Lighting
Warehouse lighting set to boom
High energy prices and the need to meet upcoming EPC ratings in warehouses is fuelling a high demand for lighting refurbishments in industrial buildings.
A
nthony Martindale, senior product manager at Collingwood Lighting outlines what you need to stock. According to a recent report from Savills, 78% of warehouses in the UK have an EPC (Energy Performance Certifi cate) of C or below. With the need to upgrade privately rented non domestics buildings over 1000 square metres to an EPC rating of B or above by 2031, there is a lot of work to do.
For most buildings, the simplest and most
cost eff ective fi rst step to save energy is to replace the lighting with modern LED high bay luminaires. With lighting accounting for 50 to 80% of such buildings’ electricity cost, high bay LED fi ttings can reduce this by up to 80% - giving a payback of less than two years on the investment.
“With lighting accounting for 50 to 80% of electricity costs, high bay LED fi ttings can reduce this by up to 80% - giving a payback of less than two years on the investment.”
What do you need to stock? Each warehouse will have diff erent lighting needs depending on its structure, architecture and operations. There are many diff erent areas to consider, including aisles with racking, open areas, picking areas and outdoor loading bays. Each will have diff erent needs. The ceiling height will aff ect both the light dispersion and its output requirements (lumens) needed from the fi tting, to make sure that there is enough light where it is needed. The higher the ceiling the more lumens your customer will need from the fi tting, but the wider they can space them apart.
As you would expect, you will have high bay
fi ttings at a higher mounting height than low bay fi ttings. While there is some overlap, you
would typically suggest low bay fi ttings for ceiling heights of up to seven metres and high bay fi ttings for anything higher. Exactly what fi ttings you recommend will depend on what light levels the customer needs and whether the space is an open area or has racking.
Open areas
For open spaces you will need to supply high bay fi ttings with a wide beam angle of about 100o
to provide uniform illuminance. Working warehouses are typically manned, so to meet BS EN 12464-1 the contractor should provide 200 lux of lighting at fl oor level. How many lumens per fi tting they will need to achieve this will depend on the
28 | electrical wholesaler November 2026
ewnews.co.uk
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