If you are a gym owner or going to become one, you need to learn about gym lighting.
Gym lighting is a complicated and sensitive operation. So much so that even if not planned carefully, it can cost you a lot of money.
A simple change made even in the lighting can multiply your visitors, and retain the gym members even for longer. If not fully taken care of, poor lighting could be a bad experience for gym members. Any change made in
Why Gym Lighting Is Requires So Much Of Attention?
Gym lighting is sensitive and there are following reasons for it-
Attention To Details-
Gymmers are attentive to details. Not that they are in general, but while drilling or lifting weights, requires an environment with no distractions. Attention to detail is important, so it is important that every color, minute detail is perfectly visible.
It is important that every color is seen as they are in real life. Old lighting lamps like fluorescent and incandescent are used in the fixtures, but due to their bad CRI, they are not good with color rendering.
Glares Are Distractive And Threat To Safety
Gym lighting needs to be free of glare. A lot of exercises require seeing in the upward direction. Glares are eye-straining and unpleasant. Glares are distracting, and also a threat to safety. It could be taken care of by putting a better lamp with high CRI(for better visibility) and high lumen output.
Old lighting fixtures are good at the start, but with time they undergo lumen depreciation. Lumen depreciation is the gradual downgrading of lumen flux output with time. With the passage of time, these lights cause even more glare.
To avoid glare to the maximum extent, make sure that your Gym lighting has a UGR(unified glare rating). If the unified glare rating is less than 19, do not buy it,
Good Lighting Is Good Experience-
One serious issue with the old lighting tech is brightness and flickering. With time, these lights start flickering. Much researches done in the past have shown how harmful are flickers for the eyes. Gym-goers spend their hard-earned time and money for the gym. Flickers only make people feel more tired.
Another issue is about heating up of metal halides. Unnecessary heating tamper with the boy temperatures of gym-goers.
Shapes And Sizes
Gyms do not have fixed shapes and sizes. Some gyms are just not exercising yards, the are multipurpose halls, also used as auditoriums, community halls, and other activities. With every activity comes different lighting requirements. To cover it all, one needs multipurpose lights, which could throw lights in specific directions and angles.
Heights
Gym lights are installed at heights more than 20 feet. Traditionally, gyms use high bay LED lighting fixtures for this purpose. Changing bulbs at this height frequently is a convenient job. Here, one needs lights that don’t require frequent replacement. LED bulbs do not suffer lumen depreciation for a long time, hence they require less maintenance as well.
Important Integrations For Gym Lighting
Additional integrations with gym lighting can save money. If the gym has some windows to let in natural light, then having dimmers and motion sensors integration is a smart choice. Energy efficiency is not an ethical duty, it is also a branding strategy. With such integrations, you can save more money and increase your brand value in the long term.
Leverage Day Light With Daylight Control System
Gyms are generally closed areas with not so many windows to let in the light. This lighting system is not for the gyms without any windows. The light influx is generally not enough to light up the entire facility. With the integration of the daylight control system, gym lights can adapt to the lightings.
According to the amount of light coming in, these sensors can adjust the intensity of the gymnasium lights. If the daylight intensity coming in is high, it will dim down the lights. This system is a little more expensive, but overall a smart buy option.
Motion Sensor + Dimmable Lights = More Energy Efficiency
Gyms have some indoor game courts, and in some cases, it also has big ones like basketball courts. An integration of the motion sensor and dimmers can make sure about-
- Adjustment of light intensity when there is no one playing.
- Switching off the lights when there is no one is playing around
- For security purpose, if the motion detected at an inappropriate time
The biggest advantage of this system is that it saves money as well as energy.
Beam Angle And Lumen Consideration-
As discussed before, gyms come in all shapes and sizes. To give you a rough idea of how much lumens you need for your arena, we have considered an area of 500 square feet.
A gym that occupies 500 square feet needs approximately 200 lux.
500 square feet x 200 lux = 100,000 lumens.
Most of the lights give 140 lumens\/watt. It replaces 200-250 watts of metal halide lamps. You are going to need 7-8 of these fixtures that produce 14,000 lumens each.
Beam angles are an important factor to consider. There are two types of angles to consider- narrow beam and a wider beam. The narrow beam is good for accent lighting. Narrow beams are intense and focused lights.
LED lighting also requires a deep and thorough photometric analysis.
Conclusion-
LED designs for gyms require some expertise. Installing LED gym lights is a costly job as well. A little money spent on the LED installation expertise will be a drop in the ocean, so almost unnoticeable. The facts mentioned in this article will certainly help you reduce other costs.