Commercial Fluorescent Lights

Guidelines for Contractors Installing Fluorescent Floodlights-
If you want to use fluorescent floodlights to light your client’s building with a uniform beam spread, RLLD Commercial Lighting recommends that you go by the following guidelines in this blog. If you have to vary the lighting levels, you can do this by changing lamp wattage without changing out the fixtures.

Establish the Proper Aiming Points
To get a uniform distribution of light from top to bottom, aim fluorescent floodlights two thirds up the vertical surface. For instance, if the wall is 25 feet high, aim your fixtures 17 feet up from the ground.

What to do with limited setback.
Setback is often encountered. Work with what space you have. The minimum acceptable setback distance is one-quarter the height of the wall. If you have more space, install the fixtures at the same distance from the wall as your aiming point is from the ground. For example, going by our example above, that would be 17 feet back from the building.

Regardless of setback, the spacing between should be twice the setback.
To get optimum uniformity of luminance, space fluorescent floodlights at a distance two times the distance of setback. In our current example, fixtures setback 17 feet from the wall must be spaced 34 feet apart. This causes the light beams to overlap one another, resulting in a uniform spread. If a client is more concerned with cost than with uniformity, however, you may purchase fewer commercial lighting fixtures and vary spacing up to five times the setback distance.

Tell your client about the advantages that fluorescent floodlights offer over inground uplights.
There are times when facilities managers request uplights because they are so easy to conceal and do not intrude into the scene. Nevertheless, they are better used as sign lights, monument lights, or decorative landscape lights. When they are mounted close to a large surface like a building wall, they cast a near vertical beam upward. You cannot achieve uniformity with this type of beam spread.

Get a photometric design from RLLD Commercial Lighting.
The example we provided assumes there is a more or less symmetrical building to light and sufficient acreage to give your team the necessary amount of setback. This ideal scenario is not always found in the real world, however. Real world scenarios are much more complex and demanding, and they often call for more architectural lighting design and installation strategies that take too many billable hours to compute.

It is so much better to have our lighting design team calculate setback and spacing for you. This will also help us recommend the best fixtures to use. This saves time and money for both you and your client, and is sometimes the only way to avoid error if you are installing fluorescent floodlights at a multi-building location.

A 3D photometric lighting design will ensure you will create the appropriate foot candle measurements regardless of the symmetry of the individual buildings, their relationship to each another, and the amount of available setback.

This 3D model is also that you can show to our client that will show them the location and beam spreads of the fluorescent lighting fixtures we recommend. The cost of this photometric design will be deducted from your final invoice total if and when you buy the equipment from us.

If you buy your industrial outdoor products from us, we will refund the value of the photometric design by deducting it from your equipment purchase invoice. This will also save you money on service charges.

RLLD Commercial Lighting carries a wide variety of industrial lighting & commercial parking lot lighting fixtures. If you can not find what you are looking for contact us toll free at 1-866-654-3961 or read one of our many related lighting articles. You never know what you will find at RLLD.

Our lighting designers are located in Houston, Texas with stocking distribution centers located throughout the United States that enable us to service and ship to 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 Site Lighting Design

When developing a site lighting system, the most important thing to keep foremost in mind at all times is lumens per watt efficiency. As energy costs rise to staggering new levels, new laws are now requiring a .15 watt per square foot maximum for outdoor site lights. This makes it necessary to select fixtures that are more efficient and to pay closer attention to site geometry in order to pinpoint the best locations for fixture placement. Regulations have also become much stricter on regulating glare and lighting pollution. Cheaper area lighting fixtures that are unable to shield from glare or to prevent light spillage not only represent an aesthetic disappointment to most clients, but also create a nuisance to neighbors and a possible safety hazard to drivers. By choosing from only specification grade equipment, propose a system that is aesthetically pleasing, economically viable, and fully compliant with regulatory codes.

PARKING LOT LIGHTING
Parking lot lights are critical elements of site lighting and must balance the practical demands of safe lighting levels, aesthetics, energy efficiency, and regulatory compliance in order to be truly effective. Higher light poles tend to light larger areas, helping keep the facility in compliance with energy efficiency codes. This must be balanced, however, against any local dark sky laws that limit pole height to a maximum height. As a general rule, it is almost always a better idea to use cut off fixtures designs with tempered glass lenses and reflectors formed from specular facets for commercial outdoor lighting. These luminaires do a better job of keeping glare at a minimum and dispersing light over greater distances, keeping power consumption down while simultaneously increasing the total square footage they illuminate.

ARCHITECTURAL BUILDING LIGHTING
When it comes to lighting building structures themselves, site lighting must accent the building without overpowering its architecture. In order to accomplish this, it is necessary to light only the most significant features of a building rather than the whole building itself. This helps to curb energy expenses and to minimize light pollution. It also creates a secondary effect of accenting that which is truly important about a particular buildings design, and it represents savings as well on the number of luminaires necessary for a truly superior outcome.

A few areas require the special focus of the site lighting designer. The building entrance itself needs vertical light over the vestibule or front door, and any signs on the building itself will require emphasis in order to advertise company branding. Columns require light in order to maintain the buildingʼs sense of balance and proportion, and anything positioned on the rooftop will need its own special light as well.

Light fixture locations and angle of incidence is the key to success when it comes to building exterior lighting. The more you can hide the light source, the more you can create a more aesthetic sense of seemingly sourceless light that makes the structure stand out. Wall packs, canopy lights, roof mounted lights, and a wide selection of sign lights can be installed in strategic locations so as to make them virtually invisible to the casual viewer.

LANDSCAPE SITE LIGHTING
The significance of the landscape to a site lighting theme depends on three things: site geometry itself, amount of actual greenery, and the type of industry. Some businesses such as retail strip centers and shopping malls have very little greenery, so outdoor landscape lighting takes the forms of low voltage step lights or garden lights around trees and flower beds. On the other hand, elaborate corporate campuses with park like areas require a bit more attention and almost always synthesize general landscape lighting with security perimeter lighting. They trick here again is to highlight features of the landscape rather than light then entire area. Pathways and decorative benches can be lit quite cost effectively with fluorescent lighting bollards. Low voltage halogen lights can be used to accent waterways, commemorative statues, ponds, and fountains. Decorative light posts and ornamental fixtures can be used to create historical themes or aesthetic keynotes in key locations without overkill or over spending.

RLLD Commercial Lighting not only provides detailed information on these and many other subjects free of charge to all of our clients, but also publishes information on new technology and industry trends to all who enroll in our online community program. Contact us now for more information.

RLLD Commercial Lighting carries a wide variety of industrial, commercial and architectural landscape lighting fixtures. If you can not find what you are looking for on our website, our lighting blog you can 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 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 Design

RLLD Commercial Lighting design services are intended to provide adjunct support to the contractor to expedite the planning stages of a proposal, to help the client and the contractor get more for their monies worth, and to implement a systematic, precision approach to procurement that minimizes the margin of error in selecting the right fixtures for the right job. Professional commercial lighting design companies have come to rely upon RLLD Commercial Lightingʼs design experts as a virtual extension of their marketing and sales teams. RLLD Commercial Lighting designers and account managers proactively assist in developing solutions for commercial lighting clients, designing entire systems from the ground up so the contractor can save man hours on calculations and schematics and focus more energy on negotiations to win the bid.

We are able to deliver this service to our clients because of very high-end, proprietary commercial lighting design software we have purchased to create photometric modeling. This software allows us to take the answers to a few basic questions we ask you about your clientʼs site and facility and input that data into our computers. Our suite of design programs then interprets this data and renders a complete photometric analysis of your clients building and surrounding property. This valuable schematic details such critical factors in lighting design and mandatory foot candle minimums for parking areas and outdoor recreation areas. It also shows the best positions to install fixtures to achieve these lighting levels, and it shows the best ways to mount these fixtures for optimal results.

This approach to commercial indoor lighting design is an excellent way to win a bid in the midst of a recession. Its focus on precision purchasing as opposed to bulk purchasing takes a realistic approach to equipment itemization and costs. RLLD Commercial Lighting believes you should design a system with no more and no less fixtures than are absolutely necessary to meet the needs of your client. While in the past making such an exact determination may have meant hours of painstaking calculations, this is no longer the case today. With a photometric analysis, you can literally see where the lights need to go and quickly determine the exact nature of the fixtures your client will need by asking three basic questions:

1. Where is the fixture located?
2. What does the fixture light?
3. How is the fixture mounted?

If you still cannot determine the ideal fixture after looking at each of these three factors, your commercial architectural lighting design specialist can recommend commercial grade and specification grade fixture options that will bring superior results to your clientʼs table. We have a vast inventory of HID lights, including the new pulse start metal halide lights that feature some of the most advanced reflectors and optics in the lighting industry. Such engineering is critical if you are working in an area heavily regulated by lighting control regulations and dark sky laws. Proposing fixtures that are made specifically for better directional control of lighting and glare reduction puts your client in the best possible light without annoying nearby residents and business owners with light pollution.

RLLD Commercial Lighting design experts can also outfit your proposal with the latest energy saving outdoor fluorescent lighting fixtures and outdoor commercial lighting equipment. This will work wonders for your clientʼs operations budget, cutting costs without sacrificing the quality of amount of illumination in the process. We also carry an entire selection of high-tech energy efficient commercial lights designed for maximum power conservation. We have induction lighting for indoor and outdoor commercial lighting, and LED light designed for commercial outdoor lighting, parking lot lighting, street lighting, area lighting, and commercial indoor lighting.

All of our commercial lights are designed and manufactured in the United States. No foreign manufactured products will ever darken our invoice. RLLD Commercial Lighting believes in supporting and recession proofing the American manufacturer as well as the American commercial lighting design specialist. All adjunct parking lot lighting design services are free as well to clients and serious inquirers, and they are also available for a reasonable fee to casual inquirers and those in need of occasional assistance.

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 lighting design studio 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.