When things go wrong with the electricity in your home, it’s easy to get overwhelmed in a hurry. Do you need an immediate solution? Is the problem normal? What should I do!? All very understandable when you’re talking about something as both volatile and vital as electricity. The team at Hoffman Electrical in Tampa never wants you to be at a loss, and today we’re going to differentiate normal electrical behavior, and things that are emergencies!

Sale posters and coupons aren’t the only ways to make sales. You can use lights to your advantage, too. LED retail lighting can be used to create an environment that makes shoppers feel welcome and caters to their needs and expectations. Use LED store lighting to draw people in, to keep them focused, to guide them throughout your store, and to save money. There are so many ways that the right lighting can be beneficial to customer satisfaction and sales. Take a look at the following list of do’s and don’ts to achieve store lighting that will help you reach your goals.

There’s more to effective LED retail lighting than meets the eye. Creating an efficient lighting system that looks how you want while promoting products, making customers feel comfortable, and, in turn, increasing sales involves knowing the technical details of potential bulbs and fixtures. These details include efficacy, color-rendering index (CCT), and intensity.

Intensity/Lumens

In the past, the brightness of incandescent, halogen, fluorescent, or high-intensity discharge (HID) lights was measured by wattage. Now, a common method for measuring brightness is lumens. The higher the lumens, the brighter the bulb. Comparable wattage is always listed on our product pages for compatible products. If you’re upgrading from incandescent to LED and want a bulb or fixture that’s similar in brightness, you can use lumens for an estimate of what incandescent wattage would be. Simply remove the last number of the lumen value. The number that’s left represents estimated incandescent wattage. As an example, an LED light that emits 600 lumens is approximately as bright as a 60-watt incandescent bulb.

Efficacy

As a business owner or manager, you’re most likely concerned with getting the biggest bang for your buck. By paying attention to efficacy, you can make sure that you get the most light for the amount of power the bulb or fixture consumes. Efficacy is the amount of visible light that is produced with a certain amount of power (watts). You can determine the efficacy of a product by dividing its lumens by the watts it consumes. For example, a bulb that emits 480 lumens and consumes eight watts of power (480/8) has an efficacy of 60 lumens per watt. A bulb with this efficacy would be a much better option than one that emits 480 lumens at 12 watts.

CCT

CCT indicates the hue and tone of white light emitted from a specific bulb or fixture. CCT is measured in Kelvins (K), which is similar to degrees in Celsius. Different temperatures on the Kelvin scale represent different colors. For example, light at 2000K-3500K looks more orange/yellow and is called ultra warm or warm white, and as temperature increases in Kelvins, color changes to more of a “paper white” known as natural or neutral white (between 3500K and 5100K) and finally into a bluish-white known as cool white (5100K+).

The color temperature you choose will depend on the mood and shopping experience you want to give your customers. A retailer like Hollister for instance, who strives to create a laid-back, relaxed atmosphere, utilizes warm white and even ultra-warm white lights. Add on the cozy furniture setup and music and it’s clear that the goal is to get customers to hang out, relax, and spend more time in their store. Logic says that the more time you spend in a store, the higher the chances are that you’ll buy something.

Bed Bath and Beyond, on the other hand, uses a different approach to make sales. Their stores are filled with bright natural white light to showcase the wide variety of products that they offer. Customers are going to struggle in a store like BBB if it’s dimly lit. Knowing whether or not a shirt looks good is a lot different than buying new pots and pans. Dim light is flattering and more forgiving when customers are trying on clothes, but it won’t help you read whether or not your pans are dishwasher safe or scratch resistant. The lighting you choose should mesh well with the products you’re trying to sell. Using lighting to set the mood is a great idea so long as that mood doesn’t impact a customer’s ability to shop.

One of any retailer’s main goals when choosing lighting is to make sales. Use light to your advantage when trying to highlight certain things or create visual appeal. Make it obvious where new arrivals or sale items are. Use light to create a path that will guide customers through your entire store. Use LED sign modules for your store window or LED light boxes that feature your products. Anything unique, whether it’s cove lighting, lighting under a set of shelves, decorative light fixtures, or simply how you arrange your lights, is more likely to catch someone’s eye.

There are so many retail lighting options to choose from. Take a look at the list below to see some of the possibilities.

LED tube lights for fluorescent light fixtures

LED strips or puck lights for display case and shelf lighting

Retrofit can lights

Sign modules for store windows or creating custom signs

Canopy lights for outdoor overhangs

If your floor plan is constantly changing, it might be best to install a retail lighting system that can be changed as well. Track lights or gimbal and eyeball can lights can all be aimed in different directions. Depending on the products you’ll be displaying, you might also want to order new bulbs of varying intensities or color temperatures for these fixtures.

There are numerous places that are easy to overlook when planning your retail lighting project. Don’t forget the fitting rooms. This is where shoppers ultimately decide if a clothing item will work for them. Natural or warm white light is best, and a high-CRI LED light will show colors most accurately.

Illuminate aisles to guide customers through the store. Shoppers shouldn’t feel like they’re lost in a maze. Give them a sense of direction to know how to get where they want to go.

Don’t make it hard for customers to leave your store. Use LED light bulbs for exit sign backlighting and spotlighting. These lights are especially important during power outages or in emergencies.

If you’re putting your products on shelves, overhang from other shelves can cause shadows or limit light to the area. LED strip lights are a great solution for this. They have adhesive backings for easy installation, and most can be cut to fit the area that needs lighting. If you’re not crazy about the look of a strip under your shelves or if you want to eliminate hot spots (bright points of light), you can create your own LED strip light fixture using an aluminum channel and diffusing lens.

Make sure the checkout and customer service areas can be found easily in your store. Use different lighting or more lighting to make it stand out. Get creative with LED strip light fixtures around the counter, an edge-lit sign, or a custom-printed LED light box.

You might think that your parking lot has nothing to do with sales, but that is incorrect. If your parking lot is dimly lit, your store is not only less visible, but it’s also not as safe as it could be. A poorly lit parking lot can make customers feel uncomfortable and can lead to accidents. It can also be a problem for capturing security footage.  

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To see more retail lighting options, visit our commercial lighting category, indoor and outdoor LED lights can also be found in our light box, fixtures, landscape categories.

Help for Heroes, an organization that aids wounded soldiers in the UK. Munro’s inspiration for the exhibit:

Two years ago I was riding my bicycle in the lanes near my workshop – it’s a very good way to keep fit. But that winter afternoon it was dark and my lights had failed, and I fell off into a ditch full of icy cold cow-poop. As I got to my feet, the idea of cycling in a warm, dry, well-lit environment seemed irresistibly attractive. Almost immediately when I got home I started sketching the Star-Turn bike. – Bruce Munro, his website. Here’s one more photo of the magnificent Star-Turn:

Thinking back to the Big Freeze in February might make you shiver.  Many of Dallas’ residents were stuck indoors for days on end, unable to even get out of their driveways.  But perhaps the worst parts of the early February freeze were the rolling blackouts that some residents suffered.

According to Oncor, the power delivery company in North Texas, 1.3 million residents were affected by these blackouts.  Luminant, the biggest power provider in the state, lost 11 coal and natural gas generators on February 2.  This trickled all the way down to North Texas residents, and even fire stations and police stations were stuck without power.

Losing power during a cold snap can be quite an an inconvenience.  If you’re without power for an extended period of time, you might have to incur extra costs, or even face the danger of driving on icy roads by going out to eat, or even be driven out of your home to a hotel room to stay warm for the night.  In the office, or even at home, a sudden power outage can cause you to lose precious data on your computer as well.  So what can you do to prevent these things from affecting you in the future?  Install an emergency power system.

An uninterruptable power supply (or UPS) provides emergency power to your home in the event of a power outage.  Designed to provide instant backup power, a UPS uses batteries or diesel generators to keep you up and running.  There are a variety of types of uninterruptable power supplies, and a Dallas Electrician can help find the one that will fit your home or office, and can install it safely for you.

So, before you’re left in the dark or cold again, talk to a local electrician in Dallas about the different emergency power systems available for you, and which one will best fit your needs.  They will be able to assess your situation and make sure your power system is safely installed.  Then, the next time North Texas suffers from rolling blackouts, you’ll be able to rest easy knowing your family and home is safe from the heat or cold.