Commercial lighting for businesses and companies requires more power and quality than the lighting in our homes. This is something that may be obvious, but in many cases, shops and offices use insufficient or incorrect lighting.
In this article, we are going to explain the different types of commercial lighting. Talking about the types of lamps most used in business lighting, distinguishing according to which area we want to illuminate.
From the facade of your business, the shop window, or the work tables of your office. Commenting also, the main characteristics to know what type of light is necessary for each commercial premises.
Commercial lighting for business
Types of lamps
For commercial lighting of businesses and offices, three types of lamps are usually used for good lighting:
Rail spotlights and adjustable spotlights
Recessed and Downlights
LED panels
Professional rail spotlights give you the freedom to choose between various types of focused light, to highlight different places in your business. Being lamps that can be moved, you can change the light source at any time you need it.
The recessed ones are usually placed in corridors and specific areas or rooms with standard height ceilings. While downlights are very effective at lighting large spaces that may have higher ceilings. LED panels are a type of lamp that is larger and more used for offices and large work spaces.
- Tracklights for shops
The rail spotlights require rails to be installed over the main areas of your establishment, making it very easy to change the position of the spotlights by moving them along the rail, as well as increase or decrease the light power according to your needs. There are also models of recessed or surface-mounted spotlights that can be oriented, which do not require the installation of a rail.
Spotlights are the type of lighting that provides focused light , as its name suggests. They provide light on very specific areas that we want to highlight. Being able to even create very focused beams of light that only illuminate an area of a few centimeters.
The use of adjustable spotlights is highly recommended for businesses that continuously change the location of the products to be sold . In addition, it is necessary to place adjustable spotlights to have greater lighting in specific areas to be highlighted.
For example, in clothing stores where the gender on display changes each season, it is highly recommended to have the freedom to change the light source to highlight the products we want . Likewise, if you have specific areas in your store that you want to be the first thing your customer sees or where they focus their gaze, lane spotlights are the perfect solution.
- Recessed and Downlights for shops
Recessed spotlights for shops and Downlights allow for very adequate ambient lighting throughout the space to be illuminated. They are discreet and provide enough light for good illumination in most small or medium-sized shops. The normal thing is to place several recessed one light, with a separation of approximately one meter, although it varies depending on the lighting needs that are different in each room.
Sets of recessed lights with more than one light can also be used if it is necessary to increase the light and highlight some areas over others. Finally, the recessed lights can be placed in corridors or very specific areas such as shop windows or on the shelves of your products to provide extra lighting. While the larger Downlights provide sufficient ambient light for most spaces to be lit.
- LED panels for businesses and offices
LED panels are the most used type of commercial lighting to illuminate offices, offices, large stores or spaces with high ceilings such as a commercial premises located in an industrial warehouse. LED panels are similar to Downlights although they usually have square shapes and are larger in size.
Placing LED panels is usually the best solution for businesses that need a lot of light, since LED panels are among the most powerful commercial lamps . However, within commercial lighting there are larger areas to illuminate, such as industrial buildings, which usually need an even greater light power than that offered by LED panels. If you need lighting for an industrial warehouse or you have a large premises, you can consult our lamps for industrial lighting .
What lighting do I need for each area of my business?
Commercial premises, whether they are stores that sell a product or establishments that offer a service, have common areas that need specific types of lamps.
Each area of your business needs to be well signed so that customers can see what you want to highlight at a glance. One of the ways to differentiate areas is through ambient lighting or focused lighting .
We are going to divide the lamps into the areas that any type of business usually has: Showcase, exhibition area, waiting areas, businesses in which a service is provided, specific areas such as changing rooms, the cashier area and work tables.
shop window lamps
The showcase is one of the most important areas of any business, since through it, you give an image of your business to your potential customers. We can speak of two parts, the interior of the showcase and the exterior of the showcase or façade .
The lighting of the shop windows from the interior of your premises is something very important. It is highly recommended to have specific lighting for the shop window, not just use the light from inside the business or the light that comes from the street. Shop windows usually need rail spotlights to be able to change the orientation of the light depending on the genre that appears in the shop window. Although you can also place recessed lights to provide ambient light if you do not usually change the window frequently. On the other hand, there are businesses that do not have a showcase, but they are businesses that have a sign or logo on the facade of the building .
These exterior showcase spaces or facadeThey need to have good lighting to make it easier for customers to find. Being able to use outdoor lamps for shop windows such as professional outdoor projectors or outdoor wall lights.
Lighting for Exhibitors and Exhibition Furniture
The exhibition area of your premises is usually the central area of your establishment, in which you expose your product or in which you provide a service. In stores more focused on the sale of products, you have to illuminate each display or exhibition furniture with a large amount of light. For this exhibition area, it is better to combine at least two types of lights, to have good ambient lighting using recessed or downlights and placing adjustable spotlights on the exhibition furniture.
Downlights and LED panels are the best solution for the central exhibition room. It allows you to have a large well-lit area with very discreet lamps, making the customer in many cases not even notice this lighting and see the products, which is what we want them to focus on.
On the other hand, spotlights or track lights can be a great option to complement the lighting in the showroom . These spotlights allow directing the light source towards each exhibitor that is on the floor or wall. Allowing in turn, to change the focus of the light if in the future you change the composition of your products in the store.
Waiting room lamps
The waiting areas of any business are static, so placing fixed lighting such as Downlights and LED recessed lights is more than enough.
The lighting does not have to be very intense, just enough ambient lighting is needed. To achieve this, it is advisable to place several spotlights with little separation of medium power. Specifically, it is highly recommended to place the light source on the sofas, chairs or tables in the waiting room . In this way, these elements become more visible to the customer and invites him to approach them.
Lighting businesses that offer a service
In addition to stores or shops with exposed gender, we do not forget the businesses that offer services . For example, in a hairdressing salon, dental clinic, travel agency, the display of products or services is not as important as the area in which you provide the service. It can also be an area where customers have to wait to be served, both areas are usually lit in a similar way.
The important thing is to have good ambient lighting that is achieved with Downlights or LED panels . Placing spotlights that can be oriented is not so interesting since the important thing is that the client, when entering your business, feels comfortable seeing sufficient ambient lighting.
Corridor or fitting room lamps
The changing rooms or transit areas of your business are fixed areas that you are not going to modify, so you choose to use fixed lighting from the ceiling . Placing Downlights or fixed recessed lights are a more than enough solution.
In some fitting rooms you can choose to place an extra point of light on the mirror wall. It can be a wall light or an LED strip.
Commercial lighting for the checkout area or halls
The cashier area or the hall of a business must be very well lit. It is important that customers find the box easily and have good lighting to make payments quickly and conveniently. In turn, the worker who is in a box needs extra lighting just as if he were working in an office. To be able to stay focused and be able to do your job properly.
It is advisable to install extra spotlights on the checkout area , which may be fixed spotlights since the location of the cashier in the store is not usually changed. These spotlights are absolutely essential in stores where items are offered at the checkout for a “last minute purchase” or “purchases of complementary products”, specific offers, merchandising and a long etcetera.
Work table lamps
Work tables require great lighting that is very different from the commercial lighting of a local. Keep in mind that there are even models of LED panels or LED ceiling lamps made especially for these spaces.
Why is a powerful light needed for work tables? Insufficient or poor quality lighting on a work table can cause eyestrain, can reduce concentration, increase stress, etc. Mainly you have to check that the lighting is sufficient, of quality and it is recommended to use a correct UGR value .
The UGR is a glare index , with a low value being less glare and a high value being high glare. For offices, meeting rooms, conference rooms, the use of panels with UGR ≤ 19 is recommended. In the case of precision work such as technical drawing, crafts or other jobs that require high visual acuity.
Characteristics of business lighting
When entering a commercial premises, you will realize that lighting in a clothing store is not the same as lighting in a delicatessen. Why does each store have a different type of light? . The main thing is to know that each type of lighting favors some products more than others . This is something easy to understand, an attractive product is better to see it with a lot of light to appreciate its details, while others do not require so much light.
We are going to focus on three aspects to talk about the types of commercial lighting for premises or businesses of all kinds :
Light intensity.
Light colour.
Lighting quality.
It is important to know that the intensity and color of light affect the mood of customers . On the other hand, the quality of the lighting favors the appearance of the products, which will be seen with more vivid colors.
It is important to take care of this relationship between the power, quality and color of light. The lighting of your premises is a distinctive point, of similar importance to the decoration or the correct placement of exhibitors within the premises. Correct lighting can increase your chances of making a new sale , specifically a customer may prefer to buy a product in your store that is very similar to that of another competitor, just because he better appreciated the colors and details of your product thanks to the correct lighting. illumination.
- Light intensity
Calculating the amount of light needed in a commercial premises, store or office is not easy. Multiple factors must be taken into account, one of the most distinctive being the height of the ceiling.
If you have a room with a ceiling height similar to that of a conventional house , about 2.50-2.75 meters, you can place lighting similar to the one you would place in your living room as the main light. Whereas, if your store has a higher ceiling height , you will need to place more light points with a little more power . Although it can also be solved by installing pendant lamps or suspended rail spotlights, which will come closer to the ground, reducing the height of the light point.
The exact amount of light for a business is a very subjective matter . Even more complex than lighting a home, given the large number of types of business. So we can tell you that approximately, use light values from sufficient to high lighting.
As an example, the most widely used in shops and offices of all kinds is the use of Recessed or LED Downlights between 20W – 30W, (1300lm – 2400lm) . Depending on the amount of lighting you want, you will have to place more or less lamps on the ceiling. But the normal thing is that each point of light has this power, at least for the wide areas of your business. In specific points you can use less powerful lighting, around 10W – 15W LED.
If your business has a high ceiling , you will need to use slightly more powerful lighting or combine several types of lighting . With this you will achieve sufficient ambient light and you will be able to illuminate the highlights of your business with a larger light source.
- Types of light color for shops
The different colors that the light of the lamps usually has, are usually distinguished between 3 types of light. Warm light (1800ºK – 3500ºK), Neutral light (3600ºK-4500ºK), Cold light (>4500ºK).
Each type of light has its advantages and counterparts, we are going to summarize the characteristics of each type of light so that you can choose which one best suits your business.
Warm Light:
Lighting very suitable for shops in which a relaxed and calm atmosphere is sought. It is usually used in restaurants, bars, bakeries, cafes or shops of all kinds. It has a lesser sensation of light than the other types of light, so sometimes it is necessary to place more or higher power lamps than the other types of light.
Neutral Light:
Lighting most used in all types of premises. It is a light similar to natural sunlight, only a little less intense when it comes to perceiving it visually. It is used in all types of retail stores, stores of all kinds and in businesses that offer a service. They illuminate the products with a very natural and pleasant light.
Cold Light:
Type of light that is perceived as more intense than the previous two. Designed for businesses where a high intensity light is needed. It is usually placed in offices, banks, hospitals, health clinics or points of sale where seeing the real color of the product is important.
Each type of light has its advantages, although we do not recommend mixing types of light within the same establishment . Warm ambient light can be placed and for spotlights or rail spotlights in specific areas, use a neutral light. But it is not something very used, since the contrast can be too noticeable.
On the contrary, if we have several well-distinguishable areas within a store, different types of light can be used . The main room of a restaurant can have warm light, while the entrance or bathrooms can have a neutral or cool light.
- Quality of business lighting
One of the ways to distinguish the quality of light from a lamp is through the CRI value (Colour Rendering Index). This value allows us to objectively measure whether a lamp offers a better or worse light to illuminate the colors of our products .
The CRI value in lighting is usually measured from a value of 50 to 100. The highest value is the one given by a perfect light source such as the Sun. The lamps that give a light that allows the colors of objects to be seen clearly and realism, they have a CRI value close to 90.
In each model of our lighting lamps you will be able to see this value, it being recommended that in stores that offer a product, luminaires with a CRI ≥ 90 are placed. Models that have a lower CRI can be installed, of course, but the products will have a somewhat less color sharpness.
We hope that we have clarified some doubts about commercial lighting. Of course, this is just a short summary with tips to place lamps in your business properly. If you have any questions or want to find a lamp for your premises.