On 07/02/2012 16:46, Adrian Brentnall wrote:
On 07/02/2012 14:58, 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

Reading the answers it looks like this lot could make a useful wiki
article. I suppose it would be for diy shopfitting, but not house
maintenance.


HI
Yes - it did seem quite straightforward and 'fluff-free'....
I'm sure they'd be happy to let you reproduce it if you asked them -
and, if you didn't, then they'd probably never know! g

A

"Most of my glass (stained / fused) are panels and are best displayed
with light behind them (that'll be a challenge!)

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."

You could also add to gain maximum use of window space at night some low
power spots highlighting certain areas of the shop but on a sort of
timer so it changes throughout the night. I saw this done in a
hairdressers and was impressive. With it being totally dark even low
wattage should create an effect. It gets attention throughout the night
as people walk past.