General Lighting

General Lighting

The General Lighting provides the basic lighting for a room. It is used to create uniform and sufficient brightness throughout the room. This makes the architecture, furniture, and people clearly visible and facilitates easy navigation.

To ensure even light distribution, luminaires with a wider beam angle of about 120° are often used. These produce a wide beam of light and can evenly illuminate larger areas. The goal of general lighting is to provide a balanced level of ambient brightness without strongly emphasizing individual areas.

Light Distribution and Effect in a Room

General lighting is primarily used to provide a general view of the room and aid in orientation. It reduces sharp contrasts and creates softer shadows. This results in a calm and even distribution of light.

To highlight specific areas, general lighting is often combined with other types of lighting. A typical complement is accent lighting, which specifically highlights individual objects, furniture, or architectural elements. Many lighting designs therefore incorporate a combination of general lighting and accent lighting.

Guidelines for Basic Brightness

The required brightness of general lighting depends on the use of the room in question. The following values can serve as a guide:

• Living rooms and hallways: approximately 100 lm/m²
  
• Kitchens and bathrooms: about 300 lm/m²
  

These values are based on average empirical data and serve as a guideline for uniform room lighting.

Supplementary Light Sources

General lighting is often supplemented by additional light sources that provide extra illumination for specific areas. These include, for example:

• Table Lamps in the living room
• Under-cabinet lights in the kitchen
• Mirror lights in the bathroom
  

These additional lights improve visibility in work or functional areas and supplement the room's basic lighting.

Example of general lighting in the kitchen

In a kitchen, general lighting can be provided by flat Ceiling Lights or Pendant Lights be installed to provide uniform brightness throughout the room. In addition, LED strips can be used to visually highlight specific areas, such as a kitchen island or shelves.

Work surfaces are also illuminated by dedicated task lighting to provide sufficient light for activities such as cutting or preparing food.

This combination provides general lighting that clearly illuminates the entire room. For brief stops—such as when you’re just grabbing something from the kitchen—general lighting is sufficient. For tasks performed in specific work areas, task lighting is used in addition.