Calculating the amount of light that you need

Just how do you determine how much light you need for your area? You may know if your existing light is not bright enough that you want something brighter but the key question is "How MUCH brighter". Well, there is a formula that we use in the industry to determine the exact amount in wattage that you need for a specific space. First, you need to determine if you want task or ambient lighting. Most areas where you would want task lighting would be your kitchen, bathroom, laundry room - anywhere that stronger light is needed. To determine the proper wattage for task lighting, you will multiply the areas square footage by 2.5. For example, if your kitchen is 150 square feet x 2.5 = 375. You would want to choose a fixture or series of fixtures that would provide a total wattage output up to 375-watts. Now remember, that you should also factor in the color of the glass or shade if you select a fixture with glass as items with darker colored glass will diffuse the light output to some extent. For ambient lighting, which would be maybe a bedroom, hallway or living room where you may have other light to supplement, you will multiply the square footage of the are by 1.5. Let's say your bedroom is 125 square feet x 1.5 = 187.50 so you would want a fixture that has a total wattage of 187.50 (most likely in this case you would choose either 175-watt or 200-watt output and adjust the bulbs you use accordingly).

Check back with me next week for tips on cleaning your lighting fixtures.

thanks for reading - Anita Turner