You are here: Getting Started > Tutorials > Vertical Illuminance Calculation > Vertical Illuminance Calculation

Introduction

Vertical Illuminance Calculation – Introduction

Time Estimate: 60 – 90 minutes

Vertical illuminance (measured in footcandles or lux) is a measure of light falling onto a point where the light meter at that
point is tilted 90 degrees. One example would be illuminance on a wall, but there are many others as well.

Problem Statement

Learn several different ways to place points for calculating vertical illuminance.

We will also look at one “special application,” calculating the potential for spill light per LEED 2009 requirements.

Note: If you would like to see what any of these projects will look like when complete, you will need to download the
AGi32 Sample Files. You can find them here. Scroll down to AGi32 Sample Files - Version 15/16 (or whatever is the
latest version). Information and instructions regarding the Sample Files: After you click on the Downloads button, select
Save (rather than Run). Next, locate the saved file and right click on it. Select Run As Administrator. Follow the installation
dialogs. All Sample Files are installed in your personal Windows folder (e.g., My Documents\AGi32). (Note the other
items that are available on the web page for download.) There will be two folders of sample files: AGi32 Sample Files and
CAD Sample Files.

Tutorial Summary

Introduction

Method 1 – Automatic Placement

Method 2 – Vertical grid, meter Normal to Grid

Method 3 – Horizontal (or sloped) grid, meter Tilted 90 degrees

Special Application – LEED Light Trespass

Conclusion

AGi32 copyright 1999-2016 Lighting Analysts, Inc.

You are here: Getting Started > Tutorials > Vertical Illuminance Calculation > Vertical Illuminance Calculation Method 1
Vertical Illuminance Calculation – Method 1

Method 1 – Automatic Placement

If you wish to calculate illuminance on a vertical surface of a Room or Object, the Automatic Placement command is the
simplest way to accomplish this.

We will begin by opening an existing file that already contains an Object. This is one of several Sample Files that are used
in the tutorials. If you have not already done so, you will need to download the Sample Files from the AGi32 website. Go
here. Under the Miscellaneous Downloads heading, click on the orange "download" button for the Sample Files (version 14
or newer). After downloading, double-click on the file to install the Sample Files. All Sample Files are installed in your
personal Windows folder (e.g., My Documents\AGi32). (Note the other items that are available for download, including a
printable version of all the tutorials.)

There will be two folders of sample files: AGi32 Sample Files and CAD Sample Files.

After you have downloaded and installed the Sample Files onto your computer, return to AGi32.

Click on the Open Existing File button near the left end of Common Toolbar (or Menu: File – Open).

Select and open the file called Tutorial-Vertical-AP.agi.

The object in this file is a billboard sign, like the ones that are commonly seen along the road. Click on the Default
Isometric View button to see it as it appears here.

In the Calculations Toolkit, click on the Automatic Placement button.

There is now a pick box attached to your cursor. Place the pick box over one of the lines of the sign and click. (Don’t click
in white space.) The Command Line should say “one selected.” Then right click to open the Automatic Placement dialog.
Read the Hint that pops up to get an understanding of this dialog, and then close the Hint.

In the Automatic Placement dialog, you may select the surface(s) that you wish to apply a calculation grid to. If you select
a vertical surface, vertical illuminance will be calculated; the light meter will be looking perpendicularly outward from the
surface. (In the dialog, the Lightmeter Type is shown as “1- Normal to Surface.”)
When the dialog opens, one of the large vertical surfaces (Side_1, on the north side of the object) is highlighted. Let’s say
we wish to place our points on the south side, the other large surface. We can use the blue Navigate buttons in the upper-
left corner of the dialog to move the focus to the south face of the sign. You may also click F9 or F10 on your keyboard, if
you prefer.

In this view, the south side (Side_3) is now highlighted.

In the General Section, set the calculation point spacing in the left-right (LR) direction to 2 (feet). Do the same for the
spacing in the top-bottom (TB) direction.

In the Calculation Points section, click on the word Off, and then on the down arrow and select On. (Or, just double click
on the word Off, and it becomes On.)

Click OK to exit the dialog. The Illuminance grid has been placed on the south face of the sign:
You can see the finished project by opening the AGi32 Sample File called Tutorial-Vertical-AP-finished.agi. (See
instructions regarding the sample files on the Introduction page of this tutorial.)

Continue to Method 2 to see another way to calculate vertical illuminance.

AGi32 copyright 1999-2016 Lighting Analysts, Inc.

You are here: Getting Started > Tutorials > Vertical Illuminance Calculation > Vertical Illuminance Calculation Method 2

Vertical Illuminance Calculation – Method 2

Method 2 – Vertical grid, meter Normal to Grid

Let’s say you want to calculate the illuminance on a computer screen, which we will assume is a vertical surface. If you
have an office full of computers, all those computers’ many surfaces will increase calculation time. In this case, you could
place a vertical grid of points where a screen would be and calculate the light that it would receive.

Open the AGi32 Sample File called Tutorial-Vertical-VertGrid.agi. This room has several desks, no chairs, and no
computers. We will place a grid where one screen might be that will represent the illuminance received on that screen.

For simplicity, let’s say the screen is 2’ square, that the lower edge of it is at 2.7 feet (32”) above the floor, and that it is
facing south. We will assume that the screen is on the middle table in the left-hand column. It can be seen in Default
Isometric View at right.

Return to Plan View.

Since the grid of points will be in a vertical plane looking south, we need to go to Elevation View Looking North. Click on
the button on the Common Toolbar for Elevation View – Looking North.

With Snap enabled and set at 0.5, click on a point where Y = 22.5. (Read the X,Y,Z values in the lower-left corner, below
the Command Line.)

Zoom in on the desk on the left. Set Snap to 0.1.

In the Calculations Toolkit, click on the 2-Pt Grid button, read the Hint that pops up, and then close the Hint.

In the dialog box, set the Point Spacing at 0.3 (feet) Left to Right and Top to Bottom.

For the Light Meter, select Normal to Grid. This means that the light meter will be positioned to read light arriving
perpendicular (normal) to the grid. Since this will be a vertical grid, the light meter will be receiving vertical illuminance.

At the bottom of the dialog, set the Z-Coordinate for the 1st Point and the 2nd Point to 2.7 (feet). This will be the height
above the floor for the bottom of the grid.

Click OK. Read the Hint that pops up, then close the Hint.

We will click the lower-left corner of our grid first, then the upper-right corner. In this manner, the grid will be looking out
of the screen, or south. Click the first point: (5.3, 22.5, 2.7). Note the Tip on the screen: Grid is facing out. Click the
second point: (7.3, 22.5, 4.7), defining a 2’ x 2’ screen with its lower edge at 2.7’ above the floor.

These images show the grid in Elevation View Looking North and in Default Isometric View (both zoomed in):
This grid represents the light that would be received on a south-facing computer screen on this desk, without actually
placing a screen.

You can see the finished project by opening the AGi32 Sample File called Tutorial-Vertical-VertGrid-finished.agi. (See
instructions regarding the sample files on the Introduction page of this tutorial.)

Continue to Method 3 to see another way to calculate vertical illuminance.

AGi32 copyright 1999-2016 Lighting Analysts, Inc.

You are here: Getting Started > Tutorials > Vertical Illuminance Calculation > Vertical Illuminance Calculation Method 3

Vertical Illuminance Calculation – Method 3

Method 3 – Horizontal (or sloped) grid, meter Tilted 90 degrees

Let’s say you want to calculate the illuminance on pedestrians on a sidewalk. The Illuminating Engineering Society (IES)
specifies in RP-8 (Recommended Practice for Roadway Lighting) that for a pedestrian walkway, horizontal illuminance
should be calculated in a horizontal plane on the ground, and vertical illuminance would be calculated at 1.5 meters above
the ground and measured in both directions parallel to the main pedestrian flow. For the vertical illuminance, the grid itself
should be horizontal, following the same path as the horizontal-illuminance grid, but located at 1.5 meters above the
sidewalk.

To picture this, it might help to imagine a person holding a light meter at 1.5 meters above the ground, tilted 90 degrees to
receive vertical illumination, and oriented to face the direction the person is walking. That person moves along the
sidewalk taking sequential measurements. Those measurements are of vertical illuminance, but they comprise a horizontal
grid.
Open the AGi32 Sample File called Tutorial-Vertical-HorizGrid.agi. This file represents a short section of street with
sidewalks on the north and south sides.

Luminaires have already been defined and placed. Note that the file has metric units: meters and lux.

Our next step is to place our illuminance grids. The horizontal-illuminance would be placed directly on the sidewalk. (You
already know how to do that.) The vertical-illuminance grids are a bit trickier. We will first place a grid whose points are
all looking west, ready to receive vertical illuminance. This represents illumination that would fall onto the side of
pedestrians seen by eastbound traffic.

Since the sidewalk is an orthogonal rectangle, we can use the 2-Pt Grid command. In the Calculations Toolkit, click on the
2-Pt Grid button.

Read the Hint that pops up; it pertains to what we are doing. Then close the Hint.

Enter a Label for the grid: Vertical – west facing.

Enter Point Spacing: 2 (meters) Left-Right and 1 Top-Bottom.

Select Fixed for the Light Meter type. Set Orient = 0 and Tilt = 90. Why these values?

Tilt: The meter starts out in a horizontal position (Tilt = 0). Tilting it 90 degrees puts it in position to measure vertical
illuminance.

Orient: Picture a person standing on the sidewalk, facing east (Orient = 0), and holding the light meter in a horizontal (not
tilted) position. When he tilts the meter 90 degrees, the meter is now looking west..

At the bottom of the dialog, set the Z coordinate (Z-Coord) for the 1st Point and for the 2nd Point = 1.5 (meters). The grid
will be located 1.5 meters above the sidewalk. Setting both points at the same height will make the grid horizontal.

Click OK to exit the dialog. We will define the location of the grid by clicking opposite corners. For the purpose of this
project, we will define the grid over just one block. Click the first point (lower left) and then second point (upper right) to
define the boundaries of the grid, as shown here:
Seen in Elevation View – Looking East, the points are above the sidewalk, and the question marks are right-side up. (They
are upside down when viewed in Elev. View - Looking West.)

Related situations:

Meter facing other directions:

A meter that is tilted and facing east to receive vertical illuminance will have an Orient = 180 and a Tilt = 90.

For a north-facing meter, Orient = 270, and for a south- facing meter, Orient = 90.

For more information on this, see the Help topic called Aiming Parameters - Procedures.

Other grid shapes, points on a line, or scattered points:

AGi32 has similar tools for specifying other kinds of point arrangements; Orient and Tilt are defined the same way:

 3-Pt Grid or Polygon-shaped grid, if appropriate, depending on the shape of the area.
 Points on a Line. The line may be straight or curved (F4 command).
 Scattered Points.

Sloped grid:

A rectangular grid or a line of points may be sloped instead of horizontal, simply by specifying different Z-Coord values
for the first and last points. (In addition to specifying it in the dialog boxes, the Z-Coord can be set in the lower-right
corner of the screen before clicking the point location.) Note that the meter’s Tilt position is specified independently of the
slope of the grid. A Tilt of 0 degrees is always horizontal, 90 degrees is vertical, etc.

You can see the finished project by opening the AGi32 Sample File called Tutorial-Vertical-HorizGrid-finished.agi. (See
instructions regarding the sample files on the Introduction page of this tutorial.)

Continue to the Special Application to see how you can place points to calculate vertical illuminance to show the potential
for spill light, per LEED 2009 requirements.
AGi32 copyright 1999-2016 Lighting Analysts, Inc.

You are here: Getting Started > Tutorials > Vertical Illuminance Calculation > Vertical Illuminance Calculation LEED
Light Trespass

Vertical Illuminance Calculation – LEED Light Trespass

Special Application – Calculating the potential for light trespass, per LEED version 4

LEED version 4 will award 1 point toward LEED certification for a site that meets Sustainable Site (SS) Credit 8 for “light
pollution reduction.” Two criteria must be met, one for uplight and the other for light trespass. In this application, we will
look at how to use AGi32 to determine whether a site lighting design will meet the LEED version 4 criteria.

Open the AGi32 Sample File called Tutorial-Vertical-LEED.agi. (See Method 1, second paragraph) in this tutorial for how
to obtain the AGi32 Sample Files.) We have a site with luminaires located and a horizontal grid placed. Note that unlike
most lighting design requirements, LEED requires that initial illuminance be calculated. Therefore, our luminaires have a
total LLF = 1.0.

For the purpose of this exercise, we will assume that our site is in Lighting Zone 3. Based on this assumption, the LEED
criteria state that the lighting must not exceed these values:

Uplight: Option 1: Meet BUG rating U3. Option 2: Uplight (light emitted above horizontal) from all luminaires on
the site shall not exceed 3% of the total luminaire lumens from all of the luminaires on the site. For Option 1, the
Define Luminaire dialog shows the luminaire's BUG rating. The UWLR command may be used to demonstrate
compliance with Option 2. We will show how to do this.

Light Trespass: Option 1: Do not exceed BUG Backlight and Glare ratings. Ratings vary with luminaire distance
from property line. Option 2, Calculation Method: Do not exceed 0.20 fc (2 lux) maximum vertical illuminance at
lighting boundary, which is usually the property line. Vertical illuminance calculation points are from ground level to
33 ft (10 m) above the height of the highest luminaire, with points at maximum 5 ft x 5 ft (1.5 m x 1.5 m) spacing.

Again, for Option 1 the Define Luminaire dialog shows the luminaire's BUG rating. We will choose Option 2 so that
we can show how to use AGi32's Obtrusive Light command to meet uplight requirement.

The process that we will follow:

Use the Obtrusive Light command to place vertical calculation grids around the site at the boundary.

Calculate.

Use the UWLR command to determine the uplight.

Use Obtrusive Light Compliance Test to evaluate the results.

Step 1: Use Obtrusive Light command to place vertical grids at the site boundary

In the Calculations Toolkit, click the down-arrow next to the Obtrusive Light button and select Illuminance/Intensity:
Enter a Label: Vertical Illuminance at Boundary.

Set point spacing: 5 feet Left to Right and 5 feet Top to Bottom.

Our pole height is 30’. Therefore, we need points from 0’ to (at

least) 63’ high. Enter Z-Coord - Top: 65.

Uncheck the box to Center the Points Top-to-Bottom. This way, the
points will start at 0 and end at 65 feet.

Uncheck the box for Maximum Luminous Intensity (Cd), as this does
not apply to LEED projects.

Increase the value for Decimals - Vertical Illuminance to 2. This is

because the maximum allowed is specified as 0.20 fc (not 0.2 fc).

Click in the black Color field and change the color of the grid to blue.

Click OK to exit the dialog.

Trace the perimeter of the site as shown by the red line in the image below, following the Property Line .

Right-click after clicking the last point.

Note the Meter Direction. It should be pointing into the site. If not, press the F5 key on your keyboard to flip the direction.
When it is pointing inward, press Enter to complete the command.

Seen in Default Isometric View:

If you zoom in on the points, you will see that the meter indicators are all pointed inward, ready to receive vertical
illuminance from inside the site.

Step 2: Calculate

Set the Calculate method as the Direct-Only Method. (LEED doesn't include reflected light in its calculations.)

Click the Calculate button.

In the Statistics are, there are several sections of Vertical Illuminance at Boundary, representing the vertical segments of
calculation grids that wrap around the site. The maximum value for any of these should be 0.20 fc or less, based on our
LZ3 assumption for this site. In this case, the maximum in Segment 1 is 0.37 fc. (The segments are numbered in the order
that you drawn them.)
Note: Your values may not be the same as those shown here if your boundary lines are not identical to the ones in this
example.

You can use the Highlight Values tool (Calculations Toolkit) to show where any “offending” values are.

Step 3: Determine uplight with UWLR command

Even though it isn't a vertical-illuminance calculation, there is one more calculation that you might want AGi32 to
perform. The LEED requirement concerning the percentage of upward luminaire lumens can be determined with the
LPD/UWLR command (Calculations Toolkit). UWLR = Upward Waste Light Ratio, an Australian metric indicating the
percentage of luminaire lumens emitted above 90 degrees vertical in the luminaire's installed position.

Go to Plan/Top View.

In the Calculations Toolkit, click on the LPD/UWLR button.

In the dialog, enter a Label: Lumens emitted above 90 deg.

Uncheck the box for Lighting Power Density.

Check the box for Upward Waste Light Ratio.

Change the Text Size to 5 ft.

Select the option to Manually Specify Polygon.

Click OK.
Draw a polygon that encompasses all of the luminaires on the site. Right-click to close the polygon.

The UWLR statistics are calculated automatically and are displayed in the Statistics area in green. (Scroll down.)

This site has UWLR = 0.00%. (The maximum allowed for our assumed LZ3 condition is 3%.)

In the Model Mode display area, the UWLR Label (summary info) will be placed near the lower-left corner of the area.
You may move it to another location, if desired. To do this, click on the drop-down arrow next to the Edit LPD/UWLR
button and select Move Label.

Label moved:
Step 4: Use Obtrusive Light Compliance Test to evaluate the results

The Obtrusive Light menu includes

an option to test compliance with
several obtrusive light standards,
including LEED version 4. Click on
the Obtrusive Light button to open
the Obtrusive Light Compliance Test
dialog.

Select LEED v4 as the Standard.

Select LZ3 as the Lighting Zone.

(Ignore the Application Conditions of
Pre-Curfew or Post-Curfew; they are
grayed out, as they don't apply to
LEED v4.)

Notice that Illuminance is selected, and the value is 0.2 fc. This is referring to the maximum allowed vertical illuminance at
the boundary. Notice also that UWLR is selected and the value is 3%. These values were set by our selection of LEED v4
and LZ3.

Click the Run Test button to run the Compliance Test.

The first part of the Compliance Report shows the vertical illuminance results. In our example, some of the segments have
failed, and the maximum vertical illuminance calculated for each segment is shown.

Scrolling down, you will see the X, Y, Z coordinates of the specific points where the illuminance was too high. (Note, if
there are a lot of points, only the first 250 are shown.) As mentioned above, you can use the Highlight Values tool
(Calculations Toolkit) to see more easily where these non-compliant values are.

Scrolling further, you can see the Compliance Test results for the UWLR calculation.
Once you know where the non-compliant calc points are, you can decide how to modify the design to eliminate the
problem areas. Then calculate again and run the Compliance Test again. Compliance Test results may be sent to a printer if
desired.

For more information LEED version 4, go to www.usgbc.org, the website for the US Green Building Council.

You can see the finished project by opening the AGi32 Sample File called Tutorial-Vertical-LEED-finished.agi. (See
instructions regarding the sample files on the Introduction page of this tutorial.)

AGi32 copyright 1999-2016 Lighting Analysts, Inc.

You are here: Getting Started > Tutorials > Vertical Illuminance Calculation > Vertical Illuminance Calculation
Conclusion

Vertical Illuminance Calculation – Conclusion

Conclusion

In this tutorial we have explored several ways to specify calculation points and grids for vertical illuminance.

It should be noted that, just as you can calculate horizontal illuminance in a vertical, horizontal or sloped grid, you can also
calculate vertical illuminance in a vertical, horizontal or sloped grid. The direction that the light meter points is
independent of the plane of the grid.

It is also possible to calculate illuminance in a plane other than horizontal or vertical. Simply specify a Tilt angle other
than 0 or 90 degrees.
Finally, all of the Calculation Points dialogs have an option called Variable, where the light meter is aimed at a specific X,
Y, Z coordinate. This is sometimes called TV illuminance or camera illuminance, in which case the light meter is looking
toward a camera (or observer) location.

Other information on the various calculation options may be found here and here.

AGi32 copyright 1999-2016 Lighting Analysts, Inc.