Hi All, This is directed to those who have a lot of experience in indoor commercial lighting. I have an office that has requested track lighting for two logo signs on the interior walls. The signs are raised cutout letters eight feet long and 18 inches high. They are on walls of rooms which are illuminated with fluorescent troffers. They want to highlight the logos. My lighting vendor is recommending low voltage fixtures, 4 foot tracks with 4 heads, 20 watts each (80 watts per sign). He said with the proper placement the 20 watt lamps will do fine, but I am a bit skeptical since the fluorescents already light the area pretty well, I am afraid the 20 watt lamps will not be enough. It's not as though I could just get 2 sets of lamps, the fixtures will be fed from the 277V troffers using 2 stepdown transformers, the cost being substantially more for the bigger x-formers if I go with 50 watt lamps. If anyone has more knowledge than myself about commercial lighting please reply. Thanks, Brian

Brian,
I'd go with the 50 watt lamps.
Halogen Dichroics are just the sort of light you need to highlight a sign inside a commercial building.

80 watts total seems a little dim to me, too. 200 watts might be a little much. I would use a dimmer.

I do agree with the 4 foot track. Track lights are ugly and detract from the over-all appearance. Shorter is better.

Aim the first and third lights (from the left) left, and the second and fourth, right. It should even out the spread and create interesting shadows.

In my opinion, keep the lighting angle about 45 degrees. Long shadows look silly and lack of a shadow defeats the purpose of the raised lettering.

The other possibility, with shadows, is to make them a strong part of the display. I can't visualize that with track lighting.

I agree with Trumpy on hologen lights. They are a different color and stand out from general office lighting.

Thanks guys. I decided to go with the 300Watt xformers. A dimmer won't be feasable. If the 50W lamps are too much I'll put 35W lamps in.

I think you've made the right decision.

I do quite a bit of this type of thing, and the 50w MR16 is the one I've chosen most.



...therein lies the key. Close enough but not too close. Far enough yet not too far.