General lighting in rooms or buildings with high ceilings have typically been by high bay light fixtures. Theses high bay fixtures can be found in many different places such as gyms, garages, storage facilities and warehouses. Some of these traditional high bay fixtures make use of high-intensity discharge (HID) bulbs such as metal halides while other high bay fixtures use fluorescent bulbs. High bay fixtures typically come in two types, there are numerous variations and each comes with their own pros and cons, but you can usually classify them into either pendants or linear high bays. Pendants usually take up more vertical space while linear high bays do not. Pendant high bays offered higher lumens (brightness) but the life span was not long, Their fluorescent linear high bays offered a little bit better life span, they couldn’t get as bright as the HID pendants.
Today however, there are LED bays, that are offered in pendant form as well as linear form. Both offer very high lumens, longer life cycle and less power consumption. LED high bays are about twice as efficient as the fluorescent high bays while lasting 4-6 times longer. When comparing the LED high bays to HID high bays, LED high bays are 3-4 times more efficient and lasts about 4-6 times longer then their HID counter parts.
Before making a choice, take into consideration what type of LED high bay the building needs, either pendant or linear. What CCT (color of light) are you wanting. CCT is the color of light spectrum emitted from the light fixture, and i expressed in kelvin. A 3000k light is a warm light, 4000k is referred to as natural white light, and 5000k + is referred to as a cool light. Next, take into account the amount of lumens you will need. LED high bay fixtures have a higher efficacy (lumens/watt) then your legacy HID metal halide or fluorescent fixtures. So converting to your new efficient LEDs will require you to know your lumen requirements and not your wattage needs. Don’t worry, this is worth the effort.
Other things which you should take into mind are that there are some LED high bay light fixtures which can be pretty heavy and will need extra support. Therefore you should make a comparison between your present ceiling configuration and the installation requirements for each light in order to decide which fixture would work best. You must be sure that there is no problem with the warm-up factor at your place of work because when an HID light gets switched on it will take around 10 minutes for it to warm up and provide light.
When it comes to lighting power HID lights have the ability to provide more light over a greater distance and can be the better choice for rooms which have high ceilings. So all you have to do is to select the design which best suits your workplace. LED high bay lights can be protected by a wire cage, a lens or they can be left unprotected. However keep in mind that protected lights are kept safer than damage especially in work areas where equipment might come close to them. On the other hand unprotected lights do have a higher degree of lighting and can be more affordable so that they should have the choice when no equipment or no one can get near them.
So make sure you know the kind of LED lighting you need and the kind of space where it will be set up to be sure that everything goes according to all safety regulations. Remember that the last thing you would want is for your LED high bay lighting fixture to come crashing down. Get all the information you need and do it right the first time getting adequate lighting just where you need it the most.
