Kitchen counter Illuminance

Status
Not open for further replies.

Sierrasparky

Senior Member
Location
USA
Occupation
Electrician ,contractor
I was looking to find out what amount FC of lighting for a residential kitchen work space counter should be at?Trying to justify lighting levels for several town homes.
 

luckylerado

Senior Member
I found this recommended elsewhere:

Capture.JPG

I think that I would shoot for between 50 and 100 FC for good task lighting.

Illumenance is measured in foot candles (ftcd, fc, fcd) (or lux in the metric SI system). A foot candle is actually one lumen of light density per square foot, one lux is one lumen per square meter.

  • 1 lux = 1 lumen / sq meter = 0.0001 phot = 0.0929 foot candle (ftcd, fcd)
  • 1 phot = 1 lumen / sq centimeter = 10000 lumens / sq meter = 10000 lux
  • 1 foot candle (ftcd, fcd) = 1 lumen / sq ft = 10.752 lux
 

north star

Senior Member
Location
inside Area 51
$ ~ $


The link is to the United Facility Criteria ( UFC ) publication,
3-530-01, August 22, 2006, including an Change # 1, December
10, 2010..........See Page 155 & 156, Residential Kitchens:
Min. of 30 foot candles or higher.


http://wbdg.org/ccb/DOD/UFC/ARCHIVES/ufc_3_530_01_ch1.pdf


More illumination may be needed depending upon the total
amount of illumination that is actually needed, ...is there any
other natural ambient lighting [ i.e. - windows, skylights, etc. ],
...the total amount of counter space, ...ages of the intended
occupants, etc.


$ ~ $
 

luckylerado

Senior Member
Thanks,
My gut feeling is 50-100 is on the low side.

Really?? That puts it somewhere between a showroom and an operation theater. What are you cooking that would require more light than an operation theater.

UFC docs are full of great info but those standards are for military facilities and tend to be more than the civilian world would require for similar installation.
 

Sierrasparky

Senior Member
Location
USA
Occupation
Electrician ,contractor
Really?? That puts it somewhere between a showroom and an operation theater. What are you cooking that would require more light than an operation theater.

UFC docs are full of great info but those standards are for military facilities and tend to be more than the civilian world would require for similar installation.

I was confusing lux with FC and Lumens- i should have known better :ashamed:
 

Fitzdrew516

Senior Member
Location
Cincinnati, OH
I've done some food manufacturing facilities. I know a lot of usda/fda/sqf/brc standards require 50 FC in "Inspection areas" and a minimum of 18.5 fc in "processing areas" (which ends up being the corners of the room), but these are relatively generic and old terms - Plus you're talking residential. I'm just trying to give you an idea. Idk really, I'd say that 35 fc would be plenty, but I think the best thing to do would be to take a light meter and experiment as to what you think would work.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top