According to Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the most common general industry accidents are slips, trips, and falls. Having proper lighting is one of the easiest ways to reduce the risk of these types of accidents. When choosing lighting for your warehouse, remember that it needs to be able to achieve two things: enhance safety and increase productivity.
Warehouse employees perform an array of duties that can range from pulling materials and packing boxes to loading trucks or shipments and coordinating transportation arrangements. Without adequate lighting, these day-to-day tasks have the potential to be dangerous. This is something we don’t take lightly at Regency. With seven warehouse locations of our own, we work hard to ensure the safety of our warehouse employees.
There are several areas throughout a warehouse that require optimal lighting – the loading dock, shipping and receiving areas, and open storage areas, to name a few.
We’ve created a guide to common light bulbs found throughout warehouses, along with links to where you can buy the product or its appropriate LED upgrade.
Common warehouse fluorescent light bulbs
For the high traffic and open storage areas, most warehouse lighting consists of high bay fluorescent fixtures that use regular or high-output T5 or T8 bulbs.
T5 Linear Fluorescent Tube
Technical Jargon:
- Shape: T5 (5/8" diameter)
- Base: Bi-pin (G5.3)
- Length: 4 foot
- Wattage: 28W to 54W
What are you looking for?
T8 Linear Fluorescent Tube
Technical Jargon:
- Shape: T8 (1" diameter)
- Base: Bi-pin (G13)
- Length: 4 foot
- Wattage: 28W to 32W
What are you looking for?
If you're considering an LED upgrade for your fixtures, there are two optimal solutions. First, you could keep the existing high bay fixtures and replace the fluorescent tubes with TLEDs. Alternately, if you'd like to replace the entire fixture, you can upgrade to an LED fixture.
Selecting the right LED fixture can be an overwhelming process, though, once you start factoring in the optics of the light, light output, warranty, and more. If you'd like some guidance on LED fixture upgrades, our lighting specialists are here to help.
We've also written this article on how to decide between an LED light bulb or LED fixture upgrade.
HID light bulbs in warehouses
In some cases, warehouses also use HID light bulbs in high bay fixtures – these bulbs can range anywhere from 100 to 400 watts. (Here is a helpful article if you'd like to learn more about HID lighting.)
Again, retrofitting is always an option – the HID bulbs can be replaced with an LED equivalent for optimal energy efficiency.
HID Light Bulb
Technical Jargon:
- Shape: ED, ET, BT, etc.
- Base: Mogul (E39)
- Wattage: 250W, or 400W
What are you looking for?
As before, you can also replace the old HID fixture using a new LED fixture. This is a common choice if you have damaged fixtures or you are needing to replace more than just a bulb.
Another factor in upgrading warehouse lighting is the reduced cost and headache of having to get up into the high ceilings to perform maintenance. If you have a number of bulbs to replace anyways, you might consider getting a quote for an LED fixture upgrade.
If you're looking for replacement bulbs or potential LED upgrades for your warehouse, our lighting specialists are here to help. Contact one of our lighting experts today for guidance on selecting the right product for spot replacements or how to plan out your next LED upgrade.
