It started when employees in the furniture department complained that the florescent lighting was not providing proper color rendition, resulting in customer complaints and more product returns. On top of that, a mandate came down from the vice president to lower energy costs. Daryl meadows, director of West Coast maintenance for Federated Logistics & Operations, knew what he needed to do – find an effective day lighting solution.

      Federated Logistics, which coordinates merchandise distribution, logistics functions and vendor technology for all Federated department store divisions in the United States, opted to install 800 Solatube tubular skylights in its East Los Angeles facility. Because of the natural lighting retrofit, Federated has been able to provide customers with better quality repairs on furniture, resulting in fewer returns and an improvement to the company’s bottom line. The company was so pleased that it decided to install the tubular skylights in more of its 2 million square feet of logistics space.

      “Vendors are shocked to hear that there is not a single electric light on when they come inside our facility,” said Meadows. “The Solatubes provide increased lighting with less heat than with florescent lighting and have allowed us to lower our energy costs.”

      Solatube International Inc., the innovator of the tubular skylight, a product originally designed for the home improvement market, has recently become the vendor of choice in this decidedly non-homey environment – logistics facilities.

      Since the launch of the SolaMaster product line in late 2000, Solatube has realized tremendous demand for its compact, modular skylights in all types of commercial buildings. Logistics facilities have proven a particularly good fit for the product line because of its affordable price, quick installation and short energy payback period. The 21-inch diameter units provide ideal lighting in open production areas as well as between pallet racking aisles, allowing workers better visibility to complete their job functions.

      “In warehouse applications, we are seeing installations as quick as 15 minutes per skylight,” said Robert Westfall, Solatube’s vice president of sales and marketing. “Because the Solatubes are more compact than traditional box skylights, you don’t need to open up nearly as much of the roof for installation, so you have just 1 to 2 percent roof penetration versus 5 to 10 percent with box skylights.”

      Frito Lay Inc. recently installed 120 Solatube skylights in the manufacturing and warehouse areas of its Visalia, Calif. facility.

      “The units have been a big hit,” said Mark Giltmier, Frito Lay maintenance manager. “We have been able to turn off roughly 70 percent of the ambient lighting fixtures during the day, which coincides with the peak demand period as assessed by the electric utility. Even on overcast or foggy days, there is still enough light available, which allows us to turn off 50 percent of the lighting fixtures. We will soon be automating the lights in areas served by the Solatubes via an energy management system, which will optimize our savings.

      Target Corp. has also turned to Solatube to provide more energy-efficient operations for its 1.6 million square feet distribution center in Shafter, Calif. more than 330 units were installed in the facility’s shipping and receiving department, with more units planned for a second facility under construction in Rialto, Calif.

      Aqua Lung, a manufacturer of SCUBA diving and snorkeling equipment headquartered in Vista, Calif., noticed an immediate 33 percent reduction in site-wide electricity consumption after it installed almost 200 Solatube lights.

      “We selected Solatube because the product quality and pricing were right,” said Paul Claybagh, facilities manager for Aqua Lung. “It certainly is an effective product for lighting manufacturing facilities and it will pay for itself over a short period of time. Plus, the employees respond positively to the natural light.”

      Day lighting has been linked to all kinds of benefits that extend beyond saving energy, including boosting employee productivity and morale, reducing absenteeism, aiding employee retention, reducing on-the-job errors and accidents, and lowering workers compensation claims. All of these contribute to a more profitable business. Consider these examples:

      •Compaq Computers used day lighting to boost worker productivity 55 percent in just one year.

      •Lockheed Martin reports that day-lighting its facilities achieved 15 percent higher worker productivity, helping the company win a $1.5 billion defense contract.

      •VeriFone, a subsidiary of Hewlett-Packard, reported that after day-lighting its facility, the company saw absenteeism drop 40 to 45 percent, worker productivity increase 5 percent and energy bills drop 50 percent, for an overall payback of less than one year.

      •Workers in one Boeing facility stated that natural light improved their ability to detect imperfections in jet panels during assembly by 20 percent. The savings associated with this ability to catch errors actually exceeded the building’s annual energy savings, which was 90 percent.

      Sorrento Electronics, a leading manufacturer of microprocessor/PC-based control and information handling systems, installed 75 21-inch Solatube units in the high bay manufacturing and warehouse areas of its San Diego headquarters. The Solatubes were installed with virtually no interruptions to the work going on in the factory. The skylights were able to displace 51 high-pressure sodium fixtures for an annual average of eight hours per day. Based on the operating hours of the building, the Solatubes, combined with a photo-control system, provide a 69 percent reduction in the annual electric lighting consumption. The simple payback for the entire project was calculated at 3.2 years.

      The trend toward day lighting is being furthered along by building codes that require more extensive use of natural lighting as an energy-saving measure. New revisions to California’s energy code, commonly known as Title 24, include more stringent day lighting requirements for the construction of new low-rise, non-residential buildings. The requirement states that buildings over 25,000 square feet, with ceiling heights above 15 feet, must have 50 percent of the floor space illuminated by daylight.

      “The new mandate will have a significant impact on logistics facilities in California,” said Westfall. “Because Title 24 tends to set the standard for other states to follow, we will likely soon see similar requirements in other parts of the country. Day lighting is not just a passing trend, but rather one that is quickly becoming the norm in lighting design for these types of facilities.”