Warehouse Lighting

The age of digital commerce has brought with it tremendous growth in warehouse real estate.  This blog will explore how warehouses function and what light and light control strategies can be explored to deliver optimum results.

Since 2005, J2 Light has been leasing warehouse space from third party logistics warehouses.  This means that we pay a monthly fee for storage space per pallet location, and we pay for unloading, palletizing, pick and ship, etc…  This experience has given us a front row seat as to how warehouses function and how they change over time.

Warehouses have a variety of areas with discrete functions.  They have loading docks where product is both received and shipped.  These tend to be long, wide open spaces with rows of overhead doors (picture under).  They will have racking aisles (picture above) with multiple levels where product is stored.

Sometimes there will be areas where product is bulk stacked on the floor (picture under). Others will have fabrication areas where products are manufactured, assembled or modified in some fashion.  These tend to be open areas with machinery or conveyor belts.  Often there are a lot of obstacles and pathways to move people and product around.

Warehouses may also include low level areas (mezzanines) with pick bins and small parts racking (picture above) or may have specialty spaces such as coolers or freezers (picture under). 

Warehouses can be dynamic places where functions will change over time depending on customer requirements.    One month you may be floor stacking big bulk pallets and the next month can be small parts assembly.  Therefore, the lighting strategy should take this into account.

To accommodate future change, a good strategy is to make sure you have enough light to meet the worst-case needs.  ie. Older workers and tasks involving small detail like reading calipers or fine print.  The added cost is minor, and it is simple with wireless controls to adjust to what you need.  This is opposed to the old world way of designing to the lowest possible output that will meet today’s requirement.  This is especially important if warehouses are built on speculation and the type of customer is unknown.

Unlike offices and classrooms, warehouses present unique challenges that can make lighting errors and maintenance very costly.  They most often require different types of lifts to allow electricians to install or perform maintenance.  Typically, there are obstacles that can make progress slow and cumbersome.

Due to the size of the space, warehouses need approximately 15% to 25% more power per square foot to provide adequate light levels.

When we started building fluorescent high bay lights back in 2005, the predominant light source was high intensity discharge technology where lights could have a greenish hue like the old Mercury Vapor fixtures (above), yellow orange like High Pressure Sodium, or white-ish like Metal Halide (below left aisle; fluorescent on right).

The H.I.D. lights consumed nearly 4 times as much energy as today’s LED high bays when they were new.  Over a short period, they would lose up to 50%.  Further, they would take 5 to 15 minutes to reach full output from an OFF state.

Fluorescent high bays represented a significant improvement vs. their H.I.D. predecessors.  They offered light quality similar to the executive office and could be switched ON and OFF instantly.  Using multiple lamps provided multiple levels of switching to achieve variable outputs.  This along with advances in motion sensors led to higher efficiencies.

4 lamp T5HO high bay with specular reflector pictured above.

Typical low cost round LED high bay pictured above.

Today, there are many LED high bay solutions available that provide improved energy efficiency  vs. fluorescent high bays.  Unfortunately, many customers get caught in the trap of purchasing the lowest cost options without light controls.  When they do pay extra for motion sensing it tends to be restricted to simple ON/OFF controls.

SPaRo 7™ wireless controllable high bay with motion/daylight sensor pictured above.

The trap of purchasing lowest cost can only be seen in contrast to what is lost by moving up an increment to a wireless controllable option.

A.The top end output cannot be adjusted.  On most of the projects I have commissioned, rarely do my customers choose 100% output for occupied light output.  Typically, the average is between 70%-80%.  Every 1% reduction = 1% reduction in power consumption.  This alone can add up to a lot of $$.

B.Programmable high bays can be linked together in functional groups to provide optimized power savings without being detrimental to the workers.  For example, lights in racking aisles can be linked together such that when the first light at the head end of the aisle sees motion, it can turn on the rest of the lights in the aisle to any % output you choose.  As the forklift operator continues to drive deeper into the aisle, lights brighten to work level when they see motion (under).  When the worker leaves, the lights may dim and then shut off.

High bays loaded with wireless programmable controllers and motion/daylight sensors provide warehouse managers a simple and affordable way of achieving maximum flexibility, efficiency, and cost savings, without sacrificing productivity.  Taking all features into account makes this the lowest cost option.