Light spacing in rooms

[signcrafter]

Silly question about how far to space lights in a room. Say a bedroom is 20' long and you want to put two lights in there. Do you divide the room by 3 and put the lights 6'8" off the walls? Seems this would put majority of lighting in the center of the room since the lights would be overlapping the 6'8" space in between them and the edges of the room darker since you have the same 6'8" from light to the wall.

Other option I see is dividing the room by 4. So 5' from wall have a light and then 10' between for another light and then 5' to the other wall. This seems like a better option to me since you're basically dividing the room in half and then placing a light in center of each half.

Seems like it should be an easy question but I could see doing it either way so was just seeing what others do?

 

[Git]

Personal Preference. Depends on height of ceiling, etc

Also, there are online layout calculators like this one.

https://blog.recessedlighting.com/recessed-lighting-calculator/

That is what I like about the new led 'wafer' lights since you can install them just about anywhere. Once you have your layout picked out, even if a floor joist happens to be right where you want a light, it's usually not a problem with these lights

 

[Platonic Solid]

Residential lighting is completely different from general use space. Even illumination isn't necessarily the goal. Overall feeling, accent walls and art features play parts in light fixture type, placement and quantity. If you are looking for even illumination in a room then fixture spacing criteria matters (which varies by fixture).

 

[SarcasticDwarf]

I used one of the calculators and installed 16 Lithonia WF6 wafer lights in our 14' x 40' basement all of which are tied into a dimmer. I went for even illumination and figure I can change it around in the future if I want (drop ceiling). I could have gotten away with far fewer if it were not for the ceiling being at 6'-02".

Now I just need to figure out wtf is randomly tripping the CAFCI breaker.

 

[cybrdyke]

Silly question about how far to space lights in a room. Say a bedroom is 20' long and you want to put two lights in there. Do you divide the room by 3 and put the lights 6'8" off the walls? Seems this would put majority of lighting in the center of the room since the lights would be overlapping the 6'8" space in between them and the edges of the room darker since you have the same 6'8" from light to the wall.

Other option I see is dividing the room by 4. So 5' from wall have a light and then 10' between for another light and then 5' to the other wall. This seems like a better option to me since you're basically dividing the room in half and then placing a light in center of each half.

Seems like it should be an easy question but I could see doing it either way so was just seeing what others do?

IF I was doing it this way (and I wouldn't), option 2 would be the way. But in this hypothetical room, are there cabinets on the walls? Shelves? Other tall things? If so, then we have a problem. We're lighting the top of the cabinets and getting no wall reflectance.
CD

 

[Marctrees]

"Other option I see is dividing the room by 4. So 5' from wall have a light and then 10' between for another light and then 5' to the other wall. This seems like a better option to me since you're basically dividing the room in half and then placing a light in center of each half."

If you have decided two lights, and are wanting general illumination as even as possible using two lights, then yes to the above.

Marc