Preference of residential interior lighting

Abstract

With the aim of investigating the choices preferred by users in front of the different alternatives in the field of
related to interior residential lighting, a living room was designed in real scale in which it is possible to change
both sources and levels of lighting. Twenty-four lighting conditions were evaluated, comprising the combination
of four different technologies: Incandescent (I), Halogen Incandescent (HI), Compact Fluorescent (CF) and lightemitting
diode (LED), with three levels of horizontal illuminance between 215 and 630lux and cold (6500K) and
warm (2700K) color temperatures. All the lamps evaluated belongs to the Base E27 group, which are the most
used in residential homes.
Twenty-four observers completed the subjective evaluations by means a questionnaire of semantic differentials in
which categories related to the perception of the enlightened environment were evaluated.
The results showed, for all the evaluated conditions, that the maximum levels of illumination are qualified with
the highest values. At the same time, significant variations are observed in the assessment carried out for the
different lamps and color temperatures. It is distinguished observers’ preference for warm lighting (2700K) and
lamps such as Halogen Incandescent and iLED. In addition, lamps are preferred that distribute light more evenly
throughout the space. These results might be interesting for both designers and users since they could be used as
recommendations when an environment to be illuminated is going to be designed, considering technological and
economic aspects, structural aspects and also people’s perspective.