On Feb 7, 10:16*am, Adrian Brentnall
wrote:
On 07/02/2012 09:59, NT wrote:
On Feb 7, 9:00 am, Adrian *wrote:


HI Folks
A group of us are setting up a co-operative art& *crafts gallery / shop
out here in south-west Ireland.

We've pretty much decided on some premises - but they're going to need
some work to improve the lighting. Decent lighting's pretty important to
show off the items that are on sale. However, we're on a fairly tight
budget - not just for the capital items (light fittings etc) but also
for the ongoing running costs.

Premises currently have 2 double fluorescents (5ft or so?) in the larger
room (24ft x 10ft) and one double flouro in the smaller room (13ft x
8ft). There are also two recessed downlighters fitted with led spots -
but they don;t seem to contribute much light (if any!!)

Spotlights would be great, but we're concerned about installation&
running costs - and I've used led spots in the past to replace the
little 50w halogen spots on an exhibition stand and they are simply not
bright enough.

So - not wanting to start a 'holy war' on leds vs halogen - but what's
peoples experience on lighting such a retail outlet....

..my gut feel is more fluoro's - not pretty, but highly effective
and cheap to run...??

Thanks
Adrian

Fluorescent is cheap, hence its been so popular for so long. With the
old linear tubes, the longer the tube the more efficient, both
energywise and moneywise. So whatever you do, at least a percentage of
flourescent helps keep costs down. Spotlighting is pricey to run on a
per result basis.

Yes - thanks. Sounds like a mix of spot & fluoro is the way to go.
My folks ran a gifts / jewellery / clocks & watches shop back in the
80's - and I remember Dad saying that, some days in the winter, the
spotlights cost more than the shop took... so we want to avoid that
scenario if at all possible...

Found a document from Sustainable Energy Ireland

http://www.seai.ie/Publications/Your...ons/Energy_Gui...

which more or less discounts led lighting other than close-up for
localised lighting (which was my experience with the display stand).

I had very good results at shows with a couple of 150w halogen
'mini-floods' - but they look a bit agricultural for 'gallery' use. Also
- at the shows, 'somebody else' was paying for the electricity!g

Thanks
Adrian

If you're lighting glassware, you can sit the glass directly on a very
low power light source, eg a small CFL in a box with a hole in the
top. Cover the box with cloth. Very cost efficient, and good at making
the pieces stand out.

I dont know whether you can get away with just one spotlight per item.
The nearer the spots are to the product, the lower power they can be,
so there is often mileage in having 5 watt spots right up almost
touching the item.


NT