Room Index

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.

Nominal Spacing to Height ratio. For a given mounting height we can see the nominal spacing
SHR NOM 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=LxW

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= ExA

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.