Construction Lighting: Ins & Outs of Illuminating Your ...

Jun. 24, 2024

Construction Lighting: Ins & Outs of Illuminating Your ...

Proper construction lighting is a critical component to worksite safety, not unlike the equipment and gear used by workers. It improves nighttime visibility, making workers less prone to hazards in the evening, and also ensuring the safety of passersby in high-traffic zones.

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To ensure lighting is up to code for a construction site, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has outlined a set of specific standards. OSHA standard 29 CFR .56 for construction areas sets minimum requirements, measured in foot-candles, for workers to navigate and avoid hazards.

A foot-candle is a standard level of light emitted from one candle falling on a one-square-foot area one foot away. The term remains a little vague and antiquated even by OSHA&#;s reckoning. Light, today, is typically measured as a lumen or lux. For the sake of simplicity, one foot-candle can be equated to one lumen per square foot.

Lighting Standards & Types

In OSHA standard .56(a), the minimum foot-candles for each area of operation are outlined. These include ramps, runways, storage areas, and work sites. Their requirements break down as follows:

Five foot-candles &#; General construction area lighting.
Three foot-candles &#; Concrete placement, excavation and waste areas, access ways, active storage areas, loading platforms, refueling, and field maintenance.
Five foot-candles &#; Indoors: warehouses, corridors, hallways, and exit ways.
Five foot-candles &#; Tunnels, shafts, and general underground work areas. Exceptions apply: for shaft and tunnel heading, ten foot-candles is the requirement for mucking, drilling and scaling. Bureau of Mines-approved cap lights are also acceptable.
Ten foot-candles &#; In general shops or construction plants such as screening plants, batch plants, carpenter shops, mechanical and electrical equipment rooms, rigging lofts, active storerooms, mess halls, and indoor toilets and workrooms.
Thirty foot-candles &#; first aid stations, infirmaries, and offices.

For industrial areas not covered by the OSHA standards, construction managers can refer to the American National Standard A11. 1-, R. This includes industrial lighting for warehouses, shipyards, loading docks, and other such circumstances.

While there is no one implementation or solution for construction lighting, there are ideal fixtures depending on the kind of work being conducted.

Light Towers

Light towers are versatile, capable of covering a wide area, and are the most common lighting application in construction sites. They typically consist of an adjustable mast, a generator, and a group of lighting components at the top that can rotate 360 degrees from as high as 30 feet.

In recent developments, solar-powered light towers last as long as 36 hours and work without generators, making them simple to relocate.

High Mast Lights

As opposed to temporary fixtures, these are semi-permanent installations. A light pole&#;as much as 100 feet tall&#;supports a luminaire ring, typically composed of four to eight lights covering a large area.

Nite Lights

Nite lights are another recent development approved for construction sites. They consist of metal halide lamps running at 400 watts covered by a diffusing cloth, creating a softer effect while providing sufficient lighting levels.

Balloon Lights

Balloon lights typically apply to workstations or mount onto equipment or vehicles. The lights have air or helium-inflated covers made of light-diffusing material placed on stands.

LED Lighting

LEDs have transformed the lighting industry. They have a longer lifespan, are more efficient, and are better for the environment. Since standard, CFL lighting is cheaply-made, worksite lighting has traditionally served as disposable equipment after job completion. It costs in terms of labor and waste, with only 20 percent on-average salvageable.

LED lighting, however, is designed as a reusable asset. It saves on energy, material, and labor for each project, leading to decreased charges for temporary lighting per project. Good sets can last five years, running around the clock.

Moving to LED can result in an aggregate savings of thousands of dollars. On top of that, electricity rates continue to rise while onsite lighting runs nonstop, night and day. Logistics play a part as well. LEDs cover more area at an 80 percent lower rate of consumption.

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Again, lower rates for the developer means more work for the contractor. Standard string lighting is extra work to install and difficult to keep and reuse. Furthermore, incandescent and CFL bulbs continually need replacing, resulting in dedicated labor costs and wasted materials.

One LED light, however, covers the same area as a 250-foot stretch of string lights, which reduces installation and maintenance logistics from 25 lights to one. Some designs are plug and play, which means less wiring work. They&#;re also easy to relocate, so they move with changes in jobsite configuration instead of getting in the way.

With the potential to reduce energy consumption by 60 to 90 percent, LEDs are one of the best options for a cost-effective reduction in CO2 emissions. LED floodlights, specifically, can provide optimal visibility for an otherwise dim construction site. Their illumination spans between 50 to 120 degrees of light, creating a large beam that can cover a vast area.

Thus, the efficacy of worksite lighting comes down not only to the fixture-type but the bulb-type. With tall, ample fixtures boasting LED light bulbs scattered throughout your construction site, it should be fairly easy to meet OSHA illumination standards.

Ellie Batchiyska is a writer for Relight Depot, an industrial and commercial lighting supplier that caters to contractors, construction workers, and warehouses.

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Learn About LED Lighting

The Basics of LED Lighting

What are LEDs and how do they work?

LED stands for light emitting diode. LED lighting products produce light up to 90% more efficiently than incandescent light bulbs. How do they work? An electrical current passes through a microchip, which illuminates the tiny light sources we call LEDs and the result is visible light. To prevent performance issues, the heat LEDs produce is absorbed into a heat sink.

Lifetime of LED Lighting Products

The useful life of LED lighting products is defined differently than that of other light sources, such as incandescent or compact fluorescent lighting (CFL). LEDs typically do not &#;burn out&#; or fail. Instead, they experience &#;lumen depreciation&#;, wherein the brightness of the LED dims slowly over time. Unlike incandescent bulbs, LED &#;lifetime&#; is established on a prediction of when the light output decreases by 30 percent.

How are LEDs Used in Lighting

LEDs are incorporated into bulbs and fixtures for general lighting applications. Small in size, LEDs provide unique design opportunities. Some LED bulb solutions may physically resemble familiar light bulbs and better match the appearance of traditional light bulbs. Some LED light fixtures may have LEDs built in as a permanent light source. There are also hybrid approaches where a non-traditional &#;bulb&#; or replaceable light source format is used and specially designed for a unique fixture. LEDs offer a tremendous opportunity for innovation in lighting form factors and fit a wider breadth of applications than traditional lighting technologies.

LEDs and Heat

LEDs use heat sinks to absorb the heat produced by the LED and dissipate it into the surrounding environment. This keeps LEDs from overheating and burning out. Thermal management is generally the single most important factor in the successful performance of an LED over its lifetime. The higher the temperature at which the LEDs are operated, the more quickly the light will degrade, and the shorter the useful life will be.

LED products use a variety of unique heat sink designs and configurations to manage heat. Today, advancements in materials have allowed manufacturers to design LED bulbs that match the shapes and sizes of traditional incandescent bulbs. Regardless of the heat sink design, all LED products that have earned the ENERGY STAR have been tested to ensure that they properly manage the heat so that the light output is properly maintained through the end of its rated life.

How is LED lighting different than other light sources, such as incandescent and Compact Fluorescent (CFL)?

LED lighting differs from incandescent and fluorescent in several ways. When designed well, LED lighting is more efficient, versatile, and lasts longer.

LEDs are &#;directional&#; light sources, which means they emit light in a specific direction, unlike incandescent and CFL, which emit light and heat in all directions. That means LEDs are able to use light and energy more efficiently in a multitude of applications. However, it also means that sophisticated engineering is needed to produce an LED light bulb that shines light in every direction.

Common LED colors include amber, red, green, and blue. To produce white light, different color LEDs are combined or covered with a phosphor material that converts the color of the light to a familiar &#;white&#; light used in homes. Phosphor is a yellowish material that covers some LEDs. Colored LEDs are widely used as signal lights and indicator lights, like the power button on a computer.

In a CFL, an electric current flows between electrodes at each end of a tube containing gases. This reaction produces ultraviolet (UV) light and heat. The UV light is transformed into visible light when it strikes a phosphor coating on the inside of the bulb. Learn more about CFLs.

Incandescent bulbs produce light using electricity to heat a metal filament until it becomes &#;white&#; hot or is said to incandesce. As a result, incandescent bulbs release 90% of their energy as heat.

Why should I choose ENERGY STAR certified LED lighting products?

There are more lighting options available today than ever before. Despite that, ENERGY STAR is still the simple choice to save on your utility bills.

LED bulbs that have earned the ENERGY STAR are subject to very specific requirements designed to replicate the experience you are used to with a standard bulb&#;so they can be used for a wide variety of applications. As the graphic on the right demonstrates, a general purpose LED bulb that does not qualify for the ENERGY STAR may not distribute light everywhere and could prove to be a disappointment if used in a table lamp.

ENERGY STAR means high quality and performance, particularly in the following areas:

Color Quality
- 5 different requirements for color to ensure quality up front and over time
Light Output
- Light output minimums to ensure you get enough light
- Light distribution requirements to ensure the light goes where you need it
- Guidelines for equivalency claims to take the guess-work out of replacement
Peace of mind
- Verified compliance with more than 20 requirements to address performance and labeling
- Long-term testing to back up lifetime claims
- Testing to stress the products in operating environments similar to how you will use the product in your home
- 3-year minimum warranty requirement

And as with all ENERGY STAR products, certified LED bulbs are subject to random testing every year to ensure they continue to meet the ENERGY STAR requirements.

For more information on how to select an ENERGY STAR certified bulb for each application in your home, view the ENERGY STAR Light Bulb Purchasing Guide (PDF, 1.49 MB) or use the interactive online Choose a Light tool.

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