Furniture Store Lighting Question For Monte Lee

QUESTION ABOUT USING "WARM" FLUORESCENT TUBES FOR WOODEN FURNITURE

Hello Monte,

While I am not in the traditional furniture retail business, I do own a piano dealership which sells not only pianos but also Howard Miller clocks.   I've long struggled with proper lighting (color temps) in my current location but am in the process of moving to a new store in the next couple of months.   I would greatly appreciate your thoughts on lighting a store filled with wooden furniture such as pianos.   As a note...I once installed a few "warm" flor. tubes in my current store and found it gave a strange green/gray cast to the wood...perhaps it was just a really bad CRI for those tubes?    In any case, I'm curious if your recommendation for a color temp equal to a halogen will apply in my case.

Thank you in advance for any insight/advise you can give me.

Bill



REPLY FROM FURNITURE WORLD CONTRIBUTOR MONTE LEE, SERVICE LAMP


Hi Bill,
 
You are on the right track when you note that some tubes, especially the old T12 tubes, have poor color rendering. "Warm white" or "cool white" you find at Home Depot are typically in the 60s out of 100. The ones we use in stores are in the high 80s which is a big difference.

Modern T8 tubes range from warm to cool as well but with much better color rendering. Warm would be 3000 degrees on the Kelvin scale and cool is 4100 - 5000. The cool favors blue while warm favors red. What we have relied on for retail is 3500K, right in the middle. I know when you do the math that doesn't seem like the middle but in terms of how out eyes work it is. That gives us a nice bright look in the sales area but is still good for wood. I wouldn't be disappointed if you wanted a more subtle look and went with 3000. That temperature is used in upscale fashion retail which also used accent lighting.

I would like to see some accent lighting, usually track on those clocks. Clocks are generally on the back wall so using an accent would show the detail plus make the area stand out. Your arrangement is a little more dynamic as shown on your website and it looks like there are accent lights.

You could also use accent lighting to create focal points in the store. A single fixture would add a lot of pop to a keyboard or twinkle to that magnificent, gloss black. Needn't be many but they would certainly add visual interest. Those accents could be either halogen (2900K) or LED (2700K). Those temperatures appear the same because the technology is the different. Either one works with 3000-3500 fluorescents. LED for accents would be best because they last a long time and don't generate as much heat or use as much electricity as halogen.

If your new store is being built or remodeled I can help you with the layout, fixtures and lamps. The layout is at no charge and we have national pricing on our commercial products. That means your price is based on our volume not the size of your order. Just let me know if you have any other questions or if we can help on this important project.

Regards

Monte D. Lee, National Account Manager
Service Lamp Corporation
1517 York Ave, High Point, NC 27265
P. 336-847-4164         F. 877-898-2852

Posted By Russell, 11/10/2014

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