High efficiency warehouse lighting

Firstly this will be awarded to an approved contractor. however i would like to research what possibilities are available first to get this project rolling.

A client is moving to new premises. We are looking to install a large freezer (3500sqft) and 1000 sq ft coldroom. Standing inside the empty warehouse 10k sq ft we looked up and saw no lights!

So the discussion is we have to spec the most efficient lighting for both the freezer, coldroom and warehouse.This is to be a 24hr operation and so the warehouse lights will be on for roughly 8 months total of the year. (ie winter, spring Autumn 24hr high summer 8 hours) but the coldrooms ate full 24/7

Any heads up of what we should specify would be most welcome..


Cheers

Richard

Some sort of discharge lighting is by far the most efficient lighting for power used vs light output.

Metal hailide would probably be the favorite due to it producing white light (as opposed to orange light from SON / SOX lamps)

Depending on the height of the warehouse, you want to be looking at either highbay or lowbay fittings.

The coldroom might be different. This is not a installation I am familiar with, but you might need to look at vaporproof fittings, especially if the room requires regular steam cleaning.

It all depends on how othen areas of the building are used..

Some areas might benefit from discharge lighting, while others might be better off with flourescents switched via occupancy sensors.... or maybe even a bit of both.

What you need to do is get in contact with a local wholesaler who can arrange for a lighting designer to visit the premises. You will also need a plan of the building and what is going to be there.

Or Mercury Vapour?

Freezer and coldroom as RF says. Without a good seal you'll end up with large plastic boxes of water attached to the ceiling. You'll also need permanently lit switches inside the two rooms even though normal lighting is controlled from outside.

It's an empty shell at the moment and the client is unsure of his actual needs. He is shutting two depots and combining but will need to work out if that amounts to x+y =new premises cold storage. or if x+y-z (where z = +/- gained by consolidation ) = new premises cold storage.

This is a struggle for them at the moment as it is not something they have ever contemplated in thir 70 year history.

That aside the rest is dry goods store, picking and packing and fork lift truck operation etc

Space height is 10m

I thank you thus far for the help and as I say our prefered sparks will probably have input on this too..

Cheers

Richard

We fit standard sodium or metal halide low bays in freezers - moisture is not an issue unless you allow warm air to get into the fittings from above through cable entries etc.

If you use flourescents you need to use high frequency with ideally lumilux tubes. These are far better at starting at low temps.

Beware of metal halides restrike time. Although it is quicker in a cold environment, you must also be aware of the complete darkness inside large coldstores during a loss in power, even during the day. EM lighting will not be in operation during the restrike time!

Get a designer to spec the lighting layout.

Design the wiring so that when a single circuit is turned off you only loose a single light in each aisle (between racking). Better during a fault and for maintenance. Loosing an entire aisle is not good!

Other things you need to consider are the freezers pressure relief valves (they have heaters in them, and a volt free contact to indicate a fault). Essential to prevent a freezer collapse, or a blown door!

Heater matts - not uncommon to see a requirement for 60amps TP. The entire freezer floor will have a heater matt to keep the the concrete from freezing, and the ground below.......cold falls!

If the chiller shares an insulated composite panel wall with the freezer you will also have a partition heater under the wall to prevent ice build up at the base of the wall in the chiller.

Doors will have heater tapes around the frame, and possibly heater tapes in the concrete threshold and the base of the door (curly cord from door to wall). Obviously to prevent doors freezing shut.

Doors may be electric/numatic - in both cases control wiring is required.

EM lights - We fit spot packs with the spot pack mounted on the room in the ambient temp. Cable from the packs to the spots with FP or PYRO.

Get instrinsicly(spelling) safe fire alarm sounders - They will usually be spec'ed to lower temps.

tim west said:

Or Mercury Vapour?

Click to expand...

The metal halide is over taking the good old blue-tinge high pressure mercury.

Low pressure mercury (the good old flourescent) is still going strong.

Hi bay metal halides will be good for a 10m ceiling. Have you been given a spec on the lumens per metre (lux) in the unit? This will give you the number of lights and the wattage of the lamps. You will have to design the lighting to be between the minimum lux required for health and safety in the workplace and the maximum lighting watts allowed for CO2 emissions.

If you google lux and lumens, you'll find examples of different calculations.

No spec no nothing, complete clean sheet with regard to what goes in the building.

Coldroom maunfacturer will provide everything Lectrician has mentioned.
Our favourite sparks (reminds me I must email him!) will be doing all and everything with regard to power lighting alarms etc etc.

I will be responsible for the entire project so the client can get on with the business of selling frozen foods.

Once up and running we have to then visit both redundant sites and return them to empty shells (another 2x big task...)

Cheers

Richard

Given the height of your building and the floor area, you probably will need something like 12x 400W hi bay lights. As you don't have any restrictions on emissions, then this would be ok. Do you have any natural light in the room and are you using it at night?

Have a look at the CIBSE website - also see this document

I have read about a device which connects inline with (ballast type) fluorescent or other discharge lighting which allows the full voltage to be available to the device to get it warm and then drops the voltage down saving energy. I'll see if I can find a link if anyone is interested?

RF Lighting said:

Metal hailide would probably be the favorite due to it producing white light (as opposed to orange light from SON / SOX lamps).

Click to expand...

I thought high-pressure sodium lights weren't too bad these days for colour rendition?

This is a warehouse/store-room remember, not a graphic design studio...

And what about high-power LED units?

Lectrician said:

Beware of metal halides restrike time. Although it is quicker in a cold environment, you must also be aware of the complete darkness inside large coldstores during a loss in power, even during the day. EM lighting will not be in operation during the restrike time!

Click to expand...

These may solve the cold room emergency lighting if centrally switched low voltage back up is used for lighting during power failure.

http://www.labcraft.co.uk/products/product/FRIGO_SERIES_(HLF).html

Instant light from a halogen lamp which also warms the unit to enable a reliable strike of the flourescent unit.