Industrial warehouse lighting. Factories, warehouses, and manufacturing facilities find this type of lighting indispensable. There are a variety of categories to choose from to suit your specific need. Whether you choose HID or LED lights, it is still important to know the difference between these two options and how each option can benefit your space. Don’t forget, 18% to 40% of your electric usage comes from your lighting. So you should make the right choice for your budget.
Warehouse Lighting Level
What space are you lighting? Are you providing light for a facility that houses workers who need a high level of light to operate in? Or is your facility in need of a more automated lighting system? Are you providing light for a facility in order to help workers pile pallets? Different spaces will have different lighting needs. You’ll have to look at your space, like the height of your facility’s ceiling for instance. How is the traffic of human activity in your area? You’ll have to take that into consideration as well.
If you’re looking at a manufacturing infrastructure that houses employees who need lights for detailed and intricate tasks, you should have at least 15,000 lumens and above. For manufacturing infrastructures with employees who will be using industrial lighting for general tasks, you should have 10,000 lumens. When you have a warehouse that is used for storage and has little to no activity from employees, you’re looking at only 5,000 lumens. Lastly, if you have a warehouse that has an active loading space with employees utilizing machinery, you’ll need 10,000 lumens for your lighting system.
If you have employees that will be reading small print or will need to focus on small detailed work, your lighting system should have a high level of the lumen. This is basically to reduce strain in their eyes. You’ll help out your employees also be more productive with the right lighting system and create a safer working environment.
Commercial Warehouse Lighting: Lamp Types
Due to different technology, lights differ in terms of cost, quality, and life span. Every type of light has its pros and cons. It is important for you to research what the pros and cons of each light brand are. You will have to figure out which brand and type of light best suits your needs. Let’s take a look at a couple of different light types.
Industrial Warehouse Lighting: HID Lamps Explained
HIDs or High-intensity discharge lamps are typically the go-to lights when you’re planning on lighting up your industrial space. They are typically a lot more efficient than incandescent lighting and halogen lighting. And, as its name implies, HID lamps produce a brighter light. A Philips Master HPI T, for example, is a metal halide that can produce around 32,000 lumens.
Metal halide lamps are well known for creating a high lumen with quite a reasonable CRI, about 60 to 70. Because of this, the efficiency of metal halide lamps decreases a bit. A negative on the metal halide lamp is that if the fixture breaks it releases UV. They also contain Mercury. Because of the presence of toxic materials, when a lamp is at the end of its serviceable life they have to be properly disposed of. However, in spite of this detail, metal halide lamps are still the go-to lights for industrial lighting.
Ceramic Metal Halide or ceramic discharge metal- halide lamps or CDM lasts just about as long as HPS lamps. They are also more efficient by 10% to 20% than the common quartz metal tech. This type of light also has the highest CRI than any of the HID lamps (their CRI ranges from 90 to 92 CRI). This means that they are ahead of LED tech in terms of color rendering. The only negative of this type of light is that it is quite expensive compared to other industrial lights available in the market today.
High-Pressure Sodium Lamps
This type of light produces an average of 100 lumens per watt. It’s quite an impressive lamp as well because they are able to last about 15,000 to 50,000 serviceable hours. The only negative you can see with this type of light is they have quite a low CRI. If you have a space that does not require such a high-grade quality of illumination, this would be the best lamp for you. For example, warehouses, streetlamp lighting and indoor gardening spaces would be the best for this type of light. The hue you can expect would be of a warm orange or yellow color.
Mercury Vapor Lamps
You can say that this lamp is the granddaddy of all the HID lamps. It is the cheapest to install out of all the HIDs and has quite a high lux output. Mercury vapor lamps were formerly used in street lights and high-bay lights. The negative thing about Mercury vapor lamps is that they require a start-up time (about 5 to 8 minutes). They also produce poor color rendering. Because of these traits, they are slowly being phased out in the market.
LED Lights
Over the last 10 years, LED lights are getting into the industrial space. LED lights are also being supported by local utility companies by giving out rebates to businesses opting to switch over to this type of light. Let’s take a look at a couple of LED light options for your industrial lighting to replace your traditional HID lights.
Corn Lights
This type of light can be retrofitted with LED lights. They’ll need some rewiring, but the good thing is you’ll be able to keep the same reflector setup. They are quite energy efficient, environment friendly, and can last up to 50,000 serviceable hours. The only negative with this type of light is that they have a lower lumen than your traditional lights. However, this means that lumen in LED lights will not decrease over time. Basically, your light quality will not be affected by lower lumen.
Circular UFO LED Highbay Lamps
With corn lights, you’re looking at a retrofit. With Circular UFO LED Highbay lamps, on the other hand, you’re completely replacing your HID lighting system. This type of light has a wide beam angle and a high lumen output. This type of light isn’t for you if you need directional lighting. Also, because you’ll be looking at a complete replacement, it takes time and money to replace.
Conclusion
HID lights produce bright lights and you have a variety to choose from. Their prices also vary. Unfortunately, these types of light produce a high amount of UV radiation. The quality of your light will also degrade as time goes by and they also require some time to warm up before they actually turn on.
LED lights last longer than traditional HID lights. The lumen output is lower, but the quality of the light they produce will not decrease as time goes by. Replacement of your traditional HID industrial lighting will cost quite a bit, but you will be able to earn back your investment quickly through a reduction in energy consumption in the long run.
