Key luminaires:
Accent lighting
By locally increasing or decreasing the quantity of light it is possible to create variation in shadows and brightness. The aim of this is to give a maximum expression to merchandise, enhancing form, texture and colour in contrast with the surroundings.
Ideally this should optimise the relationship between space, product and customer in order to enhance the prospects of a sale.
Accent lighting should be at least 3x brighter than the surround to be noticeable or 5x brighter to be meaningful.
Focal-point lighting, which highlights a specific central display with feature merchandise, should be 10x brighter than the surround and generally uses spotlighting
Display case lighting illuminates merchandise in glass or open cases and shelves. It can be linear fluorescent or spotlighting depending on the type of display
Perimeter lighting provides vertical illumination for merchandise along walls, such as vertical shelving and can use valance systems or linear wall-washing systems
Key luminaires:
Lighting clothing
The primary purpose of lighting is to make merchandise look good, increasing the desirability of the item leading to a sale. When lighting clothing a flexible lighting solution is needed to allow the lighting to be reconfigured when displays are altered or moved. The market positioning of the store (high, mid, low-tier) should be considered when designing the installation, and also the possible options for display, as clothing
may be hung on rails, displayed on shelves or shown in an entirely novel way. Differing materials used in the design of the display fittings and the size of the displays will require differing lighting techniques. However lighting should remain discrete to ensure the main focus is the merchandise, and should be as efficient as practicable.
One of the main issues with clothing is colour rendering and colour temperature. Customers need to see the items they are thinking of buying in a quality of light that shows the garment correctly. Any post purchase dissatisfaction when seeing the article in the daylight must be avoided. The Ra of the lamp must be at least 85 so that colours are reproduced as faithfully as possible. Also note that the UV characteristics of the lamp should be checked to ensure that it is suitable for the material being lit and will cause no effects such as fading of colours.
New generations of metal halide lamp offer a wide choice of warm or cool white light. LEDs with their improved performance are also becoming more widely used. LED luminaires can be smaller and easy to blend into the background. However, downlights and track mounted spotlights remain the most common fixtures.
Key luminaires:
Greengrocery
Main objectives are to ensure that fruits and vegetables are shown under the best colour rendering bright light. Using specific type of lamps that create colourful accents can bring out freshness of produce. Warm accents are preferred with a low content of actinic radiations (to prevent fading of colour in goods) and low heat radiation.
This kind of light is often realised with suspended structures hanging above the displays allowing spotlights integration.
Key luminaires:
Super/hypermarket
Bakery, cheese and delicatessen
A warm, oven-fresh appearance can be created on the bread, while cream pastries appear appetising when illuminated by halogen lamps or warm white metal halide.
Key luminaires:
Wines and spirits
A lower lighting level helps to recreate the atmosphere of a wine cellar. With lower dark ceilings mounted with fluorescent downlights the atmosphere may be emphasised further.
Key luminaires:
Fresh food counters
The ceiling is often lower than in the rest of the hypermarket. Recessed luminaires provide a good illuminance level, accentuating the freshness of the displays with a combination of different high Ra colour lamps.
Key luminaires:
Task lighting
This provides illumination for a specific functional area such as the checkout counter. This is not to be confused with accent or focal-point lighting. Particular attention has to be paid to avoid any glare at the cashier position in order to assure a comfortable activity with no mistakes. The area beyond the checkout should be lit to a level that provides a transition zone for shoppers leaving the supermarket and going into daylight or the dark of night.
Key luminaires:
Guidance
Indoor guidance - due to the diversity of goods a clear communication with colours, graphemes, and lighting has to be established in order to guide customers. This guidance is sometimes mandatory for safety reasons: exit ways being indicated in case of emergency evacuations.
Key luminaires:
Signage
Additional to guidance the use of lighting to signal locations and features is important.
For outdoor lighting, facades, communication, logos, etc. help present the sales policy and brand positioning.
Key luminaires:
Super/hypermarket
Schemes
Super-store
Scheme: Computer super-store, 37m x 51m x 7m
Luminaire(s) used: Primata II 2x58W T26 with 5m mounting height, Sirios 150W HIT-DE (spotlight) and 2x55W Voyager Twinspot (emergency lighting) Sales area: Eav = 802 lux ; Emin/Eav = 0.68
Schemes
Hypermarket
Scheme: Hypermarket, 80m x 63m Luminaire(s) used: Arena 2x70W T26 Floor: Eav = 980 lux ; Emin/Eav = 0.83
Scheme: Hypermarket, 80m x 63m Luminaire(s) used: Arena 2x70W T26 Floor: Eav = 560 lux ; Emin/Eav = 0.76
Wall-washing luminaires illuminating food products on shelving.
It is important to ensure a good level of vertical illuminance on shelving so that products are adequately lit. Colour of light can make a large impact on the appearance of goods and should be carefully matched to the requirements of the product on display.
Super/hypermarket
The lighting should allow for large obstructions such as signage and seasonal decorations to be displayed without causing shadowing.
Consideration should be given as to the goods being lit. Glass and crystal objects should be made to sparkle, light appearing to come from inside the object, whilst solid objects such as clothes need to have light projected onto them.
Lighting demands may vary across the store, with differing store configuration and colour needs. Accent lighting along the front of counters can make them stand out and appear more welcoming.
Techniques
General
The human eye does not perform well in the dark or at dusk when visual performance is impaired by lower visual acuity, poorer colour discrimination and a much lower tolerance to disability glare – hence the increased accident risk to drivers and pedestrians.
Road lighting plays a very important role in reducing accidents, and research has shown that good road lighting will significantly reduce accidents. Road lighting provides guidance through conflict areas such as junctions. This can be reinforced by the use of different lamp colours to distinguish a change of road classification or area definition.
Road lighting can also have a secondary effect of preventing crime.
The amount of light required on a road to reveal objects i.e. vehicles, pedestrians and obstructions depends upon the amount or density of traffic, the speed of the traffic and if pedestrians are present – mixed usage areas. Crime rates also determine the lighting level required. For traffic routes a silhouette vision system is used.
Operating costs and environmental impact are important and the use of photocells to reduce the number of hours the lighting is used can be very economical. Lighting control systems can provide even further savings by allowing switching or dimming of lamps at of-peak or night time situations. Points of note are:
Luminance is the main criteria for traffic route lighting, so the road characteristics and the observer positions needs to be determined.
If illuminance has to be considered all the involved areas have to be taken into account including vehicles and pedestrian.
As one of main concerns in road lighting is extended maintenance operations luminaires with high IP ratings are recommended
In addition to extended maintenance periods it is also desirable to reduce the maintenance and installation operations to a minimum, therefore the use of a tool-free lantern is suggested.
Lamps with a high luminous efficacy are mainly used, preferably HST/E ones.
Additionally latest technology has improved efficacy in lamps with a higher colour rendering such as CFL and HIT-CE and some of the latest standards benefit this technology and allows using a lower class but improving the quality of the light.
The use of electronic control gear is recommended. Although this increases initial investment it is shortly repaid by extending lamp life and maintenance periods.
Lighting controls for road lighting applications cover a wide range of applications, from a single fitting controlled by a photocell to a large-scale installation monitored from a remote control point and managing luminaire data in real time. Therefore lighting controls should be considered because in addition to reducing power consumption they extend lamp life and give the possibility to remotely identify failures and optimise maintenance operations.
Multiple fitting enclosures are available although each has an optimal application. Polycarbonate enclosures are more resistant to vandal attacks, shallow glass maximises optical performance and flat glass reduces possible glare issues.
In low mounting height installations with a risk of vandal attacks, a polycarbonate bowl is highly recommended and the use of vandal proof screws to fix the luminaire to the column and reinforced closing clips secured by special screws are also recommended.
When considering a possible proposal for a road it is recommended to have information of the existing road lighting. Many projects are a continuation of previous installations or new parts from a previously light area. In these cases it is good to introduce newer technologies without confusing the users. Better optical fittings can be used but try to keep a similar layout, mounting height, etc.
At the design stage not only the requirements for the road have to be considered, in all cases the adjacent areas should be taken into account and that will define the best option. When houses and the road are close to each other low mounting heights, use of brackets and low glare fittings are a highly recommended although this may not lead to be the best functional solution.
Highways and high speed roads - Points of note are;
These roads are designed for high speeds (>60km/h) and no pedestrians, cyclists or slow vehicles are involved. There are no intersections and access is controlled.
Traditional mounting heights are above 12 m to properly light a twin carriageway with 3 or 4 lanes plus a hard shoulder at either side. Brackets should be considered to optimise performance.