Lighting Standards for Factory

Lighting standards are one of the key factors in the construction and operation of industrial factories. They both help improve work efficiency, ensure labor safety and  enhance product quality, and comply with legal regulations. In this article, let’s KTG Industrial explore the details of factory lighting standards to help you design the optimal factory space.

What are Factory Lighting Standards?

Factory lighting standards are a set of regulations issued by authorities  to guide the design of lighting systems for industrial production environments.

Adhering to these standards ensures not only work efficiency and energy savings but also enhances labor safety and product quality.

A compliant lighting system creates an ideal working environment, boosts productivity, and protects workers’ health and safety. This is also the goal KTG Industrial strives for when we construct ready-built factories, to maximize production needs while ensuring safety for businesses.

Factory Lighting Standards Provide Guidelines for Designing Lighting Systems in  Industrial Production Environments

Factory Lighting Standards for Factories

Vietnam laws regarding lighting standards for factories are specifically outlined as follows:

• Vietnamese Standard TCVN 7114-1:2008 (ISO 8995-1:2002/Cor 1:2005) on Ergonomics – Workplace Lighting: Specifies the lighting requirements for indoor workplaces to ensure that workers can perform visual tasks effectively, comfortably, and safely throughout their working hours. The lighting must be designed to avoid glare and visual discomfort, ensuring safety and maintaining work productivity.
• National Technical Regulation QCVN 09:2013/BXD: Applies to factories with an area of 2,500m² or more. The lighting system must optimize energy usage, ensure appropriate power density, and maintain high efficiency. Focus is placed on using effective, energy-saving, and environmentally friendly lighting equipment.
• Regulation QCVN 31:2014/BXD: This applies when using public or outdoor lighting equipment near the factory. The system must meet safety and energy efficiency requirements in public areas or around the factory.

Adhering to lighting standards not only enhances productivity but also ensures compliance with legal requirements and protects the working environment.

Lighting Standards in Vietnam:

• Circular 22/2016/BYT: National technical regulation on lighting – permissible lighting levels in workplaces.

• QCVN 09:2013/BXD: Standards for buildings using energy efficiently.

• QCVN-02-09/BNNPTNT: National standards for cold storage lighting.

Scope of Application of Factory Lighting Standards

The scope of application for factory lighting standards includes:

• Regulations on lighting systems suitable for each specific working space within an industrial environment.
• Each area, such as production workshops, quality control areas, or warehouses, requires different lighting levels to ensure visual comfort, labor safety, and the health of workers.
• For specialized industries, lighting standards play a key role in ensuring that products meet both quantity and quality requirements, while also supporting efficient production processes and energy savings.

Lighting Standards for Common Manufacturing Sectors:

Complete Factory Lighting Standards

Lighting Environment Standards

Lighting environment standards in industrial factories are established to ensure work efficiency, visual safety, and product quality. Specifically:

• Lighting should be evenly distributed across all areas, ensuring no obstruction from people or machinery.
• The lighting system must be designed to avoid discomfort to the eyes, preventing a decrease in work productivity and product quality.
• Flickering lights should be avoided, as they can affect the eyes and health of employees.
• Lighting must have appropriate color temperature and color rendering index to meet the specific requirements of each work area, such as production lines, quality control areas, or warehouses.
• Areas should be equipped with emergency lights and exit signs.
• The initial design should meet the standards to minimize maintenance, ensuring uninterrupted production operations.

Lighting Standards to Enhance Production, Protect Health, and Ensure Labor Safety

Warehouse Lighting Standards

For loading and unloading areas, an illuminance level of 200-300 lux is required, while storage areas should achieve 100 lux. The lighting system must be uniform and stable to facilitate safe and convenient movement and handling of goods.

Using lamps with reflectors is an optimal choice to distribute light evenly across the space. Additionally, it is crucial to pay attention to the proper distance when installing lights to ensure optimal lighting efficiency.

Indoor Lighting Standards

Indoor lighting systems must ensure uniform illumination, meet the lighting requirements for various living, and working spaces, and maintain safety for human health. Some regulations regarding indoor lighting standards include:

• National Technical Regulation QCVN 09:2013/BXD
• Vietnam Standard TCVN 7114-1:2012
• Vietnam Construction Regulation QCXDVN 05:2008/BXD
• Ministry of Health Decision QĐ/BYT 3733/2002

Factory Lighting Illuminance Standards

Factory lighting standards are designed to meet the various lighting needs depending on the work area. Areas where product processing and quality checks are carried out require higher illuminance levels to ensure accuracy and work quality.

• Product Inspection Areas: A minimum of 500 lux is required to support accurate identification and detection of defects.
• Production and Work Areas: A lighting level of about 300 lux is needed to ensure efficient working conditions.
• Warehouse and Common Areas: The average illuminance should range from 100-200 lux, sufficient to ensure safety and convenience in the movement and arrangement of goods.

Factory Lighting Illuminance Standards are Designed to Meet the Lighting Needs of Each Work Area

Color Rendering Index (CRI) Standards

The Color Rendering Index (CRI) reflects the accuracy of colors when illuminated by light, and it is an important factor in factory lighting standards. The higher the CRI, the more accurately colors are displayed, making it easier for workers to identify and assess products.

CRI Scale: CRI is measured on a scale from 1 to 100 (Ra).

Critical areas such as production and quality control typically require a CRI of 80–100 Ra to ensure high accuracy. Areas where color accuracy is less important, such as warehouses, can use lighting with a CRI ranging from 20–40 Ra, depending on the type of LED lights installed.

Color Rendering Index (CRI) Standards Reflect the Accuracy of Colors When Illuminated

Illuminance and Glare Distribution Standards

The design of lighting in factories must comply with standards for the distribution of illuminance and glare, depending on the characteristics of the workplace, lighting conditions, and the function of each area. The standards for illuminance and glare distribution for specific factory areas are as follows:

Flicker Reduction Standards

Flickering light can cause discomfort, impair vision, and affect workers’ health. Additionally, flickering reduces productivity and product quality, and disrupts the production process.

To mitigate this, businesses should prioritize using high-quality LED lights to ensure stable lighting and avoid flickering. Moreover, reliable power supply units should be selected to maintain a consistent power source and prevent flickering.

Environmental Safety Standards

• When selecting lighting for factories, priority should be given to lights that do not emit UV rays and do not cause glare, in order to protect workers’ vision.
• The lighting system should minimize heat emissions to avoid raising the temperature of the workspace, reduce the load on air conditioning systems, save energy costs, and ensure optimal working conditions.
• Lights must be made from safe materials that do not contain harmful substances such as mercury or lead, in order to protect users’ health and prevent environmental pollution in case the lights break or malfunction.

Priority to Choose Safe Lighting: UV-Free, Glare-Free, Low Heat Emission, and Non-Toxic

Uniformity Standards in Lighting

Lighting uniformity is determined by the ratio between minimum illuminance and average illuminance. This helps ensure that light is evenly distributed across the working area, allowing workers to operate effectively without difficulty due to insufficient lighting.

According to standards:

• The working area should achieve a minimum uniformity ratio of 0.7.
• The surrounding area of the workplace should have a minimum uniformity ratio of 0.5.

Method for Calculating Factory Lighting Standards

Calculation Using the Utilization Factor Ksd

The utilization factor Ksd is an important element in the design and calculation of lighting systems, particularly in industrial and factory spaces.

This factor is used for factories with lighting areas greater than 10m² and does not use the reflection index of walls for lighting calculations.

The formula for calculating lighting standards with the utilization factor Ksd:

• N: number of light fixtures installed
• E: reflection coefficient of light on the working surface
• A: factory area
• F: total luminous flux
• UF: utilization factor for each installed fixture
• LLF: light loss factor

From this formula, it is possible to derive the formula for calculating light intensityto achieve a complete lighting system.

Approximate Factory Lighting Calculation with Fluorescent Tubes

To calculate approximate lighting for industrial factories using fluorescent tubes, you can apply the calculation method with the following standard parameters:

Basic Parameters:

• Fluorescent tubes: The power of each tube is 30W (2 tubes = 60W)
• Luminous flux of each tube: 1230lm.
• Illuminance coefficient: 100 lux.
• Reflectance Coefficients:
  • Dark ceiling: ρtr = 0.7.
  • Neutral ceiling: ρtr = 0.5.
  • Dark walls: ρtg = 0.5.
  • Neutral walls: ρtg = 0.3.
• Safety Factor (K):
  • Direct sunlight: k = 1.3.
  • Indirect sunlight: k = 1.5.
  • Predominantly direct sunlight: k = 1.4.

Calculation Steps:

• Determine the lighting area: The lighting area should be ≥ 4 m², with an average area of 2 m², or a small room ≤ 1 m².
• Ceiling height: Measure the distance from the ground to the ceiling of the factory.
• Apply the formula:

Where:

• E is the required illuminance (lux)
• Q is the total luminous flux of the lamp.
• K is the safety factor.
• ptr, gtg are the reflectance coefficients of the ceiling and walls.
• A is the area to be illuminated

Lighting Calculation for Industrial Factories by Point

The method of calculating lighting for factories by point is an important technique when designing lighting for spaces that require high lighting standards, such as in electronics manufacturing, assembly, etc.

Factors to Determine:

• Illuminance on a horizontal plane (Eng)
• Illuminance on a vertical plane (Edd)
• Illuminance on an inclined plane (Engh)

Calculation Procedure for Point Method:

• First, the lighting designer selects a fixed point in the workspace, called point A. This point is used to calculate the illuminance and the distance to the light sources.
• Next, the distance from point A to the light source in the factory (R) is determined to assess the lighting level at that point.

Apply the illuminance formula::

 hoặc

Where:

• E is the illuminance (lux).
• F  is the luminous flux (lumen) of the lamp.
• S is the lighting area (m²).
• I is the illuminance intensity (lumen/m²).
• R is the distance from the light point to the calculation point (m).

Approximate Calculation Method

The approximate calculation method is especially suitable for small-scale factories with limited space. This method has high accuracy, helping to optimize the use of lighting fixtures in small spaces. To apply this method, focus on two main factors:

• Determine the required lighting power density for each unit of room area (W/m²).
• Calculate the number of lamps needed, and specify the type of lamp, power, and ceiling height.

The formula for calculation:

Where:

• Ptổng  is the total required lighting power for the workshop (W).
• P is the required lighting power per square meter (W/m²).
• S is the workshop area that needs to be illuminated (m²).

Second Approximate Calculation Method

The second approximate calculation method is an improved version of the traditional lighting calculation method, focusing on using data from available tables to simplify the lighting system design process.

This method uses standard data tables to determine the illuminance E without further adjustments unless the actual value does not match. In such cases, the power (W/m²) will be adjusted to meet the required levels, with an initial reference value of 100 W/m².

Lighting Calculation Using Lighting Design Software

Lighting design software is a method that uses specialized tools to simulate and optimize the lighting system in buildings, ensuring high accuracy and saving time compared to manual calculations.

Some lighting design software you can refer to:

Conclusion

In this article, KTG Industrial has shared detailed information about factory lighting standards. Designing a lighting system that meets these standards not only optimizes the working environment but also reduces operational costs.

As a leading company in the industrial real estate sector, KTG Industrial is committed to providing factory and warehouse solutions, offering pre-built and custom-built options that not only meet lighting standards but also optimize usage efficiency. Contact us now for a detailed consultation!

KTG Industrial – Leading Industrial Real Estate Solutions in Vietnam

Tài liệu tham khảo:

[1] Caselaw. (2015). Caselaw.vn. https://caselaw.vn/van-ban-phap-luat/254096-tieu-chuan-viet-nam-tcvn-7114-1-2008-iso-8995-1-2002-cor-1-2005-ve-ecgonomi-chieu-sang-noi-lam-viec-phan-1-trong-nha-nam-2008