Article courtesy of Regency Ligthing

How To Upgrade Lighting For Multifamily Buildings

How To Upgrade Lighting For Multifamily Buildings

Whether your multifamily building is apartments, condos, or retirement homes, you’re probably facing a common problem: energy costs.

A lighting retrofit is a great way to decrease those electricity bills. Plus, with increasingly stringent building code, upgrading to LED might not be a choice for much longer.

Our goal is to make lighting easier, so we are offering you four steps on how to upgrade multifamily buildings.

1. Set your goals

Before you start any project, you need to set your final goal. A lighting retrofit is no different. Upgrading your lighting can be a big financial decision, and we want to make sure it’s one you’re comfortable with.
Here are some good questions to ask before you decide what your lighting retrofit should look like:

Is your primary goal energy efficiency?

What’s the biggest problem with your current lighting plan? موقع حقيقي لربح المال

What does your budget look like? Can you retrofit all of your lighting at once or do you need to start with smaller projects?

Once you have the answer to these questions, you can move on to Step 2.

2. Use the lighting pyramid

To explain how much energy your lighting is using, we like to use what we call the lighting pyramid. Here’s how it works. The type of lighting at the bottom of the pyramid uses the most amount of energy. The lighting at the top uses the least amount of energy.

If you have a lot of incandescent light bulbs in apartments or condos, or in your lobby, consider replacing those with LED first. Then work your way up the pyramid.

By the way, did you know some states are banning incandescent light bulbs? You can check to see if your state is included here.

Or if you’re focusing on other ways to save energy, check out our blog on five strategies for multifamily buildings.

3. Focus on high-burn areas

You most likely have places on your property where lights are on at all times of the day.
Focusing on these areas that need to be well-lit at all times could be a good strategy for you:

  1. Parking garage or lot
  2. Stairwells
  3. Lobby
  4. Common areas

This is one of the strategies an Atlanta apartment building used to help achieve a payback in under six months. The initial interest was moving to more sustainable, energy-efficient lighting.

The end product was instant savings and more for years to come. You can read more about the solutions here.

4. Lighting controls

Adding lighting controls can help you save even more energy. The systems can be as simple or as complicated as you would like, and they may even be required in some jurisdictions. بينجو العاب
As a basic start, try installing occupancy sensors in laundry rooms and meeting rooms that will not be occupied all the time.

Benefits of a lighting retrofit for multifamily buildings

The benefits from a lighting retrofit will go beyond a lower electricity bill. Here are a few other bonuses:
Safety – Safety is a feeling that residents should get when they step on your property. It can also be a deciding factor to stay there or look for another place to call home. Pay attention to your parking garage or parking lots and exterior lighting to make sure safety standards are met.
Attracting new tenants – If you’re struggling to retain and attract tenants, a lighting upgrade can become one of your selling points. Your lighting will look great, but it will also be more sustainable and greener. لعب اون لاين
Quality of life – Quality lighting can also enhance quality of life. We recommend choosing lighting with a high CRI in areas like a business room, office, or common area.
If you have questions about your next lighting project, or any lighting challenges you’re trying to solve, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Mood Changers: Lighting Design 101 – Why Lighting Is The Most Important Design Feature

Walk into a room bathed in cozy, inviting light and you’ll feel instantly at ease. Walk into the same room buzzing with harsh fluorescents, and your teeth may start to grind.

Why?

In 2019, a Journal of Consumer Psychology study found that the more intense the lighting, the more affected and intense the participants’ emotions were — both positive and negative.

The study included six experiments that examined the link between emotion and ambient brightness. Feelings of warmth increased when participants were exposed to bright light with hints of reddish hues. A sensation of angst increased when bluer light dominated.

And the brighter the light, the more intense the participants’ emotions became. Both the intensity and the color of the light affected people’s moods.

How Does This Affect Your Next Remodel?

When designing a space, lighting needs to be addressed as soon as the space itself, and how it will be used, are defined.

For example, if it’s an office space you are designing, “office lighting should encourage alertness and productivity,” said Rebecca Hadley, manager of Eaton’s SOURCE lighting education center. It also helps to “incorporate controls that allow for changes throughout the day. Ideally, you’d have the ability to adjust the intensity of your lighting with a dimmer switch.”

When lighting for a home, the purpose of each room comes into play. The kitchen, a work space, demands brighter, high CRI (color accurate) light while the living room calls for more mellow, warmer lighting.

“Our association of orange-ish light with feelings of warmth and relaxation is probably evolutionary and originates from our earliest ancestors who, for both warmth and safety from predators, made sure to light a fire at night.”

-David Hakimi, Alcon Lighting Co-Founder

The entrance of your home should welcome guests, creating a smooth transition from the bright daylight to your home’s interior lighting. At night, the lighting should ease the visitor from the dark outdoors into a warm interior light that will not overload their senses and help them relax. Before bed, lighting should be lowered to promote “winding down” but remain bright enough so that you can navigate your home safely.

 

Mimicking Outdoor Lighting

Vast research documents the many benefits of incorporating natural light into our living spaces. According to Architectural Lighting Magazine, natural light — or daylighting — provides the stimulation needed to regulate human circadian rhythms, or the internal body clock. Learn more about the health benefits of natural light here.

In addition to circadian rhythms, natural light also affects our moods and can increase productivity and comfort in a workplace setting. A study by HMG titled “Daylighting Impacts on Retail Sales Performance,” found that the presence of skylights was the third-most important criterion of statistically significant factors in increasing sales volume. HMG also studied daylighting in schools and found a strong connection between schools that reported improvements in test scores — more than 10 percent — and those that reported increased natural lighting in the classroom.

Natural lighting can have a similar impact when incorporated in a home’s lighting plan. Beyond energy savings, exposure to natural light improves mood and can help make falling asleep easier. Spending your day in areas that are enhanced by natural light can improve the function of your circadian rhythm, which can increase your happiness and energy levels. Exposing yourself to too much blue light from electronics in the evening is directly associated with the opposite effect, which you can read more about here.

Eaton’s Hadley said industry research suggests indoor light (during the day) should mimic the color of light we experience outside by seeking similar gradations over time: “…cool light in the morning, to white light at midday, to warm light in the evening.”

Of course, the most important factor in lighting your home is what you yourself prefer. But Alcon Lighting’s David Hakimi recommends one key step everyone can take to create a calm, pleasing environment that mimics outdoor lighting:

“At night, use lights that feature warmer color temperatures – those that fall in the 2,700 to 3,000 Kelvin range. Also, use a dimmer to lower the intensity of light as the night progresses. Lowering lighting actually helps reduce blood pressure and encourages people to relax. So dimmer lights in the bedroom — and reduce use of electronics.”

Flexibility is Key

Flexibility is one natural benefit of smart lighting design. New advancements in lighting controls have made lighting for mood easier than ever.

Newer LEDs with integrated controls and the ability to dim to warmer color temperatures are becoming popular in the hospitality industry because of their ability to affect the customer experience. “Warmer light and lower light levels have been shown to slow heart rate and create a relaxing state,” Hadley explained. “As a result, customers might be inspired to enjoy appetizers and cocktails rather than rushing through to the main course.” Conversely, some restaurants might put brighter light in an area where they want to turn tables quickly.

Color Plays a Role, Too — but it’s Easier to Adjust Lights.

Color is the most important aspect in lighting and mood.

However, Alcon’s Hakimi notes that It’s much easier to adjust lighting than to paint walls. In fact, you can change the color of your room just by brightening or dimming it.

The Most Important Design Element

With the ability to largely affect the mood of a room, lighting is the most important element to consider when designing a space.

In addition to altering the mood of the occupants in a room, lighting can transform the room in shape and size. In a den that is particularly small, painting the walls a light color and having extra lighting reflecting off the walls will help the room appear larger. Recessed lighting can add a soft glow to a room without protruding into the space, which can also help the room appear larger.

With its versatility in brightness levels and light colors, designers continue to turn to LED lighting. Advances in LED technology have led to several new fixtures, including LED skylights that imitate the look of a window and the sky. These “skylights” shed light that is the same temperature as natural light — offering an open, airy feeling and helping the room’s occupants to feel a more positive vibe.

With continued research and innovation in lighting, homeowners and designers have many options when it comes to selecting the right lighting to set the right mood for their space.

Guidelines for Bathroom Lighting

When it comes to proper lighting, one of the most important rooms in your home is the bathroom. When you first wake up in the morning, the lighting in the bathroom can set the mood for your entire day!

The lighting in a bathroom is especially important when you’re washing and grooming. موقع مراهنات عربي Optimized lighting and daylighting are also important for our circadian rhythms, which can play a big role in overall health.

Good lighting is important for everyone, and the best bathroom illumination opportunities can be broken down into these categories:

  • Light levels – How much light is needed in the bath? For someone just waking up, 10 foot candles (fc) might be plenty. After a shower when it’s time to shave, or if you’re trying to read the small print on a medication label, better visibility is needed. Lighting experts say fixtures that provide at least 75 to 100 watts of illumination are ideal for master or guest bathrooms.
  • Daylighting – Natural daylight is perfect for brightening your mood and helping to set the circadian rhythms that regulate our sleep cycles. Try to design your bathroom with as much natural light as possible. Consider a skylight if possible in addition to one or more windows.
    Overall bath lighting – If you like a more luxurious design in your bathroom, a chandelier or can bring elegance to any space. A warmer light temperature in a bathroom will give it a spa-like feeling.
  • Vanity lighting – In front of the bathroom mirror, lighting is very important! You want to see colors accurately, and have the option to dim or raise the light levels if needed. LEDs are preferred over fluorescent because they’re easier to dim. المراهنة
  • Lighting at the Tub – Building codes are strict about lighting over tubs. Since there can’t be open or hanging fixtures over the tub, nd spotlights work. استراتيجية الروليت
  • Night Lighting – Some light is needed in the bathroom at night for safety, but not too much. When the eyes are adjusted to darkness, very few foot candles are needed. A 5-watt nightlight is just right for most homes, according to lighting experts.

Trust Parker Lighting as Your Preferred Lighting Supplier

We have knowledgeable associates who can assist you in choosing the appropriate products for your specific application.

How To Hide Under Cabinet Lighting Wires

Do you have those rooms in your house that are decidedly dark and dingy looking around certain areas? We’re thinking of kitchens where corners and sections of the countertops have the main ceiling lighting blocked by the cabinets above.

This can be remedied with the use of practical, compact and versatile under cabinet lighting fixtures. However, one of the major downsides to using this style of lighting, is that it requires an extensive network of wiring that, if left uncovered, can make your kitchen look rather untidy and messy.

However, there are ways to avoid this happening. By using some forethought, planning, preparation and clever designs, you can hide the wiring for those under-cabinet lighting so that it will look like areas of your kitchen or other dark rooms light up as if by magic.

Placement of the Wiring
As you read further through this article, you will see a lot of suggestions that revolve around interesting and aesthetically pleasing ways to cover over the wiring. What, though, if that’s not an option, can you still hide them?

Yes, the idea is to keep the wires affixed to the wall or surface as close to the bottom edge at the front of the cabinet as they can, using a slight overhand on the cabinet to keep them hidden.

However, if you run the wiring around the bottom edge of the cabinets at the back, they will be more easily spotted whenever you or anyone else walks into the room.

Wooden Valances
You will find some lighting fixtures tend to hang down somewhat from the underside of cabinets, which is not ideal if you are trying to keep the fixture or just the wiring hidden.

This problem can be solved by installing a wooden valance to the underside using some wood adhesive to extend the front face of the cabinet.

You can decorate this wood appropriately so that even if you don’t find the right color to match from the beginning, you can use a stain or paint to get it as close to the rest of the furniture as possible.

You then just need to use staples or tie wraps to keep the wiring securely hidden beneath the cabinet and behind the valance.

Inside the Cabinetry
If you are starting from scratch and have the benefit of foresight to plan out where the wiring is going to go, you could make necessary cuts into the cabinet where you can feed the wires so that they are hidden.

This is a great plan for recessed lighting, with the end of the light fixture penetrating the cabinet. قواعد لعبة البوكر That section will need a wooden plank placed across the top that’s exposed with a hole and channel made inside it to allow you to feed the wiring through the cabinet and into the outlet on the wall. كيف تلعب بينجو

To create a neat and tidy hole and channel you can use a router. The wooden plank can then slide into place within the cabinet’s interior. To finish you need to use a wooden plank without any openings to cover the completed construction.

Cable Protectors
We’ve left one of the simplest and quickest ways to keep unattractive and unsightly wiring for under-cabinet lighting out of the way. That is with cable protector. One way to do this is by bundling the wiring carefully and compactly into a bundle and then using tie wraps to hold it in place.

You can then stick it the underside of the cabinet using staples (being careful of course not to pierce the wiring and ruining all your hard work). The length of the wiring should be long enough to run from the lighting fixture itself to the wall outlet.

A cable protector normally takes the form of a wooden rectangle with a length the same as the bundle of secured wiring.

You can then use a router tool to cut a special groove into the wood where the bundle of wires can lie safely and securely without there being the possibility it will be pinched.

Then you finish the work by installing the cable protector over the bundle of wires on the cabinet’s underside to completely hide the wiring as if it was never there in the first place.

If the wooden cable protector does not match the color of the cabinet, you can use a suitable stain or paint to make it all look seamless. Or as close to seamless as possible.

Obviously, if you can plan your under cabinet lighting solutions at the time when you are planning your kitchen, that would be the best and easiest way to keep the wiring hidden.

However, we know that’s not always possible. لعب الروليت When it’s not the above tips are a great solution to ensure your kitchen looks as stunning as it should.

5 Resolutions you must make in 2020 for your lighting needs

The US LED Lighting market is projected to cross the $10 billion mark by this year. Given this trend, let’s look at some of the most important

This image shows before and after photos of a customized retail lighting project. When traditional lighting fails, it turns green (as seen in the photo) distorting clothing colors for months before finally shutting off.

resolutions that we should keep while making lighting decisions this year:

1. Make better choices: Shift to LEDs
There’s no doubt that LED Lighting has swept the traditional lighting markets. As LEDs get more affordable with improving technology, the days of high utility bills are almost over. Prices of LED

Lights have been falling for the past five years and with easy affordability, high efficiency, durability and low maintenance, they make it so obvious for operators to go for them, instead of choosing traditional lights.

Being a highly efficient lighting technology, LED lighting has the potential to fundamentally change the future of lighting in the US. Their widespread use has the greatest potential impact on energy savings across the country. According to Energy.gov, by 2027, widespread use of LEDs could save about 348 TWh (compared to no LED use) of electricity: This is the equivalent annual electrical output of 44 large electric power plants (1000 megawatts each), and a total savings of more than $30 billion at today’s electricity prices.

2. To make better choices, look at all the options together
Making comparisons between choices is an ideal way to make better decisions. Judging the benefits of different lights by comparing several factors such as quality, features, cost, etc. to choose the one that best fits our requirements. When faced with such decisions, we can examine one option at a time or review all our options together.

In a study recently published in the journal Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, people who viewed options together identified the best product more times than the ones who chose individually.
This has perhaps something to do with the possibility that with all the information in front of us, we compare the options more thoroughly and can identify the best option more easily. But, when faced with viewing options one at a time, we tend to form an overall judgment about each option and then have to go back and compare.

Here are some criteria to consider as you evaluate different lights:

  • Cost: One of the major criteria for projects is its budget. Hence it is important to decide on a price range and compare LED light price quotations of the same brand or similar brands.
  • Features: The features of a fixture outline its most important attributes that you might want to consider. It is imperative to decide on the features that best suit your requirements as you clearly would want to avoid paying extra for features that you don’t need at all.
  • Operating Hours: Rated life, often referred by the number of operating hours until the LED lamp is emitting 70 percent of its initial light output is one of the key factors to decide on a luminaire. Most LED lights come with a rated life of up to 50,000 hours and some even premium fixtures like IKIO’s Superia UFO High Bay and Prima UFO high Bay come with 100,000 hours.
  • Warranty: Every LED Light comes with its own warranty period and taking that into your considerations while choosing fixtures for your projects can have a significant impact.

3. Make informed choices: Read Warranty Terms carefully
A warranty is a manufacturer’s written agreement to repair a product or refund your money should the product not function properly. Manufacturers whose products are sold at retail by authorized dealers typically authorize them to deliver documents that contain the manufacturers’ undertaking with the products. ivermectina farmacocinética Manufacturers’ warranties are often framed in terms of assurance that the goods are free from defects in materials and workmanship and sometimes manufacturers undertake to repair or replace their products when a defect arises, for a certain period of time.

Some manufacturers cover only certain aspects of the fixture or its use while some cover the entire fixture with its components and add a disclaimer for its unspecified use. Take, for example, IKIO’s warranty conditions, which warrants the entire fixture including the LED, driver and fixture housing and clearly outlines its disclaimer for product damages caused by failure to follow installation, operating, maintenance or environmental instructions prescribed by IKIO or applicable electrical codes.

Hence, it is ideal and imperative to always read a warranty in its entirety, including the fine print, and ensure to understand its terms clearly. can i put ivermectin in dog food

4. Look for Safety Ratings that meet the desired application
Most of the LED lights sold in the United States have been tested and rated by an independent product safety certification organization. Underwriters Laboratories gives these products a UL Listing, and Intertek gives an ETL Listed mark. side effects of ivermectin overdose in dogs A RoHS certification would suggest a product’s compliance with the Restriction of the Use of certain Hazardous Substances in Electrical and Electronic Equipment (RoHS).

Every lamp would also come with IP (Ingress Protection) ratings to define levels of sealing effectiveness of the fixture against intrusion from foreign bodies and moisture.

In the case of explosion-proof LED lights intended for use in hazardous locations, it must contain IECEx and ATEX certifications, which describe general requirements for the construction, testing and marking of light fixtures for explosive atmospheres.

Since the food processing facilities are cleaned with high-pressure washdowns using corrosive chemicals. The lighting in these spaces is required to be NSF Certified to endure these tough conditions so that they contribute to the maintaining of a clean environment while safely lighting it up.

Every safety certification is unique and depends on the product and its intended application. Carefully accounting for these safety ratings vis-a-vis the light’s intended environment is an absolute necessity before considering any LED light.

5. Capitalize on Energy Savings and Rebates
Rebates are an effective way to see the return on investment for your new LED lighting system in a few years. Of the 2,500 utility companies in the United States, 800 of them offer some form of a rebate for LED lighting projects and it is important to make use of these rebate programs managed on the state and municipal levels to get a leg up in savings.

In the States, energy-efficient products including LED Lights are eligible for rebates from utility companies and state governments. In many cases, users are also offered tax exemptions and tax credits. Although requirements vary by state and utility companies, there is one common requirement:

The Qualified Products List by DesignLights Consortium (DLC) includes high-quality and high-performing LED products. A project by the Northeast Energy Efficiency Partnerships (NEEP), the major mission of DLC is to ensure the implementation of improved design practices in all areas of the commercial lighting market.

Residential LED products with this label are eligible for rebates. Products that earn the ENERGY STAR label meet strict energy-efficiency specifications set by the US EPA helping you save energy and money while protecting the environment. Look up rebates and special offers near you on ENERGY STAR certified products here.

Lighting products are required to be subjected to rigorous laboratory tests and both the ENERGY STAR and DLC Listed labels guarantee high performance and qualification of those tests. Rebates make LED products much more affordable and at times even reduce their costs below that of the traditional lighting systems that don’t qualify for these rebates. A major thing to also remember is that many incentive programs are limited by a budget or expiration date and you risk missing out on them if you wait too long before upgrading to LED lighting systems.

This article is courtesy oc Ikio Led Lighting (ikioledlighting.com)

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