How much light do I need?

Use these easy steps to determine what Maxim Lighting fixture will meet your specific lighting requirements for room.

Determine Room Square Footage

Multiply the Length times the Width of the Room to get the Room Square Footage. For example, if the room is 10 feet wide and 10 feet long, the Room Square Footage will be 100 square feet.

Determine the Foot Candles by Room Type or Room Purpose

A foot-candle is how bright the light is one foot away from the source. Lighting requirements/needs vary depending on the type of room being lit. For example, a bathroom or kitchen will require more foot-candles than a living room or bedroom.

• Room
  Living Room
  Kitchen General
  Kitchen Stove
  Kitchen Sink
  Dining Room
  Bed Room
  Hall Way
  Bathroom
• Foot Candles Needed
  10-20
  30-40
  70-80
  70-80
  30-40
  10-20
  5-10
  70-80

Determine the Needed Lumens

lumen is a unit of measurement of light. A lumen is a way of measuring how much light gets to what you want to light. To determine the needed lumens, you will need to multiply your room square footage by your room foot-candle requirement.

For example, a 100 square foot living room, which needs 10-20 foot-candles, will need 1,000-2,000 lumens. A 100 square foot dining room, which needs 30-40 foot-candles, will need 3,000-4,000 lumens.

Find a Matching Maxim Lighting Fixture to Meet Your Needs

Maxim Lighting has provided you the rated lumen output under "Rated Lumens" on most products on the Web Site.

For example, the Passion 4-Light Semi-Flush Mount, 39981BCPS, has a rated lumen output of 2,688. This fixture will provide more than enough light for the living room with a 1,000-2,000 lumen requirement, but would not provide enough light for a dining room with a 3,000-4,000 lumen requirement.