Home Sectors ENERGY & UTILITIES How to Choose the Proper Lighting for Your Manufacturing Plant
How to Choose the Proper Lighting for Your Manufacturing Plant
Proper management of the lighting solutions in a plant or warehouse is one of the most significant contributors to higher energy consumption, which, in turn, can balloon operating costs for an organisation. Expenses are even higher for companies that operate all hours of the day and night, as lighting is most necessary during the evening and early morning hours.
It stands to reason then that choosing the appropriate lighting is vital to creating an efficient, profitable operation. LED lighting, for example, offers a considerable energy and efficiency boost over fluorescent lighting — LEDs are 85% more energy-efficient and last four times as long.
Except the selection process for LEDs is more complicated than ordering some bulbs or fixtures and having them installed. LED technology has a wide range of performance and efficiency options, particularly when it comes to the amount of light and colours they produce.
LEDs are categorised by two major factors: correlated colour temperature (CCT) and colour rendering index (CRI).
What are the CCT and CRI Classifications?
The definition of each classification is relatively simple, and once you understand what they mean, you can quickly tell the difference between them when choosing LED lighting solutions.
What Is CCT?
CCT or correlated colour temperature indicates the overall warmth — alternatively coolness — of a light. Warm colours, generally labelled by a lower number, are closer to the same shade of lighting that incandescent bulbs give off — in the form of a yellow glow. A CCT rating in the range of 2700K to about 3000K is considered warm, with a yellow-tinted glow. Higher ranges, from about 4700K to 5000K, are brighter and closer to a natural daylight colour, or white.
The range of CCT used for lighting is often dependent on the application. Warmer colours — between 2700K and 3000K — are most commonly used for residential buildings because the light tends to be more comforting. Retail and commercial applications — manufacturing plants included — tend to use a higher range of CCT.
What Is CRI?
CRI or colour rendering index denotes the illumination quality of a light source, more specifically, how it affects the appearance of colours for the surrounding environment. It is measured using a scale from 0 to 100, with 100 being the best quality available.
Most bulbs carry a CRI grade of 70 to 80. For high-quality CRI bulbs, 90 is one of the most common grades available.
To break it down in layman's terms, however, the lower the quality, the more washed out or inaccurate colours will appear. So, a painting displayed under a lower-quality light won't appear as vibrant, and the colours may even look completely wrong. That is precisely why many galleries have lights perched above a painting or piece of art!
One thing to note is that CRI does not give any indication whatsoever about a light source's colour. A red bulb or lighting source, for example, can have either a high or low CRI rating depending on its quality. The CRI grade is only an indication of lighting accuracy and not colour tones.
CCT and CRI are used to measure and indicate two different aspects of light and colour, particularly for LED sources. It begs the question, what does this have to do with lighting in commercial and manufacturing applications?
The determining factor should be the atmosphere where the lighting is installed and what type of setting the organisation is trying to instill. To create a more energetic and clean appearance, white tones and brighter lights should be used. For a more welcoming environment at the expense of colour accuracy, warmer tones would be better.
Depending on the visibility and experience requirements for the operation in question, lighting can absolutely affect conditions from worker productivity and satisfaction to overall performance. A light source with a low CRI grade can make it more difficult to see what's happening in dark spaces, for example, potentially increasing errors or mistakes.
How to Select the Appropriate Lighting
Perhaps more important is understanding how to select the appropriate lighting sources for use in a manufacturing facility. What features should a property or building manager look for? What should be avoided?
1. Stick to a high CRI grade, with 80 at the absolute lowest and 90 being ideal.
2. Reference lamp-life or usage estimates, the higher, the better — usually denoted by total hours of usage. The most common life-cycle tends to be about 50,000 hours, so that or anything higher is suitable.
3. Stay above 4500K for CCT rating, which will provide a crisp and bright light source that provides exceptional visibility.
4. Identify the four layers of lighting — general, accent, task and decor — and use them collectively throughout a facility. For instance, you may not need a general or more substantial lighting source if you can get plenty of illumination from accent lighting. That also depends on the task or purpose of the lights too.
5. While brightness and additional ratings — CCT and CRI — should remain a priority, the actual colour of the light source is something else to consider. White lights provide excellent visibility, but they may also affect the workers spending time underneath. It's good to use a combination of colours and brightness ratings within a facility to provide a more natural, relaxing environment. If there's a room full of automation hardware and human labourers will not be spending much time inside, then you can choose a less welcoming light source. The example shows how you can approach lighting in different ways, even within the walls of the same facility.
Now, to Choose
By determining the appropriate classification ratings and following the tips discussed here, choosing the right LED light sources for a commercial facility or manufacturing plant should be relatively straightforward. Most importantly, cost and energy-efficiency benefits will be realised, especially for the organisations that are upgrading conventional incandescent lighting options to newer technologies.
Megan R. Nichols is a technical writer and blogger who covers manufacturing and industrial automation topics. She regularly contributes to sites like IndustryWeek, MHL Network, and ReadWrite. Megan also publishes easy to understand manufacturing articles on her blog, Schooled By Science, to encourage others to learn about these industries. Keep up with Megan by following her on Twitter.
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