Exterior lighting is unarguably important when it comes to display of your business or taste. Essentially, Commercial spaces house many businesses which mainly run on the basis of eye catching displays of products or the brand itself. There are various layouts which you can achieve to enhance the building outlook by installing a number of outdoor light fixtures which are mainly LED wall packs and LED flood lights. (For fixtures click here)
Although the number of fixtures is quite limited, there are endless possibilities as to how to manage different lighting layouts with these fixtures. Commercial exterior lighting is essential for many reasons like, visibility, safety, security, decorative reasons, ambience etc.
It helps attracting customers which is beneficial for businesses.
Following are a few tips to enhance or implement a sustainable and efficient commercial exterior lighting layout:
1. Consider the layout
Considering the layout and architecture of any building holds quite the importance when it comes to illuminating the exterior. Mostly architects implement the design and give an accurate estimate of fixtures, their cost and lumen requirements. All these factors are interlinked as every building differs in design and area; and the area which needs to be covered determine the lumen requirement which helps in selecting and determining the appropriate fixture for that output and number of fixtures required to reach the total lumen requirement. This is conclusively known as a photometric plan for the building. Planning the layout ahead comes with many benefits.
2. Try Experimenting With Facade Lighting
Facade lighting is the most common way to illuminate any building exterior while highlighting its important features. With the use of LED flood lights, one can achieve a suitable overlay.
Whereas for a secured building with boundary walls the basic and widely used fixture is wall pack. Wall packs are tiny light fixtures intended for multiple uses around any exterior to meet certain security and general lighting needs. There are various cut off designs which helps selecting the adequate cut off design for the type of architectural element one would like to highlight.
3. Choose Any Colour Temperature
LED wall packs and LED flood lights are available in various specifications to meet the need for any kind of outdoor lighting needs. Most commercial buildings have attached parking spaces or generally cover a chunk of ground around the main building for various reasons. These spaces require lighting as much for safety, visibility and security reasons.
LED lights operate on a range of correlated colour temperature on a kelvin scale ranging from 2500K to 6000K. This spectrum impart light from warm yellow to bright white light which is glaring free and ambient.
4. Select the Appropriate Cut-off Designs
Most outdoor light fixtures are regulated under several listings and permission as per the area; therefore it is necessary to comply with these laws. Outdoor LED fixtures are designed as per these regulations and are available in various cut-off designs which are:
- Semi cutoff
These lights have a broader beam angle and used in open areas, pavements only a limited amount of light is directed towards the sky.
- Full cut off
Full cut off designs are according to dark sky compliance and are used for security reasons, they do not cause any glare and the light is directed for a narrow space.
- Up down lights
These are rotatable with adjustable mounting angles from 0 degree to 90 degrees, or 0 degree to 270 degrees.
5. Use glass lens
For most outdoor lights, environmental exposure is the biggest risk although they are designed to withstand these harsh elements like moisture, heat and sunlight. It is therefore a better option to choose a glass lens over polycarbonate as the time passes the UV rays might affect the working of the lead due to continuous exposure. The glass lens is IP( Ingress protection) rated against continuous exposure to moisture and heat. Most of the exterior lighting fixtures are rated IP65, IP66 and IP67. IP67 fixtures can also function when completely immersed in water so they are highly durable even in emergency conditions. IP65 and IP66 can withstand occasional effects of changing climates very effectively. Due to these features the life span of outdoor fixtures is highly impacted as they can function for several years without malfunctioning or causing any maintenance or replacement issues.
6. Sizing of the fixture
All exterior lighting fixtures are available in different designs and sizes particularly due to the wide range of application around any exterior. It is essentially important to consider sizing in order to comply with several codes according to the location where these fixtures are installed. Outside a commercial space it is necessary to have a floodlight or wallpack with higher lumen output. Bigger fixtures have higher lumen output and fit for open spaces like adjunct parking lots.
Smaller fixtures though, are for highlighting and accenting with lesser lumen output and different cut off designs.
7. Mounting of the fixture
This is an essential aspect of outdoor lighting as the mounting height, angle and spacing between each fixture is crucial to avoid any dark or bright spots within the entire layout. Moreover the placement of the fixture and the direction of lighting is also a crucial aspect as the light from these fixtures is very bright and can cause accidents if they happen to fall directly at eye level.
These fixture like flood lights, are available with various mounting options which also help with managing the voltage supply across the fixtures. The several mounting options are:
- U-Bracket: this is for ground or wall mounting lights.
- Slip fitter: this mounting option is for round poles which are connected.
- Knuckle mount: these lights can be placed with junction box
- Wall/pole mount: this type of light fixture can be adjusted on a wall surface with mains supply.
Considerably these are few of the tips which might settle certain aspects of outdoor lighting to make commercial exterior lighting sustainable, cost effective as well as to add a certain appeal and element to the business itself.
