Automotive Car Lot Lighting Case Study

Lancaster Motors
Car Lot Lighting Project
Lancaster, Wisconsin
January 2009

PROJECT DETAILS
RLLD Commercial Lighting was contacted by a car dealership in Lancaster Wisconsin. They had been seeking online bids for their car dealership lot lighting system with very little success.

CHALLENGES
The challenge for this car dealership lay in the fact that they already had existing concrete light pole bases on the lot that had been spaced too far apart. This made it hard to find fixtures which would adequately light the car lot, and none of the vendors they had contacted before us had any been able to locate an appropriate lighting fixture, reflector, and lens assembly that would the necessary light levels for nighttime business and security.

Another challenge lay in limited lighting pole installation requirements due to wind zone requirements. Additionally, the anchor bolts that were already set in concrete would allow for now more than 25’ poles in a 90MPH wind zone. To balance pole height limitation with a limited range of fixture options, we needed to run through several scenarios in our photometric software to generate a sound proposal for this car dealership.

PHOTOMETRIC DATA REPORT
The owner of the dealership helped a great deal in this process. He sent us diagrams and pictures of his car lot, and he gave us a copy of the previous proposal that had not materialized. We did a quick photometric lighting design analysis and concluded that this client needed more than one option to consider based on to the challenges inherent in lighting this facility. Ultimately, we were able to him two proposals and the benefit of one over the other.

The first was an upgrade of the original car lot lighting system which had used horizontal burning, metal halide shoe-box fixtures. The owner had requested seeing what an upgrade of this nature would look like and cost, so this was the first option we provided.

We also proposed a commercial lighting system that we felt was even better. It used high-performance vertical burn SVL series lighting fixtures. The larger housing, better performing reflectors, and a sag glass lenses, enable these fixtures to consistently and cost-effectively output more light.

We created three dimensional models of both systems so the owner could compare the two.

FINAL SYSTEM PROPOSED BY RLLD
Both models showed the same number of parking lot lighting fixtures in use, but the results were overwhelmingly in favor of the SVL series equipment. With the SVL, luminance was more evenly distributed throughout the merchandise area, but the shoe-box type fixtures produced too many hot spots directly underneath the poles. There was also too little light between the existing pole locations.

The SVL fixtures were clearly the best architectural lighting choice for the car lot considering the location of the existing pole bases. We also installed perimeter fixtures to enhance the visibility of the dealership in the front along the highway, and we installed two additional poles on the inside of the lot that supported four 1000W fixtures, each equipped with specific reflector for interior area lighting.

HOW DO I CONTACT RLLD?
RLLD Commercial Lighting carries a wide variety of industrial & commercial lighting fixtures. If you can not find what you are looking for contact us toll free at 1-866-654-3961 and we will find it for you. You can also check out our glossary of lighting terms and commercial lighting blog for answers and tips to many lighting issues.

Our commercial lighting design office is located in Houston, Texas with warehouses located throughout the United States that enable us to service all 50 states including Sault Ste Marie, MI (CIU), Cleveland, OH, (CLE), College Station, TX (CLL), Port Angeles, WA (CLM), Charlotte, NC (CLT), Columbus, OH (CMH), Champaign, IL (CMI), Hancock, MI (CMX), Cody, WY (COD) and Colorado Springs, CO (COS).

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Exterior Parking Lot Lighting Poles

When commercial light poles become weathered and outdated, any number of problems can quickly result when a business, city government, school, or non-profit organization deliberately chooses to delay replacing them. Once commercial lighting poles become weather beaten, they begin to lose their finish and become an eyesore to the public. This diminishes an organization’s public image, and it works against corporate branding. If light poles in commercial parking lots are faulty, and lighting levels are insufficient or inadequate, this also creates safety hazards and possible legal issues. Lighting regulations require 3-4 foot candles to be evenly distributed throughout every parking lot, regardless of the type of organization it services. Many business owners and facilities managers are unaware of this, and allow commercial light poles that begin to intermittently fail to continue deteriorating until they finally burn out.

If an accident or criminal mischief occurs in such an environment, the organization could very well face a third party lawsuit for negligence. It could also be fined by the government for failure to comply with lighting regulatory codes. While investing in new commercial light poles may represent a price point that many organizations—especially educational, non-profits, and municipalities---initially fear to make in the midst of a recession, the benefits far outweigh the disadvantages when one considers the many financial pitfalls that procrastination and negligence can ultimately lead to. Upgrading commercial parking lot light poles also helps improve security, as more evenly distributed lighting dispels shadows and leaves less opportunity for criminal invasion, vandalism, or violent attack.

Wind load capacitance is another critical factor to address when assessing the stability and viability of existing commercial lighting poles. Local governing codes mandate pole height and wind resistance minimums specific to certain areas. In many western states, high velocity winds can turn dust and rocks into small projectiles that damage both light pole and light fixtures. Worn or damaged poles will automatically fail to meet with current regulatory codes, and lamps stand a good chance of becoming damaged in high winds. You can easily see how a single storm in one of these areas can end up costing your clients more than the purchase and installation of brand new commercial lighting poles.

Newer lighting steel poles available through standard and specification grade distributors like RLLD Commercial Lighting speak to all of these needs with superior material builds, a variety of designs and pole heights, and special glass fixtures that protect minimum glare halide bulbs from heavy winds and particle impact. The efficiency of commercial light pole design has improved so much over recent years that even models measuring only 25 feet in height can now 2500 square feet of height each when fitted with the proper lamps and reflectors. Other factors such as energy efficiency and lamp life are also affected by the quality of commercial light poles.

When you show your clients these facts and figures, you can help them understand that procurement of standard or specification grade commercial lighting poles carries with it certain intrinsic returns on investment. By minimizing replacement costs, power consumption, and liability resulting from accidents, clients of site planners and general contractors can recover their funding through a number of revenue streams that flow back toward them from a newer, more improved-looking facility.

RLLD Commercial Lighting carries a wide variety of industrial & commercial lighting fixtures. If you can not find what you are looking for contact us toll free at 1-866-654-3961 and we will find it for you.

Our home office is located in Houston, Texas with warehouses located throughout the United States that enable us to service all 50 states including Scottsdale, Arizona, Seattle, Washington (SEA), Los Angeles, CA (LAX) Boston, Massachusetts (BOS), Princeton, NJ (EWR), Philadelphia, PA (PHL), Dallas, Texas (DWF), Chicago, IL (ORD), Baltimore, MD (BWI), and Minneapolis, MN (MSP). We also service clients internationally, with lighting representatives working out of Canada, Mexico, Central America, and South America. ALBQ, NYC, LA, MPLS.

Outdoor Accent Lighting Fixtures

Outdoor accent commercial lighting can accent any element of structure or exterior landscape with supplemental white light or lighting of various hues and colors. Outdoor accent light fixtures tend to be smaller and less obtrusive than purely functional site lights, and most are available in low voltage designs that allow them to remain on throughout the night without costing your client a fortune in electrical usage. There are hundreds of fixture types you can use for outdoor accent lighting, and countless places throughout your client’s property where they can be installed for a superior outdoor lighting experience.

Building Lights & Building Lighting
Most commercial buildings have something uniquely aesthetic about their architecture that makes them stand out as individual structures in comparison to other buildings. Accenting these structural points of differentiation can be done very effectively with decorative light fixtures made specifically for building and sign lighting.

Even if your client has a building that features nothing spectacular or particularly attractive about its design, you can still add an aesthetic touch to even the plainest of structures with LED recessed electric lights and signage lighting. Just by adding a touch of color to a drab exterior can transform a building from something that is “just there” to something that stands out in an appealing manner.

Walkway Lights & Landscape Lighting
Any corporation, academic institution, or municipal facility that has two or more buildings on property is going to have connecting walkways that run between these buildings. These walkways can be accented with a variety of outdoor accent lighting fixtures, most of which are low voltage fixtures and diminutive in size. Bollards, path lighting, and rope lights are excellent sources to use along walkways. During holidays, a host of LED specialty lights and displays can also be installed along walkways to establish a theme of decorum appropriate to the season.

Ultimately, no matter what lamping options you select for your client’s outdoor accent lighting, you want to create a sense of unity between the architecture of different buildings—especially if the buildings themselves differ significantly from one another. If your clients building(s) reside(s) on a large piece of land, you also have to extend this sense of unity into the surrounding landscape. As sustainability and green technology continue to matter more and more to society at large, your clients can surely benefit from any visual suggestion that their operation exists in harmony with the surrounding natural world to the extent that the boundaries between the two cannot be clearly separated, if they can be at all.

Tree Lights & Tree Lighting
Tree lighting represents a very unique, niche market service for eclectic landscape design companies. For regions of the country where they are still legal to use, mercury vapor decorative lights can be hidden in the upper branches of the trees to create pools of artificial moonlight around the base of the trunk. For regions of the nation where mercury lights have been banned, contractors can install fluorescent or LED fixtures to create special luminary effects in the landscape.

Waterworks & Waterfalls
Municipal parks and large commercial properties often invest in fountains and artificial waterfalls. These waterworks can be either circular or rectangular in nature and often have a concrete bottom similar to a swimming pool. When you encounter a structure such as this, you have an amazing opportunity to produce some spectacular lighting effects with energy saving lights that will magnify the brilliance of the fountain and surrounding pool at a marginal power cost.

Commercial decorative lighting around waterworks can be either ambient white light or colored light. LEDs make excellent accent lighting for fountains and bodies of water because many LEDs are actually designed to operate under the water itself. You can install red, green, amber, or blue LEDs in key locations along the bottom of the pool, fountain, or artificial waterfall, creating a spectrum of light that rises out of the water. Around the perimeter you can use decorative bollards, step lights, accent lights, and small floodlights that shine white light toward the center of the pool and the waterspout of the fountain itself. These fixtures too may be very energy efficient. You can use low voltage halogen, commercial fluorescent or white LEDs.

Statues and Metal Sculptures
Statues are common on public school campuses and institutions of higher learning. They are almost always present in the courtyard of city government buildings and frequently decorate public recreation and park areas as well. Decorative lighting around statuary should be as low key and unobtrusive as possible. Commercial lights mounted in the ground around statues or on the corners of the pedestal can create stunning up lighting effects. You do not want to light the entire surface of the statue when doing this. If you do, you will “flatten” the statues appearance to a two dimensional image. A certain amount of shadow is essential to giving a statue a truly three dimensional appearance. Commercial decorative lights must be positioned at key angles of incidence to create this blend of light and shadow.

Similar principals apply to lighting metal sculpture with decorative lights, although there is often much greater flexibility here if you are lighting something that is very large and obviously abstract and asymmetrical in design. Large metal sculptures often require decorative lights to be directly mounted to their surface at the top and near the middle in order to evenly illuminate the curves and angles of the piece.

RLLD Commercial Lighting has access to countless dark sky lighting fixtures and lamping options that can accommodate these unique art lighting demands. We also have many years of experience in fine art lighting equipment and design and will provide you with any assistance you need in setting up outdoor accent lighting systems for metal sculptures, statuary's, and abstract three dimensional works. All consultation services and photometric lighting analysis of your client’s site are free if you are a serious inquirer or existing client of RLLD Commercial Lighting. Casual inquirers in need of supplementary support can obtain the same level of service and quality for a small, reasonable fee.

RLLD Commercial Lighting carries a wide variety of industrial & commercial lighting fixtures. If you can not find what you are looking for contact us toll free at 1-866-654-3961 and we will find it for you. Our home office is located in Houston, Texas with warehouses located throughout the United States that enable us to service all 50 states including like Ft. Lauderdale, FL (FLL), Orlando, Florida (MCO), Santa Monica, CA, (LAX) Columbus, Ohio (CMH) (LGA) New York, NY, (JKF), St. Louis, MO, Detroit, Michigan (DTW), Madison, WI (MSN), San Francisco, California (SFO), and Omaha, Nebraska (OMA).

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Commercial Parking Lot Lighting Deals

RLLD Commercial Lighting carries a wide variety of tennis court, parking lot & commercial lighting fixtures. RLLD Commercial Lighting operates as an online equipment and adjunct lighting services vendor to contractors, developers, and suppliers in the commercial lighting design industry. We sell only lighting fixtures, lamps, and accessories that are made in the United States, and we operate from Coast to Coast working in partnership with builders, architects, and electrical services professionals to assist in creating the very best indoor and outdoor commercial lighting systems in the country.

~ Free Shipping ~
Tennis Court Lighting Packages.
Parking Lot Lighting Poles & Fixtures.

Tennis Court Lighting
Tennis court lighting kits are designed by RLLD sports lighting experts to produce optimal footcandle levels and excellent color rendering. A variety of optical systems and sophisticated reflectors keep the light centered in the court and avoid spilling it into surrounding buildings and homes. A wide range of poles allows for precise positioning of tennis lights to allow you to clearly see both the court and the ball in play. Custom systems can also be developed with the help of an RLL Design consultant to ensure full compliance of United States Tennis Court and Track Building Association.

Commercial Light Pole Installation
Commercial light pole installation is a systematic process that flows from the conceptual and the general to the systematic and precise. This process is similar to a flowchart.

Concrete Lighting Poles
Cement or concrete lighting poles have experienced a recent surge in popularity among property developers, civil engineers, architects, and general contractors. People have begun to realize that concrete, in spite of its reputation as a purely industrial substance.

Commercial Parking Lot Lighting
Commercial Parking Lot Lighting has become increasingly regulated over the years and requires expert knowledge beyond electrical expertise to properly configure and install.

Parking Lot Lighting Fixtures
Parking Lot Lighting Fixtures & 3D Photometric Lighting Designs Services. Take for example the wide variety of parking lot fixtures that are used to light car dealerships, malls or coffee house patios.

Parking Lot Lighting Design
The size and layout of your client’s parking lot will often help our photometric lighting design team quickly pinpoint the degree of cutoff and optics type most effective for your project. If a parking lot is asymmetrical and located in a nefarious part of town.

Outdoor Parking Lot Lighting
Outdoor Parking Lot Lighting. Commercial Lighting can help you achieve superior results with just the right amount of power, elevation, and angle of incidence without overspending or encroaching on light trespass restrictions.

Our home office is located in Houston, Texas with warehouses located throughout the United States that enable us to service all 50 states including New York NY, Los Angeles CA, Miami, FL. Chicago, IL. Denver CO., New Orleans, La., Cleveland, Ohio, Kansas City, Mo., Mesa, Arizona, Virginia Beach, Va., Omaha, Nebraska, Oakland, California, Miami, Florida, Tulsa, Oklahoma, Minneapolis, Minnesota, Colorado Springs, Colorado, Arlington, Texas, Beaumont, Texas, Denton, TX, McKinney, Texas, Midland, TX, Killeen, Texas, Dallas TX, San Antonio, TX, Austin, TX, ALBQ, NYC, LA, MPLS.

Call us toll free at 1-866-654-3961 and let us give you a hand on your next tennis court or parking lot lighting project!

About RLLD Commerical Lighting Services

RLLD Commercial Lighting operates as an online commercial lighting equipment supplier and adjunct lighting services vendor to contractors, developers, and suppliers in the commercial lighting design industry. We sell only lighting fixtures, lamps, and accessories that are made in the United States, and we operate from Coast to Coast working in partnership with builders, architects, and electrical professionals to assist in creating the very best indoor and outdoor commercial lighting systems in the country. With a staff whose experience totals over 30 years in expertise and excellence, we strive to be a bright spot in the commercial lighting industry…an oasis, if you will, of products, lighting articles and services aimed at helping lighting design professionals pass on solutions to their clients that will generate tangible, measurable returns on investment that will work toward recession proofing both contractor and client alike. RLLD Commercial Lighting also leads the way in energy saving solutions; lighting regulations compliance, emerging technology, and community management for professional organizations who can stand to gain much more than equipment and basic support when they opt to participate.

Here are a few lighting case studies illustrating the depth of RLLD Commercial Lighting Design Services:

Canadian Tennis Court Lighting Project
Custom Outdoor Tennis Court Lighting Packages Let us Design, Specify Or Quote any size Lighting Project For You ... read more.

Missouri City Commercial Path Lighting Project
Custom Commercial Path Lighting Packages Let us Design, Specify Or Quote any size Lighting Project For You ... read more.

Retail Center Parking Lot Lighting Project
Custom Retail Center Parking Lot Lighting Packages Let us Design, Specify Or Quote any size Lighting Project ... read more.

Guam Skateboard Park Lighting Project
Custom Skateboard Park Lighting Packages Let us Design, Specify Or Quote any size Lighting Project For you ... read more.

We are able to offer such as sweeping diversity of products and scope support because of the unique relationships we enjoy with American light fixture manufacturers.

Unlike regional distributors who are often bound to quotas and exclusive, binding agreements, we operate nationwide without obligation to sell any particular product at any particular time. This allows us to take a very objective and impartial stance when providing our clients with equipment. In fact, most of our clients already know exactly what lighting products they want for their projects and simply call us to locate the best source, price, and equipment features specific to their needs. This allows us to expand our sphere of service from simply being a distributor of equipment to being an lighting design advisor, consultative partner in the preparation of your proposal.

When you call us, you get a live sales representative on the phone trained in all aspects of commercial lighting who can answer detailed questions about specifications, applications, and customization options.

Sales agents at RLLD Commercial Lighting will take the time to understand the nature of your project in order to pinpoint exactly what fixtures and lamps are ultimately most suitable for your client. Our sales representatives will work with you from conception to analysis, from specification to procurement, maintaining an ongoing dialogue and providing you with a wealth of information you can pass to your clients as they ask questions. We also will conduct a full photometric analysis of any client’s site using advanced lighting design and planning software that we have obtained at great expense. When you order equipment from us, we will deduct the cost of the photometric lighting analysis from the price of the equipment. For select products, we offer turnkey installation services throughout the United States, making us truly a one source supply house, consulting firm, and installation partner to your organization.

Because our reach is nationwide, and because we work in direct partnership with lighting manufacturers all over the United States, we can handle bulk procurement with much greater efficiency and expedition than local or regional brick and mortar vendors.

We can fast track rush orders in as little as two weeks, arranging for the lighting manufacturer to ship equipment directly to your client’s location. Because we do not rely on anyone but the manufacturers themselves for equipment, any retrofits or replacement parts that the manufacturer currently has in stock can be ordered and dropped shipped expeditiously with faster lead time than competing vendors typically can offer. Oftentimes, however, buying a replacement lighting fixture is more economical and profitable than locating replacement parts. As a courtesy, we always try to offer you second and third options to consider so your clients feel like they have more than one option as well and you have more negotiating power at the line item level.

One other thing that differentiates RLLD Commercial Lighting from other vendors is our relentless pursuit of energy saving solutions through power saving equipment, low voltage technology, and new emerging technologies that offer to ultimately transform the entire world of lighting.

We make it a point to offer our fixtures that feature the best energy ratings, highest lumens per watt output, glare shielding, reflectors, and optics. We are fully conscious and aware of the growing trend for municipalities to regulate both power consumption and light pollution. If you operate in more than one city, county, or state, keeping track of the many different laws that apply throughout your sphere of service may pose something of an inconvenience to you. Our specialists will be happy to help you with any research into local parking lot lighting codes to help you save time and focus on preparing an impeccable proposal.

We welcome you to our site and encourage you to contact us us often to participate in our community management program. This program will allow you to receive discounts on products and services, dialogue with experts, receive referrals for new business, and participate in incentive programs for contractors who volunteer testimonials and lighting design suggestions.

RLLD Commercial Lighting carries a wide variety of industrial lighting poles, commercial lighting and athletic sports field lighting fixtures. If you can not find what you are looking for visit our lighting blog or call us toll free at 1-866-654-3961 and we will find it for you.

Our home office and design studio is located in Houston, Texas with warehouses located throughout the United States that enable us to service all 50 states including New York NY, Los Angeles CA, Miami, FL. Chicago, IL. Denver CO., New Orleans, La., Cleveland, Ohio, Kansas City, Mo., Mesa, Arizona, Virginia Beach, Va., Omaha, Nebraska, Oakland, California, Miami, Florida, Tulsa, Oklahoma, Minneapolis, Minnesota, Colorado Springs, Colorado, Arlington, Texas, Beaumont, Texas, Denton, TX, McKinney, Texas, Midland, TX, Killeen, Texas, Dallas TX, San Antonio, TX, Austin, TX, ALBQ, NYC, LA, MPLS.

Commercial Lighting Fixtures

Incandescent
Although incandescent lamps are more frequently used in residential lighting applications, some commercial lighting fixtures also used this technology. Incandescent lamps pass current through a filament, which causes the filament to give off light. Because they are relatively short lived, incandescents are used mostly as decorative commercial lighting fixtures. Their ability to render warm colors effectively without ballast makes them well suited to this application, and the enormous variety of bulb designs make them highly soft after source of any type of accent lighting or decorum based commercial lighting design.

Fluorescent
Fluorescent lamps are used extensively in commercial lighting fixtures for a number of reasons. First and foremost of these reasons is their ability to use less power than other commercial lighting fixtures, making them very cost effective from an energy conservation perspective. Fluorescent bulbs also produce a very bright light that is evenly distributed, making them ideal commercial warehouse lighting fixtures and products, canopy lights, security lights, in interior retail lights in discount stores where high levels of general lighting help psychologically motivate larger bulk purchases of discount merchandise.

Fluorescent bulbs produce light by activating phosphors on the interior of the bulb using ultraviolet energy generated by a mercury arc. Ballast helps start and operate the fluorescent lamps by regulating electron flow through the gaseous arc. Trends in fluorescent lighting technology have made them more compact, increasing lumens per watt efficiency as high as 100 lumens per watt, and reducing the amount of toxic mercury within the bulbs interior. Fluorescent commercial lighting fixtures are best deployed underneath building eaves (as in the case of canopy lights), near loading docks, in wallpacks on the sides of buildings, or as large grocery store or warehouse lights. Placing them too far out into open spaces tends to diffuse their light output and diminish their intensity.

High Intensity Discharge (HID) Commercial Lighting Fixtures
HID stands for High Intensity Discharge. It refers to a technology where light is produced by a gaseous arc discharge using a variety of elements. Typical elements include mercury vapor, metal halide, and high pressure sodium. The arc tube within an HID lamp will contain one or more of such elements, and when current passes between the electrodes at either end of the tube, the current creates an arc that generates visible light.

HID lamps feature the highest efficiency in lumens per watt output and also feature a greater level of lighting control. They also last longer than other commercial gooseneck lighting fixtures, making them a wise investment for a company on a Spartan budget that cannot afford to continually replace equipment.

High intensity discharge sources include mercury vapor, metal halide, and high pressure sodium (HPS) lamps. Light is produced in HID and low pressure sodium (LPS) sources through a gaseous arc discharge using a variety of elements. Each HID lamp consists of an arc tube which contains certain elements or mixtures of elements which, when an arc is created between the electrodes at each end, gasify and generate visible radiation.

Light Sources and Lamp Characteristics

Mercury Vapor (MV)
Mercury vapor lights were some of the first HID commercial landscape lighting fixtures developed. They were designed originally to meet a rising demand for a very compact, high output, and energy efficient source of light. They are used extensively in a number of landscape lighting applications, being commonly deployed as tree lights in high-end commercial outdoor lighting systems. In other applications they have proven somewhat less effective duo to their inferior color rendering abilities, although this has improved to a certain extent over the years by phosphor coated interior bulb walls.

The life of mercury vapor lamps is good, averaging 24,000 hours for larger wattage lamps. However, because the output diminishes so greatly over time, economical operational life is often much shorter. Efficacy ranges from 30 to 60 lumens per watt, with the higher wattages being more efficacious than the lower wattages.

As with other HID lamps, the starting of a mercury vapor lamp is not immediate. Starting time is short, though, taking 4-7 minutes to achieve maximum output depending upon the ambient temperature.

High Pressure Sodium (HPS)
High Pressure Sodium (HPS) commercial parking lighting fixtures gained huge popularity in the 1970’s to meet the needs of a powerful, yet super efficient, source of HID lighting. Lumens per watt output in an HPS lamp can be as high as 140 lumens per watt—approximately 7 times the luminance as incandescent lamps and twice that of MV or Fluorescent. They also last for approximately 24,000 hours---the longest lamp light on the market.

The problem with HPS commercial lighting fixtures has always been the quality of light they create. HPS lamps give off a yellowish or orange-tinted color and are not acceptable light sources for situations where illuminating a brand, architectural keynote, or any type of ornate exterior landscaping requires a high level of color rendering. For the most part, they are used in applications such as commercial parking garage lighting, warehouse lighting, and certain outdoor applications such as security flood lighting.

Metal Halide (MH)
Metal Halide (MH) commercial warehouse lighting fixtures are fast becoming the preferred source of HID lighting in most commercial environments. This is because they produce a very bright white light that nearly equivalent to daylight in its color rendering ability. The variety of applications is significant as a result, ranging from decorative street lighting, commercial parking lot lighting, car lot lighting, outdoor landscape lighting, architectural lighting, security lighting, and general site lighting. Traditionally, their biggest drawback has been their short lamp life—only 7,500 hours on the average.

Newer designs in Metal Halide commercial lighting fixtures include pulse start technology and ceramic metal halide design. These improvements have increased lumens per watt efficiency, control of the light itself through superior dimmability, better stability of color rendering, longer lamp life, and shorter start time.

Unfortunately, recent legislation has called for the phase out of certain standard forms of MH commercial exterior lighting fixtures due to their use of incendiary elements that fall under the classification of greenhouse gas sources. This in turn paves the way for the most sophisticated lighting ever developed on our world, and quite possibly, the singular source of lighting used both commercially and residentially in the very near future: LED commercial lighting fixtures.

LED Commercial Lighting Fixtures
As technology improves, the ability to create truly “white” led light continues to evolve. LED commercial electric lighting fixtures are featuring higher lumens per watt efficiencies than their initial prototypes initially offered. This has opened the door for a number of architectural lighting and site lighting applications that were previously the exclusive domain of HID commercial lighting fixtures.

We are also seeing an upsurge in the use of led commercial lighting fixtures in street and roadway lighting, where a number of municipalities in the United States and Europe have reported some very promising findings in regards to both power cost reduction and the overall quality of street lighting itself.

Look for quarterly leaps and bounds in the engineering gains made by LED commercial lighting fixture manufacturers, and be sure to sign up for our RLLD Commercial Lighting Newsletter which will feature news updates and case studies about this exciting and revolutionary technology.

RLLD Commercial Lighting carries a wide variety of industrial, commercial and sports athletic field lighting fixtures. If you can not find what you are looking for contact us toll free at 1-866-654-3961 and we will find it for you. Our home office is located in Houston, Texas with warehouses located throughout the United States that enable us to service all 50 states including like Ft. Lauderdale, FL (FLL), Orlando, Florida (MCO), Santa Monica, CA, (LAX) Columbus, Ohio (CMH) (LGA) New York, NY, (JKF), St. Louis, MO, Detroit, Michigan (DTW), Madison, WI (MSN), San Francisco, California (SFO), and Omaha, Nebraska (OMA).

Commercial Lighting Fixtures & Supplies

RLLD Commercial Lighting has thousands of commercial lighting fixtures and lighting products from which contractors can choose, and they are all made in the USA.

Knowing that contractors have to find the right fixture for the right job to win the bid, our job is to find the right commercial lighting product that will do the job right. In order to accomplish this ambitious goal, we have established some very unique manufacturer agreements that allow us to sell commercial lighting products for a wide number of leading American lighting manufacturers, not just one.

As a representative of multiple manufacturers, we can promise you impartiality and professionalism in our recommendation of what commercial lighting products will best fit your requirements. Because we are not required to sell a specific number of any particular models or meet any type of deadline or quota, we can give you multiple options whenever you need help locating the right commercial lighting products for your proposal.

We drop ship commercial site lighting products straight from the factory to your client’s location. This saves time and eliminates parts shortages that often hit distributors who rely upon warehousing for inventory. Our distribution network is nationwide, giving us full access to any commercial lighting product necessary to meet the contractor’s needs, and giving us expeditious delivery power on rush orders in as little as two weeks.

In addition to supplying contractors with commercial lighting products, we also provide them with adjunct commercial lighting services. The most important of these services is a photometric analysis of a client’s facility. This schematic is created with advanced lighting design software and details necessary foot candle levels, fixture placement locations, recommended number of fixtures, and types of lamps optimal for the client’s lighting requirements.

For certain commercial lighting products, such as parking lot lighting poles and fixtures, we provide turnkey installations on a nationwide basis. Ask an RLLD Commercial Lighting Specialist about these services.

Our inventory of commercial lighting products is extensive and includes both indoor and outdoor commercial lighting fixtures. These include, but are no means limited, the following:

· LED Industrial Lights
· Induction Lighting
· Metal Halide Lights
· High Pressure Sodium Lights
· Floodlights
· Wall Packs
· LED Interior Lights
· LED Outdoor Lights
· Fluorescent Light Fixtures
· Parking Lot Lighting
· Solar Powered Street Lighting
· Security Lighting
· Architectural Lighting
· Sign Lighting
· Office Lights
· Lighting Control Systems
· Outdoor Accent Lights
· Landscape Lighting
· Sports Lighting
· Baseball Lights
· Soccer Lights
· Football Lights
· Volleyball Lights and Lighting Kits
· Tennis Court Lights and Lighting Kits
· Commercial Parking Garage Lighting
· Warehouse High Bay Lighting
· Roadway and Highway Lighting

…and a growing selection of many more lighting packages, lighting kits and lighting case studies.

RLLD Commercial Lighting offers all adjunct consultation services to clients on a complimentary basis and charges a small, reasonable fee for contractors seeking paid consulting services on an as need basis. There is a fee for every photometric analysis, but for contractors who buy commercial lighting products from RLLD Commercial, the full fee is subtracted from the purchase order.

RLLD Commercial Lighting carries a wide variety of industrial & commercial lighting fixtures. 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 home office is located in Houston, Texas with warehouses located throughout the United States that enable us to service all 50 states including like Ft. Lauderdale, FL (FLL), Orlando, Florida (MCO), Santa Monica, CA, (LAX) Columbus, Ohio (CMH) (LGA) New York, NY, (JKF), St. Louis, MO, Detroit, Michigan (DTW), Madison, WI (MSN), San Francisco, California (SFO), and Omaha, Nebraska (OMA)

Commercial Tree Lighting Designs

You can improve any landscape with tree lighting provided the property has trees sufficiently large enough to conceal mercury vapor lights in the branches and leaves. As a commercial landscape lighting contractor who is quite possibly competing against much larger firms, you can give yourself an enormous competitive advantage by offering this simple, elegant lighting technique.

Specification grade mercury vapor lights that feature superior commercial grade engineering and photometrics are the best fixtures to use as tree lights. They radiate a blue-white luminance that looks almost identical to moonlight. When concealed from the observer’s frame of reference, and if installed in an environmentally sensitive manner that avoids harming the trees, lights of this nature can add both aesthetic and functional lighting elements to a host of institutions and businesses.

Municipal Parks
If you are bidding for a contract that involves park lighting and landscaping a municipal park, you definitely want to propose tree lights. Contractors who can arguably demonstrate that this aspect of park lighting will make the park both safer and more popular have a very strong chance of closing the deal regardless of price.

Because people want to feel safe when they visit the park at night, lighting up the shadows under the trees allows less opportunity for criminal mischief. It also “multiplies” moonlight exponentially according to the number of trees you light. Most benches and pathways lie either adjacent to or directly under large trees. Moonlight walks in these places will not have to depend on weather conditions or the phase of the moon at a given time of the month because outdoor commercial tree lighting provides the same romantic and sentimental qualities on a continuing, unchanging basis.

Academic Institutions
Helping a school attract higher enrollment is an excellent way to win their business, especially if they are a relatively young institution, or a community college.

Lighting up the larger trees on the landscape makes the school look more “Old World”, and it plays upon the perception many people have that the best schools are the oldest schools. When the oldest and largest trees are fitted with mercury vapor lights, the entirety of their form is illuminated throughout the night and appears surreal, larger than life, and classical in form.

Commercial Properties
If your forte is commercial lighting design, offer to make a business appear more reputable and conscientious by installing tree lights.

If you are proposing a lighting fixture system for a new company, tell them the same thing you would tell a learning institution: people associate time in business with experience and skill. . New companies can greatly benefit from looking “older” than they really are. Tree lights will also improve outdoor security lighting by eliminating shadows under the trees where vandals and burglars may otherwise try to hide.

You can also propose to make your client appear environmentally friendly for the sake of public image. Illuminating landscaping and trees around the building helps harmonize buildings with the landscape and suggests a certain sympathetic relationship with Nature that works very well for branding and marketing purposes in a grown Earth conscious marketplace.

Hospitality Services
Helping high-end facilities attract and entertain more guests represents a sizeable amount of money for any client working in hospitality services. For something as relatively low cost as tree lighting, the return on investment is something that you can depend on to make a strong, good impression on the client.

Because these industries must attract present people with the allure of a more refined, sensible, and better reality, showcasing the natural beauty of trees unconsciously suggests an excursion into Paradise. Palm trees at resorts will glow with a luminous aura throughout the night, and tree lights concealed in branches overhanging outdoor patios add romantic accent lighting for outdoor dining and live music. Any country club with large trees adjacent to the clubhouse window will have better visibility into the exterior, because the down light coming from branches overhead filters through the glass just enough to dispel the reflective glare of interior restaurant lighting.

RLLD Commercial Lighting carries a wide variety of industrial & commercial landscape lighting fixtures. 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 or visit our about us page or lighting blog for further information.

Our home office is located in Houston, Texas with warehouses located throughout the United States that enable us to service all 50 states including like Ft. Lauderdale, FL (FLL), Orlando, Florida (MCO), Santa Monica, CA, (LAX) Columbus, Ohio (CMH) (LGA) New York, NY, (JKF), St. Louis, MO, Detroit, Michigan (DTW), Madison, WI (MSN), San Francisco, California (SFO), and Omaha, Nebraska (OMA).

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.

Commercial Exterior Lighting Designs

The wide range of vertical markets that require commercial exterior lighting for safety, functionality, and aesthetic compliment require a luminaire source that is robust, flexible, energy efficient, and easy to install and maintenance. One of the greatest benefits contractors receive from working with RLL Design is the assurance that our staff will diligently help them fit the best possible commercial lighting fixture to exterior building areas and surrounding property on site. Contractors who rely upon RLL Design as their preferred source of commercial exterior landscape lighting fixtures have more options to build proposals with and more delivery power to a broad spectrum of clients in corporate, municipal, academic, industrial, and hospitality markets.

Area Lighting for Commercial Exteriors
RLL Design offers a large number of area lighting fixtures that bring competitive advantage to the bidding table. These area lights are available in both horizontal and vertical lamp orientation fitted with your choice of lamp types and reflectors that will create any number of commercial exterior lighting effects without glare or light pollution. Many aluminum commercial exterior parking lot lights can be ordered in either flat or concave lenses for complimentary lighting of commercial exterior architecture and general outdoor areas. All commercial exterior site lights are designed to achieve full cutoff in full compliance with standards laid out by the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America (IESNA).

RLLD Commercial exterior lights will also save your clients money on maintenance and replacement costs. Top access housings make lamps easy for end users to access and replace when necessary, reducing exorbitant time and labor costs on periodic maintenance. Lenses are sealed to prevent moisture, dust, and insects from entering the fixtures, thus extending a high quality of light output for the life of the lamp.

Floodlighting
These commercial exterior lights feature superior beam adjustment for more precise aiming of light and variation of beam diameter. Complex reflector designs make these commercial exterior lights capable of creating any number of multi-dimensional lighting effects, giving your proposal a strong competitive advantage when bidding a commercial landscape or high-end resort facility. The diversity of style we offer you brings an added benefit of aesthetic compliment to lighting systems that require more than basic functionality to win the bid.

RLL Design floodlights are made from the toughest commercial grade materials and are designed to endure the elements regardless of climate or geography. They are available in all HID lighting sources including commercial fluorescent lights.

Canopy & Ceiling Mounted
RLL Design canopy and ceiling mounted commercial exterior lights feature specific designs for specific applications. This allows you to propose more options to a greater diversity of clients, as virtually any type of facility can be equipped with one or more of these custom luminaires. Choose from commercial exterior ceiling lights made specifically for parking garages, overhanging canopies in retail areas and filling stations, flush mounted recessed models that offer a low-profile installation for corporate headquarters, and fixtures designed especially for pedestrian walkways and building perimeters in civic centers and lighting public sites.

Your clients can expect to pay lower power bills and enjoy hours of glare free lighting. Maintenance is simple and does not require a professional contractor, because many fixtures can be relamped by staff personnel from the ground. Clients will not only benefit from the low-profile and custom aesthetics these commercial warehouse lights add to their site lighting, but they will also appreciate the do-it-yourself maintenance savings that our fixtures offer over more competing models too complex for the end user to service without a contractor’s help.

Wall Mounted Commercial Exterior Lights
Wall mounted lights supplied by RLL Design add value to your invoice with more mounting options and more aesthetic compliments to buildings of any size and architectural design. Our inventory offers up lights, down lights, and hybrid models for simultaneous up lighting and down lighting with full cutoff distribution of light. Both HID and fluorescent lamping options are available for most of our fixture designs, allowing you the ability to address both security concerns and power savings in your commercial exterior lighting system.

RLL Design wall mounted lighting fixtures are designed for maximum aesthetic presentation as well, representing a number of sheik and aerodynamic builds that not only light commercial exteriors superbly during evening hours, but also offer complimentary design to building architectural keynotes during daylight hours. Fixtures can also be installed in such a manner as to extend the light beyond the building perimeters to provided additional security and safety lighting for outdoor gathering areas, walkways, and lighting parking lot boundaries.

Clients who are seeking to obtain LEED certificates will greatly benefit from the energy efficiency that characterizes RLLD commercial exterior wall mounted lighting fixtures. You as a contractor will benefit as well with a diverse range of size options that will allow you to develop commercial exterior decorative lighting systems for multi-building campuses such as schools, municipal centers, country clubs, and resorts. Regardless of the size of the building you are illuminating, the same style fixture can be installed in sizes that appropriately compliment building size without having to compromise consistency in the process.

Strip Lighting for Commercial Exteriors
RLL Design commercial exterior strip lights feature glare and shadow free lighting optimized for a variety of important commercial environments. Retail clients need extra lighting on their signage to attract customers. Building entrances need a reliable, continuous, and cost competitive source of evenly distributed light around the entrance to the doorway. Buildings with the company logo painted on the side require vertical exterior lighting to properly showcase their brand. Humid climates require specialty vapor light fixtures to withstand wet atmospheric conditions. Multi-colored building exteriors and canopies require an exceptionally large beam spread, often as high as 48” in diameter.

When you build your proposal with RLL Design commercial exterior strip lights, you can meet the needs of any or all of these vertical markets with cost competitive energy ratings, superior functional light, and appropriate aesthetic compliment to virtually any commercial exterior you service.

Be sure to sign up for our RLL Design contractor community newsletter or visit out lighting blog. In it you will find periodic updates on new industry technology, helpful installation suggestions, proposal development consultation services complimentary with your equipment purchase, and possible leads on new business.

RLLD Commercial Lighting carries a wide variety of industrial & commercial lighting fixtures and we have photometric calculations and actual lighting case studies posted for your review and 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 home office is located in Houston, Texas with warehouses located throughout the United States that enable us to service all 50 states including Sault Ste Marie, MI (CIU), Cleveland, OH, (CLE), College Station, TX (CLL), Port Angeles, WA (CLM), Charlotte, NC (CLT), Columbus, OH (CMH), Champaign, IL (CMI), Hancock, MI (CMX), Cody, WY (COD) and Colorado Springs, CO (COS).