How to choose the right lighting for your manufacturing facility
Properly managing lighting solutions in a factory or warehouse is one of the most important factors leading to higher energy consumption, which in turn increases the organization's operating costs. The cost is even higher for companies that are open both day and night, when lighting is most needed in the evening and early morning.
Therefore, choosing the right lighting is critical to creating an efficient, profitable operation. For example, LED factory lighting offers considerable energy and efficiency gains compared to fluorescent lamps – LED factory lights are 85% more energy efficient and have a four times longer lifespan.
Except that the selection process for LED factory lights is more complicated than ordering a few bulbs or fixtures and installing them. LED factory light technology has a wide range of performance and efficiency options, especially in the amount and color of light they produce.
LED factory lights are classified by two main factors: Correlated Color Temperature (CCT) and Color Rendering Index (CRI).
What are CCT and CRI classifications?
The definitions of each category are relatively simple, and once you understand what they mean, you can quickly tell the difference between them when choosing an LED factory lighting solution.
What is CCT?
CCT, or correlated color temperature, represents the overall warmth (or coolness) of light. Warm colors, usually marked by lower numbers, are closer to the same shades of light emitted by incandescent light bulbs - in the form of a yellow glow. CCT ratings in the range of 2700K to about 3000K are considered warm with a yellowish glow. Higher ranges, from about 4700K to 5000K, are brighter and closer to natural daylight colors or whites.
The range of CCTs used by factory lamps for lighting generally depends on the application. Warmer colors (between 2700K and 3000K) are often used in residential buildings because the light tends to be more comfortable. Retail and commercial applications - including manufacturing plants - tend to use a higher range of CCTs.
What is Color Rendering Index?
The CRI, or Color Rendering Index, expresses the lighting quality of a light source, and more specifically, how it affects the color appearance of the surrounding environment. It is measured using a scale from 0 to 100, where 100 is the best quality available.
Most bulbs have a CRI rating of 70 to 80. 90 is one of the most common grades for high quality CRI bulbs.
However, in layman's terms, the lower the quality, the more faded or inaccurate colors will appear. As a result, paintings displayed in lower quality lighting will not appear as vibrant, and the colors may even look completely wrong. This is why many galleries install lights above paintings or artworks!
One thing to note is that the CRI does not give any indication of the color of the light source. For example, a red light bulb or light source may have a high or low CRI rating, depending on its quality. CRI ratings only indicate lighting accuracy, not hue.
what's the difference?
CCT and CRI are used to measure and indicate two different aspects of light and color, especially for LED factory light sources. Which begs the question, how does this relate to lighting in commercial and manufacturing applications?
The deciding factor should be the atmosphere in which the lighting is installed and the type of setup the organization is trying to instill. To create a more vibrant and clean look, white tones should be used along with brighter lighting. For more desirable environments at the expense of color accuracy, warm tones will be better.
Depending on the visibility and experience requirements of the operation in question, lighting absolutely impacts conditions ranging from worker productivity and satisfaction to overall performance. A light source with a low CRI rating may make it harder for you to see what is going on in a dark space, for example, may increase errors or errors.
How to choose the right lighting
Perhaps more important is understanding how to choose the right light source for a manufacturing facility. What features should a property or building manager be looking for? What should be avoided?
1. Adhere to a high CRI level, 80 is absolutely the lowest, and 90 is ideal.
2. Refer to lamp life or usage estimates, the higher the better - usually expressed in total hours of use. Z common lifetimes tend to be around 50,000 hours, so or any higher time is suitable.
3. The CCT rating is maintained above 4500K, which will provide a clear and bright light source for excellent visibility.
4. Identify four layers of lighting—general, accent, task, and decorative—and use them collectively throughout the facility. For example, if you can get plenty of light from accent lighting, you probably don't need a general-purpose or more robust light source. It also depends on the task or purpose of the light.
5. While brightness and additional ratings (CCT and CRI) should still be prioritized, the actual color of the light source is an additional consideration. White lights provide excellent visibility, but they can also affect the time workers spend below. It is best to use a combination of color and brightness levels within a facility to provide a more natural and relaxing environment. If the room is full of automation hardware and humans don't spend too much time in it, you can opt for less popular light sources. This example shows how lighting can be handled differently, even within the walls of the same facility.
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