Feb 29, 2024 9:08:52 AM
When making decisions regarding commercial outdoor lighting, you want to feel confident that you’re going to get maximum value out of your investment. You also want to know that you will get a lighting design that meets your wants and needs.
Choosing exterior commercial building lights can be confusing if you’ve never gone through the process before. But we’re putting some tips together that will help you make the best choices.
After all, we don’t expect you to be an expert in commercial outdoor lighting fixtures. You deserve a guide that will help you make the best decisions for your property.
Different lights are going to serve different purposes around your commercial property. This is a critical consideration when making lighting decisions.
For instance, you might have some lights that are installed with aesthetics mostly in mind. These might be lights illuminating your property’s trees or shining on your property’s facade. They help boost curb appeal and make your property more welcoming when people drive by or come onto your property.
You might have other lights for which the primary goal is helping people navigate safely around your property at night. These would include pathway lights or parking lot lights, which help prevent trips, falls, or accidents.
And you might have even more lights that are focused largely on security. These might be lights that illuminate the building to make it look occupied overnight or help ensure that any security cameras can pick up footage.
When making decisions about commercial outdoor lighting fixtures, it’s critical to keep these purposes in mind. That’s not to say that some lights won’t do “double duty” or even “triple duty.” For instance, certain lights might improve functionality, aesthetics, AND security. But there are likely still primary purposes in mind.
When making decisions about commercial outdoor lighting, other considerations include brightness and color temperature.
These two areas are where pros even sometimes get it wrong. They sound like minor details but they’re actually a really big deal. That’s because when it comes to exterior commercial building lights even the small details definitely count.
How bright your lights shine is a matter of the type of lighting application you’re looking to achieve. This obviously comes back to the “purpose” we discussed above. If you are primarily focused on security lighting in a certain area of the property (like the parking lot), then the lights are going to be a bit brighter.
But if it’s an area of the property where you’re going more for ambiance, like illuminating the trees, then you might go with something softer.
While people often think about lights not being “bright enough,” lights that are too bright are also a potential problem. If a light is so bright that it is uncomfortable to look at, it can take away from the ambiance you might be trying to achieve. The way in which the light is pointed is also a factor here. In other words, you don’t want it shining directly in your guests’ or visitors’ eyes.
You also want to make sure that the light isn’t so bright that it washes out security camera footage. There is a delicate balance that must be achieved.
Color temperature involves similar considerations.
Temperature describes the “light appearance” of a light bulb and is measured in degrees of Kelvin (K). It’s all about the way the light looks to the eye. For instance, you might have noticed on high-end cars that the lights almost appear bluish.
Bulbs with a higher color temperature do have more of a bluish-white appearance. There’s almost a yellow color to a lower color temperature.
Aesthetically speaking, you probably want a color temperature that has a warmer look to it as this will never go out of style. But color temperature can differ depending on the functionality you’re looking to achieve. Making the best decisions for your commercial property will come down to a custom design.
It’s also important to know that color temperature can change over time, particularly if you use a poor-quality bulb. This is a key reason why we recommend high-quality LED lighting.
A high-quality LED bulb will maintain its color rendering index (which is the ability of a light source to reveal its colors) for a longer period of time. You’ll get the most value with LED lights.
As we said from the start, we don’t expect you to know all of these technical details. But it can be helpful for you to know enough about commercial outdoor lighting that you’re able to make a wise choice in an outdoor lighting provider. After all, even some pros don’t know all their stuff when it comes to making these critical decisions.
Unfortunately, there are plenty of so-called lighting pros who wouldn’t even know about the color temperature of the lights they’re installing. Even though it’s a really important factor, many don’t even take it into consideration. If you know enough to ask some questions, it will help ensure that you hire a qualified pro.
After all, when you’re investing in something as important as commercial outdoor lighting for your Memphis property, no detail is too small.
At Mid South Night Lights, lighting is all that we do…and for that reason, we take it very seriously.
We’re ready to help guide you through all the decisions you’ll need to make to illuminate your commercial property and get the most possible value out of your investment.
Are you ready to create a beautiful property with the best lighting at any hour of the day? If so, let’s meet and discuss some bright ideas.
