Lighting Calculations

How Many Fittings are Required for a Room

The utilisation factor table and a few simple formulas allow us to calculate
the number of fittings required for any room.
Step 1: Understand the utilisation factor table that is available on
most fittings.
UTILISATION FACTOR TABLE (for 2x36 bare batten)
LOR: 88.1% SHR NOM 1.75: 1.0 Disregard SHR MAX.
Reflectance Room Index (K)

Ceiling Wall Floor 0.75 1.00 1.25 1.5 2.0 2.50 3.00 4.00 5.00
0.50 0.30 0.20 0.30 0.37 0.42 0.46 0.52 0.56 0.59 0.63 0.66
Across the Top of the Table
Name Description

LOR
Light output ratio for this fitting. Not required in a simple
calculation.
SHR NOM
Nominal Spacing to Height ratio. For a given mounting height
we can see the nominal spacing between fittings. Eg. 1.75 to
1 means that for every 1 metre of mounting height (above
work plane) we should have a maximum 1.75 metres between
fittings.
SHR MAX
Used by lighting design software and not needed for manual
calculations.
Reflectance
Select a horizontal line for the reflectance values that best
describe the room.
Typical Reflectance Values are:

Ceiling Walls Floor

Air Conditioned Office 0.7 0.5 0.2
Industrial 0.5 0.3 0.2
Utilisation Factor (body of the table)
This is a value between 0 and 1 that represents the percentage of total lamp
lumens in the room that fall on the work plane. It takes into account the
room reflectances, room shape, polar distribution and light output ratio of
the fitting.
Step 2: Calculate Room Index (K)
Room Index:
The room index is a number that describes the ratios of the rooms length,
width and height.
Formula: K = L x W

Hm (L+W)

Where: L = Room Length
W = Room Width
Hm = Mounting Height of Fitting (from working plane)
Work Plane = Desk or Bench Height
The result of this calculation will be a number usually between 0.75 and 5.
Note: This formula for K is only valid when room length is less than 4 times
the width or when the K value is greater than 0.75.
Step 3: Using the room index and reflectance values in the utilisation
factor table
For the horizontal row select the reflectance that best describes the room.
For the vertical column select the room index value K as calculated above.

The utilisation factor for this fitting in this room is where the row and
column intersect.
Step 4: To calculate the number of fittings required use the following
formula:
Formula: N = E x A

F x uF x LLF

Where: N = Number of Fittings
E = Lux Level Required on Working Plane
A = Area of Room (L x W)
F = Total Flux (Lumens) from all the Lamps in one Fitting
UF = Utilisation Factor from the Table for the Fitting to be Used

LLF = Light Loss Factor. This takes account of the depreciation
over time of lamp output and dirt accumulation on the fitting
and walls of the building.


Typical LLF Values

Air Conditioned
Office
0.8
Clean Industrial 0.7
Dirty Industrial 0.6

Standard Triphos

Lumen outputs of fluorescent
lamps
18 Watt / 1150
Lumens
1300
Lumens

36 Watt / 3000
Lumens
3350
Lumens
Lumen output of PL lamps
18 Watt / 1200
Lumens


36 Watt / 2900
Lumens

Step 5: Space the number of fittings uniformly around the room
drawing and check the SHR nominal for the fitting has not been
exceeded. If it has been exceeded re space the fittings to get back to SHR
nom.
Step 6: Work out the number of fittings required in each axis of the
room:
Number in
Length =

Number in Width
=