5 Tips For Choosing The Best Warehouse Lighting
When running a warehouse, you need to ensure two things when it comes to warehouse lighting: safety and productivity.
These should be your main goal when choosing lights for your warehouse.
The top accidents in warehouses according to the U.S. Department of Labor are slips and falls. And these result in 95 million lost work days each year.
Sufficient lighting is one of the best ways to reduce the risk of accidents. And we’ve got the tips you need to keep your workers safe through proper lighting.
1. Limit Glare In Warehouse Lighting
LED lighting is one of the most popular forms of lighting. But it comes with one major downside. The spotlight effect.
Industrial LED lights are like laser beams. They shine in a very particular direction.
If a worker accidentally looks directly into a LED light bright enough to illuminate a warehouse, they will be temporarily blinded. This could cause them to trip or, if they’re running a forklift, crash into something or someone.
You should work to minimize the glare on your lights, especially LEDs through reflectors. You can also choose lights designed to reduce glare and increase safety in the workplace.
2. Make Sure The Lighting Fits The Warehouse
Most warehouses include high ceilings. Warehouse lighting will reach the floor, but is it enough light?
Make sure that the light fitting does its job of illuminating the floor effectively. If you buy specific bulbs for cost savings, your savings will be spent on accidents and dropped productivity if the bulb doesn’t do its job.
3. Color Is Important
You may not realize that color is important in warehouse lighting. But light color affects things like contrast and clarity. And when workers have to read labels or identify objects, they need the most natural light to do so.
While color might not be as important here as in say food prep, it’s till important for safety. And the Color Rendering Index (CRI) of lighting is the important metric to pay attention to.
CRI is the measure of a light’s ability to show natural and realistic colors.
The higher the index number the more realistic the lighting.
The minimum CRI you should look for is 85. Anything below this will make it more dangerous in your warehouse and cause fatigue.
4. Compare Energy Saving Options
The price of some energy savings options might be more expensive but they could save you money in the end.
You could even add control options to your lighting to make sure lights get turned off and minimize wasting light while natural light might do the job.
5. Examine Your Supplier
You want to make sure your supplier is selling you a great product. Some sellers will try and pass off subpar products on you. Some might take advantage of the confusion surrounding new technologies like LEDs.
Instead of going with those suppliers for warehouse lighting, choose a supplier who will have your interests in mind.
If you’re interested in the best lighting for your warehouse, contact us and we’ll set you up.