Recommended lux levels by application (NBC 2016, IS 3646, IS 1944)

Why lux levels matter

Illuminance decides whether a space is safe, productive and compliant. Too little light raises accident and error rates; too much wastes energy and causes glare. Indian guidance comes from NBC 2016 Part 8 for buildings, IS 3646 for interior lighting and IS 1944 for roads. The figures below are maintained illuminance on the task plane and match the table we use in our lighting calculator.

Indoor and industrial

Space	Lux	Notes
Warehouse aisles and storage	100–200	Vertical illuminance on racks matters more than floor level
General factory floor	200–300	Assembly and packing
Precision assembly, inspection	500–750	Consider task lighting above 500 lux
Office and drawing work	300–500	Limit glare with UGR below 19
Corridors, stairs, lobbies	100–150	Uniformity above 0.4
Retail sales area	300–500	Accent lighting on displays

Roads and outdoor areas

Space	Lux	Notes
Main roads and arterials	20–30	Group A1/A2 per IS 1944
Secondary and collector roads	10–15	Typical 7–9 m poles
Residential streets	5–10	6–7 m poles, 25–30 m spacing
Car parks and yards	20–50	Flood or area lights on 8–12 m masts
Petrol station forecourt	150–300	High uniformity under the canopy

Sports

Space	Lux	Notes
Recreational football or cricket ground	200–300	Training level
Club-level competition	500	Four to six mast positions
Televised events	1,000–2,000	Vertical illuminance toward cameras

From lux to fixtures

The lumen method converts a lux target into fixture count: multiply the area by the target lux, divide by the fixture lumens, then divide again by the utilisation factor (how much light reaches the work plane, typically 0.5–0.7) and the maintenance factor. A 2,000 m² warehouse at 200 lux with 150 W highbays of 22,500 lm needs roughly 2,000 × 200 ÷ (22,500 × 0.6 × 0.8) ≈ 37 fixtures. Our bulk and customisation portal does this calculation for every HiLums and Oreli model, including pole spacing for roads and panel sizing for solar.