The installation of adequate and appropriate lighting is essential in any commercial building, including the warehouse environment, to enable staff to perform tasks accurately, efficiently and safely, as well as meeting the levels of illumination required by British Standards and health and safety bodies.
The selection of luminaire type within different warehouse buildings depends on the dimensions and height of the space as well as the usage and whether it be as an open area or completely racked throughout. Smart lighting control within open area warehouses, which benefit from natural light, can provide energy savings opportunities when not manned or during peak daylight hours, but for warehouses which include high-level racking and narrow aisles, smart lighting can make an even bigger difference in terms of both cost and energy savings.
Generally, the open area of a warehouse tends to be continuously manned, whilst racking aisles may be used infrequently, so activation of the lighting for either the whole aisle, a section or even an individual fitting, allows for illumination only where and when required to move goods, with background illumination in place the rest of the time for safety.
Individual walkways can be controlled and operated separately meaning that lighting at full level is only provided as needed. This can be achieved by using the range of OCTO IP66 Smart Highbay Sensors, either for open area or racking aisle use. Both are Bluetooth enabled, with infrared PIR Detector and Photocell sensors and are compatible with other Casambi devices as part of Ansell Lighting’s OCTO smart lighting system. They are ideally suited for high level installations of up to 14 metres for open areas and 20 metres for racking aisles.
For other areas such as vehicle entrances and exits, the lighting needs to take account of accident risk due to the transition between an artificially lit warehouse and either natural daytime brightness or night-time darkness. The lighting levels in this transition zone can be evened out through the use of the same OCTO ecosystem.
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