Industrial companies can eliminate the costs of contracted design and installation services by building their own commercial lighting systems. This is not as difficult as it may appear. Each commercial lighting system consists of two main categories: interior lights and exterior lights. Each of these categories divides once again into two categories of purpose: functional lighting and decorative lighting. Understanding these two facts alone simplifies the process of selecting components, as few industrial clients need much, if any, decorative lighting. Because commercial lighting systems serve primarily a practical purpose, operations managers can itemize the major activities that occur in and around their facilities and literally match lighting to worker activity through simple, efficient, online inventory and order processing.



The first priority of most industrial clients is heightened security. Commercial lighting systems offer a number of clear and tangible enhancements to any company's protection of its buildings and employees. The most obvious benefit a better commercial lighting system brings is improved visibility through elimination of all shadows in parking lots and between buildings. Crime simply cannot occur as easily if there are no dark places for intruders to hide. With commercial lighting systems, a company can customize flood lighting by installing half of their floodlights on timers that turn lights on at sundown and off at sunrise. They can save costs by installing the remainder of their floodlights with motion sensors, providing additional lighting only when the system detects and intruder and gives a sudden, bright surprise to unauthorized personnel. Security cameras and guards can see more clearly around the edges of buildings fitted with wall packs and other external lights. Most companies have a wide variety of fixtures custom-engineered to fit on the sides and roofs of many different building types. Adding wall packs to one's commercial lighting system is a very cost effective way to create a field of light around the entire building and make any attempt at intrusion immediately visible to cameras and guards. Adding glare free parking lot lights to increase visibility between vehicles, and sign lighting at the front entrance adds further security by eliminating any dark areas unauthorized personnel can use to gain access to the property.

Selecting interior lights for commercial systems is simple and cost effective when a few basic factors are considered with each purchase. First, what room or industrial facility will the fixture illuminate? How many workers will be in this room, and what will they be doing while there? How important is high color rendering to safe and efficient work? Will the lights be on continuously, or only on when workers enter for a few minutes at a time? In very general terms, large machine rooms and storage areas don't require high color rendering and tend to need continuous light. Commercial systems normally feature long-burning fluorescents in these areas that require fewer bulb replacements and reduce power consumption. In offices, halogen lights offer a clearer rendering of color and glare free lighting for people working at computers, copy machines, and desks. Interior commercial light systems can be built per room, per specific task, in this fashion. One or two metal halide lights in a manager's office is all one needs for a Spartan touch of decorative color. Fluorescents that give task light only when needed cut costs in bathrooms and kitchens, and the heat recycling ability of halogen lights gives ideal illumination for meeting rooms without spiking the power bill with unnecessary brightness and high temperature.