Choosing the wrong type of track lighting for your store will be an expensive mistake, so it's vital to get it right first time.
If you get it wrong, your products will never look as good as they could and this will affect your sales in a negative way. Getting the wrong type of lighting can be a double whammy as lighting will account for a large proportion of your electricity bills and punish you for years to come if you get it wrong!
For retail shops and stores I recommend using mains powered track rather than low (12 volt) voltage. This is because you don't have to pay for transformers, the range of fittings for commercial use is higher with mains powered track and perhaps surprisingly the opportunity to save energy and money is greater with mains powered track.
The buzz word in lighting right now is LED. LED lighting technology is developing at a rapid rate, but the goal of an LED light of sufficient light output to use in commercial installations at an affordable initial cost is still just around the corner. Maybe next year, but not yet unless your green leanings are a greater motivator than a desire to keep installation costs down.
So what type to use?
Every installation is different, but as a general rule, the best mix of power, light quality and ability to save energy is metal halide lighting. Metal Halide describes the mix of gas used inside the bulb. If you look at the ceilings of most high end stores - particularly those selling clothing, jewelry and other high value products you may notice that they have small boxes attached to the fittings - this contains the ballast necessary to drive metal halide bulbs.
The most economical would almost certainly be lighting using compact fluorescent bulbs. This is the technology used in the energy saving spirals and tube shaped bulbs you will probably be using in your home. It's also the same technology as is used in the tube lights you see on ceilings just about everywhere as it's cheap to run and good for supplying light over a wide area.
In between would be halogen. Great light, simple to operate, versatile and dimmable. If deciding to use halogen, my recommendation would be go for halogen bulbs with a large reflectors, such as the ES111 as this has a major effect on the amount of light put out, and also its angle of beam. The '111' bit stands for 111mm across the face of the bulb - this is more than twice the size of a normal halogen bulb used in the home.
How many light fittings?
In general terms you want to point your lighting towards the things you want to light up (obvious eh?!), so, if you've got ten shelving units you need ten light fittings to do the job. However, for a more accurate calculation, ask your supplier to run the length, width and height of your store through their lighting calculation program. They will produce a diagram showing exactly how many you need and where the light will fall, together with any areas that will need additional lighting.
What do I need?
1. You need the track itself
2. Connectors (straight, flexible, T etc) if required.
3.Additionally you will need a 'Feed-In' i.e. a method of getting power to the track from your mains point to the track itself. You can do this using a simple Feed-In which slots into the end of the run of track, or if more convenient use a combined Connector/Feed-In which both connects lengths or track and provides a point to feed power in.
4. End Caps to 'close' the run of track - its just a simple plastic cap.
5. The light fittings and bulbs.
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