Lighting

Lighting Questions

  1. What studies are available that show the effect of daylight on retail sales, productivity and health? Is there credible data that natural light increases store sales? If so how much in $s or % store sales increase?
  2. I want to do an analysis on using motion sensors for stairwell lighting. What regulations govern how well stairwells must be lit for safety purposes?
  3. Does it make sense to replace Halogens with LEDs in indoor applications?

Lighting Answers

1. Q: What studies are available that show the effect of daylight on retail sales, productivity and health?

A: The California Energy Commission, through their Public Interest Energy Research (PIER) has a number of studies analyzing the effect daylight has on productivity, health and retail sales. There have been some studies on Daylight. One study done by the California Energy Commission in 2003 predicted a 1% to 6% retail sales increase from the use day lighting. Daylight Resources Include:

2. Q: What regulations govern how well stairwells must be lit for safety purposes?

A: The best way to confirm regulations for your site is to check with your county fire marshall. If you are considering installing motion sensors in your stairwells, it is best to install test fixtures to determine the best placement. Manufacturers can often use your facility’s CAD drawings to develop optimal layouts.

A hybrid approach to motion sensors for stairwell lighting may be to retain half the lamps/fixtures that were categorized as 'life safety' on an 'always-on' mode, and then apply sensors to the other half of the fixtures/lamp to control when they come on.

A few sources for stairwell lighting motion sensors are:

3. Q: Does it make sense to replace Halogens with LEDs in indoor applications?

A: According to Steve Mesh from Pacific Energy Center at PG&E:
If you want to replace the halogen (one that looks like an incandescent PAR) lamp with an LED replacement lamp, you may be wary of that. One reason is because a recent and very exhaustive study on LED MR16 lamps show that generally they do not match the performance claims of the vendors. Larger sized lamps like PAR30 and PAR38, especially ones at higher wattages (but even ones at lower wattages) generally can't incorporate enough heat sinking to allow you to get the same light output as the original incandescent/halogen lamps provide.

However if the idea is to replace an existing halogen downlight with an entirely new LED downlight (and not just the lamp), then there are a handful of products that many people in the lighting industry believe are reasonably acceptable.

There are a LOT of claims about LED fixture/lamp performance that don't seem to be borne out by testing. It's a huge concern for us in the industry and at PG&E. We would HATE to foster this idea that LEDs are here to save the world, just to see that backfire because of unattainable performance claims.

Resources

Wikipedia's Lighting site

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