? How much lighting does a staircase need? In this video, we break down the essential lighting calculations for a stair, following guidelines from the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America (IESNA) and the Department of Energy (DOE). Whether you’re an interior designer, architect, or homeowner, this guide will help you achieve safe, stylish, and effective staircase lighting.

? What we cover:
✔️ How to calculate the required lumens for a stair based on square footage
✔️ Choosing the right foot-candle levels for stairs and landings
✔️ Selecting step lights, recessed lighting, and pendant lights
✔️ Best practices for lighting placement and alignment
✔️ How to balance functional lighting with aesthetics

? Find the right lights for your project: [Affiliate link or resource]

? Need help with a lighting plan? Drop a comment below!

? Tools Used in This Video:
✅ Lumens Calculator
✅ Recessed & Step Lights Selection

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

[00:00] Introduction
Hey everyone! Today, we’re designing the lighting for a staircase, and I’ll walk you through how to determine the right amount of light needed for safe and effective illumination. Whether you’re an interior designer, architect, or homeowner, this guide will help you create a functional and beautiful stair lighting plan.

[00:15] Step 1: Calculating Square Footage & Lighting Needs
The first step in staircase lighting design is to determine the square footage of the stair and surrounding areas. In this case, I’m including the hallway and stair landing, bringing the total to 111 square feet.

Using a lighting calculator, I’m selecting medium finishes, which is a common scenario. According to the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America (IESNA) and the Department of Energy (DOE), the recommended lighting level for stairs is 5 foot-candles.

[01:00] Step 2: Identifying Key Lighting Placements
Before selecting specific lights, I like to analyze the stair’s architecture to determine the best placement. Ideally, we align lighting with visual cues like windows, landings, and stair treads.

For this project, I’ll focus on:
✅ Step lights (wall-recessed lights) along the stair treads
✅ Recessed downlights at the landings
✅ A pendant light for decorative and functional lighting

[02:30] Step 3: Choosing the Right Stair Lights
Now, let’s start placing lights:
✔️ Wall-recessed step lights for even illumination along the stair treads
✔️ Recessed downlights for the landing
✔️ A pendant light that serves as a visual statement piece and adds ambient lighting

[04:00] Step 4: Checking Lumens & Brightness Levels
Next, let’s check if our selected stair lighting setup meets the required lumens:

• The stair needs 1118 lumens
• Our two recessed downlights provide 2000 lumens
• The six step lights contribute 408 lumens
• The pendant light should be at least 300 lumens to ensure balanced lighting

[06:00] Step 5: Refining the Stair Lighting Plan
By refining our calculations, we see that if we exclude the hallway, we only need 746 lumens for the stair treads and landing. The step lights and pendant light combination ensures proper illumination and visual appeal.

[07:00] Finalizing the Lighting Selection
At this point, I would collaborate with the interior designer, architect, or homeowner to choose a pendant light that meets both aesthetic preferences and lighting needs. It needs to provide at least 300 lumens—which is easy to find in various modern and classic fixture options.

[07:45] Conclusion
That’s how I approach staircase lighting design! By following these steps, you can achieve a well-lit, stylish, and code-compliant stairway.

? What’s your favorite stair lighting style? Drop a comment below!

? Subscribe for more lighting design tips! See you in the next video!

Works Cited: Quality Stairway 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​

• Duncan, Steve. “Why Is It Important to Do a Lighting Calculation?” Lighting Design Insights. .
• National Renewable Energy Laboratory. “Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) in Residential Lighting.” NREL/TP-53467. 2012. https://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy12osti/53467.pdf.
• Illuminating Engineering Society. “Standards.” https://store.ies.org/individual-standards/?v=0b3b97fa6688.
• International Association of Lighting Designers. “About the IALD.” https://iald.org/IALD/IALD/About/About-

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

[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.

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.

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​

• Duncan, Steve. “Why Is It Important to Do a Lighting Calculation?” Lighting Design Insights. .
• National Renewable Energy Laboratory. “Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) in Residential Lighting.” NREL/TP-53467. 2012. https://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy12osti/53467.pdf.
• Illuminating Engineering Society. “Standards.” https://store.ies.org/individual-standards/?v=0b3b97fa6688.
• International Association of Lighting Designers. “About the IALD.” https://iald.org/IALD/IALD/About/About-

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

[00:00:00] All right, let’s design the lighting for a hallway.

All right, so the first step is going to be figuring out the square footage of the hall that we’re going to be working on. So, grab that.

Okay, so 85. Let’s go over to our lighting calculator. , for this particular project, the stair next to it is a bright area. There’s a skylights. And so. I actually want this hallway to feel a little bit more moody. So we’re going to go with some darker finishes. so that’s the calculator that I’m going to use.

So first we’ll select hallway. Like I said, 84, 85, and then we do have [00:01:00] some tall ceilings at 13 feet. And so I’m going to snip this. So that we have it for later,

now we can refer back to this. Okay, so hallways don’t need a ton of lights. most hallways are actually overlit a bit. we’re going for this kind of a moody vibe. something to keep in mind though is that we do have this elevator door threshold here. So we need to make sure we get at least 10 foot candles of light.

Right there. So what we’re going to do is right out of the gates, we’re just going to have a down light [00:02:00] centered on that door. And then, oh, actually, I want to go to the other plan here.

And then I think for the rest of the hall, maybe, going with some recessed wall lights. So it’s just lighting the floor surface. It feels moody. It’s prepping you for, , accessing these bedrooms at the end of the hallway. You’re of winding down for the end of the day. So put in some step lights.

We’re going to have room for that. Okay. So we’ve got two step lights and a down [00:03:00] light. Let’s go back to the calculator and find some placeholders. Okay, I’ve got two of these.

All right, and then let’s go find a recessed down light.[00:04:00]

Okay, so we’re definitely over our lumens needed for this hallway, but, um, it’s not as if we can just have a single down light and then that would light this whole hallway. So it really comes down to coverage, So really, we need at least 3 lights, regardless of how bright they are, just so that we can provide some illumination for the full length of this hallway.

Um, so let’s see. Yeah, right now we’re at about 1120 lumens, and we only needed 469. So, that’s pretty common with hallways, uh, but it’s just good to know that we have the freedom to maybe have a little bit less light. Um, if [00:05:00] we didn’t have this elevator here then that would change things and maybe we could have just done another step light over here.

Okay, uh, that’s it for now and I’ll see you in the next video.

Works Cited: Quality Hallway 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​

• Duncan, Steve. “Why Is It Important to Do a Lighting Calculation?” Lighting Design Insights. .
• National Renewable Energy Laboratory. “Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) in Residential Lighting.” NREL/TP-53467. 2012. https://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy12osti/53467.pdf.
• Illuminating Engineering Society. “Standards.” https://store.ies.org/individual-standards/?v=0b3b97fa6688.
• International Association of Lighting Designers. “About the IALD.” https://iald.org/IALD/IALD/About/About-

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

[00:00:00] Okay, let’s design the lighting for a walk in closet.

Alright, the first step is going to be figuring out the square footage of the closet that we’re going to be working on here. So, let’s grab that.

Okay, so we’ll round up to 65. Let’s go over to our calculator.

I’m going to assume that we have Uh, medium finishes in this room. Let’s go to closets, but in 65 for the square footage, we do have a pretty tall ceiling in here. Okay. So we need about 3, 500 lumens, a little bit more snip this. [00:01:00] So we can refer back to it.

There aren’t a lot of visual cues to take from this room. You know, we could center on this door. probably the lights are going to be on the center line. It just makes sense with the, shelving that’s going to be planned for this space. And, I think in this case, let’s go with a flush mount. Because those do a good job of sending light down, but also out the sides, and we want to get light onto the vertical surfaces, onto the clothes, so that we can have a really clear picture of what is available.

I’m thinking probably two makes sense just from a coverage standpoint. And then if we come back over here. [00:02:00] Let’s say we rounded this up to 4, 000 lumens. That would mean that each of these lights would need to be about 2000. So let’s go back to the calculator and see if we can find a placeholder. Light, that’s a flush mount.

Okay. So grab that 1600 lumens. So that would put us at 32, maybe that’s a little low, so let’s go back, go with this brighter version.[00:03:00]

And now we know that we’re definitely going to meet our lumens needed in order to achieve our 30 foot candle. Illumination target, which is set by the illumination engineering society of North America and the department of energy. All right. that’s it for now. We’ll see you in the next video.

Works Cited: Quality Closet 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 Closet Design​

• Duncan, Steve. “Why Is It Important to Do a Lighting Calculation?” Lighting Design Insights. .
• National Renewable Energy Laboratory. “Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) in Residential Lighting.” NREL/TP-53467. 2012. https://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy12osti/53467.pdf.
• Illuminating Engineering Society. “Standards.” https://store.ies.org/individual-standards/?v=0b3b97fa6688.
• International Association of Lighting Designers. “About the IALD.” https://iald.org/IALD/IALD/About/About-

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

[00:00:00] Okay. So the first step is going to be figuring out how large the bedroom is that we’re going to be working with. So scrap that.

Okay. So I’ll round that down to three Oh nine. Okay. Three Oh nine. It’s the square footage. We’re going to come over to our calculator here. I’m going to go with dark finishes. It’s a bedroom. Uh, we’re probably going to. Make it a little bit more moody and dark in there. So first I’ll select bedroom. Uh, I say three Oh nine.

So I’ll put in three Oh nine for the square footage. And then we do have pretty tall ceilings in here at 12 feet. [00:01:00] So that gives us our grand total of 2756. Lumens for the amount of lights that we’re going to need in this room. So paste that in there so we can refer back to this. Okay. So before I think about specific light fixtures for this room, I like to overlay it with any potential alignments or, uh, visual cues that we can take, uh, as a starting point.

So, you know, probably we’re going to want to highlight this fireplace in the corner, uh, maybe there’s an opportunity for some artwork on this wall here, maybe we could get some picture lighting in there, uh, same thing over here. We’ve got this cozy seating area for reading. So maybe there’s going to be a [00:02:00] sconce for a reading lights.

Um, so we can start to kind of fill that in and then just see where we’re at relative to our target here. So I’m going to go ahead, put in some picture lights on this wall.

Let’s assume two, and then let’s. Have a light to celebrate this fireplace, which I’m sure we’re going to spend a lot of money on with some nice finishes. And then in the reading area, let’s assume that we’re going to have a sconce of some kind over here. Maybe it’s a table lamp. Maybe it’s a sconce at the wall that is on an arm so that we can have [00:03:00] some light for reading.

I’m going to assume that that light is about 600 lumens. It’s

going to be decorative. So I’ll need to check with the interior designer later so that we can narrow that down. Okay. Let’s plan on some pendant lights at these nightstands.

And again, let’s assume 600 lumens.

This is an opportunity, this wall here, maybe let’s, let’s see if we can do a [00:04:00] adjustable to highlight that wall. Maybe it’s centered on this door. All right, let’s, I’m curious where we’re at. Maybe I’ll add a couple more before we check. So probably a light here and a light here at the foot of the bed.

Okay. All right. Let’s, let’s see where we’re at. And go back to our calculator, start to grab some lights,[00:05:00]

find the picture light we’d like.

Okay, let’s put this one.

And then we need two adjustables.

Maybe, yeah, maybe we do one of these instead of recessed. Grab this one. All right, let’s add all this up and see where we’re at.[00:06:00]

So that puts us over quite a bit. So we’re at. 8, 380. Usually I don’t overshoot so much.

Okay. So how bright is this? These are, these are pretty bright. [00:07:00] Maybe we just do adjustables and then maybe we can scale these back a bit. So it’s just Bedtime.

Let’s see where we’re at now.[00:08:00]

Okay, so, 5760.

So, we’re still over a bit, but this does happen sometimes. So, it’s a large room, and if I were to limit The lighting to just one or two lights, um, to reduce the quantity of illumination. I wouldn’t be able to get the coverage that I need. So if I just had lights over here by the bed, there wouldn’t be enough over in the seating area.

And we would be passing up on the opportunity to highlight some walls, which do need some additional illumination. So I feel comfortable that we’re over a bit. Um, But yeah, so this is the point then where I would go to the interior designer and we could talk [00:09:00] about what is this reading lamp actually look like.

Maybe we do sconces, maybe we do pendants at these, uh. Uh, and the, the bed stand tables and kind of go from there. So as we are looking to finalize the lights, something to keep in mind is that we just want to make sure that all of our lights are dimmable because not all LEDs dim, and we want to make sure that those lights are UL listed for the country that we’re working in.

And then finally, we want to make sure that. All the LED lights are a 90 CRI score. So color rendering is, um, at least 90 so that we’re bringing out the true color of the materials, uh, the woods, the artwork that we are placing in this room. All right, that’s it for now, and I’ll see you in the next [00:10:00] video. And the next video is going to be on bedrooms.

Works Cited: Quality Bedroom 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​

• Duncan, Steve. “Why Is It Important to Do a Lighting Calculation?” Lighting Design Insights. .
• National Renewable Energy Laboratory. “Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) in Residential Lighting.” NREL/TP-53467. 2012. https://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy12osti/53467.pdf.
• Illuminating Engineering Society. “Standards.” https://store.ies.org/individual-standards/?v=0b3b97fa6688.
• International Association of Lighting Designers. “About the IALD.” https://iald.org/IALD/IALD/About/About-

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

[00:00:00] All right, let’s design the lighting for a home office.

Okay, so the first thing we’re going to do is figure out the square footage of this office that we’re designing.

That’ll help us figure out how much light is needed. Okay. So I’ll round up to 163. So let’s go over to our calculator. I’m going to assume we’re doing medium finishes. Most projects of fall in that category. Some times we have, dark finishes, sometimes we have very bright and there’s these separate calculators for those, but for this project, we’re going to assume medium, that’s the most common condition.

And then we’re going to put in home office. So our target is 20 foot candles. That is a metric that is established by the Illuminating [00:01:00] Engineering Society of North America and the Department of Energy. Next I’ll put in the square footage that we had, which was 163. Yeah, 163. And then we do have somewhat generous ceiling heights in here.

Let’s put in 11 feet and that’s going to give us the answer for how many lumens of light we need to properly illuminate this space. So I’m going to screen snip this, so I have it for later. Let’s grab that from here. Alright. Now we have this so we can refer back to it. Okay, so before I start to think about where lights are gonna go, I like to look at the room itself and [00:02:00] see if there are any logical alignments that could give us a starting point for laying out the room. for example, centering on doors, centering on windows, thinking about maybe where artwork might occur, Is this vertical surface, this wall, is that an opportunity to light?

Maybe this back wall is another opportunity. So I think we’ll start there and let’s assume maybe that there is some artwork over here and maybe there’s some artwork over here or maybe some low shelving for some books or cabinets. So let’s grab a picture light and assume that maybe we have two pieces of artwork on this north wall.

And then, At this back wall, let’s assume that maybe we want to do some adjustable recessed lights to illuminate that, [00:03:00] backdrop that’s going to be back behind this desk. I’m assuming the desk would be in this general location and then the chair would be behind, just better feng shui, so that as you enter the room, the person at the desk can see you.

All right, so let’s grab some adjustable lights for that back wall.

Maybe start there and line up with that. Okay.

And maybe we do a third here. It’s right behind where the desk would be.

And then I’m going to assume that maybe there’s a somewhat decorative table lamp that is also providing some task illumination on that, onto that desk surface as this person is working. I’m going to assume that [00:04:00] it’s. Between 600 and 800 lumens. Let’s assume 600. Okay. So let’s see where we’re at with our light target.

We need to hit roughly 5, 300 lumens. let’s go back to the calculator and start to find some placeholders for our lighting. So first let’s go find a picture light. Okay. Let’s do this one

back over here.

The second one. Okay. And then let’s find some adjustable lights.

We wanted [00:05:00] them recessed. So let’s do this one in the middle of the narrow flange.

We’re going to have three of those.

Okay. So where does that put us? So we’ve got three at seven 70 plus 600 plus.

Okay. So that brings us to 4, 676 so far.

So, we need another [00:06:00] lights. let’s plan on doing a light, maybe in the center of the room that’s pointing down onto this work surface. recessed.

Maybe it’s right in that general area. If we have a computer monitor, it’s okay to have the, a recessed light directly above it. We don’t want to have one, right behind it, pointing at our screen from a glare standpoint. So I’m okay with, this light here. It’s going to be probably 800 to. 1000 lumens. Let’s go find one.

All right.[00:07:00]

So that’s a thousand, which means that we are now at 56, 76. So we’re a little bit over our target. And this is the part where I would have a meeting with the interior designer or the architect and homeowner to talk. Talk about maybe there’s certain aspects of this design that we’d like to change up. maybe we want this to be a decorative ceiling light instead of a recessed down light.

Maybe we don’t want to do this table lamp. And so we can of mix and match from there. but we understand this is about how many lights we need in this room, in order to hit our light target to have a functional home office. All right. in general, I like to keep an open mind when I’m working with the [00:08:00] electrician and the GC.

Sometimes they have suggestions for alternates. And the thing to keep in mind with that is just making sure that any lights we choose for the job are dimmable. They are UL listed for the country that we’re working in. And then also they have a color rendering score of at least 90. That way we bring out the true colors of all the materials that we’re spending all this money on, in our installation.

All right. that’s it for now. And the next video is going to be on bedrooms.

Works Cited: Quality Home Office 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​

• Duncan, Steve. “Why Is It Important to Do a Lighting Calculation?” Lighting Design Insights. .
• National Renewable Energy Laboratory. “Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) in Residential Lighting.” NREL/TP-53467. 2012. https://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy12osti/53467.pdf.
• Illuminating Engineering Society. “Standards.” https://store.ies.org/individual-standards/?v=0b3b97fa6688.
• International Association of Lighting Designers. “About the IALD.” https://iald.org/IALD/IALD/About/About-

How Much Light Will You Really Need for Your Dining Room Design?

Transcript – How Much Kitchen Light?

Step 1: Room Square Footage, Ceiling Height, Room Finishes

[00:00:00] All right, let’s design the lighting for a kitchen today, right? The first step is I need to figure out the square footage of this room. Let’s grab that probably about down to there.

Okay, 265. All right, so next we’re going to go over to our calculator. let’s assume that we’re going to do dark finishes for this room. So we’re going to use the last calculator.

I’ll select kitchen 265. And then we do have some tall ceiling, tall- ish ceilings at 10. All right. So now we know how many lumens we need for this room. I’ll put this back over here.

Step 2: Lighting Layout

So I have it for reference. Okay. So what I’ve done with the floor plan is just done an overlay of possible alignments that we could take some cues from. Looks like the island is centered on this range and the hood. So there’s some nice symmetry happening there. Got this sink over here. Maybe that’s an opportunity to line some things up. Uh, I I plan on using some down lights to provide most of the illumination in this space, and I do like to locate those lights about 4 to 6 inches away from the leading edge of the base cabinets. This allows you to get some light down into those base cabinets while also not casting a shadow onto the [00:02:00] countertop where you’re working, if you’re kind of over and if you’re doing some cutting, so it just kind of helps address some shadow issues.

A lot of people like to put lights in the middle here because it’s this. Symmetrical midpoints, but from a functional standpoint, I definitely like to keep the lights a little bit closer to the work surface itself. So that’s where we need the light. All right. So let’s start off by putting in some down lights.

Probably have one in the corner here. Probably have one over here and then. I do want to illuminate this hood vent, the cooktop is going to get illumination from the hood itself with, some recessed lights, but I do want to let that focal point of the hood be something that we celebrate.

So I’m going to grab this,[00:03:00] might do two or three, let’s do two.

And then how far away are we? So let’s, let’s do about two feet away. Since the hood’s pretty high up on the wall, we do want the lights to be maybe a little closer than what I’m showing here.

Alright, let’s keep going with these. Maybe it lines up with this counter.

You know what, I think I’m going to go ahead. This is close. I’m just going to put these a little closer, and then a little closer together.

And then, probably want to do a downlight here at the [00:04:00] sink. Lots of light there, continue to march along here.

Let’s do one more on this side, base cabinet. Okay. So at the Island, a lot of folks like to do some kind of a decorative lighting elements. Just need to make sure we have enough lights. So, let’s make some assumptions. Let’s give it a shot. So let’s put some over here. I’m thinking maybe these aren’t pendants, maybe they’re close to the ceiling and have a decorative appearance, but they’re not hanging down and like in your sight line if you’re standing around the islands and hosting a party and you can’t see across it’s weird.

So, I like to keep these lights closer to the ceiling, not really doing a pendant. It’s still something decorative. [00:05:00] Okay. So the alignments are getting there. It’s a little bit weird. Um, maybe we just do one here and then we scoot this over and then maybe These really read us their own thing.

I don’t want it to look like we’re trying to line up with that.

Step 3: Placeholder Lights

Okay. So, let’s see how much light we’re working with here. So let’s go back to the calculator and find some placeholders. So, let’s do an adjustable for that hood. 770 lumens.

[00:06:00] Then let’s go find a downlight. So that’s a thousand lumens.

Okay, let’s see where we’re at. So we go, so eight, so that’s 8,000 lumens [00:07:00] for the downlights plus seven 70, so that’s 8,007 70. Let’s go back over here, see where we’re at. Okay, so I need another 4,000 lumens. I’m not, going to be able to do that with these decorative lights. That’s probably asking a little bit too much. So why don’t we plan on adding in some under cabinet lights? We’ve got these shelves here, kind of at the windows. So let’s do a few of these.[00:08:00]

So that’s six of those. Let’s go find a, there we go. So let’s do a recessed cabinet light at 200 lumens. Okay.

There’s six of those at 200. So, so that puts us at 9, 970.

So that means that these [00:09:00] three decorative lights need to make up the difference.

So that leaves about 2, 900, roughly 3, 000 to go. So that means that each of these decorative lights need to be about a thousand lumens each, which is still fairly bright.

Step 4: Choose Decorative Lights

So this is the part where I would then meet with the interior designer and the homeowner or architect to get a sense for aesthetically, what do we want for these three decorative lights over the islands? It just helps us to narrow down our options since there’s so many lights out there to just be able to reign it in and understand that [00:10:00] we need it to be about a thousand lumens each.

 All right. So that’s going back to our placeholder lights on the projects I work on. I start with these. I’d say about 50 percent of the time we stay with the light that I selected often the electrician or the GC or the homeowner has some opinions about lighting or they have a favorite light from a previous job that they really want to use.

And so then we just switch over to that. Just keep in mind that as you are looking for lights out there, Okay. That’s you find lights that are dimmable since, not all LEDs are dimmable and that the light is UL listed for the country that you’re working in. And then finally, make sure that you have a light with a good color rendering score.

We want to target at least 90. That way we bring out the true color of the materials that we’re installing in our space.

Step 5: Ask for a Peer Review of Your Lighting Design

All right, that’s it for now. Give the calculator a shot. If you want me to double check your [00:11:00] work, I’m happy to do that. Send me a note through the website, and I will put a link to this in the YouTube description below.

Works Cited: Quality Kitchen 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​

• Duncan, Steve. “Why Is It Important to Do a Lighting Calculation?” Lighting Design Insights. .
• National Renewable Energy Laboratory. “Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) in Residential Lighting.” NREL/TP-53467. 2012. https://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy12osti/53467.pdf.
• Illuminating Engineering Society. “Standards.” https://store.ies.org/individual-standards/?v=0b3b97fa6688.
• International Association of Lighting Designers. “About the IALD.” https://iald.org/IALD/IALD/About/About-

How Much Light Will You Really Need for Your Dining Room Design?

Transcript – How Much Dining Room Light?

 [00:00:00] All right, let’s design the lighting for a dining room. So first step is going to be figuring out the square footage of this room. So let me grab that.

Okay. So approximately 205. And then the next step is to come over to our calculator. Um, I’m going to plan on having some bright finishes in this dining room. So we’re going to go with this first calculator. Um, let’s change it to dining room. Oh, I already forgot how many, two Oh five. Okay. Two Oh five. And then we do have some taller ceilings here at 10 feet.

So let’s grab a screen snip [00:01:00] this, go back to our plan.

Alright, so I can have this a reference later. So that’s our target. So, the foot candle target is 20, and this is set by the illuminating engineering society of North America and the department of energy. And all right, let’s, let’s start. So I like to mark up the plan with some guidelines of.

Alignments that we could take our cues from. So are there, um, appliances? These are under cabinet refrigerators here. Could we line up with the central lines of these windows? It does have a pretty clear, symmetry to it. So we know that the table is probably going to [00:02:00] be right there. Ish. So the first thing I like to do is see if there are any vertical surfaces in the room that we can light.

This is going to have a huge impact on how people perceive the space and how they perceive how bright it is. So let’s. I think in this case, let’s plan on lighting this wall here. So I’m going to grab some adjustable lights

and I like to have these about 24 to 30 inches away from the wall surface. So let’s add a few more

and then, okay. So next let’s take a look at. Lighting the dining table area itself. A lot of people like to rely exclusively on selecting a beautiful decorative pendant over the table. [00:03:00] But in many cases, this isn’t actually going to be bright enough to deliver the illumination we need to highlight the food and really kind of create this beacon within the space.

That’s drawing you over there when it’s time to eat. So I do like to have. Decorative lights. And in this case, we do have a pretty clear symmetry, so we’re not going to have to worry about the lights being out of alignment with the table itself, but I do like to also add in some additional lights from either downlights or maybe some adjustable lights.

I like to use these multi head adjustable lights so that you have a lot of freedom to illuminate the table itself.

We don’t really want to light the chairs around the table because people don’t really like to sit in a spotlight. So the goal is really to just Aim the lighting onto that table [00:04:00] surface itself. All right, let’s, let’s see how we’re doing on our lumens. So I like to start off with kind of my go to lights.

We start here and then, other people on the design team usually weigh in and we modify from there. So let’s grab these. Let’s see how we’re doing on our illumination, put that in

one there. And then we have three of these accent lights going to go with the, he’s warmed in. I like the mud up trim for the flange list option. Let’s spring for that. And then we have to value engineer later. That’s fine. We have a lot of options. So that’s 900 lumens.[00:05:00]

Alright, so we’re going to do three of those.

Let’s see where we’re at. So that’s going to be

2, 700 plus 2, 025 plus 2, 025 So that gives us 6, 750, so we are over a bit, which means that this pendant over the dining table could be fairly dim if we wanted, it could be just like a sparkly, beautiful element within the space. Um, But let, let’s just see, so if, if we took out, what if we did two pendants and only one of these in the center,[00:06:00]

do that in the center, and then we’ll do two pendants to anchor this

 So, and then that means we have one less of these. All right. What’s, what’s the new number here.

Okay. So all the lighting except for the pendants, that brings us to 47, 25. So if we subtract that from the 56, 95.

So that means that each of these pendant lights is going to need to be, um, [00:07:00] 450. So we need a total of 900 from the pendants, so 450 and 450. So now I can go back to the interior designer or the homeowners, and we can do a search for beautiful decorative lighting out there, and we understand that it needs to be at least 450 lumens.

All right. So hopefully that made sense. Give the calculator a shot, if you’d like me to double check your work, I’m happy to do that. And if you have other lights in mind for your project, just keep in mind that you want to make sure to, um, buy LEDs that have a high color rendering score, we want to make sure it’s at least 90.

That way we’re bringing out the true color of the materials in our space that we’re spending. Thousands of dollars to put in there. All right. That’s it for now. And, uh, the next video is going to be on kitchens [00:08:00] and I’ll put it, I’ll put the link to the calculator down in the YouTube description below.

All right. Thanks.

Works Cited: Quality Dining Room 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​

• Duncan, Steve. “Why Is It Important to Do a Lighting Calculation?” Lighting Design Insights. .
• National Renewable Energy Laboratory. “Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) in Residential Lighting.” NREL/TP-53467. 2012. https://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy12osti/53467.pdf.
• Illuminating Engineering Society. “Standards.” https://store.ies.org/individual-standards/?v=0b3b97fa6688.
• International Association of Lighting Designers. “About the IALD.” https://iald.org/IALD/IALD/About/About-

How Much Light Will You Really Need for Your Living Room Design?

Transcript:

 Alright, let’s design the lighting for a living room.

Okay, so the first step we need to take is to figure out how large our living room is going to be.

Okay, so I’ll round up to 338. Next we’re going to go to our calculator. And for this room, I think we’re going to do Medium finishes, which most projects kind of fall in that category where it’s kind of medium tones. It’s not too bright. It’s not too dark. Um, we’re already on living rooms. That’s great. How many square feet did I say?

Three 38. Next I’m going to put in the ceiling heights 10 feet. So that increases the amount of light we need a little bit. Ok, bring this back to the plan.

Okay, so now I can refer back to this and keep in mind how many lumens we need. All right, so What I like to do before I really get into the lighting is to look at the floor plan and see if there’s any logical alignments, centering on window panes, centering on the fireplace, what kind of cues can we take from the space that will help us organize our lighting?

So it looks like we do probably have two end tables here. So we’re going to put that in here. I don’t know what those are going to be yet, but a good estimate is that these are going to be about. 800 lumens. Next up, let’s let’s make sure to highlight this fireplace. I’m sure we’re going to spend some money on some nice finishes here.

So let’s grab an adjustable light,

which can be aimed up to, uh, highlight that surface. And then I suspect we’ll probably have some artwork above this sofa. So why not add a light that is centered with the other one? And then over the coffee table, let’s plan on searching for a decorative light that is cohesive with these table lamps.

Alright, so let’s, let’s see where we’re at from a lumen perspective. Let’s go back to the calculator and find a placeholder for this adjustable light. So let’s do. I’m going to do, let’s do a warm dim and then let’s do this flange list option so that we can downplay this light. So 900 lumens. Let’s go back over here, paste that in.

Okay. So, so far we have 800, 800, 900, 900. So 1600 plus, so

that is 3, 400 lumens so far, which would mean. So let’s take a look at the difference there.

Okay. So that would mean that this decorative light needs to be about 2, 000 lumens, 1, 800, 2, 000, right in that range. Um, if I wanted to give myself some extra freedom to choose whatever I want for that decorative light, maybe, maybe it could be a little bit less bright. And what we could do instead is add some additional lights here and here. So then that.

Okay, so that basically would bring us to our total to where this decorative light could now be pretty dim. If we wanted, it could just be this beautiful, sparkling object, and we’re not limited in what we choose for that fixture. So, That kind of that gives maximum freedom to the interior designer and the homeowner with making their selections for that lights.

Now, if we go back to these placeholders over here, as a general rule, I’d like to start with these and then about 50 percent of the time, We do actually stay with these through to the end. But, for those, those other instances, usually there’s a, uh, engaged electrician or a GC, or maybe the homeowner has some specific ideas about lighting and they want to kind of swap that out.

And so we go that direction instead. If you do want to go find your own lights, just keep in mind that you want to make sure that the lights are dimmable and that they are UL listed for the Country that you’re working in. And finally, make sure that you find a light with a high color rendering. So, that’ll bring out the true color of the materials in your space.

So, in this image here, I have 2 lights. They’re both Warm white, 2700 Kelvin. But the one on the left has an inferior color rendering at 80. That’s a little bit closer to what you’d see with like a fluorescent light. And then the light on the right, that is kind of bringing out the, the reds and the warm tones in the wood because it has a higher color rendering score right at 90.

So that’s our target. Okay. Well, give the calculator a shot. And if you’d like me to double check your work, just send me a note through my website and, uh, have an awesome day. Next video is going to be on dining rooms.

Works Cited: Quality Living Room 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​

• Duncan, Steve. “Why Is It Important to Do a Lighting Calculation?” Lighting Design Insights. .
• National Renewable Energy Laboratory. “Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) in Residential Lighting.” NREL/TP-53467. 2012. https://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy12osti/53467.pdf.
• Illuminating Engineering Society. “Standards.” https://store.ies.org/individual-standards/?v=0b3b97fa6688.
• International Association of Lighting Designers. “About the IALD.” https://iald.org/IALD/IALD/About/About-