Pew Cushions, Pew Refinishing, Church Lighting, Church Pews, Church Renovation by Artech

Church Lighting

Is your church lighting too dark? Due to the unique architectural challenges a church presents during its design and construction - a large open room with a high ceiling that needs just enough light but not too much - many churches are inadequately lit. Also, many churches are historical landmarks and were built before electric lights or even gas lights were available.

Lighting is an art. The shape of the fixtures and the bulbs, the height and distribution of the lights and the type of lighting mount used can all contribute greatly to the available light in a room. The key is not to double the number of bulbs or increase the wattage size of the bulbs, since this can cause electrical bills to skyrocket and the structural wiring in many older churches simply cannot handle that much additional wattage, but to direct and channel the available light where it is needed.

John McNicholas
John brings to Artech 25 years of lighting expertise. Having begun his career at a large lighting design firm in New York City as a mechanic in the lighting department John moved up to Production Manager before setting out in 1990 to found his own company. In 2006 John joined Artech's team as our lighting specialist. John brings to Artech his vast experience regarding the production, fabrication and design of decorative lighting fixtures.
While he is able to advise on and supervise the installation of new lighting, John also offers the rare opportunity to restore your existing lighting fixtures, whether traditional fixtures in need of repairs to keep functioning or more modern fixtures in need of an update or upgrade.

Hawthorne Gospel Church, Hawthorne, NJ
Contemporary Style Lights

Hawthorne Gospel came to Artech for an overall renovation to the appearance of their church. We were able to help them with new pews and their lighting. Their main sanctuary lighting at the time was provided by 22 overhead fixtures as well as several wall mounts in the rear of the room. Their problems were two-fold - the lights were beginning to age - the acrylic was yellowing and the fixtures were not giving off a bright white light - and the fixtures were giving off inadequate light, there were 10 foot wide islands(cones) of light immediately below the fixtures and a lack of decent light between these islands. The church was considering tossing the fixtures and buying new. Artech was able to convince the church that they could remedy the lighting issues and also see a cost saving if they chose to refurbish instead.

Before

After

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The church was presented with several sketches of the proposed work to be done to their lighting. They chose an option that involved utilizing the outer arms of their existing fixtures, removing the center "candle" and adding a center bowl. We removed one fixture and brought it back to the shop. John did the modifications and we presented the sample to the church. They were happy with the results and wanted to continue the work on the rest of the fixtures. The remaining fixtures were taken down and brought to our shop.

Before

After

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Finally it came time to put the new lights back up. During the time John was finishing the lights, the church had torn up their carpet and replaced it with stone flooring provided by one of their members and Artech had delivered a shipment of new curved pews to replace their old straight pews. The final result was dramatic as you can see.

Our goal was to meet the 3 area's of light - downlighting for a wide spread of light over the pews, interior fixture light for an overall general illumination and uplighting for ambient reflective light. Standard fixtures are made to meet general lighting needs but with a unique building like a church they made not be sufficient. Artech was able to retro-actively modify Hawthorne's lighting to fit their space. By altering the arrangement of the bulbs we were able to expand the spread of light, increasing the 10 foot wide cones of light to 18 feet. This allowed the islands to overlap and eliminated the dark areas between the islands. New lights were added to increase the general illumination and uplights were added to remove the shadows from the ceiling. John was able to suggest to the Church a different type of bulb which improved the color quality of the lights, instead of a yellowish white light the fixtures now give off a bright white light. The new bulbs also last 3000 hours as opposed to 1500 hours and this is significant when your lights are 2 stories off the ground.

The most dramatic thing about Hawthorne Gospel's lighting renovation isn't even visible. The new fixtures were modified to accept halogen lights which provide more illumination with less glare all while consuming less watts to run.

1 center down:
6 outer down:
6 outer up:
6 outer inner:
1 interior bowl:
Total:

500 watts
540 watts
600 watts
600 watts
N/A
2240 watts

N/A
720 watts
600 watts
225 watts
180 watts
1725 watts

With 22 fixtures this adds up to 11,330 total watts per hour saved on their electric bill every time they flip the switch.

St. Luke's Lutheran Church, Farmingdale, NY
Traditional Style Lights

St. Luke's Lutheran Church was interested in renovating their church. They wanted to redo their upholstery and carpet for a new look. They were also having a problem with their lights, 3 aging fixtures running down the center of the sanctuary were providing the only light in the church. The church had beautiful original fixtures but they were not providing sufficient light for the sanctuary. They contacted a couple companies and were told they would need to replace the fixtures. Artech was the only company they contacted that gave them the option to restore and upgrade the existing fixtures.

Before

After

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Artech met with the Church and proposed our suggestions for changes to the lighting fixtures. The existing fixtures had a single large bulb pointing straight down and John's recommendation was to modify the outer decorative band to hold 6 halogen downlights, angled to provide a wide spread of light. Additionally 6 compact fluorescent interior lights would provide general illumination in all directions. In the above photograph you can see John working with the pastor to select the finish color for the fixtures. The proposal was accepted and the fixtures were removed to our shop.

Before

After

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The work on the fixtures was complete and they were re-installed. The new acrylic panels on the fixture allow a cleaner white light from the central cylinder and the additional bulbs light the entire cylinder instead of a ball of light hanging in the center. The angled downlights now allow the light to reach the very edges of the sanctuary.