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How Much Light for a Bathroom? Video Tutorial

How Much Light for a Bathroom

Written by

Steve Duncan, AIA

in

Transcript: How Much Light Will You Really Need for Your Bathroom Design?

How Much Light for a Bathroom_Example Project

[00:00:00] All right, the first step is to figure out the square footage of the bathroom that we’re working on, so let’s do that.

Okay, so 197, so we’ll go over to our calculator here. this is going to be a bright bathroom, it’s on the second story, and we’re going to go with some bright finishes. I’m going to go with this bright calculator, [00:01:00] zoom in, so I’ll select bathroom. I say 197. Yes.

And then we do have some generous ceilings here, 14 feet. So now I’m going to take a screen snip of this so I can refer back to it later.

Okay. So let’s start with the toilet room.

How Much Light for a Bathroom_Lighting Layout

A plan on an adjustable lights, there’s probably going to be some [00:02:00] artwork or a painting or something above the toilets. So we can use this to aim the light at that vertical surface at the vanities, we’re going to doing some sconces. Not sure how bright those are going to be yet, but let’s assume that they are flanking the mirror so that we can get good illumination on the face.

This is a nice bathroom, so we’re not going to do a bath or bath bar across the top. We’re actually going to spring for two lights at each vanity.

And then this tub area would be nice to highlight that as a focal point. Let’s see, this door opening is not on center within the room.[00:03:00]

Let’s see how this looks.

How Much Light for a Bathroom_Room Square Footage

So let’s do a light that’s centered on the tub. And then why don’t we do some under cabinet lights at the vanity?

I like to have it along the leading edge of the cabinet, just does a better job of lighting the space.

This closet’s going to need some lights. It’s small, so I don’t think putting a light within the linen closet makes sense. Probably just one outside. Maybe it’s on center with this door and this window.[00:04:00]

Maybe this pulls back a bit. I think I’ll make that an adjustable just so that we can tune it in the field.

The goal is to subtly highlight the front edge of this tub here. Okay. So maybe we put one more near the window.

And of course our ceiling joists, it’s TBD, whether these lights are actually going to line up, and work with the actual location of the wood joists, but, this is a good starting point. And if we have to shift this row of three lights, then maybe we [00:05:00] shift all of them together to the North or to the South.

All right. Let’s also have a light. Near the entrance, maybe it’s on center with that partition. And then maybe we could do some wall grazing light at the shower because we know we’re going to have some nice tile in that area that we could highlight. Okay. So let’s see where we’re at from a.

Lumen standpoints, see how we’re tracking. I think these sconces are going to be between [00:06:00] lumens. Let’s just assume 600 and then let’s go find some downlights. If we go back to the calculator, let’s do placeholder. We need to get an adjustable as well.[00:07:00]

Okay, next we need to find those under cabinet lights for the vanities.

So we’re not going to see them at all. So I don’t mind going with this slightly lower cost option.

Here and here. And how long? Hopefully, how long is this light going to be? Okay, so let’s assume that it’s a three foot light.

And both counts,[00:08:00]

which would mean, so three, three, seven times three. That’s about, it’s about a thousand lumens. So that in here and then let’s go back here. We’re going to need to find a led rated for showers, but from a output standpoint, we can use these as a placeholder.

And that’ll help us when we go shopping for a shower light.

How long is this wall? [00:09:00] It’s a 5 foot 8. Let’s, for the purposes of counting illumination, we’ll assume 6 feet. So, 6 times 320. That’s 1920.

Okay. The moment of truth, let’s add all of these up and see where we’re at.[00:10:00]

Okay. So that brings us to 10, 860.

So we’re a fair amount over our targets based on the size of the room. I don’t think I would. We can’t remove any of the lights, but we could choose to find lights that are a little bit less bright. Maybe these down lights, we could find 600 lumen lights instead of 1000 lumen lights. most clients like to have lots of light and don’t mind having it be a little bit more than the target. But if we wanted to start to value engineer and try to find ways to save cost on the [00:11:00] project, then going with a less bright LED is a way to save some money. Um, a lot of the cost is actually just in wiring and the labor in the field of installing the lights themselves. So, all right, that’s it for now.

Um, in the next video we’ll go over stairs.

Works Cited: Quality Bathroom Lighting​

Duncan, Steve. “Why Is It Important to Do a Lighting Calculation?” Lighting Design Insights. [LightingJUMP.com, https://www.lightingjump.com/how-many-lights-forest-vibe]. 

The author emphasizes the necessity of conducting lighting calculations to ensure effective lighting design in various spaces. He cites the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America (IESNA) and the International Association of Lighting Designers (IALD) for their established footcandle targets that help determine appropriate lighting levels. Duncan also mentions the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and the Department of Energy’s publicly available footcandle targets, which he uses for residential projects.

He shares a personal anecdote about the complications that arise from inadequate lighting, stressing the importance of precise calculations to avoid costly adjustments and excessive spending. The lighting estimator featured on his webpage is designed to assist clients in achieving optimal lighting without overspending. 

References – Quality Residential Lighting Design​

Index – Quality Bathroom Lighting

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