Commercial Lighting

When you own a restaurant, lighting expenses can take a big bite out of the bottom line. There is not much you can do to avoid this issue, because most of your guests will expect the place to be well lit. There are some tips and tricks that you can try in order to cut down on the costs of commercial lighting for your business, tips which involve communicating with your staff, looking for good deals on lighting, and also conserving some of that light energy. This article also includes some areas and options where you might not think commercial lighting needed to be added.

First of all, a restaurant has a lot of areas that are going to call for different types of lighting. The strongest lights are going to have to be in your main dining area. The best option here is to either have a ceiling that is low or fixtures that hang down. A high ceiling with commercial light fixtures close to the roof will use a lot more energy in illuminating the whole room. Many restaurants will also use illumination controlled lights, which allow for various degrees of light depending on the atmosphere that you want to set. A good idea is to dim the lights somewhat for the after dinner crowds, and in turn up the bar lights a little bit more.

Lighting for the bar is important, as bars are one of the big features in a restaurant and they are very much a part of the atmosphere and the décor. Any collectors or freezers you have under your bar will need to be lit so that your bartender can see what she is getting, and your glassware should also be lit to give off a decorative feel. There are lots of commercial lighting available for bar display purposes, and tracking lights work well for framing the cases. This commercial lighting is for effect only, so it does not have to be as bright as the overhead lights.

Areas where you can’t really trim costs by cheating the lighting a bit are the washrooms and the kitchen. No matter how clean, washrooms that are not well lit will give the impression of a dingy establishment. Your washroom fixtures should give off a lot of light to the whole washroom and be constantly checked to make sure they do not need to be changed. The kitchen is the main work area of the restaurant, and the cooks will need to see what they are doing very clearly. Don’t forget to include lights in your walk-in cooler and freezer. There are special commercial lighting options for these locations that protect the bulb from shattering, and usually the glass features that cover the bulb are further encased in steel so that in the event that they should shatter, the fragments will not scatter into your inventory, which could cost a lot of money.

When it comes to lighting your restaurant, there are a lot of commercial lighting options available. Commercial lighting products can cost more that the average light, so make sure that you shop around to find the best deals possible and communicate with your staff the importance of light energy conservation.