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Car Park Lighting |
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Home > Small Business Lighting > Car Park Lighting |
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Car Park Lighting Objectives
Small businesses light car parks for a reason:
· To provide parking space for night-time customers. · Customers won’t park (visit the premises) if they don’t feel safe in the car park. · Customers won’t park (visit the premises) if the paths to\from the car park are not well lit.
· Reduce the fear of crime. · A company may provide car parking for employees and wants to reduce employee’s fear of crime.
· Reduce car park crime. · Criminals are less likely to break into cars in a well lit car park.
What are your objectives in providing car park lighting?
Initial Questions
Ask the following questions:
· Do I need car park lighting? · Do people use the car park when it is dark? Given the short days in winter the answer is likely to be that you do need car park lighting.
· When do I need to light the car park? · When do people use the car park? Morning? Evening? Night-time? All year?
· Do you need to light all the car park all night? · Is all the car park used all the night? · Can I reserve a small area for night-time users?
· Do I need to light a path to the car park? · Lighting walkways is just as important as lighting the car park – if people don’t want to park in dark areas they won’t want to walk in dark areas.
Car Park Lighting Tips
· Uniform lighting (evenly lit) is just as important as brightness. · Human eyes can adjust to low levels of lighting but find it difficult to adjust to different levels of lighting. · Dark areas increase the fear of crime.
· A good ‘rule of thumb’ for brightness is if you can see facial expressions. · People want to gauge the mood, the intent, of other people – people feel safer if someone walking towards them ‘looks safe’.
· Lighting shining from above at sharp angles (straight down) creates unnatural shadows – unnatural shadows make people feel unsafe. · Many horror films use long shadows – there is a reason for this!!
Be A Good Neighbour
Don’t be a ‘light polluter’ (light trespass):
· Light the car park and no more – this will save money as well as not annoying neighbours.
· Don’t dazzle drivers on nearby roads.
· Don’t light the car park so it can be seen for miles around.
Bulb Replacement Costs
Judge Electrical charge £50 for the first hour and £28 for every following hour.
If you don’t get an electrician to replace the bulbs how do you value your time?
Replacing bulbs can be expensive.
Buying ‘long-life’ bulbs is money well-spent.
Links
Small Business Lighting ‘Home Page’
Electrical Test And Inspection
Small Business Guideline Prices
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This webpage provides car park lighting advice for small businesses. The subject areas are:
· Car park lighting objectives.
· Initial questions.
· Car park lighting tips.
· Be A Good Neighbour.
· Bulb replacement costs.
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