Duralec Blog

When it comes to installing high bay lights—and correctly spacing them—in a large space, there’s good news and bad news. The good news is that the lights available today are radically better than those available only ten or twenty years ago. The lights are powerful, efficient, and flexible enough to light any space. The bad news is manageable, don’t worry—it is simply that there are many factors to consider. It can be a little confusing.

Let’s run through the major issues. The goal here is a basic literacy on the topic. We’ll save the complex formulas for another time.

Spacing Lights According to Application

Your application should be one of the top guides in spacing your lights. In short, some spaces need more light than others. Manufacturing facilities, big box stores, workshops, and warehouses with a lot of product handling require the most light and a high lighting power density (LPD) (which we’ll get to in a minute). Storage rooms, gyms, and warehouses with low activity require less lighting.

There is no guide to exactly how much light is needed for each application, but knowing what end of the spectrum you’re on (use-wise) will help you get started. It sounds obvious, but the more light you need, the more lumen capacity you need to install. (Brightness is measured in lumens.) Also, if you your facility needs good visibility, you will have to be more careful in designing the spacing—if your lights are too far apart, you risk creating gaps in your coverage.

Floor Area and Ceiling Height

Perhaps the two biggest factors to consider in spacing high bay lights is your floor area and your ceiling height (or, more specifically, your mounting height). These issues are fairly common sense. The more space you have, the more lights you’ll need; and the higher your ceiling is the more light you will need from each source..

This calculation, at its simplest, resembles a basic middle school math problem. You are roughly taking the square footage of your facility and dividing it by the coverage of a single light. That gives you the number of lights you will need. (For example, if your floor is 1000 square meters, and a single light covers 100 square meters, then you will need around 10 lights.) But it’s not quite that simple. You also need to calculate how high your lights will be mounted. The higher you raise a light, two things happen. The beam gets wider (more light!). But the beam also gets weaker (less light).

You would also need to take into account the shape of the space—rectangular, square, irregular, etc. There is little need, for example, to install a light near a wall. Ideally you want the lights evenly distributed across your ceiling. Again, some of this is common sense.

Most high bay lights will come with specs that tell you the shape and intensity of the beam. This information is sometimes called the fixture’s photometrics. For example, a UFO LED light (the saucer-shaped lights popular in warehouses) like the IntrinsiX CIRCA light has a spec sheet that indicates an “average illuminance effective figure” for its beam. The photometric shows you that the width of this light’s beam (and square footage of coverage) at different distances (i.e. mounting heights). It also shows you the light’s intensity at those distances; this is measured in lux (symbol: lx). A lux is a unit of light’s intensity and is the equivalent of one lumen per square meter.

By using these two numbers—the width and intensity of the beam at different heights—for a particular high bay light, you can begin to calculate how many lights you need for your space and how far apart they need to be.

But there are also some rules of thumb that people in the industry use. One of them is that the mounting height is roughly equal to the distance between your lights. In other words, if an light is mounted 20 feet up, it should be roughly 20 feet from its neighboring light.

That rule of thumb is great for giving you a rough idea of how to space your high bay lights, but there will be long-term benefits if you can get a more accurate figure. A little bit of number crunching goes a long way. Also, there are many experts out there who can help you with this calculation, including those at Duralec who have been doing this for years.

The Type of Light Fixture Matters

The two most common kinds of LED high bay lights vary in how they distribute light. These lights are the (aforementioned) UFO light and the linear light. The UFO light is roughly a point source and casts its beam in the shape of a cone. Its area of coverage is roughly a circle.

The second kind of light is a linear high bay light and resembles a flat-panel fixture. As you might expect, its area of coverage is more like an oval. These shapes need to be factored into the overall spacing of your lights.

Another fixture feature that affects spacing is the option for dimming. Many LED high bay lights come with dimmability, and this feature gives users more options in how they mount their lights. For example, having dimmable lights would allow you to space the lights more closely for powerful brightness and visibility but would give you the option of running the lights at lower wattages at certain times of day or in certain sections of your facility. The end result is a lighting array that is flexible in its brightness and efficient in its energy use.

When Correct Spacing Is Required by Building Codes

In some cases, a certain amount of lighting is required by building codes or workplace-safety regulations. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), for example, requires that employers “shall ensure that each work area and walkway is adequately lighted whenever an employee is present.” This standard specifies different light intensities for different types of work spaces (warehouses versus changing rooms versus offices, etc.). Another standard is the International Building Code’s (IBC) requirement for proper lighting in exit areas and passageways. This code requires different lighting power densities (LPD’s) for various egress areas. The code measures LPD’s in watts per square foot. Other lighting standards have been published by the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) as well as the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE).

In some cases, meeting these standards would require that you create the proper degree of spacing to provide the necessary lighting intensity. However, the standards do not mandate an amount of spacing. Being mindful of proper spacing is key to meeting these lighting standards.

The Benefits of Correct Spacing of High Bay Lights

When designing a network of high bay lights, it’s important to try to get the spacing right the first time. No one wants to do an installation twice. Figuring out the spacing on paper—perhaps with the help of an expert—could save you loads of trouble and money during the process.

There are many long-term benefits, as well. Correct spacing will ensure that your lights work at their most efficient levels. Planning it correctly might prevent you from over-buying and having more capacity—and energy usage—than you need.

A well-spaced grid will also ensure the most effective lighting. Proper lighting is necessary not only for visibility and productivity but also for worker safety. LED high bay lights are ideal for worker wellbeing, as well, as they are free of flickering and limit eye strain and fatigue. A well designed array that produces high-quality light also looks professional and attractive.

To discuss the issue of how to space high bay lights in any kind of situation, feel free to reach out to a Duralec expert today. We have years of experience creating lighting solutions across the Midwest.

Duralec has recently upgraded its online store to allow easy purchasing by customers all over the country! For years Duralec has been a mostly regional supplier of LED lights and other electrical equipment. But the company has been expanding more and more, due to its talented staff, unrivaled expertise, and superior sourcing.

Opening up the website to new users—and inviting everyone to explore the massive inventory—is the next frontier for Duralec. Let’s look at the new and improved site.

New Features

Previously, the Duralec online store was mostly used by contractors and large-scale buyers, particularly in the Midwest region. The new online store is built for the entire country, as well as for all kinds of customers. The development team focused on building a site that is user friendly, comprehensive, and secure. For that reason, the new site should feel intuitive and familiar. Let’s walk through the site’s basic steps.

Products on the Duralec home page are organized into categories and sub-categories for quick access. Most product pages have extensive descriptions and specs. Once you’ve found your item, you click on Add to Cart. (Again, no surprises here.) Shipping and tax will be estimated after an address is added. Next, either add more items to the cart or click Check Out Now.

The next step is either to sign in or to register as a new user. Having an account gives you the ability to track order status, look at purchase history, as well as offering other benefits. Creating an account is quick and easy.

Shipping options are extensive. Sometimes you need your order tomorrow; sometimes you can wait. You can even pick it up for free. Hint: being a registered user gives you access to the Duralec UPS account number for even better rates.

To finish the process, simply put in a form of payment—all major credit cards are accepted—and that’s it. The system is truly built for everyone—from the busiest contractor to the home owner looking for a floodlight.

If you don’t see a product you need, feel free to call us (847-250-7902, the number at the top of the web site) or email us (Contact Us form at the bottom of the site). More and more items are being added to the site every day, so it’s possible the thing you need is on our shelves. (If not, our team can point you in the right direction.)

If an item is out of stock, feel free to call about that, as well. It’s possible that a shipment is on its way or that the online system has yet to update itself—as we move quickly to offer more features, it’s possible that a wire gets crossed every now and then. If you ever experience a hiccup in the system, we’d love to hear about it so we can address the issue for you.

The Duralec VIP Program

The website has even more benefits available for contractors, ESCO providers, and facility managers. Signing up for Duralec’s VIP Program gives you special discounts and even more access to Duralec’s expert service. Check out the program at the link here.

As always, working with Duralec gives you access to all of the top brands. These include IntrinsiX, Philips, Topaz, Morris Products, Garvin, Eiko, and countless others.

The lighting industry is full of many confusing terms, but few are more technical than some of the units of measurement involved with light. Kelvins, lumens, foot-candles, and even watts can be difficult to understand. But it’s important to be able to speak with authority on these terms to your clients or customers. This article will try to provide a background and summary of each term without making it feel like a science textbook. We’ll tackle these terms roughly in order of difficulty.

Measuring Light’s Power

In the lighting world, you see lights rated in watts. A flat-panel LED light, for example, might operate at 30 or 50 watts (or have selectable wattage). This number represents the electrical power that the light fixture uses, in other words how much energy per second. The symbol of the watt is “W,” and the name comes from the 18th-century engineer James Watt who was credited with the invention of the steam engine (though he did not invent the concept). Often the word “watt” is capitalized, because it is based on a proper name, but that rule is no longer a strict one; capitalizing the symbol (W), however, still seems like good form.

The watt is an important measure of lighting because it is shorthand for how much electricity a light is using. It is also one of the key numbers on an electricity bill: the kilowatt is 1,000 watts.

Like most of the units of measurement in this article, the watt is an SI unit (something you might remember from high school). SI units are internationally accepted forms of measurement defined by the International System of Units. Also, like many topics in science, if you look at the watt more closely, it gets a bit complicated. You can define a watt in a couple different ways. Because it is a unit of power, it can be defined as one joule (J) of energy happening per second (s). Or, more appropriate for the lighting world, it can also be called the power created by one ampere (A) crossing an electrical potential difference of one volt (V).

A simpler way to think of a watt is the rate at which electricity is flowing. Like miles per hour. A 50W LED light needs a flow of 50W at all times. (A kilowatt-hour (or kWh), on the other hand, is how much electricity will flow through the light in one hour. The kilowatt-hour also appears on electricity bills.)

Measuring Light’s Color Temperature

Some light is warm and yellowish and cozy, while some is bluish and cool. These are lights’ color temperatures, or, more specifically, their color corrected temperature (CCT). The unit of measurement of CCT is degrees Kelvin (K).

Color temperature is important in lighting design because the temperature greatly impacts a space. An office or warehouse needs cool, bluish light for good visibility, whereas a living room or lounge space needs warm, cozy light for comfort. If you switched the two, it would be obvious that something was wrong.

The key thing to know about this unit of measurement is that its numbers are a bit counterintuitive. The lower numbers are the “warm” colors, and the higher numbers are the “cool” colors (which is obviously the opposite of most other temperatures, where higher numbers are the warmest).

To use a specific example, let’s compare a flat-panel LED light to a high bay LED light. The first fixture will be used in a school library, while the second will be used in a warehouse. The flat-panel light, like an IntrinsiX Vista Series LED Light Panel, offers adjustable color temperatures of 3500, 4000, or 5000K. This will produce a variety of light. The 3500K setting will be significantly yellower and warmer than the 5000K light. A powerful LED high bay light, like the IntrinsiX CIRCA round high bay light, produces 5000K light that is perfect for warehouses or big box stores. This light is white-ish and cool and produces great visibility.

Measuring Light’s Brightness

Brightness also has an SI unit of measurement, and it’s called the lumen (lm) (also called lumen output). A lumen is a quantity of visible light coming from a source. The lumen output of a light usually roughly correlates to the light’s wattage, but not exactly. A higher wattage light will no doubt produce more lumens than a lower one. But light fixtures differ in quality and design, so there is not a direct correlation between the two numbers.

Light fixtures often offer adjustable lumen outputs. The IntrinsiX LED flat panel mentioned above offers lumen outputs of 2500, 3750, 5000, and 6250lm (and also include the option of dimming). This allows users to customize their lights to whatever application they need as well as to natural light sources.

The sub-units around brightness can grow confusing if one digs in very deeply. One could get lost in the differences between luminous flux and radiant flux and the angles of light that can be measured (called steradians). But the only other unit you’re likely to encounter (and probably not, actually) is the candela. The candela is another SI unit that measures light intensity rather than light quantity (the lumen). But knowing about the candela helps explain our final unit of measurement, the foot-candle.

Measuring Light’s Brightness in Another Way

If a “foot-candle” sounds old fashioned, you’re not wrong. It comes from a time when the main source of indoor light was the humble candle. The unit of the foot-candle (fc) is not part of the SI system of units. (The nearest SI unit is the lumen.) In fact, today the foot-candle is rarely used outside of the United States. But a foot-candle is still employed now and then to describe a quantity of light, especially in certain fields (museum galleries, cinematography, horticulture, and so on).

A foot-candle is defined as the light of one candela cast upon the inside of a sphere with a radius of one foot. In other words, it is the quantity of light cast upon that area. Another way to define it is one lumen per square foot (at even light distribution).

While the unit is slowly going out of fashion, you might still encounter it. The unit is useful in describing an amount of light, and that is always useful for designing a space.

The boom in electric cars has created a huge need for electric charging stations around the country. Over 800,000 electric cars were sold in 2022 in the United States, up 65% from the previous year, and the upward trend appears to be stable. Installing new charging stations should be seen as an opportunity rather than a challenge, especially for businesses. Owning charging stations is an opportunity for businesses to appeal to new customers, attract workers, improve the environment, and more.

Electric chargers come in all shapes and sizes, and much of the terminology around them is new (and sometimes confusing). Later, we’ll define some of those terms. But first, let’s briefly review some of the use cases for electric charging stations.

Who Might Need an EV Charging Station?

The need for charging stations is exploding, and there are many types of drivers who use them. Here are some of the places that currently need charging stations and will need them in the decades to come.

Residential: Most EV drivers want the ability to charge their cars at home, so small and simple charging stations are some of the most common options on the market. These devices usually run on 120V or 240V power, though the latter option is growing in popularity due to its faster charge times.

Multi-unit Housing: Condo towers, apartment buildings, and other multi-unit buildings have a serious need for EV charging stations. Soon, these stations will be necessary for attracting new owners and tenants.

Retail: Offering electric charging stations is a top amenity for retail stores and malls, and it will become even more so in the future. Charging stations are a way to attract affluent, engaged shoppers and to demonstrate environmental responsibility.

Workplaces: At a time when attracting and retaining the best workers is a challenge, having EV charging stations at work is a valuable perk. In fact, charging stations might soon go from “perk” to “required criteria” for workers.

Fleets: Increasingly, fleets are being electrified, and this brings with it an obvious need for multiple charging stations. An electrified fleet means lower operating costs, huge sustainability benefits, and the chance to earn substantial rebates and tax incentives.

How Electric Charging Stations Work (a Mini Glossary)

Electrification (the transition to electricity from other forms of energy) is happening quickly, and the market for EVSE’s (electric vehicle supply equipment) is growing. Electric charging stations will be a key component of the new energy infrastructure. Let’s look at how a single electric charger works for both installers and users.

Most electric charging stations are either Level 1 or Level 2 chargers. Level 1 chargers run on 120V power and are good for overnight charging at modest speeds. Most chargers in use today are Level 2 chargers—these devices run on 240V power. A Level 2 charger can provide a significant charge to an EV (electric vehicle (sometimes called a BEV, or battery electric vehicle)) in minutes rather than hours, depending on its specific power. The power output of an electric charger is measured in kilowatts (kW).

A good example of a popular electric charging station today is the BreezeEV P48 Smart Electric Vehicle Charger (available from Duralec). It is a Level 2 charger with 11.2 kW of maximum output at 48 amps (A). This power can be adjusted to 40A, 32A, or 16A. The device charges a vehicle in the range of 12 to 60 miles per hour. The BreezeEV P48 can be hard-wired or can use a common NEMA 14-50 plug (a four-prong plug with hot-hot-neutral-ground); these are the same plugs found on many electric stoves.

Most charging stations today offer the same connector (the end of the cable that plugs into the car). The SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers) J1772 connector is a five-pin plug in a sturdy housing. It is also sometimes called a J plug or Type 1 connector.

Charging stations can be networked or non-networked. A non-networked device is a simple plug-and-go device that is most commonly used in home garages. A networked charger, on the other hand, is connected to the Internet and offers a range of functions that help both the owner and the user. The owner of a networked charger can offer scheduled charging to multiple users, get data reports on the charger’s usage, offer dynamic and customizable pricing, and more. Networked chargers can be a profit center for a business, a convenient amenity offered to customers or employees, or something in between. Whether a charger is networked or not, it is a good way for a home owner or business to improve property value.

Networked chargers use cutting-edge software and connectivity. The BreezeEV P48, for example, uses 4G LTE or Ethernet communication using the OCPP 1.6J (Open Charge Point Protocol) cloud-based management software. It comes with the ampUp software and a mobile app that delivers a huge range of benefits, including driver reservations, RFID cards (radio frequency identification cards for granting access), location access control, analytics (data reports), driver support, revenue collection, and more.

The user experience for electric charging stations is getting better and better. Apps like ampUp make it easy for drivers to find chargers, pull up, and plug in. These apps handle payments and can track usage for multiple cars. Customer service is available for owners and users 24/7/365.

Installing a charging station is easy. A charger like the BreezeEV P48 can be attached to a wall mount, a pedestal, or a cable-management pedestal. Its pedestal can even be decked out in custom branding.

The housing of a good charger is durable and weatherproof. The BreezeEV has an IP65 rating (ingress protection that guards against dust and rain). Chargers can operate in temperatures from -22F to 122F.

How to Find the Right Electric Charging Station for You

As with most capital improvements, choosing the right device depends on your application. If you’re looking for a single charger for a home, a simple non-networked charging station might do. If you need to outfit an office building, multi-unit apartment, or strip mall with one or more charging stations, then networked chargers are likely the best fit.

Before you invest, however, you should look into rebates and tax incentives. There are many of these programs offered by local and state governments, the federal government, as well as by many utility companies. These programs can offset much of the cost of installing charging stations. Talking to an expert might help. Top distribution companies like Duralec have experts on hand to walk you through that process.

To discuss electric charging stations or any related topics, feel free to reach out to a Duralec expert today.