activity.

High performance lighting in the bedroom. Click for larger image.

The direct lighting designs below provide simple, efficient direct illumination. They accomplish this, however, at the expense of considerable glare. The recessed downlights (with white reflectors) should be started ½ of the design spacing from the wall to assure good wall brightness to contribute to full room illumination. The ceiling surface fixtures flood the room with light in all directions.

The recessed lighting design, using recessed downlights with clear reflectors, provides a subdued and elegant pattern of lighting with excellent glare control. Position fixtures ½ of the design spacing from the wall to avoid scallops of light on the wall and to illuminate the room from the objects within it. A light-colored floor contributes greatly to the effectiveness of this design.

The indirect lighting designs use wall washers or coves to provide the most well-integrated lighting with excellent glare control. Wall wash lighting will tend to visually expand the size of the room. Cove lighting, by brightening the ceiling, will give a sense of greater ceiling height.

When designing for the use of wall washers, literature from manufacturers generally recommends spacing that will result in the most uniform wall surface illumination. This guide considers a generally wider spacing to better tailor the installation to meet the recommended ambient light levels in IESNA Guidelines. This may result in some scalloping effect on walls, which can be advantageous to illuminating artwork. Spacing following the manufacturer’s recommendations will give the most uniform wall surface lighting. When laying out the locations of wall washers, be sure to avoid aiming them at windows or doors as severe glare will be experienced when viewing the room through these openings.

The light cove recommendations are based on coves constructed along the lines of the detail shown under Specifications for Fixtures.

What approaches are recommended to apply HPL?

Bedroom
Fixtures: Ceiling Surface, 26W CFL each fixture for up to 200ft² room area. Then add fixtures proportionally.
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Bedroom
Fixture: Recessed downlights with white reflectors.
Spacing: For maximum spacing, see Fixtures for Direct Lighting.
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Bedroom
Fixture: Recessed downlights with clear reflectors.
Spacing: For maximum spacing, see Fixtures for Recessed Lighting.
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Bedroom
Fixture: Light cove, T-5 or T-8 strip lights, continuous.
Spacing: Continuous.
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On plan view: Coves on one side for rooms up to 15ft wide, coves on opposite sides for rooms up to 30ft wide.

Bedroom
Fixture: Recessed wall washers.
Spacing: For maximum spacing, see Fixtures for Indirect Lighting.
Click here to view a plan view.

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