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Log in Calculators

Lumen Requirement Estimator

How many lumens a room, office, or warehouse floor actually needs, with a maintenance allowance already built in.

Inputs

Space and target

Pick the closest published illuminance target. The recommendation is editable below.

Area of the space being lit, not the whole building. Hallways and storage are lit separately.

Switch to square metres for metric drawings.

Type a value to work to a client or code target instead of the default for the space.

Assumptions

How much light is lost to dirt and lamp ageing before the next cleaning or relamping.

Used only for the fixture hint below; the lumen requirement itself does not depend on it.

Result

Lumens at the source (with maintenance)
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Lumens on the work plane
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Lumens per square foot
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Area (imperial)
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Area
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Recommended illuminance
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Target used
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Fixtures for this requirement
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Typical lumens per fixture
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What this means
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What to check

  • Floor area of the space being lit, measured separately from adjacent circulation
  • The illuminance target your code, client, or standard actually requires for that activity
  • The maintenance factor you are willing to design to for the cleaning interval
This calculator is a first-pass screen. Verify the illuminance target against the standard or code that governs the project, the delivered lumens against the manufacturer photometric file, and the maintenance factor against the real cleaning schedule before ordering fixtures.

Saved calculations

Keep the assumptions with the result.

Save this calculation to return to the inputs, result, and report anytime.

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