A cold store lit right at the design stage instead of retrofitted later

A new build is the only moment when lighting is genuinely free to decide. Every other project on this site is a retrofit, which means working within an existing ceiling, an existing circuit layout and an existing set of mounting positions chosen for a different technology.

The risk on a new build is the opposite of the retrofit risk. Lighting is a small line on a warehouse construction budget and it is competitively tendered late, which is exactly the condition under which a building gets fittings chosen on unit price and inherits a twenty-year operating cost in the process.

The freezer room adds a specific requirement. Fittings in frozen space have to start and run reliably at temperature, and every watt they draw becomes heat the refrigeration plant has to remove.

The lighting was specified as part of the facility design rather than tendered as a commodity at the end, working alongside the project team and the electrical installers.

60 W LED linear high bays were used through the warehouse and the freezer room. A linear high bay suits racked storage better than a round-beam fitting because the distribution follows the aisle rather than spilling across the racking, which is what allows a lower installed load to deliver usable light where people and forklifts actually work.

The result is a building commissioned at an estimated 34,044 kWh a year of lighting consumption. There is no saving to report because there was never any waste to remove.