How to light a warehouse
This is not about atmosphere: it is about safety, picking accuracy and the lowest cost per square metre over 4,000 hours a year.
- Maintained illuminance
- 200 lx (picking 300)
- Glare (UGR)
- ≤ 25
- Colour rendering
- ≥ 80
- Colour temperature
- 4000 K
- Uniformity
- ≥ 0,40
The standard requires 200 lux in storage and circulation areas, rising to 300 lux where labels are read or orders are picked. Packing and quality-control areas reach 500 lux.
The real challenge is height and narrow aisles: with 8–10 m racking, a wide-beam luminaire lights the top of the shelving but leaves the aisle floor dark. The answer is linear or narrow-beam optics aligned with the aisle, not with the ceiling grid.
Required uniformity is lower than in offices (U₀ ≥ 0.40), but vertical illuminance matters a great deal: the operator reads labels on the side of the racking, not on the floor.
With many operating hours, every watt counts: per-aisle presence sensors can cut consumption by 60–70 %, because in a warehouse most aisles are empty most of the time.
- Align luminaires with the aisles between racks, never with the ceiling grid.
- Use 4000 K: it improves visual acuity and the perception of safety compared with 3000 K.
- Raise to 300 lux in picking areas and 500 lux in quality control.
- Install per-aisle detection, not per-building: the savings multiply.
