Warehouse Lighting

Industrial Warehouse Lighting

Industrial warehouse lighting systems are an excellent choice in today's world since they have a wide range of unique characteristics and requirements, including large floor surfaces, high ceilings, elevated shelves, and few windows. Increasingly, warehouse lighting is going from basic lights to higher-quality, more energy-efficient lighting systems to achieve certain goals, including operational efficiency, increasing productivity, workers' safety, and reducing maintenance costs.

Basics of Industrial Warehouse Lighting

The industrial lighting market encompasses lighting systems that are intended for indoor or covered applications in industrial spaces. Industrial luminaires can be used in many different applications, including use in big-box retail stores, convention centers, exhibit halls, gymnasiums, and high ceiling buildings. Throughout this guide, we will discuss industrial lighting systems.

Light has a significant impact on industrial facilities. Optimizing visual conditions can result in improved productivity or efficiency, enhanced safety and security, and reduced errors and accidents. A good lighting solution for facility management guarantees a good ROI (return on investment) through energy savings and low maintenance requirements, as well as the ability to cope with challenging industrial environments. Therefore, modern industrial facilities require lighting systems that offer a high level of efficiency and reliability while also producing high-quality light and delivering excellent photometric performance.

Industrial lighting fixtures in warehouse facilities are often exposed to harsh operating conditions, including high ambient temperatures, corrosive environments, high humidity, and dirty power.

Among all industrial real estate types, warehousing facilities account for the largest share. The main characteristics of warehouses are their overall shape (usually rectangular), ceiling height (16 to 80 feet), and their loading capabilities. Warehouses can also be classified as regional warehouses, bulk storage warehouses, heavy distribution facilities, cold storage warehouses, and rack-supported warehouses. The average regional warehouse is not bigger than 100,000 square feet and has an average tenant space greater than 20,000 square feet. The ceilings are typically between 16 and 24 feet high. A regional warehouse has a broad range of tenant use. Some serve as storage facilities, while others serve as distribution centers.

Bulk warehouses are used for storing large loads of goods. The minimum size of these facilities is 100,000 square feet, and the ceiling height is 20 feet.

A heavy distribution building is similar to a bulk warehouse, except that it is larger in size (100,000 - 500,000 square feet), with a minimum ceiling height of 24 feet. Logistic companies are typically tenants of these buildings.

Cold storage or a refrigerated distribution facility that is used mostly for food processing and distribution consists of a freezer unit, a cooler, and a dry storage area.

In rack-supported buildings, rows of box shelves or racks are used to maximize space utilization. Each rack is usually several floors high. Rack-supported buildings can have ceilings up to 78 feet high. A warehouse shelving system with tall narrow aisles may create lighting challenges and inefficiency.

Challenges of Lighting

Several considerations must be made when designing an industrial lighting system, such as quality, upfront cost, reliability, efficiency, controllability, and maintainability. In today's hypercompetitive business environment, controlling energy expenses without compromising productivity, security, and safety often means the difference between profit and loss. Lighting is a major component of industrial applications that is continually reevaluated in terms of ROI and TCO (total cost of ownership). Industrial lighting must support a safe, comfortable and productive environment for manufacturing and working.

Many challenges need to be faced in developing lighting solutions to achieve quality, quantity, and operational goals. Unfavorable environmental factors such as high ceilings, expansive spaces, high humidity, corrosive or explosive atmospheres, cold or hot temperatures, dirty power, vibrations from machinery, extended operating hours, and unique building characteristics can cause lighting fixtures to be more expensive to purchase, install, and maintain.

Lighting Technology

In warehouse buildings, there are different types of lighting. According to the ceiling height, the amount of natural light available, and the size of the building, you can install one.

High-Intensity Discharge (HID)

An HID lamp works by passing a current between two electrodes while ionized gas is contained within a bulb. HID lamps are classified based on the gasses they contain, such as sodium, mercury, or metal halide.

Advantages of HID Lighting

Among the benefits of HID lighting are:

• Less expensive than LED lighting.
• Energy-efficient compared to halogen lamps.
  
  

Disadvantages of HID Lighting

HID lamps have the following drawbacks:

• The glare they produce can cause eye strain and headaches.
• They consume significant amounts of energy.
• Warming up and working fully took a long time, as well as cooling down.
• It had a limited range of color temperatures.
  
  

Fluorescent Lighting

With fluorescent lamps, as a result of a current triggering the mercury vapor, ultraviolet photons are emitted by the electrons in the gas, making the phosphor coating inside the lamp glow.

Advantages of Fluorescent Lighting

Fluorescent lighting has the following advantages:

• More energy-efficient than HID lights.
• It has a wider color temperature range (from 2700K to 6500K), so it's brighter.
  
  

Disadvantages of Fluorescent Lighting

These are the disadvantages of fluorescent lighting:

They are prone to flickering and humming.

• Extremely hot or cold environments will cause the lifetime to decrease as well.
• Dimming is not possible; output light can only be dimmed up to 30%.
• If the light is constantly switched on and off, the lifespan will decrease.
• As these lights contain mercury, they should be disposed of properly.

LED

With LED technology, lighting is becoming more sustainable and brightening the industrial landscape. The benefits of LED technology far outweigh the downsides of traditional lighting.

Its revolutionary light generation principle accounts for the fact that LED technology puts industrial lighting on steroids. In essence, LED (or light-emitting diode) is a p-n junction consisting of oppositely doped or impregnated semiconductor layers. The active layer (quantum well) lies between the n-type and p-type semiconductor layers. By applying a bias to the doped layers in the forward direction, electrons from the n-type layer and holes from the p-type layer move into the active layer, where they are recombined to produce light. The process is called electroluminescence.

LED chips emit monochromatic light because the spectral power distribution (SPD) bandwidth of electroluminescence is just a few tens of nanometers. Electroluminescence can be partially or wholly converted into white light by means of a phosphor such as yttrium aluminum garnet (YAG). This semiconductor chip, which is usually a gallium nitride device (GaN), pumps phosphors into the device packages. These LEDs are known as phosphor-converted LEDs.

Advantages of LED

LED lighting offers several advantages over other types, including:

• LED lights are the most energy-efficient type.
• They reduce energy consumption by 75 percent.
• They require less maintenance.
• They are compatible with different lighting control systems.
• They last longer than any other light source.
• Frequently switching them on and off has no effect on their lifespan.
• They perform well at both high and low temperatures.
• A fuller lighting spectrum can reveal more details about objects than other sources can.
• They come in various designs, so they can be used for many different purposes.
• They do not produce intense glare.
  
  

Disadvantages of LED

While LED lights offer many benefits, they are more expensive than other bulbs.

Features of Proper Warehouse Lighting

The lighting in an industrial warehouse must meet the following requirements:

Make Health and Safety a Priority.

To keep workers healthy and safe, it is paramount that they have adequate lighting. Employees and workers with proper lighting have a better vision, greater concentration, and are less fatigued after long working hours, which contributes to their productivity. It will also lower the number of accidents that occur while driving forklifts or when walking into obstacles; all of these factors contribute to a safer warehouse, ensuring fewer workers are injured and absent from work.

Lower Error Rates

Appropriate lighting will reduce unnecessary shadows and limit glare, allowing you to pick up objects without making mistakes when reading labels, colors, etc., thus reducing unintentional errors.

Choosing High-Quality Warehouse Lighting

High-quality lighting features these specifications:

• Constantly high lighting levels with a minimum five-year warranty.
• Withstanding different weather conditions (hot and cold) without affecting performance or lifetime.
• The lifespan of lighting fixtures is long.
• Harmonious color rendering and light color.
• Higher productivity with fewer errors.
• Economical to operate and maintain.
• Dimming and lighting control solutions.

Industrial Warehouse Tips

Lighting requirements differ from location to location. The nature of the location makes this particularly true when it comes to industrial warehouse lighting. The following tips will help you master warehouse lighting.

Energy Saving and Cost Saving with LED

Throughout the past few years, energy bills for warehouses have steadily risen, and lighting is an important component of these costs. LED lighting is a large financial investment, but when you make the switch from fluorescent and HID fittings to LEDs, you will see a huge reduction in your electricity bill, sometimes approaching 45% depending on your choice of fitting. It also requires fewer maintenance times and can be maintained easily, resulting in lower maintenance costs.

Instant-On Fittings

Light fittings with LEDs turn on instantly, unlike older lamps that take minutes to reach full brightness. As a result, microwave sensors can be used with them without affecting the lamps' lifespans. As a result, LEDs are better suited for modern work environments, as their light output now exceeds that of fluorescent and HID fixtures. Today, you can specify high-quality fittings with a much quicker return on investment and almost no maintenance.

LED High Bays

This powerful, bright light is ideal for implementing in racking aisles or large, open areas such as showrooms and large warehouses due to its 110-degree beam angle.

Emergency Fittings

There is a legal requirement for emergency lighting in warehouses and industrial settings. Light units with adjustable heads are the perfect solution for efficiently lighting the path to an emergency exit with precise beams.

LED Battens

With their stylish design, LED battens are a versatile product that can be used in corridors, utility rooms, and offices. They provide consistent lighting with no compromise in safety as an emergency fitting.

Anti-Corrosive LED Battens

This is a robust light fitting that is shock and impact-resistant. Its IP65 rating makes it suitable for any location. They can be positioned at warehouse entrances, loading bays, garages, and other areas.