Everybody thinks it's easy to open a catalog and pick a lighting fixture, but let's face it: it's nothing but easy. This is especially true in commercial, retail and institutional applications.
What beam angle do I need? What color temperature? What kind of lighting output? How far from the ground to be mounted? Should I use recessed, suspension, track or surface mount fixtures? LED, metal-halide or fluorescent?
These are questions that need to be answered before the aesthetics can be taken into consideration.
Even a trade professional can be overwhelmed by the multitude of choices presented in the catalogs these days.
This is when lighting consultant comes in handy. These are trained professionals, certified by the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America (IESNA).
An experienced lighting consultant will do a detailed day-light analysis of the application, and, based on the IESNA guidelines and product features, propose a certain product. Furthermore, an in-depth energy-efficiency study can be produced.
Based on accumulated experience, a consultant can easily recommend the product to be used and even the manufacturer. They can even do a comparative study, between the different options they will propose. And the choice is based on light-level calculations, renderings and AutoCAD drawings. Any 2D design drawing can be imported and analyzed with special lighting software, for best results.
And this can save the architect or designer many hours of work and frustration in completing a project.
So, do you think you really need a lighting consultant? The answer is simple!
