Summer is finally coming to an end even in Spain. The temperatures begin to drop and with the changes to winter, the days will be shorter and the natural light in your home will be lower. That's just how it is, but can you do anything about it? Well, there is little you can do about changing the time and losing sunlight, but you can select the interior layout of the apartment intelligently and change the lighting in your home to lighten it up. For sale apartments propertyhunter
Let us look at some basic concepts before addressing the question: "The luminous flux is the power (W) emitted by the light radiation. For example, if we have two lights, one with 25 W and one with 40 W, one with 40 W will emit a more intense light. When we talk about 25 or 40 watts, we only mean the power consumed by the bulb, from which only one part becomes visible light. The rest is heat or other kind of energy," says Atrezo Arquitectos' Pablo García.
Luminance is another concept: "It is the apparent light intensity that comes from or reflects one particular object or point. It is measured in lux, the symbol of which is lx. This unit originates from another unit known as the lumen, which measures the light flow. A luminous amount of 1 lux equals 1 lumen per square meter. That is if a room is illuminated with a light bulb of 1,000, a surface of 10 square metres, the light level will be 100 lux," the architect explains.
Outside, a clear day has between 80,000 and 100,000 lux to make it easier to understand. The cloudy day is about 3,000 lux (a typical autumn/winter day). This applies to outdoor spaces. Indoors, for example, there are between 200 and 300 lx in the kitchen, "although it is 500 lx in the workspace where food is cuts and prepared," explains García.
Change the light in each room
In adult rooms not very high levels between 50 and 150 lx are recommended for general lighting. "However, spotlights with up to 500 lx are recommended to be read on the headboards of the beds. The general light in the children's rooms should be 150 lx and 300 lx if an area exists for activities and games."
What kind of light should you put in the living room? The overall lighting may vary from 100 to 300 lx, but if you want to watch a TV, you should cut it to 50 lx and read, as in the bedroom, you should use a focal light of 500 lx.
Not too much lighting is necessary in the bathroom, approximately 100 lx are enough to shave, make or comb your hair, except for the mirror area. We advise 500 lx. The ideal is a general illumination of 100 lx in staircases, corridors and other passages or areas of little use.
Before purchasing light bulbs, the most recommended is to measure rooms with a luxmeter: "It is very good to make changes at home because this will allow you to see if the rooms are lit or not and you can purchase a luxmeter for 25 euros. If we know the lux needed to illuminate it well, the required lumens can be calculated for every room and surface. For instance, imagine a kitchen of 10 m2 that we want 300 lux at 80 cm from the floor to illuminate. That would mean three thousand lumens. When we go to the catalogs, the lumens given by the luminaire must be checked and up to 3000" are ensured.
General recommendations in winter for a well-lit house
Purchase a luxmeter and measure your space to see if more light is needed. If so, follow the calculations we provided at the start of this article or call a specialist to help you.
Try to make your walls and ceilings white, only light can reflect part of their luminance. If they have dark colors, the light will be absorbed and lost. You can also choose white wallpapers and the motifs that you like most; the goal is to make the walls reflect the light.
You install windows with hidden hinges and a single leaf if you do renovation work and the regulations allow it. If the window is 1 meter width, do not install a 2-leaf window because part of the natural light is removed from the surface of the frame.
"Set up a forged glass door so that the light flows through your house. When a door leads to the kitchen or another dark room in your entry, consider installing a large glass iron door that lights through. Apart from being beautiful, it will remain a separation of spaces," explains Garcia.
Install in the bathrooms a translucent glass sliding door. If your bathrooms get natural light, try using it.
Floor to the door of the ceiling. "If your ceiling is 2.40 meters, do not stop, let the door go up to the top. The light through which you open them will be spectacular. You can also install glasses that let light in," adds García.