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-

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