How We Design Your Lighting System
Safety, security and human factors are of the upmost importance to MAC Solutions, and are paramount in our lighting designs. We may incorporate some or all of the following lighting concepts into our overall design. Your total satisfaction and energy savings is our goal.
Accent Lighting
High performance lighting, lighting that's efficient and relates well to the design of the building, helps make the building look better, helps with visual tasks and also can reduce energy use.
To produce dramatic effects, design ambient, task and accent lighting. Ambient lighting provides general room illumination and may reduce the need for additional portable lighting. Task lighting helps you see better where you need it. Accent lighting adds sparkle by focusing on an architectural detail such as a fireplace or on photos or artwork.
Energy Efficient Exit Lighting
It is a little known fact that safety devices such as exit signs and emergency lighting can draw a considerable amount of power over the course of a year. Many building managers and operations experts will tell you that incandescent exit signs that must be lit 24/7 can draw up to $50 a year in power costs. Needless to say, those figures can quickly add up.
The good news is that there are several ways to save power if you are interested in lowering those bills. Probably the most popular nowadays are LED lights, which tend to be brighter, cooler and longer lasting than traditional filament bulbs. Many signs that use such bulbs can reduce energy drain by up to 80 percent in a year.
Thankfully, LED's offer a number of other advantages as well so you never have to feel as if you are compromising on safety. Generally, the lights are tougher than traditional bulbs, meaning they can withstand greater stress in the form of heat or flooding. They also need replacing far less often than their filament counterparts, with some of the latest models lasting up to 10 years.
Emergency Lighting
Modern emergency lighting is installed in virtually every commercial and high occupancy residential building. The lights consist of one or more incandescent bulbs or one or more clusters of high intensity light emitting diodes (LED). The emergency lighting heads are usually either PAR 36 sealed beams or wedge base lamps. All units have some sort of a reflector to focus and intensify the light they produce. This can either be in the form of a plastic cover over the fixture, or a reflector placed behind the light source. Most individual light sources can be rotated and aimed for where light is needed most in an emergency, such as toward fire exits. Modern fixtures usually have a test button of some sort which temporarily overrides the unit and causes it to switch on the lights and operate from battery power even if the main power is still on. Modern systems are operated with relatively low voltage, usually from 6 to 12 volts. This both reduces the size of the batteries required and reduces the load on the circuit to which the emergency light is wired. Modern fixtures include a small transformer in the base of the fixture which steps down the voltage from main current to the low power required by the lights. Batteries are commonly made of lead calcium, and can last for 10 years or more on continuous charge. Most emergency lights last for a minimum of 90 minutes on battery power during a power outage.
Recessed Lighting
Though recessed fixtures are most easily installed between ceiling joists of new building or major remodeling projects, some recessed fixtures are designed specifically for retrofit applications and can slip into an existing ceiling space through holes made to accommodate wiring; however, the fixtures you choose must be rated for use near insulation (IC housing rated) whenever ceiling insulation is present. Shown here in a commercial setting, the lighting provides dramatic effects with the architecture of the building.
Specialty Lighting
Specialty lighting is a generic term which has been used to describe fancy, party or decorative lighting such as LED Rope Lights. There are many different types of specialty lighting. Specialty lighting is used both indoors and outdoors.
Specialty lighting can be used to make everyday tasks simpler, nightlife safer and create stunning and dramatic lighting effects. A popular type of specialty lighting is a green exit sign which we all come face to face with daily.
Specialty lights can be put into place throughout your landscaping to create a personalized touch. This well defined type of lighting also gives you great opportunity to create a style and taste of your own, whether it's a night safe light or a colorful and attention seeking lighting fixture.
Track Lighting
Versatile and adaptable, track lighting allows you to configure a lighting scheme that's custom made to meet your unique, individual needs. Track lighting is perfect for highlighting artwork, collections or architectural details, and it can also provide general or task illumination for an entire room.
In addition to simply making things a good deal brighter, well-designed lighting plays an important role in composing a comfortable atmosphere. However, solving your lighting problems doesn't just mean shedding more light on the subject. In many cases, rearranging the placement and intensity of the light sources provides a new look and increases functionality.
HID Lighting
High Intensity Discharge (HID) lighting technology replaces the filament of the light bulb with a capsule of gas. The light is emitted from an arc discharge between two closely spaced electrodes hermetically sealed inside a small quartz glass tubular envelope capsule. To operate, they require ballasts, which supply proper voltage and control current. The amount of light produced is greater than a standard halogen bulb, while consuming less power, and more closely approximating the color temperature of natural daylight.
Outdoor Lighting
Outdoor and warehouse commercial lighting should be durable, long-lasting and efficient. While the purpose of commercial lighting tends to be more utilitarian than aesthetic, it is nonetheless important to choose the type of bulb that is appropriate to your task. Even with commercial warehouse lighting applications, it is often important for handlers and receivers to inspect the products that enter and leave the warehouse. If color trueness is an important consideration, for example, then metal halide would be a good choice due to its ability to render colors as they would appear in daylight. If, on the other hand, you are exploring a commercial outdoor lighting application where sheer efficiency is most important, you might consider a high pressure sodium bulb. While the light tends to be orange gold in color, high pressure sodium bulbs tend to be more efficient and therefore longer lasting than metal halide.
illuminating opportunities for cutting edge energy efficient lighting solutions