Why Choose LED High Bay Lights For Your Shed

We all know that low lighting levels can potentially cause serious cuts and burns while working inside a poorly lit shed or garage. It gets even worse when you trip over cables or tools left lying on the floor by one of your mates. Falls and slips often occur in a poorly lit workplace. To avoid such events, sheds, warehouses, and garages need to be lit appropriately. Good lighting in sheds not only reduces strain on your eyes while working but also improves productivity and the overall vibe of the place. In this article, you will get to know:

• What kind of lights can be installed in sheds or garages? 
• What to consider when choosing lights for shed?
• Why LED high bays are a great alternative to mercury vapour or metal halide high bays?
• Which is the best shed lighting? 
• Rebates for LED high bay shed lights under the VEU program

Lighting choices for sheds

You can light up a shed either by natural lighting or use solar or energy provider supplied electricity to power fluorescent/halogen/incandescent/LED light fixtures.    

Use natural light

Letting sunshine through windows, solar tubes or skylights to brighten up your shed costs you nothing, plus it is aesthetically pleasing and better than artificial light when it comes to a healthy workplace. The only problem with natural lighting is that they create shadows and dark patches. Turn on the overhead artificial lights when you feel annoyed by shadows. To utilise and maximise on natural light, you can:

• Allow natural light to flow through the windows
• Open door windows
• Install skylights (fixed/tubular/vented)/solar tubes on the roof to utilise the sunlight
• Paint shed ceilings and walls with light colours to increase natural light efficiency

Artificial lighting

Natural light is not always available. During cloudy days, artificial lighting is required to light a shed. A shed can be artificially illuminated in an energy-efficient way by installing: 

• Solar-powered lights
• Battery-powered lights
• LED lights

What to consider when choosing lights for your shed?

Before deciding on lighting for your shed, consider the following: 

• What is the current natural light level inside the shed? 
• Is there a way to increase natural lighting level indoors? 
• The location of your shed. Australia is one of the sunniest countries in the world (Melbourne gets about 7 hours of sunshine per day).
• If you plan to use the shed for garage/workshop jobs, you will need task lights.

Why choose LED high bays for sheds?

It is most likely that you lost something inside the shed on a partly cloudy or overcast day. During nighttime, accidents may happen while working in the shed in poor lighting conditions. To avoid such events, lighting experts recommend installing LED shed lights. LED high bays are preferred in sheds and other big commercial spaces where ceiling height is greater than 20 feet (6.1 m) and floor area is large. LED high bay lights are better than old lighting tech like metal halide, high pressure sodium vapour lamps and fluorescent high bays because they offer:

• Better light output (long range of colour temperatures and better CRI)
• Highest energy efficiency
• Longer lifespan
• Low/no maintenance & replacement cost..
• Directional lighting to a focused area.
• No warm-up time (metal halides may take 1-15 minutes to warm up) 
• No flickering (fluro high bays give flickering light)
• Dimmable functionality 
• Improves power factor
• IP 65 ingress protection
• Multi watt select option
• Impact resistance

Which are best lights for sheds?

To choose the best lighting layout and lights for your shed, you need to consider natural lighting levels, shed type, location of your shed, size and the purpose your shed will serve. In most cases, utilising natural lighting (by installing skylights and solar tubes) in conjunction with LED lights works best for sheds.  If your shed is not connected to the grid, solar-powered shed lights are a great fit as they are easy to install and cheaper to run. Solar and battery powered lighting is suitable for small sheds.

Rebates for LED high bay shed lights under the VEU program

To reduce upfront costs of installing LED lights, businesses in Victoria state are eligible for free or rebated LED high bay lights for shed. The rebates are available to all businesses – small/medium/large businesses – irrespective of their size.