Poor lighting in the workplace can cost businesses thousands in annual energy bills, as well as compromising the safety of your employees.

As we head further into winter, the need for sufficient lighting becomes even more essential. In this article, we will discuss the main types of lighting your business needs to keep your employees safe and your costs low.

Emergency Lighting

Emergency lighting is a legal requirement in the UK.

They must be tested yearly and faults should be corrected immediately, or you could risk voiding your insurance policies and endangering your staff.

Your building must have emergency lighting in areas of notable risk, such as:

• Toilets

• Reception areas

• Stairwells

• Elevators

• First aid rooms

• Fire doors & escape routes

• Fire alarm and fire extinguisher points

• Areas exceeding 8m²

• Areas with high footfall

A 3-hour drop test should be conducted to meet legal guidelines. The mains power will be shut off to illuminate existing emergency lighting ready for inspection. To be sufficient, the lighting must remain illuminated for a least one hour.

Here at NLT Electrical, we have tested hundreds of commercial buildings across the UK. We recommend allowing up to 5 hours to complete the emergency lighting test since different lighting will have different luminaire ratings and could stay lit for up to 3 hours.

For minimal disruption, the test should be carried out when your premises are quiet. This also reduces health and safety risks, so manufacturing plants or larger office buildings are usually tested over the weekend.

LED Lighting

Consistent, bright lighting is key in any building, especially commercial and industrial premises.

Upgrading to LED lighting is a great way to make your building safer, while saving time and money on replacements and annual energy bills. LEDs last up the 25x longer than traditional lighting which is great for difficult to reach places or areas with high footfall as disruption caused by ongoing maintenance is reduced.

Directional lighting is key in warehouses and factories with machinery. LEDs are ideal for this and are an easy way to increase safety and concentration when operating machinery. This allows your building to be well-lit, without increasing the number of fixtures.

Simply upgrading to LED lighting with motion sensors can save your business up to 70% on annual energy bills. To find out exactly how much you could save, request a free lighting survey from NLT Electrical today.

The Risks of Working in Poor Lighting

Eliminating poor lighting can lead to a safer and healthier workforce, improving employee satisfaction and efficiency levels.

Poor traditional lighting increases stress, anxiety and mistakes as concentration is compromised.

In factories and warehouses, having a properly distributed source of light is paramount. Machinery and moving forklifts or conveyor systems can be exceptionally dangerous at any time, but this risk increases tenfold with poor lighting and raised stress levels of its operators.

Nathan Tromans, NLT Electrical:

"Unsatisfactory light levels in the factory and walkways present an increased risk of accidents.

Upgrading existing highbay sodium fittings to highbay LED fittings provides a vast improvement on the muted yellow from previous lamps and makes the work environment far safer and easier to navigate."

Flickering lighting or changes in light levels can lead to misjudgement of the speed, position and shape of an object which could lead to manual handling errors, collisions, or worse.

Headaches, eye strain and the introduction of portable lighting also make for an unsafe workplace. Humans receive over 80% of their information through their eyesight, so compromising their vision due to poor lighting makes accidents and mistakes inevitable.

After transforming a manufacturing plant in Accrington, employees said it was "like daylight" leading to a dramatic uplift in productivity as well as slashing their annual energy bills by 50%.

Upgrading Couldn't Be Easier

With NLT Electrical, it couldn't be easier to meet legal guidelines, save money and ensure the safety of your employees and customers.

Our team of qualified engineers are ISO-9001 certified and can provide you with a free lighting survey and no-obligation quotation.

With winter in full swing, energy bills will continue to rise by up to 40% because lighting becomes even more necessary. LEDs and emergency lighting are imperative for your business to stay safe, legal and efficient throughout the new year and beyond.

Get in touch today for your free lighting survey and to book your emergency lighting test. Call our friendly team 01827 767 100 or email admin@nltelectrical.co.uk.

Visit https://www.nltelectrical.co.uk/