LIGHTING SYSTEM AS PER CODES: NBC AND

CIBSE GUIDELINES
By.
Gulrez & Hemant kumar
INTRODUCTION

lighting design is a field within architecture and architectural
engineering that concerns itself primarily with the illumination of
buildings. The objective of architectural lighting design is to obtain
sufficient light for the purposes of the building, balancing factors of
initial and operating cost, appearance, and energy efficiency.


LIGHTING AND HUMAN PERFORMANCE
Lighting enables humans to go about their lives, including work and play,
as effectively as possible. It provides for our visual needs, and also safety
and security. Lighting also has strong social and emotional significance.
Human needs are first and foremost. Since it's difficult to accomplish much
when we cant see well, its fairly obvious that lighting is crucial to human
performance.

Illumination levels for different tasks are recommended to be achieved
either by daylighting or artificial lighting or a combination of both.
Climatic factors which normally help in deciding the orientation of the
buildings to get desirable benefits of lighting inside the buildings.

Principles of Lighting
Good lighting is necessary for all buildings and has three primary aims.

To promote work and other activities carried out within the building;
To promote the safety of the people using the building;
To create, in conjunction with the structure and decoration, a pleasing
environment conducive to interest of the occupants and a sense of their
well-being.

Realization of these aims involves:

Careful planning of the brightness and colour pattern within both the working areas
and the surroundings so that attention is drawn naturally to the important areas,
detail is seen quickly and accurately and the room is free from any sense of gloom
or monotony .
Using directional lighting where appropriate to assist perception of task detail and
to give good modeling;
Controlling direct and reflected glare from light sources to eliminate visual
discomfort;
In artificial lighting installations, minimizing flicker from certain types of lamps and
paying attention to the colour rendering properties of the light;
Correlating lighting throughout the building to prevent excessive differences
between adjacent areas so as to reduce the risk of accidents; and installation of
emergency lighting systems, where necessary.

Planning the Brightness Pattern
The brightness pattern seen within an interior maybe considered as
composed of three main parts
The task itself,
Immediate background of the task and
The general surroundings of walls, ceiling, floor, equipment and
furnishings.

Where work takes place over the whole utilizable area of room, the
illumination over that area should be reasonably uniform and it is
recommended that the uniformity ratio (minimum illuminance divided by
average illuminance levels) should be not less than
0.7 for the working area.
Recommended Values of Illuminance

S.NO Types of interior or activity Range of service
illuminance in lux
Quality class of
direct glare
limitation
1 Public rooms, halls 200-300-500 1
2 Auditorium 50-100-150
3 Lecture theatres 200-300-500
4 library 200-300-500
5 corridors 50-100-150
The illumination levels recommended in Table are to be maintained at all
time on the task. As circumstances maybe significantly different for different
interiors used for the same application or for different conditions for the
same kind of activity.
visual task is required to be carried out throughout an interior, general
illumination level to the recommended value on the working plane is
necessary;



The precise height and location of the task are not known or cannot be
easily specified, the recommended value is that on horizontal plane 850
mm above floor level

Glare
Excessive contrast or abrupt and large changes in brightness produce the
effect of glare. When glare is present, the efficiency of vision is reduced and
small details or subtle changes in scene cannot be perceived.

a) Direct glare due to light sources within the field of vision,
b) Reflected glare due to reflections from light sources or surfaces of
excessive brightness, and
c) Veiling glare where the peripheral field is comparatively very bright.



Glare can be minimized by shielding the open sky from direct sight by
louvers
external hoods or deep reveals,
curtains or other shading devices
by cross lighting the surroundings to a comparable level.
A gradual transition of brightness from one portion to the other within the
field of vision always avoids or minimizes the glare discomfort.

Lighting for Movement about a Building
Most buildings are complexes of working areas and other areas, such as
passages, corridors, stairways, lobbies and entrances. The lighting of all
these areas should be properly correlated to give safe movement within the
building at all times.




Corridors, passages and stairways
Accidents may result if people leave a well-lighted working area and pass
immediately into corridors or on to stairways where the lighting is
inadequate, as the time needed for adaptation to the lower level may be too
long to permit obstacles or the treads of stairs to be seen sufficiently
quickly.
Entrances
People entering a building will be adapted to the very high levels of
brightness usually present outdoors and there is risk of accident if entrance
areas, particularly any steps, are poorly lighted
Provision of window to give adequate light
supplementary artificial lighting should be installed to raise the level of illumination
to an appropriate value.
At night it is desirable to Any entrance steps to the building should be well-lighted
by correctly screened fittings.





Daylighting
The primary source of lighting for daylighting is the sun. The light received
by the earth from the sun consists of two parts, namely, direct solar
illuminance and sky illuminance.
For the purposes of daylighting design, direct solar illuminance shall not be
considered and only sky illuminance shall be taken as contributing to
illumination of the building interiors during the day.





The recommended design sky illuminance values are
6800 lux for cold climate,
8000 lux for composite climate,
9000 lux for warm humid climate,
9000 lux for temperate climate and
10500 for hot-dry climate.
For integration with the artificial lighting during daytime working hours an
increase of 500 lux in the recommended sky design illuminance for
daylighting is suggested.
Components of Daylight Factor
Daylight factor is the sum of all the daylight reaching on an indoor reference
point from the following sources:
a) The direct sky visible from the point,
b) External surfaces reflecting light directly to the point
c) Internal surfaces reflecting and inter-reflecting light to the point.








Sky Component (SC)
A. The recommended sky component level should be ensured generally on the
working plane at the following positions:
At a distance of 3 m to 3.75 m from the window along the central line perpendicular
to the window,
At the centre of the room if more appropriate, and
At fixed locations, such as school desks, black-boards and office tables.
B. The daylight area of the prescribed sky component should not normally be less
than half the total area of the room.






Artificial Lighting
Artificial lighting may have to be provided
a) where the recommended illumination levels have to be obtained by
artificial lighting only,
b) to supplement daylighting when the level of illumination falls below the
recommended value, and
c) where visual task may demand a higher level of illumination.

Selection of the light sources and luminaires
The selection of light sources and lurninaires depends on the choice of
lighting system, namely, general lighting, directional lighting and localized or
local lighting.





Determination of the luminous flux
a) The luminous flux ($) reaching the working plane depends upon the
following:
1) lumen output of the lamps,
2) type of lurninaire,
3) proportion of the room (room index) (k,),
4) reflectance of internal surfaces of the room,
5) depreciation in the lumen output of the lamps after burning their rated life,
6) depreciation due to dirt collection on luminaires and room suface.
b) Coefficient of Utilization or Utilization Factor
The values of the reflection factor of the ceiling and of the wall are as follows:
White and very light colours 0.7
Light colours 0.5
Middle tints 0.3
Dark colours 0.1




c) Calculation for determining the luminous flux



Artificial Lighting to Supplement Daylighting
The need for general supplementary artificial lighting arises due to diminution of
daylighting beyond design hours, that is, for solar altitude below 15 or when dark
cloudy conditions occur.
The need for supplementary lighting during the day arises, particularly when the
daylighting on the working plane falls below 100 lux and the surrounding luminance
drops below 19 cd/m2.




Energy Conservation in Lighting
A substantial portion of the energy consumed on lighting maybe saved by
utilization of daylight and rational design of supplementary artificial lights.
Efficient luminaire also plays an important role for energy conservation in
lighting. The choice of a luminaire should be such that it is efficient not only
initially but also throughout its life. Following luminaries are recommended
for different locations:
For offices semi-direct type of luminaries are recommended so that both the work
plane illumination and surround luminance can be effectively enhanced.
For corridors and staircases direct type of luminaries with wide spread of light
distributions are recommended.
In residential buildings, bare fluorescent tubes are recommended. Wherever the
incandescent lamps are employed, they should be provided