Good Garage Lighting
Page 45
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promotes efficiency and economy ITN the ceaseless striving for economy efficiency in the major items of plant upkeep, the subject of lighting is worth more than a casual study. The commonest and cheapest means for illumination is, of course, daylight. One way of reducing the light bill, therefore, is to make the best possible use of the cheaper medium.
Much can be done by studying the layout of benches and machines. There is always one position for a workman to occupy in order to derive the greatest benefit from the source of illumination, and it is rare that the worker finds it himself, unaided.
At the risk of a trite comment, it is worth adding that a better use of daylight is sometimes possible simply by cleaning the windows. In many repair shops this point is neglected to a surprising extent.
Using Better Glass.
In two cases in the experience of the writer, it was found profitable to go farther and add windows to the building. Even the substitution of better glass at particular points has been known to effect an improvement. Where no roof lights exist, it may be possible to improve matters by fitting ribbed or prismatic glass in the upper panes of side windows. This serves to diffuse the light and throw it farther into the interior. With such glass the cleaning injunction applies more than ever.
Too much emphasis cannot be placed upon the advantages of having lightcoloured surfaces in and around the plant. The non-stinted use of white wash within and without can work wonders with both the quality of the illumination and the cost. The use of light-coloured chips and gravel around the building, apart from smartening up its general appearance, also contributes to the internal lighting, as the following incident will show.
Vehicles Keep Out Light.
It was found, in the case concerned, that little or no artificial light was required when work had to be carried out on Sundays, whilst on other days a good deal was needed. The cause was eventually traced to the fact that numerous vehicles were parked close to the windows on weekdays and that, although these did not themselves shut out light, they cat off the reflection of daylight from the light gravel around the works. When a different position was found for parking, the light bill dropped. 20 per cent. When certain outbuildings were treated with whitewash and aluminium paint another 10 per cent, economy resulted. Turning to artificial vitizig, old'and cheap lamps are a common cause of waste current. With all lamps there is a falling oil in luminous output as the length of service increases, but with inferior lamps the drop quickly becomes appreciable and such lamps are a bad investment. About 1,000 hours may be taken as a fair average life for a lamp, but it may be profitable to renew it before this time. It should be remembered that, during the normal life of the lamp, the current consiuned is of a much greater value than the lamp, and that if this current be not used effectively, the losses will be much greater than any saving made in the initial purchase of the lamp itself. The same applies to • such fittings as reflectors. Here is definitely a case where the cheapest may ultimately prove the dearest.
Glare is Wasteful.
A wasteful evil in many cases is glare. The light may be too brilliant • or too near the eye, and improvement is possible by raising the light, shading it with Home Office reflectors, or fitting pearl or opal bulbs.
A great cause of waste current is due to lights being left on by thoughtless persons. A remedy is the fitting of small instruction plates near switches, reminding light users to switch them off when they have finished. One troublesome leakage is in small stores and ante-rooms which are not often visited, and then only for short periods. The writer has known a light to burn, in such circumstances, for four months before being discovered. One cure is to wire up a tell-tale light outside the room so that whenever the inside light is lit, the fact is obvious.
Another cause of waste is a defective switch—with faulty insulation, for example, or the small operating lever snapped off. Workers will not use a switch that hurts or shocks them more than they can help, and once such a switch has been operated the light is usually left on all day, regardless of whether it is needed or not. A_wkwardly placed switches are in the same category. Owing to changes in plant layout or to carelessness, access to switches may have become obstructed by machines, piles of tyres or other goods, which again means that lights are not switched off when they should be. Hidden switches, too, tend to cause waste. All switches should be in full view and accessible.
Four Factors in Lighting..
In any attempt to secure lighting economies, executives should temper enthusiasm with sound judgment. The cost of plant lighting must essentially be composed of four things, viz., the cost of the lighting itself, the quality and quantity of production obtained thereby, safety and freedom from accidents, and last, but not least, the prevention of pilfering.
Economy at the expense of production output is no economy at all. The safety aspect is equally as important. Stinted lighting which gives rise to patchy shadows may result in serious accidents to men and machines both of which are decidedly costly. 'Inman nature being what it is, the•pilfering aspect is also worth full consideration. Poor lighting allows miscreants to secrete objects about their persons which they could not do in better light. One river-side haulage concern in South London suffered extensively from the pilfering from vehicles parked on its premises ready for early-morning starts to the North. Floodlighting reduced this thieving almost to vanishing point.
Accumulated Economies, The object should be to extract the utmost utility from every unit of current consumed. It should be remembered that everything in lighting is cumulative. A system that is wasteful throws away, an ever-increasing amount of money. On the other hand improvements carried out, although they appear somewhat costly at the time, accumulate savings and pay for themselves many times over. The writer has proof that campaigns carried out on the above lines have reduced light, ing expenditures by as much as 50
per cent. F.Y.