Lighting Design & Code Compliance Tool
Lay out a real project’s lighting and check it against the codes that actually govern it in Arizona: room-by-room footcandles, emergency and exit-sign coverage (IBC), dimming control zones with labeled percentages (IECC C405), and the outdoor lighting rules of fourteen Arizona jurisdictions — Tucson/Pima County, Phoenix, Mesa, Chandler, Gilbert, Glendale, Scottsdale, Tempe, Marana, Oro Valley, Sahuarita, Flagstaff, and Sedona, every number transcribed from the published code text. Draw on your own plans: open a PDF or DXF, place fixtures, calibrate the scale, and run point-by-point footcandle calculations from imported .ies photometry — grid, uniformity, and target checks on your drawing. Type a parcel number to pull up the site map and, in Pima County, auto-detect the lighting zone. Free, saves in your browser, prints a submittal-style compliance summary.
Job information
Jurisdiction — which lighting code applies?
Pick the city or county whose ordinance governs the site. NEC, IBC egress, IECC controls, and the Arizona shielding statute are always checked. Rule data verified August 8, 2026 against the published code text.
Site & parcel
Parcel data comes live from the county assessor GIS. Boundaries are for reference — not a survey. You can also skip the lookup and enter everything manually below, or design from your own drawing.
Luminaire schedule
Every fixture type on the job — interior and exterior. Lumens and CCT come off the manufacturer cut sheet. “Shielded” means full cutoff / fully shielded (no light at or above horizontal) — it’s what the dark-sky budgets hinge on. Flag EM (battery/inverter) fixtures and exit signs so the egress checks can find them.
| Mark | Description | Location | Lumens | Watts | CCT (K) | Mtg ft | Shielded | EM | Exit |
|---|
Have the manufacturer’s .ies photometric file? Import it and the lumens, wattage, and shielding flag fill in automatically — including computed lumens for absolute-photometry LED files.
Your drawing — place fixtures on the plan
Open the floor or site plan as a PDF or an ASCII DXF export (DWG can’t be read by a browser — export to PDF or DXF from CAD). The drawing stays on your computer; nothing is uploaded. Pick a fixture, choose Place, and click the plan; use Scale by clicking two points a known distance apart. Placements save with the project — re-open the drawing file after a reload to see the underlay again.
Point-by-point footcandles
The real thing: horizontal illuminance computed at every grid point from each placed fixture’s photometry — manufacturer .ies data when imported, a generic downward distribution otherwise. Needs the scale calibrated and fixtures placed. Set mounting heights on the Fixtures tab; use Rotate fixture to aim Type II/III optics; draw a Calc area or let it cover the placements. Colors band from blue (dark) through green to red (bright); values print on the report snapshot.
Placed fixture counts
Tallied live from the plan. Push the counts into the exterior worksheet or a room with one click — the compliance math then runs on exactly what’s drawn.
Rooms & footcandles
Add each space, pick its type (the footcandle target and lighting-power allowance fill in — both editable), and assign fixtures. Average illuminance uses the lumen method: fc = lumens × CU × LLF ÷ area. CU (coefficient of utilization) 0.6–0.7 suits typical rooms; LLF (light loss factor) 0.85 is a common LED design value.
Egress & exit signs (whole building)
Control zones & dimming levels
Group lighting by how it’s controlled, then label each dimming level with its percentage — e.g. Occupied 100% / Vacant 50% / After-hours off. The checks flag the energy-code rules each zone type has to meet.
What the energy code requires
Exterior lighting — building, pole, sign & EM
Add a row for each exterior fixture type and its quantity. Everything totals against the jurisdiction’s lumen budget for your zone and acreage (set on the Project tab). Internally illuminated signs are handled per the selected code — exempt from the budget in Tucson/Pima, but CCT-limited.
| Fixture | Qty | Total lumens | FS/US |
|---|
Compliance summary
The report prints the luminaire schedule, room-by-room footcandles, the controls schedule, the exterior lumen calculation in the Tucson OLC §104.2.1 plan format, egress checks, and a certification block. Your work also autosaves in this browser.
Have AES review this design — free
We’re a Tucson design-build electrical contractor. Send the design over and a project manager will sanity-check the layout, the code path, and give you a real number to build it — fixtures and install.
What this tool checks. Interior: average illuminance by the lumen (zonal-cavity) method against editable IES-style footcandle targets, lighting power density against IECC-style allowances, occupant-sensor and daylight-control triggers, and dimming levels against the IECC C405 light-reduction rules. Egress: emergency illumination (1 fc average / 0.1 fc minimum, 90-minute source — IBC 1008), exit-sign count and viewing distance (IBC 1013), and the NEC 700/701 wiring notes. Exterior: total and unshielded lumens per net acre against the selected jurisdiction’s tables, per-fixture unshielded caps, color-temperature limits, sign rules, curfews, and Tucson’s special-inspection thresholds.
Point-by-point photometrics. The Drawing tab computes true horizontal illuminance at every grid point from each placed fixture’s photometry — real manufacturer .ies candela data when you import it, inverse-square with the cosine of the incidence angle, mounting heights, aimed optics, and your light loss factor — with a color-banded grid on your plan, average/max/min and uniformity ratios, and a minimum-fc target check. It models the direct component only (no interreflections or shadowing) and is planning-grade: for a stamped photometric study, our engineering team runs the full model. Codes also change: rule data here was verified August 8, 2026, and the 2025 Tucson/Pima revision is included as a clearly marked draft.
Which cities are covered? Fourteen Arizona jurisdictions, every one built from the published code text: the dark-sky lumen-budget codes (Tucson/Pima County 2012 and the 2025 draft, Marana, Oro Valley, Sahuarita, Flagstaff’s narrow-band-amber standards, Sedona) and the Phoenix-metro shielding/trespass codes (Phoenix §23-100, Mesa, Chandler’s zero-foot-candle rule, Gilbert, Glendale, Scottsdale’s lumens tiers, Tempe) — plus the statewide ARS shielding statute everywhere. Each pack cites its sections so your permit reviewer can follow the math. Related: parking lot lighting in Tucson, LED retrofits, and our field guide on wiring exit signs and emergency lights.
Designing lighting for a real building?
We design and self-perform interior, site, and sign lighting across Arizona — commercial electricians in Tucson who handle the photometrics, the permit, and the install on one contract.
Request a Bid