The Importance of Photometrics

When it comes to the lighting you will use in your facility, the photometrics will be a pivotal asset. With these, you will know how the lighting in your facility is seen by the human eye. In other words, it means you will be able to use it to discern which lighting system to go with and the most efficient way to use it.

What is Photometry?

Photometry is the science of measuring light and how the human eye sees it. In basic terms, it is the measurement of how much we can see in a given space. Photometrics show you how intense the lighting is and how much it will allow you to see.

Photometrics are used primarily in relation to lighting technology, in things like photography, audiovisual, and architecture. They can be used to make the lighting of a facility or building much more efficient, saving money on electrical costs.

What will Photometrics Show?

They are engineered to show if a proposed plan will actually meet the lighting specifications of a project or design. They can also be used for an already existing facility to find better and more efficient ways of lighting the facility. You can see why photometrics can be so important to a business owner.

Saving on everyday costs like electric can really make a difference in the overhead costs for a business. Photometrics can help you make those changes you need to cut costs. Without using photometrics, you could be missing out on huge savings in your big picture.

To Wrap Up

As you can see, photometrics are a vital tool when it comes to designing a facility or trying to find some costs to cut. You can even use photometrics when you’re shopping for a new location. Photometrics are a vital tool for every business owner and shouldn’t be overlooked. Contact us today to learn more!

Time to Be “Smart” About Lighting Solutions

In the past several decades, the lighting industry has come a long way, going from incandescent and fluorescent lights to HIDs and LEDs. The 21st century has brought us a new approach to lighting – smart operation.

The power of smart lighting solutions is hard to underestimate. They allow you to save time, money, and effort while taking care of the environment.

IoT and Lighting

IoT (Internet of Things) is a network of devices that collect data from integrated sensors. Then special software processes the data to offer automated solutions to the users.

What does all that have to do with lighting?

1. Smart Light Switches

These switches work as regular switches do, but you can also control them remotely. Meaning, you can turn lights off and on whenever you are not in the building by using an app on your smartphone. You can also set up a schedule according to which the lights will go on throughout the day.

Coupled with motion sensors, these light switches can turn on and off when someone enters or leaves a facility.

2. Smart Bulbs

A smart dimmable bulb can dim without you having to install a dimmer switch. You can control the dimming remotely through an app.

Some of these bulbs can also change color and even play music. We’ll tell you why this seemingly useless feature may be important for a commercial facility later in the article.

Why Should You Consider Smart Lighting Solutions?

Changing a light bulb seems easier and cheaper than investing in an IoT-enabled lighting source. However, with time, you can see an impressive ROI.

  • Heightened Security – the ability to manipulate lights remotely can help you ward unwanted guests off your property. This is when the music-playing feature can come in handy.
  • Lower energy bills – remote operation and scheduling options allow you to reduce energy bills tremendously. An LED energy-star certified smart bulb consumes up to 90% less energy than a regular light bulb.
  • Saved money – LED smart lights can work up to 50,000 hours while an average light bulb can’t last longer than 2,000 hours.
  • Impressive convenience – the ability to control when and how your lights work remotely is highly convenient. For example, you can reduce the chances of workplace accidents by regulating the bulb’s brightness at the right time.

Lighting systems are a perfect tool for reaping key benefits of the IoT progress. They are already integrated all over any facility, be it a warehouse or a department store. When fitted with the right equipment, they can collect the necessary information and offer numerous benefits.

Stay on Top of the Latest Technologies with Smart Lighting Solutions

Millions of property owners have made the first steps to making their buildings smart by installing smart lighting solutions. In a few years, the trend is likely to turn into a standard.

Contact us today for more information about smart lighting solutions.

Is Your Cold Storage Still Safely Lit?

From cut flowers to pork chops, there are dozens of industrial reasons why your business needs cold storage. These marvels of modern technology transformed the agricultural, brewing, and food service industries over a century ago and become more advanced with each decade. Your cold storage room may have a magnetic locking door, regulated ventilation, and digital temperature controls but it should definitely have bright, clearly illuminating electric lights.

The Hurry to Warm Up

The effectiveness and safety of your cold storage unit(s) should be checked at least once a year, and cleaned every week that it is frequently used. Unfortunately, cold storage safety is easy to skimp on without thinking about it. Even if you do regular cleaning and safety checks, it’s cold in there! Especially for freezer units, your body is wary about letting you linger in the cold. Too long and it starts sending urgent messages to leave and warm back up. This can cause people to hurry away from cold storage tasks without even realizing they have done so! This year, resolve to put on a coat and take a couple of rounds cleaning and securing your cold storage.

Staying Safe on Icy Surfaces

When checking on your cold storage, there are a few regular safety considerations. Due to the nature of cold storage, floors can become both dirty and icy. To deal with this, mop from wall to wall regularly and lay down thick, secure rubber mats on the floor between the shelves and anywhere you expect to step. Icy build-up on the walls commonly known as ‘freezer burn’ can be scraped away or melted with warm water, just remember to move shelves and goods away from the wall before bringing down the ice.

Staying Safe with Strong Lights

Changing light bulbs in your cold storage can be a freezing pain, but it is vital to continued safe use of your unit. Insufficient lighting increases the body’s fear response to lingering in cold temperatures. This combined with low visibility can drastically increase chances of both falling and dropping shelf items. Naturally you’ll want to change out your lights as little as possible so your ideal bulb is bright, long lasting, and produces very little heat.

Poor Warehouse & Distribution Center Lighting: An Overlooked Cause of Forklift Accidents

Forklifts can weight up to 10,000 pounds and may carry loads of up to one half their weight. This means a 10,000 pound forklift may carry 5,000 pounds, which totals 15,000 pounds. In busy warehouse & distribution centers, rushed forklift operators travel up and down warehouse aisles at speeds of 8 mph. At such a speed, a 15,000 pound forklift-load combination cannot stop on a dime. It shouldn’t come as a surprise then, that forklift accidents are all too common and cause many fatalities.

Some of the contributing factors to forklift accidents are:

  • Forklift operator distraction.
  • Floor worker distraction.
  • Insufficient operator training.
  • Loads obstructing the operator’s visibility.
  • Limited driver visibility when operating a forklift in reverse.
  • Poor warehouse lighting.

When accidents occur, the fault is often placed with the forklift driver. The typical remedy is to either replace the driver, or require that he receive more training. Other contributing factors are given less attention, especially inadequate warehouse lighting.

Warehouses with lighting levels below 2 lumens per square foot are accidents waiting to happen. This minimum lighting requirement also applies to the dimmest areas. Here are four suggestions for solving this problem:

  • Use effective lighting technology. Of the different lighting technologies in use, LED lights put out the most illumination for the power consumed. They are also the most compact and rugged, and have the longest operating life.
  • Your warehouse should have highly reflective walls, ceiling and floor. Light colored walls, ceiling, and a clean polished floor serve to scatter and further distribute your overhead LED lighting.
  • Add additional lighting to the darkest areas of your warehouse if required. This step ensures that you meet the 2 lumens per square foot minimum.
  • Change your forklift lights to LEDs. The bright white light combined with the forklift’s movement serve to catch the attention of floor workers.

These warehouse & distribution center lighting changes will reduce accident rates, which should reduce your workers compensation premiums and keep your workers and forklift operators safe.

Three Benefits of Warehouse Lighting with LEDs

Warehouse operation can make or break a business. For many companies, it’s the bottleneck that slows down their customer fulfillment process. Therefore the warehouse manager should exploit every opportunity to improve warehouse productivity. One such opportunity is LED lighting. Here are three reasons to change your warehouse lighting to LEDs:

Emits a Fuller Spectrum of Light

LED lighting is similar to daylight except that it doesn’t have the harmful UV levels of sunlight. LED light is white and brighter per watt consumed than other commonly used lighting. This is particularly important in a warehouse environment because product picking errors are costly in terms of customer returns and lost business. A well illuminated warehouse is important for avoiding injuries where forklifts and workers on foot work side by side.

Increases Worker Productivity

LED lighting contains a blue light component that improves mental alertness in the same way as exposure to natural sunlight. This is an important consideration if you wish to boost the productivity of night shifts. The body’s circadian rhythm is cued by the presence or absence of the blue component of sunlight. Blue light signals the body that it’s daytime and triggers wakefulness, while its absence signals nighttime and triggers drowsiness. This effect of LEDs can potentially reduce night shift accidents.

Easily Used In “Smart Lighting”

LEDs are easily used with motion sensors and timers that can dim or turn them off in warehouse areas not being used. Unlike many other types of lighting, LEDs are readily dimmed, brightened, and turned on or off without their damage or reducing their operational life. They don’t require warm up periods, which means they turn on instantly. When combined with the low energy consumption of LEDs, smart lighting substantially lowers your warehouse lighting costs.

High Productivity and Safety Start with Your Warehouse & Distribution Center Lighting

Thanks to the rise of online stores (e-commerce), distribution centers that cater to this industry are busier than ever. They take orders from online store owners, and ship the products directly to the stores’ customers. This means that a high volume of goods are shipped every day in the form of small orders. Pulling this off efficiently is essential to staying competitive, and many of these warehouses try to cope by using sophisticated productivity technology.

However, if you manage such an operation, you shouldn’t overlook the basics, such as warehouse lighting. Your lighting affects productivity in a number of ways. Poor lighting causes more product picking errors from the inventory shelves. This means that the wrong products are shipped to customers, which result in costly product returns and lost customers.

Poor lighting also leads to eyestrain and worker fatigue. This is particularly the case when using dim and flickering fluorescent lights. Worker fatigue hurts you in two ways. First, tired workers are less productive, which means your operation’s efficiency suffers. Second, tired workers make more mistakes, which compounds the product picking error problem.

Poor lighting also increases accidents, especially in warehouses bustling with activity. Busy people sharing dimly lit aisles with busy forklifts are accidents waiting to happen. Inefficient lighting also puts out a lot of waste heat. This extra heat can make your warehouse unbearable during the summer months, which will require expensive air conditioning to keep your workers productive.

Many companies are solving their warehouse & distribution center lighting problems with LED lighting. Its bright and uniformly distributed output solves the visibility and eye fatigue problem. Unlike fluorescent lighting, it doesn’t flicker. LED lights are also energy efficient. Lighting converts electricity into heat and light. Efficient lighting turns more of that electricity into light, and less into heat. This reduced heat output means you can keep your workers cool with less air conditioning in the summer. This results in less energy consumption by your air conditioners and your lighting. Another benefit is reduced maintenance costs thanks to the longer life of LED lighting.

In conclusion, LED lighting increases the efficiency of your distribution center, and saves money on energy consumption and maintenance. Before spending a fortune on sophisticated productivity technology, try using better lighting first.

Is Your Warehouse & Distribution Center Lighting Solution Holding Back Your Productivity?

If you own or manage a warehouse, you will want your employees to do their job to the best of their abilities. In order for them to perform their job effectively, they will need to work in an environment that is safe. One of the things that your warehouse will need is effective warehouse & distribution center lighting.

Your warehouse likely has various amounts of activities going on every day. With the loads of work that your warehouse holds every day, it can be a tough task to find the right lighting solution that will meet every need of all your employees. Since there are a variety of tasks being performed every day, it makes it difficult to find the right lighting because different job tasks may require different levels of lighting.

Whether it is shipping, packaging, or receiving, you will need appropriate lighting in order to increase your productivity and decrease the number of safety issues you may come across. If your warehouse and distribution center is not illuminated properly, you are working in an environment that will be opening the door to errors and injuries.

Many facilities choose to use high intensity discharge lighting and some choose to use fluorescent lighting. However, there are more facilities choosing to go with a low-maintenance solution, and that solution is LED lighting. LEDs are created as a means to give facilities proper lighting conditions at an affordable cost.

Here are a few of the many benefits of using LED lighting in your warehouse and distribution center:

  • Low energy costs
  • Low maintenance
  • Better quality of lighting
  • Fewer accidents

Lighting is a huge component of any type of operation. When your facility has the right lighting, you will see vast improvements in your productivity and efficiency; you can also maximize your savings and decrease workplace injuries.