Electrical Contractor Publishes Article on The Importance of Wall Lighting
In December 2010, Electrical Contractor published “Walk Toward the Light,” an article I wrote about the importance of ensuring proper illumination of vertical surfaces, particularly in projects such as LEED projects, which squeeze lighting watts to an extent that risks to lighting quality increase.
The article describes the rationale behind wall lighting and its benefits, and then explores different techniques for providing illumination on walls.
Check it out here.
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Nice article. One cautionary note, using walls to illuminate spaces imparts a contribution of color from the wall, so highly reflective colored wall surfaces can impart an odd shift in the lighted color of the space – which is often undesirable. Overly bright walls can also create accommodation issues, where the eye responds to the vertical brightness, requiring an increase in task lighting to overcome the effect. A better approach may be to use as little energy as possible to produce a desired wall presence, while controlling room illuminance to create the desired task/area lighting effect or levels. In my own designs, we often laid down a very low level ambient light level of vertical surfaces, then applied layers of ambient and task general illumination to create the desired room characteristics. This provides minimal interaction between wall coloration and room light, and reduces energy use by applying only the energy needed to attain the desired result throughout the space.