Part 1: How to optimise your lighting?
What type of lighting and where?
1. Four types of lighting can be used in a shop. They can be combined depending on the type of atmosphere you want and on the different areas of the shop.
- Accent lighting. Used to highlight areas, displays and special settings in your shop or to light up dark areas
- Work area lighting. Focused on areas where more light is needed, such as the area around the till.
- Ambient lighting. Intended to fill in the spaces between lit zones and enables customers to explore the entire store.
- Decorative lighting. When well-chosen (large chandelier, original lamp, etc.), it will add an aesthetic touch to your shop.
Types of installation
2. Plan for enough lights to provide suitable lighting to highlight the products and provide visual comfort for people.
3. Install suitable lighting in high-risk areas (stairs, etc.) and strategic locations (doors, reception, etc.).
4. Check their placement. The light must be effectively directed to what needs to be lit up/highlighted. It must also be suited to the layout you want and the areas or items to be lit up. In addition, customers will be uncomfortable if the light blinds them during their shop visit. The light must be directed to the floor or the shelves to provide a visual aspect that promotes sales and ensures customer comfort.
5. Adapt your lighting to the activity taking place in the room. The different areas of a shop or department store must rarely all be lit up at the same time. For example, turning some lights off depending on the activity or when there are no customers, can generate great savings over the course of the year.
6. Install motion detectors in storage areas. This will enable you to turn on and shut off lights as needed and considerably decrease the time the lamps are used.
7. Use a little trickery by hanging mirrors. This will immediately optimise the overall lighting. However, be sure to eliminate any glare.
8. Install a twilight sensor/dimmer if your shop has a significant amount of natural light. These sensors automatically adjust to the light intensity depending on the amount of natural light. The bulbs will only turn on if the flow of light from outside is not strong enough. Prioritising natural light provides significant savings.
9. Adjust your night/day light. Contrary to popular belief, displays need less light at night than during the day. A day display needs more light to contrast with natural light. Choose a system that adjusts lighting levels automatically according to the time of day.
For example, program a timer to turn off your lights between midnight and 6:00 am when there are very few potential customers in the street. If turning off the lights completely isn't possible, only leave a few of the bulbs on in the window. The surrounding darkness will enhance the visual effect, so there will be enough light. Careful, however: to do this, your window may have to be equipped with two separate electrical circuits. Remember that certain light pollution regulations require that window display lights be turned off at a set time of the night. Be aware of the current regulations in your municipally.
Finally, note that in France, for example, turning off the lights in shop windows between 1:00 am and 7:00 am has saved the equivalent of the annual electricity consumption of 750,000 households since 2015, preventing the emission of 205,000 tonnes of CO2 and saving 200 million euros. It also helps safeguard biodiversity by preventing unnecessary light pollution.
How to choose the right bulbs?
10. Replace your old energy-hungry bulbs with new ones with the same or greater lighting power, but which use less energy (high-efficiency bulbs, LEDs, etc.). They are more expensive to buy but, their cost is largely offset by greater efficiency (lower consumption) and, therefore, by a much longer life (fewer replacements and maintenance). In addition, the bulbs generate a lot less heat, which means that you won’t have to put on the air conditioning during hot weather.
11. Understand the bulb labelling to be sure you’re getting enough light. Replacing energy-hungry bulbs with more energy efficient solutions doesn’t always go hand-in-hand with more light. To ensure that the amount of light provided by a bulb is right, be sure to look at the information and parameters on the packaging.
12. Adjust the colour temperature of the bulbs based on the products for sale. If you sell food products, certain colours are preferable to enhance the appearance of your goods. A fish shop should use “cool white” lighting (also called “pure white”) above 5,000K with bluish colours to enhance the freshness of the white flesh of the fish. On the other hand, the lighting in a butcher shop or charcuterie should be “warm white” between 2,800K and 3,000K. The reds in the light will reveal the natural red colour of the meat.
You should use “natural white” light (between 4,000K and 4,500K) for fruits and vegetables. This is a neutral white, also called “daylight” which makes the colour of fruits and vegetables look natural. Lastly, for a bakery, you should select a “warm white” (under 3,000K) to create a warm atmosphere and emphasise the freshness, warmth and, especially, the crustiness of fresh bread and pastries.
How to choose the right lamps?
13. Choose indoor lights with a colour rendering index (CRI) of at least 90: the higher the CRI, the better it will be from a visual standpoint. Shops need lighting solutions with a very good CRI, that is, the lights must enable us to see all of the colours. Daylight has a CRI of 100 (maximum value). While incandescent and halogen lights (which produce a continuous light spectrum) also have a CRI close to 100, they are very energy-hungry.
14. Opt for lamps with reflectors for bulbs which have a very wide angle of diffusion, like neon. Lamps without them lose lighting power and therefore waste energy.
15. Choose lamps that have transparent, not translucent, covers. The lamps can be less powerful but provide more light for less energy. On the other hand, some covers are very opaque and absorb a lot of the light created by the lamp.
16. Opt for an electronic ballast rather than a ferromagnetic one. This has a number of benefits including lower consumption (about 75%) constant over time.
How to ensure everyone’s safety?
17. Install security lighting in your shop. Like all premises that are open to the general public, your shop, in accordance with European standard NBN EN 1838, must have emergency exit lighting to guide people out in the event of an emergency (exits, direction changes, obstacles, etc.) and anti-panic lighting that comes on when the general lighting system fails.
How to get help?
18. Call on specialists (auditors) to find the solution that meets the needs and requirements of your business. Lighting is a highly technical and complex field and solutions will vary depending on many different criteria: business sector, infrastructure, space layout, room use, etc. There is no standard solution. The assistance of a professional who understands all of the parameters is essential to ensure that a complete remake of the lighting installation in your business will be entirely successful.
19. Get free lighting support with the Energy Pack. Contact the UCM energy advisor. They will help you determine if your project is eligible for Energy Pack financing support which can cover up to 40% of your investment.
Bruxelles Environnement Energy Pack
20. Financial aid is available to help you do an audit. While the cost of renovation will vary significantly from one case to another, the allowance provided will generally pay for itself over a period of three to five years thanks to the significant energy savings it generates.
For more info, visit : https://environnement.brussels/thematiques/batiment-et-energie/primes-et-incitants/les-primes-en-2020/primes-etudes-et-audits
