On Feb 7, 9:00*am, Adrian Brentnall 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.

Shop keepers have any amount of enthusiasm at refit/opening time,
after the doors are open even a spare lamp seems too much expense.

It is good that your thinking about ongoing costs, including
maintenance.



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!!)


Lighting level is almost relative to value of stock, in a supermarket
very high illuminance levels and lots of stock, giving the feeling of
plenty on a bright day.

In a boutique, levels will be lower, the sparsely presented stock will
be highlighted and circulation areas are dimmer than the offering. A
feeling of exclusivity and rarity.

One rule for both ends though, the area around the till, where money
changes hands, must be noticeably brighter than the surround, you`ll
notice it even in supermarkets.


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.

Lighting is an energy intensive activity, Source One, the Sun is not a
low energy lamp, any attempt we can make to replicate its effect uses
energy in quantity.

Low voltage Halogen is still a good choice for spotlighting, LED is
close to the 35W halogen level now, but at 20 quid plus a lamp, its a
long payback period.

CMH/CDM ceramic metal halide is also a good spotlighting choice for
very high intensity, expensive intially but running and maintenance
costs are low, lamp life 12K hrs + efficiency 33%+ better than
halogen.

Metal halide in the 75/150W flavours can give you a big wadge of light
to create presence in a window, high street clothes shops , or high
intensity sparkle , high street jewellers.

LED is available for high intensity long throw applications and may
make sense if your opening hours are long or natural light is non-
existent, takes these conditions to make payback realistic.

LED for close up lighting is a no brainer, it can be installed into
shelf undersides and incorporated within fittings to create displays
that glow with no visible source.LED tape in the best quality white
you can afford and a router....

Built some shelves for a project using twin wall polycarb roofing
sheet and run 10mm wide LED tape down the very front flute, it lights
the object on the shelf and creates an infinty mirror look below it,
cheap and effective trick.




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...??

Highly effective at just lighting the space not at creating a retail
enviroment conducive to shifting stock.

Fluro for the cleaners lights as already suggested ;-)

One other thing to bear in mind when choosing sources, Colour
Rendering Index, CRI, closer to 100 , daylight, more accurate colours
will appear.
Only source that does have a CRI of 100 apart from the Sun is halogen,
all other sources will distort colours slightly in one way or another,
fluro tends to have too much green, LED is very lacking in red, this
may be important with some of your displayed pieces.

Cheers
Adam



Thanks
Adrian