Commercial Lighting Articles & Information

RLLD Commercial Lighting operates as an online lighting equipment supplier and adjunct lighting services design 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. 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 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.

At RLL Design, we strive to provide a plethora of commercial lighting articles, glossaries and commercial lighting case studies to our valued clients. Our philosophy is simple: Sell the right products and leave a legacy of satisfied clients!

High Bay Lighting
Contractors installing high bay lights in warehouses and factories can find a wide range of fixture manufacture and lamping options through RLLD Commercial Lighting.

Metal Halide High Bay Lighting
Metal halide high bay lighting consistently remains the most popular form of high bay lighting in factories, warehouses, gymnasiums, public halls, transportation stations, and hangars.

Dark Sky Lighting Regulations
Dark sky regulations are the result of worldwide efforts on the part of the dark-sky movement. This grass-roots movement began when astronomers became extremely concerned that artificial light from cities was obscuring the view of the stars.

Commercial Lighting Systems
Commercial lighting systems are often much more complicated than they appear at face value. A significant number of factors influence the selection of equipment.

Commercial Lighting 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, with each segment depending on the segment before it.

Commercial Indoor Lighting
The quality and nature of an organization’s commercial indoor lighting system has a direct impact on its morale, production time, and generative financial power.

Commercial Sign Lighting
Many contractors, sole proprietor lighting design consultants, and do it yourself landscapers often fail to include sign lights in their commercial lighting systems. Many times this is because they mistake them as an unnecessary expense.

Commercial Lighting Fixtures
RLLD Commercial Lighting fixtures feature the highest commercial grade lighting fixtures in all major light sources used for building exterior, site lighting, security lighting, warehouse interior lighting, roadway lighting, and security lighting systems.

Commercial Electric Lighting
Commercial Electric Lighting fixtures can either be high intensity discharge lights for parking, landscape, and security lighting, or they can be architectural building that minimize power consumption.

Commercial Gooseneck Lights
Gooseneck lights are excellent fixtures to propose to clients who need functionality combined with aesthetics. These lights can be placed in a number of key locations both outside the building and inside the building.

Commercial Exterior Lighting
Commercial Exterior Lighting. The diversity of clients in need of superior commercial exterior lighting requires the contractor to rely upon a source of luminaires that is robust, flexible, energy efficient, easy to install & maintain.

Commercial Fluorescent Lighting
Commercial Fluorescent Lighting. Recent laws have been passed that require all incandescent lights to be replaced by 2010 at the latest. Because of this, commercial fluorescent lights are going to play a major role in future lighting design for businesses.

Commercial Warehouse Lighting
Commercial warehouse lighting must take a number of factors into account to be truly cost effective and functionally supportive of operations and labor. Foremost on the list of consideration is lighting levels.

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.

Commercial Landscape Lighting
RLLD's commercial landscape lighting fixtures and accessories represent a broad spectrum of options for the commercial exterior lighting designer working to accent and define the natural exteriors of commercial, academic, municipal, hospitality, and entertainment.

Decorative Commercial Lighting
Decorative commercial lights are important components of every outdoor lighting system. Commercial decorative light fixtures are often smaller than purely functional outdoor lights and can be concealed for special lighting effects.

These are just examples of the many ways that commercial lighting can enhance a property with site lighting and commercial decorative fixture designs. Call an RLLD Commercial Lighting expert for more information on how to use these unique luminaires in key locations that will add aesthetic and functionality to your client’s location.

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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Glossary Commercial Lighting & Photometric Terms

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 commercial 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. 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 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.

If you are in the market for commercial lighting and need a little help with some lighting terms or lighting photometric layouts, we have created a helpful glossary full of techincal information.

Here are a few examples of commercial lighting terms:

FOOTCANDLE (FC) - The English unit of measurement of the illuminance (or light level) on a surface. One footcandle is equal to one lumen per square foot.

EFFICACY - A metric used to compare light output to energy consumption. Efficacy is measured in lumens per watt. Efficacy is similar to efficiency, but is expressed in dissimilar units. For example, if a 100-watt source produces 9000 lumens, then the efficacy is 90 lumens per watt.

HOT RESTART or HOT RESTRIKE - The phenomenon of re-striking the arc in an HID light source after a momentary power loss. Hot restart occurs when the arc tube has cooled a sufficient amount.

LIFE-CYCLE COST - The total costs associated with purchasing, operating, and maintaining a system over the life of that system.

Here are a few examples of photometric lighting terms:

PHOTOMETRIC REPORT - A photometric report is a set of printed data describing the light distribution, efficiency, and zonal lumen output of a luminaire. This report is generated from laboratory testing.

MAINTAINED ILLUMINANCE - Refers to light levels of a space at other than initial or rated conditions. This terms considers light loss factors such as lamp lumen depreciation, luminaire dirt depreciation, and room surface dirt depreciation.

LUMEN - A unit of light flow, or luminous flux. The lumen rating of a lamp is a measure of the total light output of the lamp.

REFLECTANCE - The ratio of light reflected from a surface to the light incident on the surface. Reflectance's are often used for lighting calculations. The reflectance of a dark carpet is around 20%, and a clean white wall is roughly 50% to 60%.

RLLD equips you with everything necessary to build a competitive proposal at the line item level. Our commercial lighting fixtures, mounts, and accessories represent a broad spectrum of top-grade manufacturers and material builds, allowing the do-it-yourself installer as well as the professional complete freedom of choice when it comes to selecting fixtures and accessories. With the help of our lighting design consultant team, you can find a fixture that will precisely match the technical and aesthetic requirements of corporate, government, municipal, educational, and residential lighting design clients. While visiting our website today, you will find informative articles and all major categories of commercial lighting supplies that feature cutting edge technology, aesthetic sophistication, longer lamp and fixture life, and greater flexibility in application and customization.

RLLD Commercial Lighting supply house carries a wide variety of industrial & commercial parking lot 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 Parking Lot Lighting

Commercial Parking Lot lights have become increasingly more regulated over the years and require expert knowledge beyond electrical expertise to properly configure and install. For many years, the bulk of regulatory codes mandated foot candle minimums for commercial parking lots lights to produce in order to make certain that parked cars were not obscured in shadows and to provide motorists with enough light to see. Over time, however, more laws were passed to minimize glare that can distract drivers and cause accidents. Then, the most recent round of legislation has now swept the nation from coast to coast, not only mandating that all commercial outdoor parking lot lights not only to produce a certain number of footcandles and a minimum amount of glare, but also more tightly regulating the direction of light itself so as to it to parking areas only without spilling into neighboring streets, homes, and businesses.

To light a commercial parking lot effectively, even with standard luminaires and light poles, often requires the contractor to precisely match features and optics to mandated parameters of a given environment. Additional factors like wind load capacities of poles and the various methods of plotting optimal footcandle levels either require a great deal of time doing math or the assistance of a vendor with access to special charts and software. By coming to us, the designer, builder, or DIY electrical contractor has the ability to save multiple steps and to obtain whatever is necessary to get the job done safely, legally, and effectively.

Expeditious Lead Time on Basic Lighting Fixtures
RLLD Commercial lighting offers over s dozens of competitively priced, standard model commercial parking lot lights. Basic designs for commercial parking lot light fixtures range from cutoff, flood, parabolic design, and aerodynamic models. Standard parking lot lights offer a very no-nonsense, straightforward approach to lighting retail parking lots, industrial sites, small office parks, commercial driveways, and strip center parking areas. RLLD Commercial Lighting adds value to competitive price by providing the fastest lead time in the industry on shipping and delivery of standard commercial parking lot lighting equipment. This further saves time and labor costs by allowing for a quick, seamless installation of all commercial parking lot lighting equipment.

Although standard commercial parking lot lighting case studies represent the mid-range of the price spectrum, they are made with a number of optical advantages that generate precise directional lighting control. This is becoming increasingly important throughout the country as more and more municipalities pass tougher dark sky laws to prevent light pollution in parking lots and commercial centers from spilling into roadways and neighboring homes. By working with a vendor such as RLLD Commercial Lighting architects, designers, builders, and electricians obtain the additional benefit of complimentary, expert knowledge on whether or not a particular luminaire will prove compliant to the standards of the proposed location in any given community.

Specification Grade Commercial Parking Lot Lights
Because so many large corporations, hotels, country clubs, resorts, and exclusive neighborhoods prefer to take a more sophisticated approach to site lighting design, RLLD Commercial also provides is many clients with an enormous range of specification grade parking luminaires engineered specifically for the professional bidding high-end jobs. Architects, city planners, general contractors, and commercial developers are just a few of the industries representative of our expanding client base that needs the highest rating in commercial grade parking lot lighting equipment and the most reliable performance simultaneously concomitant to aesthetics and function. Our selection features over 100 designs that range in lamp wattages from 70-400W, and eight distinctive styles that allow for a diversity of lighting commercial parking lot designs and applications. With both horizontal and vertical lamps to choose from, and a total of seven light distributions in both sharp cutoff and wide angle design, these fixtures can be used for much more than commercial parking lot lighting. Because they represent the finest grade materials and most sophisticated engineering, they can also be used to light roadways, corporate plazas, parks, and large commercial centers.

RLLD Commercial Lighting company carries a wide variety of industrial & commercial parking lot 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 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).

Baseball Field & Ball Park Lights

The best lights for a baseball field or stadium are not the brightest possible lights, but rather the most evenly distributed, glare-free athletic sports field lighting fixtures. Too often, DIY electricians overspend when buying baseball field lights, either buying both too many fixtures or getting fixtures with too high a wattage output. This not only creates more exorbitant front-end costs, but it also generates higher lighting bills and can also create glare for smaller baseball diamonds. Professional designers know that retail grade baseball and softball lights pre-mounted to poles simply will not place Americaʼs Game in the right kind of light. Advanced foot-candle calculations based upon the size and location of the field must first be worked out in advanced, then commercial grade fixtures with sophisticated reflectors must be selected and positioned at exactly the right height on poles in order to produce maximum lumens per wattage efficiency. This is critical for mid-air lighting of the ball in play, and something that fixed-mounted light pole fixtures cannot provide. Also, pre-configured baseball lighting will almost always degrade more rapidly when exposed to extremes in weather, and when they begin to rust, they present an unsightly nuisance that eventually exposes wires to humidity and creates short circuit and possible fire hazard.

While commercial grade baseball and football field lights do represent a front end for the small town, peewee league, little league, or church camp, they can nevertheless be purchased from RLL Design at competitive prices on the front end, and they be configured in such a fashion as to create a energy-saving return on investment on the back end. This is why so many small towns, camps, and churches on a budget rely upon us for baseball lighting fixtures, poles, mounts and accessories. RLL Design specialists add years of consultation and lighting expertise to the proposal of the professional looking to generate savings and ROI, and they add consultative value to the knowledge of the do-it-yourselfer at a savings of cost-per-hour labor fees. Many clients are often amazed when they see how less can truly be more when it comes to baseball field and stadium lighting case studies. For example, a small little league field seldom needs more than one or two 1000-watt lamps along the baseline, and a single or double 400-watt baseball light over home plate. Determining the exact wattage to choose and where to install the fixture requires calculation of the size and location of the field and detailed knowledge of light pollution laws in oneʼs area. Having this knowledge available from your baseball light fixture supply distributor is an added value that saves you time preparing proposals and prevents costly mistakes when you decide to install the purchase and lights yourself.

Savings arenʼt limited to the small town or non-profit organization only, either. RLLD baseball lights are controlled by advanced ballast technology that renders superior electron flow, making them ideal for larger baseball stadiums and professional league lighting. RLLD baseball lights are designed to resist corrosion in a multitude of climates. Featuring a powder coated die cast housing with formed aluminum lids, they can endure a greater level of stress from wind and rain. These baseball light fixtures further protect lamp life with tempered flat glass insulated with gasket seals and aluminum clamp bands. By adding anodized aluminum reflectors to magnify lumens output and photometric distribution, you can further customize each fixture and achieve greater lighting levels with less power consumption. With the help of your RLLD sports lighting specialist, you can choose from types 3, 4, 5, or 6 optics to achieve maximum visibility for safe play.

Superior ballasts also extend the lamp life of RLLD baseball lighting fixtures and produces a more reliable, consistent spread of illumination necessary for lighting a larger stadium. For optimal results, it is best for both contractors and DIY electricians to work with a sports lighting design experts who will help them purchase poles and fixtures separately, then configure them into a specialty kit or custom lighting design. Each baseball field is unique, so a variety of mounting brackets is also required to achieve precise positioning of light fixtures on poles so that directional angle of incidence is optimized and glare is minimized.

For baseball fields with have light poles already mounted in place, you can work with one of our specialists who will fit them with new mounting arms and light fixtures. Our baseball sports lighting fixtures can also be mounted on any number of pole types and wall mounts, making them multi-functional for other types of sports and recreation. This is an added value we like to pass on to contractors competitively bidding jobs for clients who have very limited procurement budgets, and it also serves to help smaller facilities looking to self-install a lighting system that can serve many needs at once.

RLL Design understands that both professional and end-user clients simply do not have the time to do all the lighting research and calculation necessary to effectively develop a baseball or sports arena lighting system. To help serve these organizations and individuals, we staff a team of Experts who will answer any question in our online forum, and we will help any serious inquiries over the phone.

RLLD Commercial Lighting design carries a wide variety of industrial & commercial parking lot 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 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 Outdoor Parking Lot Lighting

How important is it to use high wattage fixtures in large outdoor parking lots?
There are times when high wattage parking lot lighting fixtures are necessary, but not every large facility requires the most powerful lights to produce optimal results. Other factors such as optics, luminaire housing and its relationship to directional control of lighting, and systematic planning of the overall outdoor lighting to find the best angles of incidence produce much better results—with less power expended and an overall lower operating budget for your client.

How significant is the role optics and reflectors in outdoor parking lot lighting?
The significance of optical engineering is probably greater now than ever before. Light trespass laws have become increasingly strict in most parts of the country. You want your client to enjoy a safe and comfortable environment, but you do not want your neighbors to feel annoyed by outdoor light that encroaches beyond the perimeter of your parking lot. By selecting parking lot lighting fixtures that have the very best reflectors and shields, it is possible to achieve a delicate balance between intensity and containment which otherwise would require lowering the levels of light and compromising foot candle levels.

Can luminaire housing design play a significant role in further minimizing glare and outdoor light trespass in and around a parking lot?
Absolutely. Housing design is a critical factor in distributing luminance, as a matter of fact. Some designs, like full cutoffs, aim the light directly downward onto the pavement below. Others like semi direct it downward at an angle, spreading it gently over the parking lot. Sometimes it may not be immediately obvious to determine just what housings will produce the best results just by walking around a client’s parking lot or examining a CAD drawing. Lighting an establishment that has uniquely configured parking lot islands or a storefront that requires a view free from the obstructions of commercial light poles often requires very advanced calculations, and a custom solution beyond strictly standard designs.

Lighting a uniquely designed or asymmetrical parking lot is best done by having RLLD Commercial lighting design and render a full, detailed photometric analysis of the facility first.
Our design team can actually create a three-dimensional model of your client’s parking lot rendered that will show how one or more proposed outdoor lot lighting layouts will look. Multiple variables such as foot candle density, angle of incidence, and recommended pole heights can all be simultaneously calculated and adjusted either collectively or individually. This allows us to help you forecast outcomes prior to purchasing and to determine in advance exactly what equipment will need to be installed. This can then be validated by one of our commercial lighting case studies.

Are all of your outdoor lights and poles made in the USA?
Yes. We strongly believe that American made luminaires are the best in the world. We also feel that working with US manufacturers helps our own economy and passes additional benefits on to contractors and end users in the form of shorter lead time and more dependable written warranties that back up the quality and the performance of the equipment we sell.

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.

Where are you located?
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.

Commercial Lighting Information

Clients of RLLD Commercial lighting can thus obtain fixtures of any type, size, intensity, and design simply by contacting a RLLD lighting specialist and placing an order directly through our distribution network. Our growing inventory offers the following to contractors, end users, architects, and building developers nationwide. Let's look at a few commercial lamping options and lamp charateristics:

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, incandescent sources 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 warehouse 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, canopy lights, outdoor 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 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 wall packs 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 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.

Mercury Vapor (MV)
Mercury vapor lights were the first HID commercial 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 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 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 dim ability, 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 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 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 lighting case studies about this exciting and revolutionary technology.

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 facilities are 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.