Warehouse high bay light: the aisle grid is the layout
A racked warehouse is a grid, and the lighting has to serve two surfaces at once: the aisle floor and the vertical faces of the racking. One fixture aimed down the aisle usually does both, if the optic and the row position are right.
Specification
What the sheet states for this build, and what is confirmed per project.
| Topic | What the sheet states |
|---|---|
| Light level | From the task and the picking requirement, on the calculation |
| Aisle uniformity | Along the aisle and across the racking face |
| Optic | Narrow or medium, aimed down the aisle |
| Glare | Limit agreed where pickers look up |
| Control | Occupancy and daylight where the aisles allow |
| Mounting | Chain, hook or bracket, per purlin layout |
| Ingress protection | Confirmed per model on the current data sheet |
| Fixings | Detail and suspension length included in the quotation |
| Data sheet | Current revision, naming the delivered model |
Aisle width and racking height are the two dimensions that decide the optic. Take both before the quotation, and take the height to the top beam rather than to the roof.
Two surfaces, one fixture
The floor of an aisle is lit from above and behaves like any horizontal task. The racking face is vertical and is lit at a grazing angle, so it reads darker for the same level. That is why a warehouse can measure correct on the floor and still be hard to pick from.
The usual corrections are a wider optic, a row positioned over the aisle rather than over the racking, or a second row at lower output. Each is a layout decision, and each is much cheaper to take on a drawing than after the installation.
- The aisle width and the racking height, at the top beam.
- Whether the picking face or the floor is the primary task.
- The row positions the roof structure allows.
Sensing in an aisle
Occupancy sensing is the largest saving available in a warehouse, and the easiest to get wrong. A sensor that sees the neighbouring aisle switches the wrong row, so a picker works in a lit aisle beside a dark one, and the saving disappears into complaints.
The workable arrangement is a sensor per aisle, mounted to look along it, with a delay long enough that a picker does not walk into darkness. Daylight dimming on the perimeter rows, where the roof lights are, pays back fastest.
- The sensor field of view against the aisle geometry.
- The hold time, agreed with the people who work there.
- How the control is commissioned, and who can change it later.
Retrofit without a shutdown
Most warehouse retrofits happen around a live operation, one aisle or one night at a time. That changes what matters in the quotation: the fixing detail, the weight, and whether the new unit can use the old suspension point without a new survey.
Keeping the existing rows and fixings is usually the cheapest path, and it is also the one most likely to preserve a layout that was never designed for the racking. Model the existing rows first, then decide whether re-planning is worth the labour.
- Whether the existing fixing points can be reused, and their load rating.
- The circuit layout, so switching groups can stay as they are.
- The working window, and who is on site while it happens.
Before the order
- Aisle geometry in the enquiry: width, racking height, and which surface is read.
- Fixing detail: purlin, truss or chain, with the suspension length.
- Control plan: sensor per aisle, with the hold time agreed on site.
- Build
- Warehouse high bay light
- Line
- High bay lights
- Ask for
- Specification sheet, photometric file, aiming drawing
Send the space, get the sheet.
Build, specification sheet and the option list for each line item, in one reply.