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LED Lighting Supply / Photometric Plan

Photometric Plan

Get Your Custom Lighting Plan With Product Recommendations

Includes up to 8% off the price of our recommended lighting products
A photometric lighting plan created by our lighting designers is the first step when adding or upgrading existing lighting in your facility. The photometric plan confirms important attributes including your project’s light intensity and distribution. Let our experts design a lighting plan for your project. Trusted by contractors.
  • Professionally Designed Lighting Layout
  • Fixture Count & Recommendation
  • Improved Energy Efficiency & Reduced Maintenance
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Dedicated Sales Support

Every lighting plan comes with a dedicated product specialist, providing personalized service and expert advice for your project needs.

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How long does it take to get a plan?

1-2 for indoor and 2-3 days for outdoor projects

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What to Expect When Requesting a Lighting Plan

A Product Expert Reviews Your Request
We Follow Up to Gather Project Details
Custom Lighting Plan With Product Recommendations is Created
Review and Approve Your Lighting Design
Purchase the Recommended Products

Our Customers

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Frequently Asked Questions

What is a Photometric Plan?

A Photometric Lighting Plan is a digital software report that shows a proposed LED lighting solution placed within an indoor or outdoor area. A photometric lighting study is conducted to simulate and analyze light distribution and illumination levels, allowing you to view the lighting level before work begins on a job site. Photometric software is used to create a detailed photometric layout, capable of importing layouts, CAD diagrams, and even scaled Google Maps of outdoor areas, particularly interesting when creating lighting plans for outdoor sports facilities using LED sports lighting. The software can place the fixtures inside the plan at specific locations and heights, and they can be oriented and aimed. Photometric plan designers interpret photometric data to ensure optimal lighting for both indoor and outdoor spaces, analyzing how light reaches different areas and defining calculation zones for precise analysis. The lighting plan calculates foot-candle light levels, shows how balanced the light is, and provides a comprehensive, printable PDF report. A Photometric lighting plan isn’t just a type of lighting or a design style. A photometric lighting plan is the study of how light emanates from a fixture into the environment. Knowledge related to photometric lighting plans is reserved for anyone who works with fixtures.

What is Photometric Analysis?

A photometric lighting plan analysis helps understand how the light from the fixture surrounds the area of coverage. Photometric studies generate detailed photometric reports that summarize key data points, such as average fc and the least bright point in the space, providing essential information for evaluating lighting uniformity and effectiveness. It’s a popular hack used by lighting designers to visualize what the space will look like after fixtures have been installed.

What is a Lighting Layout Calculator?

A lighting layout calculator is another way of saying “Lighting Plan”. Some sites provide some basic lighting calculators, which are good tools for basic budgetary calculations based on light levels needed when you provide some basic data about the light you might use. It is NOT a replacement for a lighting plan. We would never use an LED lighting layout calculator in place of a lighting plan. Other similar related terms – LED light spacing calculator and free lighting layout tool. A professional lighting designer can help ensure the selection of the right fixtures by considering factors like shape, size, and beam angle, which leads to optimal lighting distribution, greater energy savings, and reduced energy consumption.

What Customer Types are Eligible for Free Photometric Plans?

The results of each plan are specific to the particular space dimensions and fixture model, wattage, lumens, optic used, color temperature, and mounting angle used. The plan details the lumen power and light output of listed fixtures, ensuring accurate photometric analysis. Measurements of illumination can be calculated per square meter as well as per square foot. You should not expect the same lighting results indicated by the lighting plan if the fixture is swapped out for another fixture.

What Can I Expect with the Results of a Lighting Plan?

A lighting plan would be highly recommended before any lighting project is started, and before any lights are purchased. It will provide you with most of the information you need to make an informed decision. A photometric plan ensures proper lighting levels, uniform lighting, and optimal lighting coverage for your project.

When Do I Need a Photometric Plan?

A lighting plan would be highly recommended before any lighting project is started, and before any lights are purchased. It will provide you with most of the information you need to make an informed decision. A photometric plan ensures proper lighting levels, uniform lighting, and optimal lighting coverage for your project.

How Do You Create a Photometric Plan?

We create lighting plans using highly specialized lighting design software called AGI32 by Lighting Analysts. Photometric software like AGI32 is used to create lighting layouts and visualize the desired lighting effect before installation, allowing designers to optimize the ambiance and functionality of the space. This program allows us to model spaces, add lights, and calculate the light levels and light balance across the plan. We can easily add/remove and swap/switch fixtures within the plan until the correct light levels and balance are achieved.

How Can I Get A Photometric Lighting Plan?

There are many consultants whom you can pay to run a lighting plan. Our lighting specialists conduct a photometric study to ensure the best results, analyzing your site and lighting needs to create an optimal design. But, using our fixtures, we can create for you a commercial lighting, sports lighting, or industrial lighting design plan.

How Much Does a Photometric Plan Cost?

That depends on who develops the plan. They can cost between $500 and $2000 if you use a specialized lighting design company. Some of our competitors charge you for the plan and then credit you back the cost when you purchase.

Our deliverables include a detailed photometric study report and a photometric report summarizing the analysis. The photometric study report is a comprehensive document, typically 5 to 20 pages, containing graphs, charts, and analysis that follow IES guidelines. The photometric report summarizes lighting analysis results, including light levels, uniformity, and compliance with standards, helping verify lighting design effectiveness and guide luminaire selection.

We provide plans for free, with a few exceptions. We do not provide plans to individuals and companies only looking to have a plan done and with no intention of ever purchasing.

Our services are meant for customers who intend to purchase but want to make sure our lights will meet their needs. And, we do not provide plans for lights that we do not sell.

We also do not provide lighting plans for engineers and architects who just need a lighting plan to satisfy their requirements for their customers.

How Do You Calculate Lumens for a Photometric Site Plan?

You should note that 1 lumen per square foot is the same as a 1-foot candle. So, when you read a lighting plan, and see the average foot candles is, for example, 40, that’s the same as saying 40 lumens per square foot.

Technical Lighting Plan Terms You Should Know

One of the biggest challenges of buying new lighting or upgrading to LED lighting from existing fixtures is anticipating how your new lights will look and function in your space. Luckily, there is a solution.

A Photometric Lighting Plan is a software report of LED Lights placed within an indoor or outdoor area. Using a special lighting software program, you can create a simulation of an indoor room or an outdoor area. The software is capable of importing layouts, CAD diagrams, and even scaled Google maps of outdoor areas, particularly interesting when creating lighting plans for outdoor sports facilities.

The software can place the fixtures inside the plan at specific locations and heights, taking into account the ceiling height, which is crucial for proper light distribution. Lighting specialists use the software to analyze the calculation surface, which displays light distribution and zone-specific statistics. They also consider the type of light sources and light source specifications to ensure optimal performance and compliance with lighting requirements. The fixtures can be oriented and aimed. The lighting plan calculates foot-candle light levels, shows how balanced the light is, and provides a comprehensive printable PDF report.

Lighting Terms

Lumen: A lumen is a unit of light. By itself, it’s useless, but it becomes useful when it defines the collective lumens produced by 1 fixture or bulb. It is the amount of visible light that a fixture emits.

Foot Candle: A foot-candle is a measurement of light at a specific location, and many lights can contribute to the specific foot-candle reading at that location. Foot candles (or its equivalent LUX) are the requirement that most are looking for when they describe a light level for a project, facility, or location. Standards set by the Illuminating Engineering Society (IES) guide proper lighting levels, ensuring safety and uniformity in lighting design.

Photometric Study Report: A photometric study report is a detailed document, typically 5 to 20 pages, containing graphs, charts, and analysis that summarize the results of a lighting or photometric analysis. It follows IES guidelines and helps interpret lighting performance for a given space.

Ambient Lighting: Ambient lighting refers to the overall illumination within a space, providing comfortable and functional light levels for general activities and creating a welcoming environment.

Accent Lighting: Accent lighting is used to highlight specific areas or objects, such as products in a retail setting, enhancing visual appeal and drawing attention without overwhelming the space.

Beam Angle: The beam angle of a lamp is the angle at which the light is distributed or emitted. This can be done with additional optics, or as is the case with LEDs, by engineering the light in a specific way. LEDs have an extremely large range of available beam angles.

How to Read a Photometric Plan?

A lighting plan won’t provide you with any benefit unless you know how to read it.

A photometric plan serves as a guide by presenting photometric data and key data points for analysis. These data points include important measurements such as uniformity and foot-candle levels, which are essential for evaluating lighting layouts.

If this is your first LED Lighting Supply photometric plan, it may seem like a bunch of complex figures and statistics. However, it isn’t as difficult to understand as you might think.

Refer to the lighting plan for the basketball gymnasium on the right as we share some terms to familiarize yourself with how these plans work. There are 4 main parts of every lighting plan.

Indoor Basketball Court Lighting Calculation

1. Foot Candle Measurements

A foot-candle represents the amount of light that reaches a surface area, and it’s measured in lumens per square foot. In the above plan, you’ll see that there are several reading points within the lighting plan. These represent the foot-candle readings for each specific point. The average rating and calculation zone's statistics are used to assess lighting uniformity, helping to determine how the brightest point differs from the least bright point, which is important for visual comfort and compliance. And if you’d rather look at the layout in meters, the software can also calculate lux instead of foot-candles.

Lighting Plan Footcandles

2. The Fixtures

The light fixtures, arguably the most important element in a photometric lighting plan, are represented by red dots. In outdoor environments such as parking lots, it is crucial to properly place light poles and use listed fixtures to ensure optimal lighting coverage, safety, and compliance with regulations.

The dots indicate the optimal locations for the light fixtures to achieve the best lighting coverage.

Fixtures can be swapped out and plans recalculated to find ideal lighting for specific environments and areas, including parking lot applications and other large outdoor parking lots.

Lighting Plan Fixture

3. The Schedule

This is an extremely important part of a lighting plan that is often overlooked. The schedule is found at the bottom left of your lighting plan, and it goes into further detail about the types of fixtures recommended in the lighting plan.

The schedule helps you select the right fixtures by considering factors such as shape, size, and beam angle, and ensures that the lighting solutions provided are tailored to meet the specific needs of your project.

Lighting Plan Schedule

4. The Calculation

This is where some of the most valuable information in the lighting plan is found. This section is found on the right of the schedule and identifies the light levels and distribution ratios of the fixtures outlined in the schedule. It provides some useful information about the foot candle measurements in the plan, including the average, maximum, and minimum. These numbers are often used to ensure that projects are in accordance with building codes.

Out of these numbers, the average is the most significant. This is the ideal or “target” foot-candle reading for the entire project. We can then calculate an Average/Minimum foot-candle reading, which shows us how much the dimmest spot differs from the average.

The Max/Min ratio is also important, as it shows the overall lighting distribution for the space. Building codes are made so that buildings have an even distribution, which helps with visual comfort and safety. Photometric analysis using these ratios helps identify dark spots and ensures uniform lighting, which enhances visual comfort and prevents areas of insufficient illumination.

Lighting Plan Calculation

Lighting Plan Considerations

Inadequate Light Levels or Spotty Distribution

Bad distribution and poor lighting levels are a major issue in the lighting industry. Many facility managers who are looking to convert to LED lighting end up buying products online without going through a proper analysis. They make assumptions about what should work in their space, and encounter problems once they have bought and installed the new lighting. We end up hearing the following complaints often:

  • It’s too bright.
  • It’s not bright enough.
  • The light is not uniform.
  • The light is too bright beneath the fixture.

Consulting lighting specialists is essential to ensure proper lighting levels and that all areas are well lit, which helps prevent these common issues.

This is why we always suggest a photometric lighting plan. Otherwise, there is no sure way to know what your outcome will be. Even though some suppliers will suggest that many fixtures aren’t all that different from each other, we know that couldn’t be farther from the truth.

The only way to accurately predict how your lights will look is to have an in-depth understanding of how light behaves in large spaces. But unless you are a lighting engineer, this information is out of your wheelhouse. And that’s where the photometric lighting plan comes in. A photometric lighting plan takes everything into account and does the math for you so that you can make an informed lighting purchase, whether or not you’re a lighting engineer.

The issue with buying lighting fixtures online is that you can’t be 100% sure of what you are buying. A lot of the time, manufacturers will sell old inventory with outdated features and old chipsets. It may seem like a bargain, but you’ll quickly realize that you’ve made a huge mistake.

Understanding Your Current Light Levels

You can’t understand where you’re going if you don’t understand where you’ve been. Alright, that’s not exactly how the saying goes, but it does still apply here. To understand light levels, let’s introduce the concept of foot candles or lux. They are the same thing: light measurements.

You can take light readings using a handheld light meter or an app on your smartphone. A free light meter app gives some reliable basic readings, but if you have a complex light environment or want to be completely sure, we recommend investing in a light meter.

For example, you may have a production facility and are looking to upgrade to LED Shop Lights. A good process would be to install a light meter app on your phone and use it to take several readings around your facility. Go under a light, go between lights, go into the center of the space, go to the edge, and take readings.

These measurements can be analyzed by calculating the surface and calculation zone, and are often expressed per square meter to ensure accurate assessment of illumination levels and compliance with lighting standards.

From this, you will get a good idea of how your current lighting is performing and your current light levels. But you can also use this method to determine things like:

  • Are my light levels OK, too bright, or too dim?
  • Are my light levels pretty uniform and evenly distributed?
  • Would I like to improve the light levels, or are things OK?

Led Billboard Lighting Plan 2