Home is the place from which we most expect comfort, and when we don’t get it, we can rarely understand why. But a serious reason why we cannot completely relax and unwind in a seemingly cozy environment is the improperly organized lighting of a private house. Many do not even think about how great the psychological effect of light on us, but our subconscious mind definitely feels everything. Consider the main theses that are important to consider.
Lighting rules for the home
Planning the main natural lighting is the first stage in the development of the design of a private house even before the construction stage. An important point will be the coefficient of natural light KEO. It is equal to the ratio of the illumination of the floor in the room to the illumination of the horizontal surface on the street. For most rooms, the ideal KEO has long been calculated, you just have to compare it with your own data. If not suitable, then you will have to think about a different window layout.
For the living room and kitchen, the natural light factor is 0.5, for the nursery – 0.7, for the office – 1.0.
The process of calculating the artificial lighting of a private house to create favorable visual, physiological and psychological conditions for functioning implies compliance with the minimum illumination indicators:
- office – 300 lx;
- children’s rooms should have an illumination of 200 lux;
- living quarters, kitchen and gym – 150 lx;
- hallways and bathrooms – 50 lux;
- bath, swimming pool – 100 lx.
There are also a number of recommendations for the proper organization of lighting, which should be taken into account. If the light is redirected or refracted, then this increases its rigidity. For comfort in a living room, it is desirable that the lighting does not create shadows. In extreme cases, partial shade or openwork is acceptable, i.e. blurred shadow areas.
The lighting of a light interior should be uniform, and that of a dark interior should be distributed over zones.
Types of lighting for the home
Light in a residential building can be functionally divided into 3 categories:
- the actual lighting itself – is designed to create the necessary visibility of interior objects, and must have a comfortable effect on vision;
- lighting as part of the interior or architecture creates the necessary physiological background;
- the lighting design is an adornment and an expression of the individuality of the inhabitants.
Natural lighting can only be softened, reflected or diffused. And artificial lighting can be divided into:
- general, should be close in spectrum to natural light (the spectrum is warm and smooth);
- background – to be flooding;
- local – to have the spectrum necessary to illuminate a specific zone (for a colored zone you need white, for white – you can use color);
- working – to be comfortable for the eyes in a specific area;
- decorative – the only requirement, as with all lighting equipment – safety.
Types of lamps
Recommendations for the selection of lamps and lamps for different areas:
- The best background shadowless lighting of the living room will be provided by chandeliers, due to the large number of scattering and refractive elements, or sconces scattered across the ceiling.
- LED lighting will be more than relevant for the bedroom so that you can adjust the color.
The ceiling lamp should be moved to the working area of the bedroom, and floor lamps or sconces can be placed near the bed.
- Nursery – frosted glass.
- Kitchen – open halogen lamps that are able to self-clean from fumes when heated strongly.
- The bathroom usually has highly reflective surfaces – one matte shade with an incandescent lamp is enough to obtain normalized illumination.
- Entrance hall – frosted shades.
Types of lamps typical for a residential private house:
- incandescent, xenon, freon lamps are thermal light sources, most of all similar to the sun. They give the most acceptable spectrum, but are very uneconomical.
- halogen lamps are point light sources. When zoning rooms, they should be hidden behind visors, in general lighting – use frosted glass in lamps or direct light on light objects, ceiling and walls. In narrow spaces – can be left open.
- luminescent – have dips in the spectrum that distort our vision of specific shades, darkening them. They are economical, therefore they remain objects of improvement – a lamp with a three-layer phosphor is closer to the natural spectrum.
- LED – also have an uneven island spectrum, besides, they harm vision when creating general bright white lighting. Recommended for ceilings and lighting behind eaves.
The organization of home lighting is not always done by specialists. In addition, when choosing home lighting fixtures, most focus on appearance and design, and the reason why aesthetic indicators have not yet been regulated is that they absolutely do not affect the level of our visual comfort, but are a manifestation of taste. Economy is also not so important. First of all, it is worth finding out the light pattern of the DN of the lamp – this will help to correctly distribute the light in the room, take into account every corner and at the same time get by with a minimum of devices.