# Standard practices for measuring candle power



## janieruth (Aug 28, 2008)

What is the standard practice for measuring candle power? We have just built an indoor practice field and the specs say 30 candle power. However, it only reaches the average of 30 candle power with the lights on and on a bright sunny day. At dark, with the lights on - it only measures an average of 19. The architect says that since it reaches an average of 30 (however limited that might be), that he has met the specs. I have searched through many code books and cannot find the standard engineering practices on how to measure candle power. Please help. Thanks!!!


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## jcsabolt2 (Sep 16, 2008)

Give Holophane a call. It is really going to depend on the contract between you and the architect/engineer. Did it state he needed to meet a minimum or an average of 30? I don't know any architects who do their own lighting design. Best left to the electrical engineers. I design highways and I'm sure our specs are much different than for sports fields.


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## jcsabolt2 (Sep 16, 2008)

Don't know if this helps or not, but here is a link from Philips for lighting software an another one by Simkar. Did you obtain a lighting plan that showed the contours of the lighting intensity? It should have been part of the plan package.

"Calculating" candlepower I imagine uses a pretty common equation/practice. However, it seems like your problem was with the contract language. Who told who how much light and to use what protocol/spec. There most likely is going to be a minimum light requirement for any type of facility. However, I would imagine anything above and beyond that would have to be decided between the designer and the client. Find your paper trail. If there is none and no "standard" specification or guideline to follow you are screwed. It would be a change order.


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