New Illuminance Calculator Available!
We just added this illuminance calculator to the site – but it’s important to also lay out All The Grains of Salt you should take it with!
It only works for estimating lux in certain cases, and, like all rough estimates, it should never be used for coming up with design parameters for your system. It shouldn’t be used for other extremely critical determinations, either!
See below for more context on the inverse square law that this thing is based on. It discusses an example (sunlight in space bouncing off flat mirrors) where this law doesn’t work well because the rays are almost parallel.
In contrast, it DOES work well for things like bare LEDs where light is coming out in a really wide angle from a really small surface area.
For easy access to this calculator in the future, see the footer of this site.
Here’s a simplified discussion on why inverse square law does not work to disqualify Reflect Orbital’s technology concept, as was posited by a Twitter/X user.
If the rays (or beam angle) of the light you want to use the illuminance calculator for also have a parallel distribution, or even just a really narrow beam spread, the calculator won’t be useful for you.
On the other hand…
If the light you want to really roughly estimate has a very, very wide beam angle or a Lambertian distribution (like bare LEDs), it might be pretty close.
In any case, it’s best to consult an expert!
Book your free, 20-minute Zoom consultation here if you’d like to explore what we can accomplish in an optical engineering contract.