Buyer’s Guide to High Bay Lights

​​Commercial and industrial facilities all over the country are realizing that switching to LED lighting can greatly reduce their energy costs and improve employee efficiency.

​​It is no secret that LED lights have revolutionized lighting thanks to their low energy consumption, reduced maintenance, high light output, and a myriad of other excellent benefits. They have become the cornerstone of indoor Industrial Lighting and Commercial Lighting.

These lights have helped businesses, organizations, and institutions to save a great deal of money on electricity and cooling costs. However, the unique needs of some of these facilities have business owners wondering, can LED lights replace what they’ve been relying on for decades?

​​The short answer is yes. LED lights are the most versatile lighting method on the market. With everything from explosion-proof and vapor tight fixtures to exit signs and panel lights, there’s an LED lighting solution for every setting.

One of these challenging, but familiar settings, is large spaces with high ceilings. Most lights don’t have the power to reach the ground and provide bright light. But, that’s not a problem for LED High Bays. We’ve put together 14 tips in our comprehensive LED High Bay Buyers Guide.

 

1. Lighting Plans are the Key to Success

The first thing before buying LED lights is to create a lighting plan. This is because different spaces need different types of lights. For instance, a storage room may only need a light with 30 foot candles. A large warehouse might need 50 foot candles. Assembly areas need more, 70+ foot candles.

Spaces like gymnasiums need bright and balanced lighting. Manufacturing facilities need bright lighting to keep the production area safe.

Creating a lighting plan is perhaps the most important thing you can do. It will dictate the rest of your lighting decisions and ensure that you get the lights you need and nothing else.

2. Determine The Light Levels you need – forget about watts for now

This is arguably the hardest part of the decision. Starting with an understanding of the light levels you need will greatly improve your chance of success.

Never start this process by thinking you need a X watt high bay fixture. 

Once you understand that, then most of the hard work is done. Creating a lighting plan will almost always find the ideal fixture. That means you don’t have to guess. It will tell you what is the right fixture.

The right fixture will provide the optimal light levels and provide balanced lighting. Too often we see bad results because fixture choice was guessed.

There are some guidelines we usually start with, and it has to do with mounting height. The higher the ceiling height, the more lumens you will need. Here’s a simple guideline you can follow.

Bulbs at 10-15 feet height must produce 10000-15000 lumens

Bulbs at 15-20 feet height must produce 16000-25000 lumens

Bulbs at 25-35 feet height must produce 36000 lumens or more

UFO Round High Bays

These are sturdy, small, and circular high bay lights. These fixtures can be a great replacement for all other conventional high bays like Metal Halides, High-Pressure Sodium, and HIDs.

UFOs can be the best option to go with if you want lights for warehouses and gyms. They are also good for the locations vulnerable to dampness since they are typically IP65+ rated.

Wattage Options: 100 Watts to 600 Watts

Lumens: 13,000 to 96,000

Efficiency Ratings: 130 to 180 lumens per watt

Replaces: 250 Watt to 2000 Watt Metal Halides and HID

Best Color Temperatures: 4000K or 5000K

CRI: 70+

IP Rating (Wet): IP65

Voltages: Standard: 100V-277V. High: 277V-480V (on select models only)

Impact Ratings: IK08 or above

Mounting Options: Pendant and Eye hook (most common)

Surge Protection: Available

Motion Sensors: Available

5. Make sure you know your voltage

The typical voltage range in most commercial and industrial indoor spaces ranges between 100 and 480 volts. LED Fixtures can accommodate these areas and offer several drivers. These drivers switch to the incoming voltage automatically, so there is no need to adjust the high bays during installation. The common LED Driver voltage ranges are:

​​100V-277V (Standard – included in the cost of the fixture)

​​277V-480V (High Voltage Option)

​347V-480V (Another less common High Voltage Option)

Takeaway: LED Drivers are auto-switching based on the voltage you have. There is no need to set the voltage as long as the voltage you have is within the voltage range allowed by the fixture.

6. What’s the best color temperature for you?

This can be a difficult decision. Color temperature is measured by the Kelvins scale where a high number represents yellow-warm light and a low number represents blue-cool light.

4000K is a good replacement for fluorescent lights or lights used in a commercial environment.

5000K is a great light for industrial applications and a perfect color to replace metal halide and HID.

Takeaway: 90%+ of all fixtures we sell are 5000K. The other 10% is 4000K.

7. What CRI (Light Quality) should you select?

CRI is the abbreviation for Color Rendering Index. It is the measurement of the real quality of the light produced by any light source.

LED lights for the commercial and industrial application should have a CRI of 70 or above.

For fine detail work, or places where painting and finishing occurs, 80+ CRI is a good option

Takeaway: The better the quality of light, the less quantity of light you will need. For most applications 70 CRI is fine

8. Using light controls like Motion Sensors

Light controls facilitate the automation of light capacity and power on/off handling. While choosing from the various dimming controls available for LED fixture, motion sensors are the best option for indoor lights.

PIR and Microwave are two major types of motion sensor controls.

Microwave sensors work best at detecting common movements in big spaces.

PIR or Passive Infrared sensors use infrared beams for detecting movements in target areas.

While the industrial-commercial facilities make use of microwave sensors, the smaller facilities or areas use PIR sensors.

A 0-10V dimmable driver must be installed in the LED fixture to work with these controls. These drivers allow motion sensors to automate low light levels. Without them, you can only control on/off.

Depending on the driver, 0V doesn’t always mean power off. Some drivers will only dim to 10% at 0 Volts

Takeaway: Future proof your purchase by ensuring your fixtures have dimmable drivers.

10. Do you have Hot Rooms with High Ambient Temperatures?

You need to also decide if you would want high-temperature resistant lights for your facility. Most LED lights are rated resistant to around 122 degrees F. If your facility gets hotter than that, then you should look into a high temperature high bay. We provide High Temperature Fixtures rated for 149 to 212 degrees F.

11. Is there a chance the fixtures might get hit?

Bigger spaces like manufacturing facilities, warehouses and school gymnasium are more vulnerable to facing high impacts  on their light fixtures. This raises the need for rugged and impact resistance lights for such areas.

The impact resistance with the performance retaining ability of any light is represented by IK ratings.

IK ratings range from IK01 to IK10 where IK10 denotes the strongest lights.

Thus, if you have any such spaces where the lights are prone to any accidental impact like gyms go with the IK08+ rated lights.

Takeaway: UFO High Bays are typically your best solution if you need impact rated fixtures.

12. Is your location Wet? Do you need to wash your fixtures?

If your fixtures are installed in areas that can get wet, then you need to consider an IP rated fixture. The most basic of all water protection is IP65. For high pressure washdowns with hot water and steam used in food processing environments, make sure its IP69K rated.

Takeaway: UFO High Bays and NSF Rated fixtures are all IP Rated for wet location installations. For the most part, linear fixtures are not IP Rated (we do have some that are though)

13. Do you have Hazardous / Explosive Conditions?

If your fixtures are installed in hazardous locations where fire and explosions could occur, then you need to consider explosion proof rated fixtures. These fixtures are designed to work in the most hazardous of all locations and keep your facility and worker safe.

14. Do you need Food Safe / NSF Rated fixtures?

If you need Food Safe lighting,  a standard high bay will not work. NSF has a program that certifies light fixtures for these environments. These fixtures are tested to be safe in food / pharmaceutical environments and designed to withstand frequent hot water high pressure washdowns.

Get Your Free High Bay Lighting Plan

Founded in 2008, LED Lighting Supply has been providing high bay lighting solutions to facilities across the country for more than a decade.

Whether you need a free lighting plan or have questions about LEDs, our expert lighting team will help you make the right choice – whether that’s for a school gym or a 1,000,000 square foot facility.

Contact us for a free lighting plan or to discuss your LED lighting goals.