Outdoor Canopy Lighting Fixtures

Canopy lights are ideal for providing light for pedestrian traffic around a building at night and for providing security lighting around the building. They are heavily used by industrial facilities that operate late at night, such as factories with round the clock production, or warehouses that need light for after hours shipping and receiving. Other businesses that rely heavily on outdoor commercial canopy lighting are grocery stores and filling stations. Retail strip centers also occasionally use these fixtures to illuminate the walkway that runs in front of a group of stores. In the non-business sector, they are also very common in public schools and covered walkways on college campuses, and you tend to see them a lot around civic centers and public recreation facilities as well.

It is important to determine first the foot candle density your client needs around the building or underneath the awing that you plan to light. Many people assume that the brighter the canopy lights, the better. This is not the case, however. If the lights under a gas station canopy are too bright, motorists cannot steer safely between the pumps, and the glare from the lights makes it hard for them to see when they drive away. The same thing can happen to people parking near an awning with canopy lights that are too intense. They too will have trouble parking, and be temporarily blinded by too much light. It is important therefore to get a photometric analysis from RLLD Commercial Lighting that will tell you exactly how much architectural illumination your client needs under that awning or canopy. We can then help you choose a lamp whose lumens output will create the optimal footcandle density without generating excess light pollution in the process. Frosted lens covers may be necessary to make certain that the light is bright, but diffused so that too much of it doesn’t hit the eyes. This is normally advisable any time you install canopy lights near a covered parking area. Other glare shielding options should be considered based upon the type of facility you are servicing and where the fixtures are installed. Your specialist can help you with all necessary calculations to determine the exact fixture type and model you need.

There are some other important considerations to take into account when choosing canopy lighting fixtures for your client’s location. One is the light source itself. Your clients will have end up facing unexpected costs if they are not equipped with the best fixtures with the longest anticipated lifespan. We recommend that with very few exceptions you propose canopy lights that are energy efficient and feature lives of at least 10,000 hours. A variety of lamp types are available through our online store that fit this criteria, including HID high pressure sodium and metal halide lights. We also carry mercury vapor canopy commercial lights, but these have been outlawed in certain places like Arizona and some states along the Eastern Seaboard. If you are in one of these areas, we recommend substituting either HID metal halides (it normally tends to output a “whiter” light than HPS) or canopy lights with fluorescent lamps that have frosted lenses and are excellent sources of bright, glare free lighting.

Two more important things to keep in mind when choosing canopy or area lights for your clients are: voltage options and the resiliency of the light fixtures themselves. Non profits, city governments, churches, and schools have very thigh operating budgets and can benefit greatly from the reduced costs that low voltage lighting can bring them. At the same time, many of these facilities, due to ignorance and a general lack of enlightenment among mob elements in our society, are often targets of deliberate criminal mischief and vandalism. To help protect your clients, ask your RLLD Commercial Lighting representative about vandal proof fixtures that are impervious to the force of typical assaults on property and equipment.

All consultation services offered by our team, as well as photometric analyses of client sites, are free to clients and serious inquirers. Casual inquiries can receive the same level of service for a small, reasonable fee.

RLLD Commercial Lighting carries a wide variety of industrial & commercial lighting fixtures as well as lighting blog information. If you can not find what you are looking for call us toll free at 1-866-654-3961 and we will find it for you. Our lighting design practice and office is located in Houston, Texas with stocking warehouses located throughout the United States that enable us to service all 50 states including San Juan, PR (SJU), Isla De Vieques, PR (VQS), Fajardo, PR (X95), Erie, PA (ERI), Killeen, TX (ILE), Sheridan, WY (SHR), Casper, WY (CPR), Parkersburg, WV (PKB), and Escanaba, MI (ESC). We also service clients internationally, with lighting manufacturer representatives working out of Canada, Mexico, Central America, and South America. ALBQ, NYC, LA, MPLS.