Title 24 Residential Lighting

For residential buildings and spaces, all of the lighting requirements are mandatory
measures. There are no tradeoffs between lighting and other building features and lighting is
not part of any component package under the prescriptive method.
The residential lighting Energy Standards apply only to permanently installed luminaires,
including luminaires with easily interchangeable lamps, but do not apply to portable
luminaires such as table lamps or freestanding floor lamps

Scope and Application
The residential lighting requirements in the Energy Standards, apply to more than just
single-family homes. Space types covered include:
•Single-family buildings, indoor and outdoor lighting
•Low-rise multifamily buildings (three stories or less), indoor and outdoor lighting
•High-rise multifamily residential units
•Hotel and motel guest rooms
•Outdoor lighting controlled from the inside of a high-rise multifamily unit or hotel/motel
guest room
•Fire station dwelling accommodations
•Dormitory and senior housing dwelling accommodations
•Accessory buildings such as sheds or garages (U occupancy type) on residential sites

High Efficacy Luminaires
“Efficacy” is a term used in the lighting industry to describe the overall effectiveness of a
lamp or luminaire, including its energy efficiency (expressed as lumens/Watt). In order to
simplify the residential lighting requirements, the Energy Standards define certain luminaire
types as “high efficacy,” meaning that they possess a high lumens per watt efficiency and do
not have any attributes that would make the light less effective or less suitable for residential
illumination.Certain types of light sources are automatically classified as high efficacy, unless they are inrecessed downlight luminaires. Luminaires are classified as shown in the table below.

Title 24 Compliant Luminaire Types

Low-Rise Multifamily Lighting Requirements
Lighting requirements in common areas of low-rise multifamily buildings depend on the
percentage of the total interior common area in each building. Buildings where interior
common area equals 20 percent or less to the floor area have one set of requirements, and
buildings where the total interior common area is greater than 20 percent of the total floor
area have different requirements.
A. If the common area equals 20 percent or less of the total building floor area
In low-rise multifamily buildings where the total interior common area in a single building is
20 percent or less of the total floor area, all permanently installed lighting in interior
common areas must be high efficacy and controlled by occupancy sensors.
B. If the common area is greater than 20 percent of the total building floor area
In low-rise multifamily buildings where the total interior common area in a single building is
greater than 20 percent of the total floor area, permanently installed lighting in common
areas must meet the applicable nonresidential lighting requirements, and corridor and
stairwell lighting must be controlled by occupant sensors.