Apartment lighting design

The design of lighting the apartment is very important in the arrangement. The correct approach to the selection and placement of lighting fixtures as a result will not only give the right lighting, but will also emphasize the necessary areas, emphasize the interior of the room and provide comfort and coziness. It is not superfluous to note that creating proper artificial lighting, you care about your health - your and your loved ones. About how to properly make lighting in the apartment, described in detail in this article.

to the contents ↑

Kinds of lighting and rules for working with them

Lighting design is created by working with such types of lighting:

• Natural. This type of lighting has to be used as it is, limited only to reflection, softening and scattering.
• General( background).If possible, this species should be shameless, flooding. For the sake of comfort and economy, in practice they achieve openwork shadows and penumbraes.

Important! Deep shadows create psychological discomfort for a person, because instinctively he feels danger.

• Local. This lighting performs the function of emphasizing the details of the interior and its decor, so the main rule of working with it is the choice of a suitable spectrum.
• Working. It is a local light, focused not on an object, as in the case of a local, but on the visual sensitivity of a person. Working on the lighting design of the working area, select the optimal brightness and spectrum, so that it is within the physiological perception.
• Decorative. This type is put forward by one main requirement - coverage should not adversely affect human health.

to the contents ↑

Lighting design. Rules and regulations

Lighting, in the first place, should have a beneficial effect on the overall health, especially vision and psyche. The main requirements for natural and artificial illumination are the observance of the boundaries of the following parameters.

Illumination:

• Common living rooms, kitchens and gyms should have an illumination of 150 lux.
• Children's room - 200 lux.
• Office - 300 lux.
• Toilet, combined WC, entrance hall - 50 lux.
• Bathroom, swimming pool, sauna - 100 lux.

Important! For comparison: on a cloudy autumn day in the open, the illumination is more than 10 000 lux.

KEO

In simple words, this coefficient represents the proportion of natural light that enters the room. At home, it is easy to identify with a modern camera.

How to determine KEO?

1. Take a white sheet of large format paper, put it on the floor of the balcony.
2. Set the camera to the aperture priority, measure the shutter speed.
3. Do the same procedures in the room, facing the window.
4. The ratio of exposures will be equal to the KEO indicator.

Important! All measurements should take place at noon on a clear, clear day. Modern technology conducts measurement to within ⅓ -¼ steps.

The natural light factor( KEO) should be:

• for common rooms, kitchen, gym and swimming pool with side lighting - 0.5;
• for the nursery - 0,7;
• for the office - 1.0;
• for bathroom, toilet, sauna, hallway and combined bathroom this parameter is not regulated.

Important! The KEO is measured only laterally, in the horizontal plane of the floor. For top natural lighting, it is not considered at all.

UGR

Another indicator is important - psychological discomfort( UGR).For most rooms, it must be zero.

The discomfort coefficient is calculated using the formula from the international standard EN 12464-1.It is based on the rigidity of light( in the normative documentation, it calls glitter).

Important! A very bright light can be favorable for the eyes due to its softness, and the dull hard it can spoil it and irritate it.

The stiffness of light is determined by the following three parameters of the luminous flux: the spectrum, the coherence, and the degrees of polarization. UGR is changed within the limits of 0 to 100.

Spectrum of

The effective color temperature of eye illumination is easily adapted.

Important! On a clear, sunny day, the lighting temperature is 5700 K, at overcast - 6300 K, at sunset it drops to about 2000 K.

Sunlight is warm and smooth, so for vision, it is best to use thermal light sources such as ordinary incandescent lamps, xenon,freon, krypton, halogen. Unfortunately, all these sources are uneconomical. Therefore, more and more people prefer fluorescent lamps.

Important! Engineers and scientists are constantly working on improving fluorescent lamps. Modern models with a three-layer phosphor are capable of producing light, which is almost inferior to diffuse solar in comfort.

to the contents ↑

How to make lighting in an apartment? Power and number of lights in the room

One of the most important parameters of a comfortable lighting design of an apartment is the ratio of power, the number of lighting devices and the illuminated area.

Important! Experts recommend to use for every 5 square meters lighting devices with a total capacity of 60-75 kW.

The optimum number of luminaires can be calculated independently, based on the area of ​​the room. There are also ready-made recommendations on this:

• One-room apartment of 30-40 square meters will require no more than 8 lamps. It can be, for example, three ceiling devices, two sconces, a desk lamp and a floor lamp.
• The optimal set for a two-room apartment is 9 fixtures. You can imagine them with such devices: two chandeliers, three ceiling lamps, a table lamp, two sconces and a floor lamp.
• In a three-room apartment will need about 11 lamps. To the set of devices for a two-room apartment, you can add another wall lamp and chandelier.
• For an apartment consisting of four rooms, you need 13 fixtures. The previous set can be completed with a desk lamp and a ceiling light.

to the contents ↑

Types of lighting lamps

The design of lighting in a room can be realized by any of the types of modern lamps. Let us consider them in more detail.

Incandescent lamps

As mentioned above, the spectrum of such lamps is the most comfortable for vision. But a significant drawback, it would seem, of the best lamps is that only 10% of their power they expend on the creation of light, the rest - is converted into thermal energy. Proceeding from this, in a room with a large number of incandescent lamps is always stuffy and hot.

Fluorescent lamps

These lamps, unlike the previous ones, do not heat up, but until recently they were very reluctant to use for lighting apartments and houses because of:

• of uncomfortable bluish white light;
• not too pleasant work hum;
• need special starters to connect.

Modern energy-saving fluorescent lamps do not have these drawbacks, so they can be used instead of incandescent lamps.

Halogen and metal halide lamps

This type of lamps emit a narrow enough directional beam of light, so it is more suitable for illuminating certain areas or for highlighting decor elements: sculptural groups, paintings, columns, niches and others.

LEDs

These bulbs do not heat up, are strong, do not have ultraviolet and infrared radiation harmful to human health. But the light output of this lamp does not allow using it as an independent light source. Therefore, most often it is used as a night light or for decorative lighting.

Important! The service life of LEDs is more than 80 times the life of incandescent lamps.

Light cords "duralight"

These cords are decorative light sources, based on LEDs. Used, as a rule, for decoration of interior details or in outdoor street lighting.

Optical fibers

This kind of luminaires emit light only from the ends. With their help you can create simply fantastic lighting effects, by using special nozzles, removing them away from the main light source.

to the contents ↑

Light design in the apartment

There are two general approaches to lighting the room:

• European, which involves the use of a chandelier;
• American, which is based on an economically-individual concept using a sconce.

Important! Both approaches make it possible to get a virtually shadowless background lighting. The problem of having a large number of wires is solved by covering the ceiling and walls, under which all the electrical cables are placed. The correct organization of lighting the apartment is reduced to room decoration.

Natural light:

• Direct natural light, passing through glass or reflecting from a mirror, can become excessively hard.
• For the comfort of tenants, the light should not be too directional and too sharp.
• To prevent this, use openwork or semi-transparent barriers( organza, tulle).Thus, light is dissipated and optimization of natural lighting is achieved.
• Vertical fabric blinds can help to direct light to the right place.

Important! On sale there are already so-called "smart" blinds, which support the optimal lighting mode of the room automatically.

Artificial lighting. General rules

How to make lighting in a room? To do this correctly, it is useful to know the following:

• If the light and color are matched to the spectrum, then they give space. For example, the blue backlighting of red will be inappropriate, to put it mildly.
• Visually, in the direction of the light streams, the planes are stretched.
• Too low ceilings are visually able to lift fixtures with upward reflectors. Accordingly - the downward shades will shade the ceiling and make the ceiling too high visually below.
• Premises with a dark general tone of design should be illuminated by zones, and with a general light tone of design - evenly.
• The general lighting of the room can be somewhat muffled, because its purpose is to provide comfort and free orientation in the room.
• Work area light should be white and brighter.
• Designers recommend to highlight the wall that is behind the TV, or the space behind the computer monitor. This method in no way will not affect the illumination of the screen, but will reduce the level of fatigue and eye strain.
• Zones should be illuminated evenly.
• Local light for white objects can be colored, but for color ones - only white.

Important! In any case, it is undesirable to allow deep shadows.

to the contents ↑

The correct lighting design in the room

The design of the lighting of the apartment in each room must be carried out separately, as it has its own rules. Consider the main ones concerning the most important rooms in the house.

Living room

Designers are increasingly abandoning the idea of ​​placing a ceiling chandelier in the center of the living room. In addition, recently this room is often combined with the kitchen, and this redevelopment requires new solutions:

• In modern living rooms you can see dot lighting around the perimeter with the accents set.
• Another fashion trend is the use of shelving and cabinets with lighting.
• Since the living room, as a rule, has a large area, then for its high-quality lighting requires several different sources of light.

Lighting design in the bedroom:

• In the bedroom it is recommended to use only one directional light source - a reading lamp.
• The main lighting should be scattered, which will help to relax.
• It will be relevant to use the backlight of different colors, you can experiment and place it around the head of the bed. The light must be soft.
• An interesting idea is the use of LED window light. Tapes can be placed around the perimeter of the window opening in such a way that they illuminate the glass along. From the inside, the window is curtained with an organza. Thus, the comfort and intimacy of the room is achieved.

Light in a child's room

Especially strong hard light affects sensitive baby eyes, so it is better to place matte plafonds on the ceiling or with halogen matt caps.

Design of lighting in the kitchen:

• Particular attention in this room should be given to lighting the cooking area. In this case, it is better to choose lamps that can be directed.
• It is also possible to install the lighting fixture in the furniture panel.
• Accents can be made with the help of lighting in cabinets with transparent doors, where beautiful services are placed.
• Over the dining area, designers often recently use several ceiling chandeliers.

Light in the hallway:

• The entrance to the apartment is usually the darkest place in the whole house. For this reason, the hallway should have bright lighting. To do this, select one chandelier for general lighting and a few point lights, which can be placed above the mirror and near the hanger.
• Corridor lighting must be in harmony with the lighting of adjacent rooms.

Important! An interesting idea is the placement in the hallway of lamps by the type of street lamps, as well as the stretched ceiling with illumination.

Design of lighting in the bathroom:

• In the bathroom, you can opt out of general lighting and use only accent - near the mirror and bath.
• Choose a closed ceiling, because the room is always high humidity.
• You can use both cold and warm colors.

Important! Often in the bathroom deliberately leave the twilight.

From the literacy of the design of the lighting design of the apartment depends, in fact, a lot. Correctly placing lamps, you can emphasize the advantageous sides of the interior and ensure the comfort of staying in the house to all family members. Using the useful information in this article, you will avoid serious mistakes when choosing lighting lamps and implementing lighting design.