The Beginner’s Guide to Industrial Lighting

Looking to create something industrial?

If you’re thinking of giving your home an industrial makeover, then you’ll need to start with the lighting. Industrial lighting can give your home a chic and stylish edge, while also providing you with quality light that’s perfect for reading, working or relaxing in. In this blog post, we’ll take you through everything you need to know about industrial lighting in the home, looking at the history of Industrial Lighting that’s relevant to your purchasing decisions today.

The history behind industrial lighting

Industrial Lighting has been popular since the invention of the Edison Bulb – Large steel warehouse lighting pendants designed to reflect every lumen that was generated onto the manufacturing floor. A token of our industrialisation, working days, and now nights was revolutionary at the time.

Our guide focuses on implementing quality industrial lighting designs into your home, with the minimum of fuss, we’ll be talking about various Industrial Barn Light designs to compliment various areas of your home. We’ll take about lighting technologies and industrial lighting types before moving into how industrial lighting is ideal for your home.

The Different Types of Industrial Lighting

There are two major metrics when discussing industrial lighting, one remains current the other is considered dated in the last 30 years.

Firstly – The technology behind industrial lighting used to be specific to the light source and ultimately there’s been five major revisions for the “common standard” as we know it.

A touch of Australian history – Kids who grew up in the 1990’s – We experienced an energy revolution that changed how light was used. From simple Cathode-Ray TV’s (CRTs) to plasma TVs right through to LEDs in the space of twenty years. Those of us will remember “The Flat Screen TV Bonus” provided by the then Howard government (that was anything but!) providing a large concession to upgrade to the latest technology – lighting was similar in that growth of technology.

You’ll remember Incandescent Lighting, Halogen (Downlights typically), Fluorescent (or CompactFL, HID (Vehicles mainly), then LED. From a tungsten through to a halogen filaments, to the gas filled bulbs that CFL’s where known for (or the “pop” when it blew). Why does this matter? Barn Light’s Industrial Lighting style hails from an that “era” – Where from the 1900’s through to the early 2000’s – things didn’t change much due to various reasons (See: The Phoebus Cartel!) .

Lighting Technologies

Industrial Lighting Styles

Secondly – The purpose of the lighting style gave a clear division to purpose of industrial lighting.

Here’s the quicklist

Explosion Proof Lighting
Indoor Lighting Fixtures
Roadway/Railway Fixtures
Flood Lighting
Lighting for Hazardous Locations

Explosion-Proof Styled Lighting

Explosion Proof Lighting – To which all of our Atomic Industrial lighting is named after – You’ll see all “Industrial” shown in the second word of these respective products; here’s a small list.

The difference between “Bunker Lights” and “Explosion Proof Lighting” is the necessary gasketing and sealants to reduce the possibility of a gas explosion (ignited by vapour / splashing liquids). We don’t advertise our products as being explosion-proof however the design style is similar to the original designs. (ie. The Bullet Cast Guard).

We shouldn’t need to “flog this” however our Atomic Industrial (Anything with ATOM or CGG/TGG/WGG in the product code) is IP55 as a default. Need a higher IP rating? Break out a silicon gun to seal the glass threads and you’ve now got a light that’ll stand up to the elements something drastic compared to our competitors.

Indoor Industrial Light Fixtures

Indoor Industrial Light Fixtures – As all of our products are outdoor-rated (small exemptions), a majority of their purposes would have been illumination along corridors or directly above certain door frames (the iconic flashing “red” industrial light) in military base. so there isn’t much more to add to that – you can create your industrial style indoors to your personal taste!

We hate this too. – A lot of “Indoor Industrial Lights” are somehow marked as “IP44 Outdoor Rated*” by our competitors, and we’re unfortunately the company that people come to after their electrician refuses to install those lights outdoors. Where you’ll easily find the “*” marked as “Only Under Eaves” or some similar distasteful disclaimer. We’re not like that – offering 180-day return policies to avoid these situations!

If you are looking for a small industrial light, our Streamline, Static, and Bullet Lights come highly recommended. All of these Industrial Wall Lights project, at most, 33cm (The Bullet is the longest, Static the shortest)

Railway Station Lighting

Railway / Roadway Lighting Fixtures – This is where it gets a little tricky – As Barn Light is a manufacturer, we can modify our existing lighting to accommodate additional accessories – one of which is the “Atomic Cast Guard” – It looks like the Atomic Industrial Guard Pendant (Shown Above) that has been recessed into a shade.

Why is this an industrial styled light? It incorporates our standard warehouse shades for protection against the elements (and glass breakages) whilst also keeping the temperature constant.

Imagine standing near the railroad tracks during a warm summers day – the sweltering head – located directly overhead a 200W incandescent bulb glaring away, providing some illumination at an otherwise unsafe railway station. A cool breeze sets in rapidly – You hear a POP, then screams, and all around you, hot shattered of glass tinkers all around on the ground. ~ A little extreme for a blog post right?

The ironic thing about “explosion proof lighting” or simply “industrial lighting” is that people forget that these lights had a purpose. Keeping a constant temperature would lengthen the life of an incandescent bulb something dramatically – there existed for a period of time someone responsible for lighting gas lights in the evening throughout London, that same job would have extended to swapping out expensive light bulbs at your local train-station. So why the warehouse shades above?

These lights would serve two purposes; project light downwards (where it was needed) whilst also providing a protective measure against gusts of winds, hoodlums, and the average nesting bird against these lights.

Why would you want these Railway Styled Lights? Aesthetics, and in areas where you don’t want light pollution (read: anyway rural or with stars still shining) to provide an inviting décor and surrounds for those lucky enough to visit.

Flood Lighting

Flood Lighting – Originally developed as “Stage Lighting” for a variety of purposes, you’ll find the standard “Flood Light” from your local hardware store to be the metric equivalent of a small sun against your retina’s should you accidentally triggered one after a night on the town. What’s important for you to know? Barn Light doesn’t manufacture Flood Lights, and never have as it doesn’t fit our aesthetics nor design intent for a large number of our lighting fixtures.

This may change however. We’re in the process of developing a new LED chip for our existing range of warehouse and LED lighting. Previously our CXA2520 LEDs provided an extremely long life in a small compact unit and served us well for the better part of a decade. What this means to you? It won’t be a flood light, but it’ll be just as bright. We’d be marketing these as Fully Integrated LED lights.

These lights would serve two purposes; increase the maximum lumen output (Watts/W/Wattage is no longer used as a definitive light output variable) whilst providing a large energy savings – much like our technology change from incandescent to LED.

Lighting for Hazardous Locations

Lighting for Hazardous Locations – Lets be honest here – The days of coal mines (should be over), oil rigs, and nuclear plants is not where I expect to see our lights installed. That said – near pools, water sources,

This may change however. We’re in the process of developing a new LED chip for our existing range of warehouse and LED lighting. Previously our CXA2520 LEDs provided an extremely long life in a small compact unit and served us well for the better part of a decade. What this means to you? It won’t be a flood light, but it’ll be just as bright. We’d be marketing these as Fully Integrated LED lights.

Conclusion - Is Industrial Ideal for your space?

Our customers normally have an dream design, with a touch of personalisation from the mounting styling or type (Gooseneck, Wall Light, Pendant etc) and a selection of colours to choose from – You’d be hard-pressed to find another product that you can manufacture to suit your design styling.

If Industrial doesn’t work for you, the creation of another lighting style could work just as well by modifying the colour and mounting to make your house a home. Need ideas? Check out our Barn Light Instagram account or send us an email to see how we can assist you moving forward