LIGHTING for frame shop/gallery?

[Mike Labbe @ GTP]

Hi Grumblers,

We have wrestled with several alternatives for the gallery house lights, track lights on art, track lights on moulding samples, and lighting over design counter. I'm curious what works best for YOU and why?

We have multiple concerns.

One of our concerns is heat load. In the summer we have a problem with the sun directly hitting 39 feet of glass windows in the afternoon. The central air we installed is rated to handle 40% larger than our space, but can't keep up due to the sun/heat load. One thing I did to help the problem was to switch several of the house lights to flourescent. I think we will have to put blinds or tint in before next summer.

The track lights on the art & samples are incandescent (soft floods 45w each), and the lights over the design counter are 120w soft incand floods and a couple halogen track lights. House lights are flourescent cans. (these stay on at night while closed and do little otherwise) The back room/work area is entirely cool white flourescent.

We have experimented with flourescent spots in the track lighting(art/samples), and although BRIGHTER, i'm concerned that it washes out too much.

The main concern is that the materials are displayed in their true colors, especially at the design counter. In the summer, heat is a secondary concern.

I figured I would ask here. What is best and why? smile.gif

Thanks for any input!

Mike

[fttom]

Mike,in a former life, I was educated as an architect, and worked as a draftsman. This is part of the solution from that time in my life. The first thing that I would do is put some "low e" film on those front windows. This is not a reflective film. It WILL darken your window some, but customers will still be able to see your displays. The low e stops the transfer of heat and UV, both in and out. As a result, you won't get the heat coming in during summer, and your heat won't travel out in winter. It will also help with fading of things that you display by stopping most of the UV. I don't remember the exact percentage of UV stopped, but I do know it was significant. We have put it on all of the windows in the bedrooms in this house. Those windows get morning, mid-day, and early afternoon sun. Here, in GA, this means heat. The bedrooms were getting hot enough that they were not cooling down by bedtime. Since we've put it on those windows, the bedrooms stay cool, and our elec. bill has dropped by about $20/month. This stuff is easy to put up. You can get it at H.D. or Lowes. All you need to put it up is a razor scraper, squeege, spray bottle with a few drops of dish soap, and something to cut it with. I used my mat cutter. You also can have it put up professionally. But it's really not that hard as a DIY. It took us about 1 1/2 hrs to do 3 windows. Hope that this helps.

Susan ;)

[Mike Labbe @ GTP]

Thanks Susan,

So this stuff works like the window tint they put in automobiles, or is it a "shade" that pulls down? I would prefer the type applied directly to the windows, so it won't get in the way of the neon signs or window displays. What you suggested sounds ideal for problem #1.

The heat issue really was an unexpected surprise. I put a 4 ton unit in there, where less than 3 tons was needed; based on the square footage. Doubling the amount of windows, and the position of the building and the afternoon sun = problem. Most days it maintained until about 3pm, then went up to 79 or so. Not TOO bad, but frustrating. I sized it to handle our unit and the one next to us (for future expansion).

Switching the track lights to flourescent for the summer helped a lot, too. We're only open while it is sunny out, and the entire customer area gets full sun, so it was never a big issue. (even with them off) Now that fall(and cooler weather) is here, we need to have the lights on. I switched them back over to floods, but my main question is what is appropriate for over the design counter/what folks use.

[fttom]

Mike, sorry not to get back to you yesterday. Preoccupied. This stuff applies directly to the windows, like the stuff in cars. It can even be cleaned with the usual window cleaners. I would then suggest something over the design counters like daylight corrected fluorescent tubes in them. This will make sure that you don't add to the heat load, and also give you true colors at your counter. It may be difficult to find the daylight corrected tubes. You may have to go to a lighting specialty store for them. I haven't looked for them in years. If you can't find the daylight corrected, get the "warm" fluorescent. That is the next best thing. Personally, I'd stay away from as many incandescent lights as I could, both for the heat gain and for the energy savings. They give off so much heat, and cost so much more to operate. Hope this answers the questions. If not, just email me, and I'll dig into some of the old books for more answers. ;)

[Framerguy]

Hi Mike,

It has always been my understanding that fluorescent lighting was the very worst to use around fine art because of the large quantity of UV rays that they emit. I was told to use UV sleeves on my fluorscent lights in my work area also because of the strong UV radiation from these tubes.

Maybe I was sold a bill of goods on this but I have tried to stay away from fluorescents in my gallery all these years for just that reason.

The "low e" glass transfer film that Susan talks about is very good. It will cut down on heat transfer appreciably and also cuts down on the natural UV from the sun. I recently put some on my son's car windows. If you use a spray bottle with a very mild dilute soap solution in it to spray the window the application will go smooth as butter.

Framerguy

[CharlesL]

We have been using track lighting at our new shop. Of course, tungsten lighting is basically yellow. That's why, when you take a picture inside, with the lights on, using daylight film, it comes out all yellow-looking.
We have been advised by a lighting expert to use flourescents over the design counter, and use special 'color rendering' tubes. They are supposed to come as close to emulating sunlight as you can get with artificial lights.
We'll try it and see, and let you know the results.

Understand, these flourescents will NOT be for illuminating art, but for accurate color rendering at the design counter. For mats, etc.
If anyne has any better information, or is a lighting expert, please speak up! We desperately need help!

[Grumbling Mike]

we have recently switched to 3500 kalvin flourscents to supliment our halogen floods and it works well. This much cooler than 2x the halogens and very even coverage frrom the 14ft level(our halogens fly from the 10ft level). these bulbs cost a lot more than the basic(maybe 4x) but well worth the true color you get.

[fttom]

Sorry. Should have been a little more clear. Some of the fluroscents are high in UV, but it is not as bad as it used to be. You can get a cover for the tubes that blocks the UV's, if needed. Most of the newer tubes, however, from what I've read lately, do emit UV. You may want to check on the specific tubes that you are going to buy. You should be able to get that info from the manufacturer. I really like them for general lighting better than incandescents. To me, they seem to fill much better with fewer shadows. Stay away from halide lights. We have them at my part-time, they give everything a blueish/purple cast. It's nearly impossible to match colors under them. We wind up, a lot of time, taking customers back into the work room to match colors. It's easier than guessing.

[Rebecca]

There are some interesting lighting articles here:

http://www.kevan-shaw.com/Knowledge.html

Rebecca

[Jim Miller]

Originally posted by CharlesLowry.:
...We have been advised by a lighting expert to use flourescents over the design counter, and use special 'color rendering' tubes. They are supposed to come as close to emulating sunlight as you can get with artificial lights... The comparison with sunlight always seems to come up in discussions about lighting galleries. But how often will the art we sell be viewed in sunlight? Almost never. Framed art typically hangs inside, where it is protected from natural light, or it's filtered through draperies or shades of some sort.

Rather than trying to duplicate sunlight, we should try to duplicate the lighting conditions in the viewing environment. In my case, that's the consumer's home, which is lighted by incandescent lamps.

There are two measures of light that matter here: A) Light Color; the apparent color of light as it is emitted from the lamp, and B) Color Rendering Index (CRI); the way the light renders the colors it illuminates.

For both light color and CRI, the highest rated light source is incandescent. That is, colors appear most accurately when illuminated by ordinary light bulbs. A few fluorescents come close. And incandescents have advantages that can't be matched by any other light source.

[John Gornall]

I've been working on new lighting for my store for about 6 months. There's a lot to understand. Basically there needs to be 2 types of lighting: General ambient lighting and highlighting to make some things stand out. The highlighting is usually done with track lighting around the perimiter. The ambient lighting is usually done with indirect lighting in the center of the floor space. I have found some great new ceiling fixtures for indirect lighting. My tests show florescent lights with "parabolic louvers" to give the least reflections in glass on the walls. I will put in ceiling fixtures (daylight deluxe flourescent) with these louvers over the cash counter, the design tables, and the ready made frame area leaving the rest of the store (the walls) dark. Then I will surround the store with track lighting using mostly halogen spots on specific framed items. I will add a bit of halogen lighting at the design tables until the light is warm enough. The ceiling will be painted dark so less light is reflected away from the fixtures giving the room more drama. I'm still looking for a programable lighting controller so I can have the lights come on and off as the daylight through the windows changes during the day. And I would like to have rotating spot lights to put on a kind of light-art show for those looking through the windows after hours.

Anyone found a halogen PAR lamp that last a long time?

[Mike Labbe @ GTP]

Isn't it amazing how the incandescent floods seem to have "timers"? We lost 5-8 bulbs last week alone... They lasted exactly 7 months and most went within a few days of each other.

Thanks to all for the advice. We're going with a mixture of flourescent, incandescent(on art and design counter), and halogen(design counter only). We will also apply window tint to try to darken it up a bit and remove some of the sun.(and protect the art from it)

[Jason Maranto]

These look to be a good answer to many concerns:

http://www.lighting.philips.com/nam/feature/mcolor/mcolor_flash.shtml

Jason.