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Retail Lighting Terminology |
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Home > Small Business Advice > Small Business Lighting > Retail Lighting Terminology |
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Accent lighting – directional lighting that is used to light up small areas for instance products on open display or products in display cabinets. Sometimes called ‘focus’ lighting as the light is focussed on a product or an area of the shop.
Ambient lighting – the main lighting; the lighting that provides the main illumination of the shop or retail outlet.
Architectural lighting – lighting that emphasises the structure of a building or the internal architecture features of a retail outlet.
Ballast – a device that controls the voltage levels in a fluorescent light; supplies the initial electricity to ’start’ the fluorescent light.
CFL Bulb – (Compact Fluorescent Light) bulb – a bulb that uses less electricity than a ‘standard’ incandescent bulbs.
Colour rendering index – colour rendering is colours that appear as different colours when seen under different lighting. Colour rendering index is a measure of how much light changes the colour of an object.
Colour temperature – an indication of the ‘colour’ of light. Some light appears to be yellow (hot colour temperature) whilst other light appears to be blue (cold colour temperature).
Dichroic Lights – lights that has 2 different colours when seen from different angles; look at the light from one angle and the colour is, say, green – look from another angle and the light is, say, red.
Floodlight – a light that has a wide beam width; a floodlight illuminates a large area.
Halogen Light – a light where the filament is contained in a bulb that is filled with a gas mixture that includes a gas from the halogen ‘family’, for instance iodine or fluorine. An halogen light has a longer life than a normal filament light and does not lose brightness over its lifetime.
High end shops – shops that sell products at a relatively high cost, for instance jewellers and wedding dress shops.
Incident light – light seen directly – not reflected off a surface.
LED – Light Emitting Diode. An electronic component that gives off light when voltage is applied (‘biased’) in a certain way. Used instead of bulbs as LEDs are more reliable than bulbs.
Lighting Power Density – a measure of the amount of light in a given area; often used to set a limit on the brightness of external lights.
Lumen – a unit measure of light.
Luminaire – a complete lighting fixture – bulb, reflector, lens, the housing etc.
Luminous efficacy – how efficient a light source is. 2 bulbs that use the same amount of electricity – the bulb that gives out the most light is the most luminous efficient, it gives out more light than the other bulb whilst using the same amount of electricity. More ‘bang for your buck’.
Mass selling shops – shops that rely on high volume of sales of relatively cheap products, for instance ‘fruit and veg’ shops and convenience stores.
Metal Halide Bulb – a bulb that produces a lot of light for its size; very white, very bright.
Pendant Lighting – lights that hang from a ceiling; common in most domestic homes.
Reflected light – light seen indirectly, for instance after bouncing off a surface.
Spotlight – a light that has a small beam width; a spotlight illuminates a small area.
Task lighting – lighting that helps someone do a task. Task lighting could be an ‘anglepoise’ lamp or the lighting at the point of sale in a shop. Task lighting makes the job easier, it helps the worker.
Tungsten Halogen Bulb – a ‘standard’ incandescent bulb with a tungsten filament – lasts longer than a ‘standard’ incandescent bulb.
Track Lighting – lighting that can be moved, over a short distance, along a ‘track’; the ‘track’ is an electrical conductor so no wires connect to the light.
Troffer – a lighting fixture that is flush with the ceiling – the lighting fixture is within the ceiling.
Watts – the unit of measure of power.
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This webpage lists definitions of terms used in retail lighting.
The terms are listed in alphabetical order. |
