licht.wissen No. 14 "Ideas for Good Home Lighting"

Living room lighting
Reading, chatting, watching TV, playing games... no room in the home is used for as many different activities
as the living room. So it is all the more important that lighting should be variable and designed to cater to
different moods and requirements. A single luminaire in the middle of the ceiling is not enough.
[23] Ceiling spots set accents on the wall
and make the room look larger.
[24,26] Standalone luminaires beside the
sofa provide light for reading and strike a
homely note in the room. To enable the lighting
to cater to different moods, it should be
dimmable.
Lighting is crucial for the atmosphere of
a room. Harmonious lighting provides
good visual conditions and creates a
sense of homeliness.
Given the multifunctional nature of a living
room, the light sources in it need to
be flexible to meet diverse requirements.
The central meeting-point in a living
room is often the seating group. In this
area, lighting should be positioned to suit
personal needs.
Decentralised luminaire arrangement
To enable the specific requirements of
the various zones of a living room to be
met, a “decentralised“ arrangement of
different luminaires is recommended. This
zone lighting is combined with indirect
room lighting that illuminates the ceiling.
For those who prefer even cosier surroundings,
the atmosphere can be further
enhanced by mood lights.
General lighting for the living room
The general lighting in a living room should
provide the background illuminance
required – preferably with dimming control
– and deliver indirect, diffuse light that
subtly supports the accent lighting. Helping
to reduce marked lighting contrasts in the
room, it guards against visual fatigue. Wideangled
and general-diffuse wall, ceiling
or standalone luminaires offer appropriate
lighting solutions.
In museums or hotels, luminous ceilings or
cove luminaires (see lighting tip) are often
used for indirect lighting. This type of lighting
can also enhance a private living room.
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Lighting tip:
Indirect room lighting
Cove lighting [25]: Coving is the curving
transition between wall and ceiling. Luminaires
installed here deliver an indirect,
diffuse light. This creates the impression that
the ceiling is floating in the air. To achieve
uniform light distribution with no dark zones,
coving is fitted with linear fluorescent lamps
overlapping at the ends or with LEDs. For
rooms without coving, luminaires are available
with housings which form the coving
themselves.
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