Back to Home
High Performance Lighting Guide

Principles

The family room and living room areas are similar in purpose, so the lighting designs below serve the same strategy. These lighting designs are intended to provide 5 FC or higher illumination, meeting IESNA Guidelines, for general room use and circulation.

High performance lighting in the living room.
Click for a larger image.

These light levels may also be satisfactory for some room tasks such as watching TV, operating audio equipment, or playing board games. Other tasks such as reading or writing may warrant the provision of specific task lights. These would normally be portable lamps selected as part of an interior design activity.

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, assuring 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. Fixtures should be positioned 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 design uses 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.

What approaches are recommended to apply HPL?

Direct Lighting

Family Room / Living Room
Fixture: Ceiling surface, 13W CFL for each fixture. Or, two 26W CFL for the center fixture for up to 200 sq. feet room area. Then add fixtures proportionally.
Click here to view a plan view.

Family Room / Living Room
Fixture: Recessed downlights with white reflectors, 13W CFL, 18W CFL, or 26W CFL.
Spacing: For maximum spacing see Fixtures for Direct Lighting.
Click here to view a larger image.

Family Room / Living Room
Fixtures: Recessed downlights with clear reflectors, 13W CFL, 18W CFL, or 26W CFL.
Spacing: For maximum spacing, see Fixtures for Recessed Lighting
Click here to view a plan view.

Family Room / Living Room
Fixture: Wall washers, 13W CFL, 18W CFL, or 26W CFL.
Spacing: For maximum spacing, see Fixtures for Indirect Lighting.
Click here to view a plan view.

Family Room / Living Room
Fixture: Light cove, T-5 strip lights (continuous).
Spacing: Continuous
Click here to view a plan view.
On plan view: Coves on one side for rooms up to 15ft wide, coves on opposite sides for rooms up to 30ft wide.