Novel supermarket lighting

[Graham.]

I saw these in a new Sainsbury's store.

they LED arrays? I'm not sure. Whatever they are they do the job well.

[polygonum]

Wow - saved a whole penny!

How new is the store? Certainly ours (which is not exactly old) has conventional fluorescents.

[Graham.]

Leek, Staffordshire. Not open yet. Next week I think.

[Dave Liquorice]

Presumably the bit we can see is narrow and just hangs down? Like edge illuminated emergency exit signs.

[Graham.]

Yes, exactly like that and I doubt if they will resist the temptation to use some them as signage.

Here is another angle

the camera can't show is just how much brighter they look from directly underneath. The distent ones are very easy on the eye.

[meow2222]

It sure looks like linear fluorescent, which make far more business sense than LED for general lighting.

NT

[polygonum]

Wondering if, regardless of the actual light source, they are really an improved diffuser? In our JS the lights initially appear to be good and (other than the hanging down bit) similarly fitted to yours and at a similar height, etc. The light down the aisles quite well, but the ceiling has a much less even effect than yours.

Also, it would be a damn site easier to wipe down a bit of plastic than to try to clean a classic diffuser.

Maybe the same fitting can take fluorescent or strip LED? That might need an improved diffuser.

[harry]

You can buy replacement LED tubes that fit in the conventional fluorescent fitting. You have to dis all the control gear inside.

[Dave Liquorice]

Doesn't look like much space in the box at the top to shove a tube. I don't think a T8 would fit at least not without the box being very snug and you need space around a tube to bounce the light that is being radiated in the "wrong" direction into the edge of dangly diffuser.

[Frank Erskine]

Why not ask 'em?

[meow2222]

thinner tubes would fit with space. With such a distant view its hard to te= ll much detail, but there are certainly ways to redirect the light from T8s= or T12s without space by the side, such as by reflecting light above down = into the edge of the sheet glass.

NT

[Mike Tomlinson]

In article , harry writes

I've been very impressed with some of the LED replacements for fluoro tubes that I've seen. In fittings with a shiny reflector, they've been fitted pointing down, and I wondered if they would be better fitted pointing upwards to reduce direct glare (they're *bright*).

[DerbyBorn]

Mike Tomlinson wrote in news: [e-mail]:

I think that the optics of LEDs lead us to think they are brighter that they really are. We are trying to compare a bright small source (LEDS) with a larger and more diffused source (Others). The real test I guess is to compare the light reflected off the illuminated surfaces over the illuminated areas.

[dennis]

I thought they might have T5 tubes in them.

If you wrapped the diffuser around the tube and put a reflector on top you would get most of the light out.

[Norman]

I found this using google:

the bottom it says: "The new store also features many green initiatives including LED lighting throughout ? the first Sainsbury?s in the country to be built with such a feature."

If it doesn't open until next week, how did you get in to take the photo ;)

[DrTeeth]

Ah that's a better view. Looks like they are using the glass/Perspex as a wave-guide using internal reflection to get most of the light down to the floor with enough leakage for ambient light.

[meow2222]

Why am I imagining T5 tubes with a 40mW LED at each end?

NT

[Jules Richardson]

Green lights? That's going to look horrible.

[Jules Richardson]

Green lights? That's going to look horrible.

[Graham.]

Doing some IT work.

If it is LED it's very good, I had no issues with the lighting level, uniformity, or colour temperature. Andrew Gabriel has just responded to a post of mine in another group, I'll ask him to come here and give his expert comments.