Why Consistent Light is Important for Industrial Lighting
By Leah • Jan 07, 2019
In various industries, the careful balance of all working elements is understandably focused on production, processing or whatever commercial use for which the space is intended. This also includes safety, productivity and efficiency. Such a balance will require its own system of checks and protections to be maintained.
Once of the most important ways to ensure this balance is adequate lighting and one of the most forgotten about aspects of lighting is consistency. Here OEO tells you why consistency is so important and why LED lighting won't let you down.
Consistent Light Ensures Consistent Product
If you are creating something in an industrial space, there is a lot of repetition. Whether you work in a steel plant or on an automobile production line, the processes used to create a product have been honed and refined over many years.
This doesn't mean that production necessarily gets easier over time. It is true that workers can become more proficient, but it is equally true that repetitive processes can have their own strain. Version 1,000,000 of a product needs to be created to the same parameters as version 1. If your lighting system is inconsistent, it can affect output in subtle and not so subtle ways.
Consistent Light Ensures Productivity
When working in an industrial environment, the state of the worker is paramount. If a worker is tired or physically overwhelmed, then the product and rate of productivity will suffer.
Light affects the human body in very important ways. If we don't have the right light at the right time, it can cause us to disturb our circadian rhythm. The outcome of this is to be tired, slow our pace and generally be less productive. Maintaining consistent light won't guarantee won't replace necessary sleep, but it will help provide an environment to keep us alert and productive.
Lighting is also vital in ensuring workers are able to perform very minute and specific tasks. If light reduces or changes over a given period of time, it can result in costly mistakes.
Consistent Light Ensures Safety
Consistent light doesn't necessarily mean the same light all the time. Light fixtures like those used with LED lighting can be manipulated and programmed to provide different light for different times of the day and different specific purposes.
This helps keep workers healthy which allows them to avoid mistakes and reduce the potential for accidents.
Consistent Light Keeps Bills Down
Lumen depreciation is the process by which any given lighting system slowly diminishes. A lumen are the unit of measurement of a light source. Over time, many lighting fixtures such as metal halide bulbs or high pressure sodium lamps lose light output. They do this because the finite materials kept within their casings become spent.
LED lighting keeps light consistent because it doesn't use electrical energy in the same way. High intensity discharge bulbs such as metal halides and high pressure sodium lamps require a lot of electrical energy to create such intensity. The metal compounds and inert gases are combusted over the life of the bulb, depreciating in lumens through general use. LED lighting uses a much more efficient technology which doesn't require using so much energy. This means monthly bills are reduced, but it also means longer lasting and more consistent lighting solutions. The result saves money and is generally better for business than its rival lighting technologies.