LED High Bay Lighting: Reduce Risks Involved With Working at Height

You will no doubt have heard about the energy saving benefits associated with LED lighting, but have you considered how these long life lamps can impact upon health and safety at your place of work? A clue to the challenges involved in changing a high bay lamp come in the name – they are fitted in high and often difficult to reach places. This article examines the health and safety issues surrounding replacing high bay lighting and how LED lighting can reduce the risks involved in working at height.

As a responsible business owner you are no doubt aware of the health and safety regulations concerning working at height. The working at height directive outlines the following guidelines when it comes to working at height:

• all work at height is properly planned and organised;

• those involved in work at height are competent;

• the risks from work at height are assessed and appropriate work equipment is selected and used;

• the risks from fragile surfaces are properly controlled; and

• equipment for work at height is properly inspected and maintained.*

When replacing high bay lighting these guidelines must adhered to and the most important consideration should be how any risks involved in working at height can be avoided, for example by reducing the number of times that high bay lights require changing. Not to mention reducing the financial implications of purchasing new lights/lightbulbs and costs involved in the hire or purchase and use of safety equipment/qualified personnel required to replace high bay lighting.

The technology in the LED market has now developed to offer industrial LED lighting solutions that match the luminous efficacy of metal halide (100 lm/w) yet last for a longer period of up to 50,000 lighting hours. That’s around 3 times that of metal halide lamps and when you consider the aforementioned costs and safety considerations that are involved in replacing high bay lights, LED can offer considerable financial benefits to business owners.

In industrial lighting applications where large areas need to be lit for extended periods during the day and overnight, lighting can prove to be a huge proportion of energy consumption. These costs can also be reduced with the installation of high power LED lighting. Unlike traditional SON and metal halide high bay lighting, LED offers instant illumination with no warm time, so immediately companies will save on 100% of the energy used when lights have to be left on overnight, or switched on early so that there is enough light to work in once the working day begins. Once you add these savings on energy to the savings that can be made on replacement costs it becomes clear that the future of safe and cost effective high bay lighting lies with LED lighting solutions.