Lighting and lux surveys on iPhone and iPad · launching autumn 2026

Lighting survey app. Walk the floor. The report is already written.

Luxwork is a lighting survey app for iPhone and iPad. On a lux survey, it puts each reading from your calibrated meter on the plan where you took it, judges the survey against the rule set you chose, and has the report ready for you to sign when the last point is in.

Join the beta list Watch the film 2:38

Beta testing is on iPhone and iPad.

  • No account
  • Surveys stay on your phone
  • Works with the meter you have

Specimen — invented data, not a real survey

The top of page one of a specimen Luxwork report, stamped "Specimen: invented data, not a real survey". The header gives the time it was produced, 14 May 2026 at 17:41 BST, and the reference specimen-0001. The report is for Example Works, Ground, Unit 4 warehouse floor, judged against a client requirement. Two outcomes sit side by side: uniformity is below requirement at Uo 0.29 against Uo 0.40, and maintained average illuminance meets requirement at 222.6 lux against 200.0 lux. Tiles beneath give 36 readings with calibration in date and a spread of 64.9 to 273.5 lux. The first rows of the details table follow. The app mid-survey: a reading of 194.7 lux typed from the meter's display, seventeen points already plotted and shaded on the grid, point eighteen ringed as next, and a progress line reading seventeen done, nineteen to go.
Real screens: the app mid-walk, and the report it renders. Every value is invented. One requirement was met and one was not, and the report prints no pass, no fail and no accreditation mark.

Film · 2:38 · captions in the picture · transcript

A lighting survey, from the first point to the signed report

What a survey looks like with Luxwork in your hand, shown on a demonstration survey with specimen data. Nothing loads until you press play, and it plays from this site. Also on YouTube (opens in a new tab).

  1. 0:00A survey is two jobs
  2. 0:41Draw, pair, walk
  3. 1:25Two requirements, one below
  4. 1:45What it will not do
  5. 2:13What it costs
Watch it, with the transcript

How a survey works in Luxwork

Three steps, and the third one is the point.

1 · Capture

Readings, tied to the instrument

Take readings live over Bluetooth from a supported meter, or type them in from any calibrated instrument. Every reading carries the meter it came from and that meter's calibration record.

2 · Judge

Against the rule set you choose

You pick the rule set at the start — the guidance your client's specification points at, or your own stated requirement, or none at all if you are only recording levels. The measurement pattern, the plane, the preconditions and the criteria come with it.

3 · Report

A record someone can check

Finish the survey and the report already exists: every reading traced to an instrument, the measurement plane stated and the walk recorded. Signed on the device. Any change to the signed survey record breaks the signature check.

Who it's for

What a lighting survey is, and who does one

A lighting survey measures how much light reaches the places where people work. It also goes by lux survey, light level survey or illuminance survey. Someone with a calibrated meter takes readings in lux at evenly spaced points across an area, at the height where the work is done. From those readings come the average, the lowest single reading, and uniformity, which is the lowest reading divided by the average.

Two other jobs go by the same name. An LED or energy survey counts fittings so a supplier can quote for new ones, and an emergency lighting check measures the light with the normal supply switched off. Luxwork is for surveys that measure light levels, including emergency lighting levels.

Who does one

A competent person with a calibrated lux meter. That is usually an electrical or M&E contractor, a lighting engineer, a health and safety consultant, or a trained member of the facilities team. The regulations don't name a qualification, but the person needs to know the method and record enough for someone else to check the work.

When a workplace needs one

The Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992 say that "every workplace shall have suitable and sufficient lighting", and they give no figure in lux. HSE's guidance, HSG38, recommends levels for different kinds of work. That is guidance, not law, and a client's specification or a lighting design may ask for more. A survey records what the lighting delivers, so it can be compared with whichever figure applies.

HSG38 lighting levels, and how to measure against them · Lux levels by area · What an illuminance survey is

How Luxwork does a lighting survey

  1. Meter

    Your calibrated meter takes every reading, sent over Bluetooth from a supported meter or typed in from the display. Luxwork never uses the phone's light sensor to measure.

  2. Grid on the plan

    Luxwork lays a grid of points over the area, and each reading lands on the plan where you took it.

  3. Rule set

    Luxwork judges the survey against the rule set you chose before the first reading: one that ships with the app, your client's own figure, or none if you are only recording levels.

  4. Signed PDF report

    The report is ready to sign when the last point is in, and it comes out as a PDF. Signed on the device. Any change to the signed survey record breaks the signature check.

Whether the lighting is acceptable stays your call. Luxwork doesn't certify anything.

How to do a lighting survey, step by step · What a lighting survey report should contain

Every reading lands where you took it

The plan is the part a reader checks first.

Luxwork lays the measurement pattern over the area before you start, and each reading is plotted at the point it was taken. The plot shades by level, so a dark corner is visible at a glance — and it states the range it is shaded against, because shading is a comparison and not a verdict. Where the geometry rests on an assumption, the plan says so underneath itself.

Illustration · invented readings

A hand-marked paper lux survey plan from the Luxwork film, with readings written in red on a grid. Illustration with invented readings.
The old way, drawn for our film with invented readings: each figure written on the plan by hand, then typed up into a report later. Below is how Luxwork records a survey.

Specimen — invented data, not a real survey

187.7 lx 212.3 lx 226.0 lx 233.0 lx 239.1 lx 242.9 lx 236.7 lx 73.9 lx 64.9 lx — lowest reading 218.0 lx 230.7 lx 240.9 lx 258.1 lx 273.5 lx — highest reading 270.5 lx 246.8 lx 217.4 lx 194.7 lx 198.4 lx 222.6 lx 246.7 lx 264.4 lx 268.7 lx 260.6 lx 247.3 lx 233.1 lx 214.4 lx 187.7 lx 219.4 lx 242.1 lx 245.0 lx 235.1 lx 227.8 lx 226.0 lx 216.8 lx 190.9 lx MIN 64.9 MAX 273.5

36 readings · 24 × 12 m · larger and stronger = higher (64.9–273.5 lx)

lux maintained average across 36 readings

Maintained average illuminance

222.6 lx / 200.0 lx required

Meets requirement 111% of the stated requirement

Uniformity Uo (Emin/Emean)

Uo 0.29 / Uo 0.40 required

Below requirement 72% of the stated requirement
An illustration of the specimen survey, drawn from the same invented readings as the specimen report at the top of this page. The outline is the surveyed extent, not a scaled drawing. Two requirements were considered and the result was mixed: that is the ordinary outcome of a real survey, and it is what the product prints. Nothing here is a pass or a fail.

The same survey, on the phone

Real screens from the app, in the order a survey happens. Scroll sideways for the rest.

  1. Step 2 of 6 of a new survey, headed Judged against. Three choices: a rule set shipped with the app, your own requirement, which is selected, or don't judge and record the levels only. Below it, the area the requirement is for reads Warehouse floor.

    Before you startSay what it is judged against. A rule set, your own stated requirement, or nothing at all if you are only recording levels.

  2. Step 5 of 6, Before the first reading. It explains that no measurement method governs this survey, so these checks are recorded as good practice and the report cites no clause. Three are ticked: daylight and stray light masked out, lamps run up to full output, and every fitting seen to be operating.

    Before the first readingConfirm the conditions. Daylight masked out, lamps run up, every fitting lit. Each is recorded as your own confirmation.

  3. The app mid-survey: a reading of 194.7 lux typed from the meter's display, seventeen points already plotted and shaded on the grid, point eighteen ringed as next, and a progress line reading seventeen done, nineteen to go.

    The walk17 done · 19 to go. Each value lands on the point it was taken at, in walk order. Typed from the meter here — over Bluetooth they arrive on their own.

  4. Review before signing. The screen says the details are yours to correct until you sign, while the readings are the instrument's, recorded as they happened, and signing seals them exactly as captured. Below are editable fields for site, Example Works, level, Ground, and area reference, Unit 4 warehouse floor, and the surveyor's own declaration.

    ReviewCorrect the details, not the readings. Site, level and area are yours to fix until you sign. The readings are the instrument's.

  5. The review screen, headed: the record, sealed by your signature. It names what the readings were judged against, the instrument and its calibration certificate, states that values were entered manually from the instrument's display, sets out how the grid was arrived at and what was assumed — a 9 by 4 grid of 36 points, sized by room index from a mounting height that was assumed rather than measured — and confirms 36 of 36 measured. Beneath it the reading list begins, points one to seven, each with its value in lux and the time it was taken.

    What you signThe record, in full. The instrument and its certificate, how the values got in, how the grid was arrived at — and the mounting height that was assumed rather than measured.

  6. The tail of the reading list on the review screen: points 24 to 36, each with its value in lux and the time it was taken, ending at point 36 and followed by a note that values, times, positions, the instrument and the test clock cannot be edited — a reading is retaken or removed on the capture screen before signing, never here.

    Every readingWith the time it was taken. Values, times, positions and the instrument cannot be edited here — a reading is retaken on the capture screen or it stands.

Specimen — invented data, not a real survey

A specimen plan of measured points: a 9 by 4 grid of 36 circular markers laid over the outline of an invented 24 by 12 metre floor. Each marker is shaded by level and labelled with its reading in lux, from 64.9 to 273.5. The lowest reading is ringed in amber and labelled MIN; the highest is ringed in green and labelled MAX. A caption below states that shading runs lighter for lower and darker for higher, and gives the range the shading is normalised to.
The minimum and maximum are ringed and named, so colour is never the only signal. The paragraph under the plot is the plan's own: it states that no drawing was imported, that the outline is the surveyed extent and not a scaled drawing, and that the point count rests on an assumed mounting height rather than a measured one.

What it will not do — and why that is the point

A survey is handed to someone who may disagree with it. Luxwork is built for that reader, which means it declines to say things it cannot support:

  • It does not stamp pass or fail. It reports what was considered, against what, and leaves the judgement where it belongs.
  • It says when something was not assessed. A gap in the readings is printed, not quietly averaged away.
  • It prints its own doubts. If a precondition was not met, or a meter's calibration had lapsed, or a compensation setting did not match the light source on site, that goes on the record rather than into a warning nobody sees.
  • It does not measure the light itself. The readings come from your calibrated meter. A phone's ambient sensor is not a calibrated instrument, and Luxwork will not pretend otherwise.

Specimen — invented data, not a real survey

A specimen report panel headed "Below requirement", for uniformity Uo (Emin/Emean). A bar shows Uo 0.29 measured against Uo 0.40 required. Rows beneath give what was required, what was measured across 36 points (minimum 64.9 lux, average 222.6 lux, maximum 273.5 lux), a comparison saying the lowest reading is further below the average than the requirement allows, and why the requirement exists. The source line reads "Client brief rev B", entered by the surveyor.
A requirement that was not met, as the product prints it. It states the requirement, what was measured, how the two compare and why the requirement exists, and then it stops. The word "fail" does not appear, because that call is the reader's to make.
Caution — what a Luxwork report is not

Luxwork does not certify anything, does not accredit anyone, and cannot make a survey correct. It records what was measured, with what, under what conditions, and against which stated requirement — so that a competent reader can check the work. The competence stays with the surveyor.

Your surveys stay on your phone

A lighting survey is client work: site names, drawing numbers, area references, sometimes more than that. So Luxwork holds surveys on the device. There is no account to create, no cloud sync, and nothing is uploaded for us to look at. What leaves the phone leaves because you exported it.

The full detail — including what crash reporting does and does not send — is in the privacy notice.

Test it before launch

If you do lighting surveys, you can try Luxwork before its first public release and tell us what needs fixing.

What happens next

We'll invite testers in small groups through Apple's TestFlight. When we invite you, we'll ask for the email address of your Apple ID.

Testing is on iPhone and iPad.

You're on the beta list.

When we invite you, we'll email you and ask for the email address of your Apple ID.

We delete your beta details no later than 30 days after Luxwork launches, and sooner if you ask. If you tick the last box, we keep your email address for those emails until you unsubscribe. The privacy notice has the detail.

Availability and contact

Luxwork is being prepared for its first public release. If you survey lighting for a living, or you supply meters to people who do, we would like to hear what you need it to produce.

Email

support@ubervisor.app

One address for support, questions and instrument enquiries — see the support page for what to include.