Table of Contents
It is extremely important to have proper lighting in a warehouse to:
Warehouse workers are responsible for performing a wide array of duties that range from packing boxes, loading trucks and shipments, and coordinating transportation and delivery arrangements.
Without adequate lighting, these simple day-to-day tasks can become potentially dangerous, which is something that warehouse owners and employers must not take lightly.
Although there are several warehouse lighting options available out there, when choosing one that is best for your warehouse, you need to keep all these factors in consideration.
Most warehouses typically use halogen bulbs to light up their premises, and while High-Intensity Discharge (HID) and fluorescent lamps are great improvements over halogen bulbs, they still pose issues like shorter lifespans, less efficient lighting, and disposal hazards, especially in comparison to highly efficient LED (Light Emitting Diode) lights.
Read on to find out why it is best to switch from halogen to LED lights in a warehouse, how to make the switch to ensure no issues, and who to contact for the best LED warehouse lighting options:
Halogen bulbs are a type of incandescent lighting that uses halogen gas to increase the light output, and are known for their moderately high quality of life, efficiency, and rated life in comparison to regular incandescent bulbs.
They function just like regular incandescent bulbs, with one notable difference: the halogen cycle. In regular incandescent light, tungsten slowly evaporates from the burning filament causing the lamp to darken, decreasing the light output and life as a result.
Halogen lamps are made to eliminate this issue since the halogen gas reacts with the evaporated tungsten to prevent it from affixing to the glass and making it darker.
Some of the tungsten is also returned to the filament which serves to increase the rated life of the light. Additionally, since a higher temperature is required for the reaction to take place, halogen lamps are generally manufactured using quartz.
Despite being better than their regular incandescent counterparts, and much cheaper than many other options, you won’t be able to find halogen bulbs in stores for much longer.
The UK government is set to ban the production and use of halogen light bulbs and replace them entirely with LED bulbs, which is a decision taken as part of the country’s efforts to tackle climate change.
LED stands for Light Emitting Diode and is one of the most energy-efficient and environment-friendly lighting technologies available in the market today.
LED lights differ from traditional bulbs in the way that they produce light using what is known as solid-state lighting technology, or SSL, that emits light when current passes through a solid piece of matter which, in the case of a traditional LED, is a semiconductor.
When electricity is passed through the semiconductor, which is made up of a positively and negatively charged component, it activates the flow of electrons from the negative to the positive layer, creating light in the process.
The main reason why you must switch from halogen to LED lights in warehouses is that, well, they eventually will no longer be manufactured and allowed to be used in the UK.
Since halogen bulbs will become obsolete, you will have to switch to another lighting fixture, and what’s better than LED lights?
Apart from the decision made by the government, there are several reasons why you must make the switch. LED lights are more energy and cost-efficient, have a much longer lifespan, and are very low maintenance.
Here are all the reasons you must switch from halogen to LED lights in your warehouse if you haven’t already:
Lighting a huge space like a warehouse is one of the biggest expenses for a business, therefore, the biggest advantage of switching to LED lights is the energy cost savings.
According to estimates, about 40% of all energy costs in a commercial establishment such as a warehouse go towards lighting it.
Halogen bulbs consume far more electricity to produce light, leading to substantial energy bills and a burden on the grid to produce more electricity to accommodate the demand.
Warehouse LED lighting, on the other hand, uses only a fraction of the power, offering energy savings as much as 65 to 80%, leading to enormous savings each month which, when added up, can help your business save a lot over the years.
You can easily replace a 50-watt halogen bulb with a 7.5-watt LED and get the same level of brightness, coupled with lower energy bills.
LED lights are the clear winners when it comes to a longer lifespan. While halogen bulbs work for up to 1200 to 4000 hours, LED lights boast a lifespan of a massive 50,000 to 60,000 hours!
An LED light lasts about 41 times longer than a halogen light which means you won’t have to replace the LED bulbs in your warehouse for a good 10 years.
Regardless of the relatively high initial costs of LED lights, if you compare the replacement costs of halogen lights, you will see that LED lights are the right choice for the long run.
Furthermore, LED lights are much less prone to dimming and breaking, both issues that are common with halogen bulbs and other traditional options, which require them to be replaced much more often.
At a time when environmental responsibility is a top priority the world over (better late than never, we guess?), LED lights provide a great environment-friendly alternative to other forms of lighting such as halogen bulbs.
Since LEDs require much less energy to produce light, it not only helps with energy savings but also results in reduced demand from the national grid and reduced greenhouse gas emissions.
If you replace a single 60-watt bulb with an LED, you can achieve a reduction of approximately 160kg of CO2 emissions every year. Replacing 10 traditional bulbs would result in a reduction of 1599kg CO2 emissions every year. Now imagine replacing all the lights in your warehouse with LEDs!
In addition to that, LED lights contain no toxic components, do not require specialist disposal, are 100% recyclable, and have essentially zero UV emissions.
Unlike a halogen bulb that produces light by heating its filament, LED bulbs turn electromagnetic energy into light which allows them to operate at a much lower temperature.
Although halogen bulbs burn very bright, they also produce a lot of heat causing nasty burns when touched. They can also pose a serious safety threat in hotter environments where they add to the ambient temperature and may result in a much higher risk of warehouse fires.
LED bulbs, on the other hand, produce 80% less heat than halogen lights and are a much safer option for warehouses. They also never get hot enough to cause burns or ignite any material that may come into contact with them.
Modern LED lights offer a great level of customisation that is designed to not only help you save significantly on your energy costs but also make it easier for you to manage your warehouse’s lighting.
They offer precise control, such as setting the direction of the lights, making them dimmer, or turning them off completely when required.
Some LED lights also come equipped with sensors to automatically turn off the lights in areas of the warehouse where there is no activity and turn them on as soon as some activity is detected.
Advanced systems offer many additional features including adjustable brightness using dimmers or automatic systems that adjust the brightness depending on the time of day and brightness levels.
To make a smooth transition from halogen to LED lights in your warehouse, you need to start with assessing your current lighting situation and determine if you can make the switch right away or need adjustments before the installations can take place.
A few common problems you might encounter if the switching process isn’t done carefully include:
To avoid any of the aforementioned issues and to ensure that your warehouse LEDs provide you with the best level of energy efficiency, cost-savings, and convenience, here are a few questions you need to ask yourself before making the switch from halogen to LED lights:
When switching from halogen to LED lights, it is important to choose a product that has the same base as your current product so that you can simply replace your old halogen bulb with a new LED light.
The base is the part of the bulb that connects it to a light fixture and there are several different types of bases available, which is why you need to be careful when choosing your new LED lights with the same base.
Being able to dim the lights comes in handy in several situations such as when you want to match the brightness of the lights to the amount of available light at any given time.
That being said, LED lights are dimmable, but not all of them. Therefore, if you already have this feature with your current halogen lights and you wish to retain it, make sure you buy LED lights for your warehouse that also support this feature.
Due to the wattage difference between halogen and LED lights, your current dimmer might not be compatible with a dimmable LED light. Therefore, you should be careful when choosing your new LED lights and get compatible ones.
When it comes to lighting fixtures, the brightness of the bulbs plays a huge part in how effective they are in serving their purpose.
The amount of light, aka the brightness, that you are getting from a bulb is measured in lumens (L), where more lumens mean a brighter light and fewer lumens mean a dimmer light.
When comparing the brightness of a halogen bulb with an LED bulb, it is important to look at the Lumens rather than the wattage, which is actually the amount of energy that a bulb uses to emit light.
Since LED bulbs use fewer Watts, it is best to look at the lumen value when choosing how bright you want the light to be.
The beam angle of a light determines the area over which the light spreads. The smaller the beam angle, the more directional and intense the light will be. On the contrary, a wider beam angle will result in a softer, more diffused light.
When switching from halogen to LED lights in your warehouse, make sure to choose the right beam angle for your requirements.
When it comes to warehouses, depending on the layout of the building, you would typically need one of two types of light distribution.
If you have a warehouse with tall shelves and racks, you would need a very long and narrow light pattern to ensure that the light reaches every corner and isn’t lost or blocked by the shelf tops.
If your warehouse is built on a more open floorplan, light patterns that distribute light in a wide area from all sides of the light fixture would be more suitable.
In any case, depending on how your warehouse is built, the lighting must maximise visibility, improve safety, and reduce picking errors.
A bulb’s colour temperature refers to the colour produced by the light and is measured in Kelvins (K) on a scale ranging from 1000K to 10,000K.
Colour temperatures ranging from 2000K to 3000K are called warm white and range from orange to yellowish-white in appearance.
3100K and 4500K refers to cool white and emit a more neutral white light with a blue tint. Colour temperatures above 4500K are similar to daylight and give off a blue-white light that is similar to that of sunlight.Top of Form
For warehouses, colour temperatures ranging between 4000K and 5000K are considered to be the best choice since they emit a cool white light, often with a bluish tint, that is proven to increase productivity, reduce eyestrain, and create a better work environment.
We, at Calder Electrical, provide a comprehensive solution for lighting all kinds of properties including residential, commercial, as well as industrial properties such as warehouses.
We understand the unique lighting needs of warehouses and are here to provide you with the best ways to not only properly illuminate your property but also make it incredibly energy-efficient.
Our LED lighting services include:
We can survey your warehouse and create a lighting design to see if we can not only reduce the number of light fittings but also make the area reach a lighting level suitable for use.
We can also incorporate motion detectors so that the lights in certain areas of the warehouse are only switched on when someone enters those areas.
We can give you an energy calculation to show your current lighting costs and the estimated costs by upgrading to LED lighting so that you can see how much you will save, normally aiming for a 40% saving.
If you are undertaking a new installation, we can help you create a lighting design suitable for the warehouse layout and intended usage.
We provide high and efficient levels of LED installation services guaranteed to meet the current wiring regulations BS7671.
Contact us here or call us on 0800 612 3001 to switch from halogen to LED lights in your warehouse right away!
Photo by Adrian Sulyok on Unsplash
