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I calculated the footcandles of the light attached to my cooking range. This light helps me see what I am doing on the range. The area it covers is only the range and it does not extend on to the counter top.
In my kitchen there is 1 light that makes up the total task lighting for the range
The bulbs are called Halogen GGmex the bulb outputs 600 lumen.. The range measured 2.083ft by 3ft so to calculate the sq feet I did 2.083 x 3 = 6.249 sq ft
600/6.249 = 96.015 footcandles
The illumience of the range is 96.015 footcandles
As I read the book Fundamentals of Lighting I learned Task Lighting's purpose is written in its name, it allows people to accomplish their task in a room by directing light onto the surface of their work.
Inside of the kitchen the overall task to be accomplished is preparing food. This is usually done on a cooking range or a counter top. This is the reason most range covers have a light that you can turn on and most counters have seperate light from the ambient light.
The only area that the Task Lighting is illuminating is the range and the light does noeffect any other area in the kitchen.
Accent Lighting is used to draw attention to a object or a place in a room. The purpose of this type of light is to be decorative and for people viewing the room it adds a dimension to view.
Since kitchens have become central places in homes accent lights are often placed near a picture, bowl, but in most cases ontop of the island because that is the area that people crowd around.
I calculated the footcandles of a small hanging light over my island. It serves the purpose of illuminating the island and whenever we host a party the island is the area within the kitchen that people tend to stand. This light only illuminates the front part of the island because the back is the location of the range.
In my kitchen there are 2 lights that make up the total accent lighting for the front of the island.
The bulbs are standard stco bulbs that output 560 lumen. So the total lumen were 1140 for both bulbs because 560 x 2 = 1140 The front of the island measured 6ft by 3ft so to calculate the sq feet I did 6x 3 = 18 sq ft
1140/18= 63.3 footcandles
The illumience of the island front is 63.3 footcandles. provided by the 2 accent lights
In my kitchen one of the tasklights is over the range to make it easy for the cook to see what they are doing
The accent lighting in my kitchen (ment to bring attention to the front of island)
In my daily life I am in the kitchen everyday... if that means cooking, talking, or even just getting a snack.
When I am cooking I rely on task lighting to be able to see what I am doing, if I was not able to see I may burn myself or cut myself.
I use accent lighting so that when I am using the kitchen as a central location my eye has a place to look to or when my friends come over and I am cooking there is an interesting spot for them to look to.
Ambient lighting is used everyday for me because my kitchen is located in the center of my house and if I was unable to see where I am going I would fall and bump everywhere esp at night when I go to the kitchen to get a snack before bed.
A lumen is the total amount of of light emitted from a light source in all directions according to Lighting Designer Swapna Sundrum. This will vary light to light depending on the brightness of the light bulb and job of each light.
A footcandle is the North American unit for illuminance (the lumen falling on a particular square footage of area). Or how lit up a certain area is. Footcandles are lumen/sq.ft.
The importance of FC lie in the fact that not all light sources are supposed to effect the whole room some sources have jobs that require them to only light up a small area.
I found that all three lights have a different footcandle value witch means the illuminence of the area that they cover vary. If a Kitchen was missing one of the three types of illuminece then one task would not be able to be completed. Since the tasks of all of these lights vary so much none of them can stand as a replacement for the other.
The task lighting only brings attention to the range but rest of the kitchen is not lit meaning if someone was just walking around they would not be able to see where they were going.
Based on Information found in Interior Lighting for Designers... Ambient lighting is the background lighting that serves the purpose of preventing people from bumping into objects and allows them to see their surroundings.
The area that an ambient light is supposed to cover is the entire room (kitchen). Most kitchens use overhead ambient lighting that is implanted into their ceilings but chandeliers or other large fixtures can also serve as ambient light.
Ambient lighting illuminates the whole room but there is not a specific light help a cook see the details as they cook and it does not bring the eye to any particular point.
Ambient lighting only brings the eye to the front of the island but a person cooking would not be able to see what they are doing and the back of the kitchen has no light exposure and is dark.
I calculated the footcandles of the overhead light in my kitchen which serves as the ambient light - it covers the whole area and allows people to see where they walk.
In my kitchen there are 7 lights that make up the total ambient lighting so I calculated the total lumen outputted by all 7 and divided it by the area.
The bulbs are called Ecosmart 90W and one bulb outputs 1260 lumen. 1260x7 = 8820. The room measured 16ft by 18ft so to calculate the sq feet I did 16x18 = 288 sq ft.
8820/288 = 30.625 footcandles
The illuminence of the room is 30.625 footcandles provided by the 7 lights that make the ambient light
In my kitchen the ambient lighting is a combination of 7 lights and allows people to see where they are going but take note that it does not bring attention to any specific object.
When all three lights are turned on the room automatically looks more appealing to the eye and it makes you want to stand inside of it. Also you can see where you are going the range and island are well lit.
The footcandles of the task lighting was the highest due to the fact that when you are cooking you need to be able to see what you are doing and the light is only focused on illuminating a small area so the light will appear stronger. There is also only 1 task light providing all the illuminence.
Next is the accent lighting this is because when drawing attention to an object you must be able to know exactly what you want/need the eye to go to but it is less than the task lighting because there are 2 lights and they have to cover a larger area.
Finally ambient lighting has the least amount of total illumience due to the fact that the task of ambient lighting is to allow people to see in a room and there are many bulbs covering an extermly large area.
A kitchen should have 3 or more different types of lights that have a different amount of footcandles to be successful , according to interior designer Ranjini Rajan ambient lighting which allows the human eye to see objects in a room and is often from above, the book fundamentals of lighting says task lighting allows a specify task to be completed which more precision, and accent lighting which can specify a specify subject in a room.
The person working in the kitchen should be able to see what they are doing meaning there should be focused lighting on the range (stove top) and the counters; all the people in the room should be able to see where they are going/walking so there should be a light coming from above that lights up the whole room; and if people are hanging around the kitchen their should be lighting that overall helps the room look appealing or puts focus ontop an interesting item such as a painting or a bowl. So to be successful a kitchen needs lights that will help it accomplish all of the jobs it serves as to a household.
My kitchen has 3 different lights to make sure all tasks can be completed.
I calculated the footcandles of 3 different types of
light to show that the amount of space and how bright the illuminence of the lights vary depending on the overall job of the light. For a kitchen to be successful and for all the people using it to be comfortable and able to complete their task it will require more than one light in the room since the effects of the lights vary. The formula I used was FC = lumen/sq of the area the light illuminates. Before I inputted the numbers into this formula I found out the Lumen of the different bulbs from the lights by looking on their original boxes. I also calculated the square footage of the area that the various lights were supposed to cover by measuring their length and width in inches then converting them into feet. I then multiplied both values together to achieve the square footage of the area.
Starting from the broad picture, the basic job of a kitchen is a place where people should be able to prepare food. But in recent years popularity of hanging around the kitchen or having the kitchen as a central point in a point has increased drastically.
The lighting of the room must meet both of these criteria to be completely successful and you must have different types of lights because all types of light will cover different amounts of area with varied illuminence.
Task Lighting alone only portrays enought light to see on the range if you were just walking in a kitchen you would probably not be able to see where you were going
In a kitchen each type of light preforms a different task and for a kitchen to be successful a person should be able to walk without bumping into anything, cook, and be ascetically pleased. So if a kitchen does not have at least 3 different types of light not all the tasks of a kitchen are fulfilled which causes the person using the kitchen to not be able to successfully accomplish the thing they are trying to do.