Track Lighting

In this informative video, we show you how to make a track lighting layout and you don't have to have any experience. Follow these easy to follow instructions and we can help you light your space with flexible track lighting.

Build your own track lighting kit here.

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As more and more states are lifting capacity restrictions, we are seeing an uptick in track lighting projects. Whether these businesses are remodeling or starting new, we know businesses have limited resources and time to get things up and running. For some time now, 8’ track has been the go-to length for many commercial track lighting projects. But what if there was a way to be under budget on your next project?  We have 4 reasons why you should consider using 6’, 4’, or even 2’ power track lengths in your next project. 

The Takeaway

1 - Using shorter lengths of track on your project is usually less expensive than using 8’ track

2 - 6’ track suffers less damage when shipping and has a smaller minimum order requirement than 8’ track.

3 - By using our 2’, 4’, and 6’  power track lengths, you can build almost any configuration

4 - 6’ track uses the same number of hanging points if you are using our suspension system.

Using 6’ power track saves money

If you could save over $200 dollars on your project, would you? Of course! Let’s say you are installing a 48-foot track system. As per the graphic, eight pieces of 6’ track will cost approximately $300; whereas, six pieces of 8’ foot track will cost over $500. 

Since both systems come in a single box, why is the 8' track system more expensive? The simple answer: shipping. Because no one wants to ship a 101-inch long box, shipping carriers charge fees to discourage it. If you want more information on the intricacies of shipping, check out our “The True Costs of Free Shipping” video.

Increase Shipping Damages

Have you ever tried shipping a 101 inch tube weighing about 3 pounds? Well, it is not pretty. Due to the hardware needed to install the track, the 8’ track comes in a 101 inch long tube. A single piece of track doesn’t do well on the conveyor belt or transport trucks. For this reason we have a minimum quantity requirement. We found that six or more pieces of 8’ track transport better than one to five. 

However, even with our special care to packing, the track can arrive damaged. Imagine getting a  box like this the day before installation. Nothing is more frustrating and costly than damaged materials.

When Time is Money

Most 8’ foot track lighting projects can be configured using 6’, 4’, and even 2’ track sections. Why is this important? Besides the hundreds of dollars of savings from shipping and damages, shorter lengths are easier to install. Trying to manage an 8’ long wobbly track can get quite tiresome, believe me. What if you want to suspend your track? Well, we got you covered there too. 6’ track uses the same number of hanging points when using our track lighting suspension system. An easier and faster install can make all the difference when staying on budget.

Here at Total Lighting Supply, we have over 30 years of experience designing all types of commercial projects, galleries, restaurants, and retail spaces. All of our track parts work together, are affordable, and all of them are H style. We know track lighting and track suspension.

Thank you for dropping by our website. We are a small family business. No matter where you shop for your next track lighting project, we encourage you to consider buying from a small business. Have a blessed day!

See our Power Track

7 Fast & Easy Steps to a complete track lighting system

Build your own track lighting kit here.

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Don't make the same mistake as one of our customers. He bought on price from a popular online retailer that sold him the wrong LED MR16 lamps for his low voltage track lights. Was it the retailers fault? Not necessarily but they offered little to no help. The customer simply was not educated on what to purchase. Had he purchased the light bulbs with his track lighting purchase his costly mistake could have been avoided. Please, if you are buying lighting products purchase them from a lighting company that knows the products and can answer your questions. It will save you money, time and grief!

We just released our latest video on Griplock components. In this video we explain the core parts of the Griplock system and how each are used. If you want to learn more about the Griplock Track Lighting Suspension System then this video is a must to watch!

Griplock is one of the most flexible, easy to install track lighting suspension systems on the market. At first it may seem daunting or confusing but once you get an understanding on how it works for suspending track lighting the possibilities of its use become limitless.

Gain a little more knowledge in the workings of Griplock in track lighting suspension with our helpful power feed strain relief overview video below. Our seasoned Griplock track lighting designer has years of experience; watch as he briefly explains how the strain relief plays a critical role in securing your power supply cable!

This short video goes over in detail the different power feeds and connectors for use in H style dual circuit track lighting / 2 circuit track lighting systems. Watch how we carefully outline and describe how each track lighting power feed and track connector functions as we provide a first hand look into our dual circuit track lighting components. If you are unfamiliar with H style dual circuit track lighting we highly recommend taking a few minutes to watch. You will be glad you did :)

Watch it directly on Youtube.

Soraa has released the new Soraa GU10 MR16 LED light bulb and we have all of them. You can get the new Soraa LED GU10 MR16 in 10°, 25°, 36° and the whopping 60° beam spreads to meet your lighting demands.

Not only can you get the new Soraa LED MR16 in such a wide range of beam spreads there are also available 2700K, 3000K and 5000K color temperatures to get the color you need in your lighting application.

Go check them out by clicking on the links below!

For recessed lighting go here: https://www.totalrecessedlighting.com/recessed-lighting-light-bulbs/led-bulbs/soraa-led-bulbs/soraa-2-gu10-mr16-light-bulbs.html

For track lighting here: https://www.totaltracklighting.com/track-lighting-bulbs/led-bulbs/soraa-led-bulbs/soraa-2-gu10-mr16-light-bulbs.html

For bulk go here: https://www.totalbulklighting.com/led-lamps/mr16-led-bulbs/soraa-led-mr16-lamps/soraa-2-gu10-mr16-light-bulbs.html

Savvy Salon Style With Grip Lock Lighting and SORAA LED Bulbs: Smart track lighting solutions for a smart design-a true story about sustainable track lighting design.

Calleis Salon and Spa. Photography by Wandering Albatross Photography

Concept: an Aveda Salon, Calleis Salon and Spa, wanted an image of their space to work functionally and to have a feel of quality, yet convey a naturalness. For the designer of the space, it was fortunate that the Aveda Company did not come with design specific restrictions-the designer had free reign.

Location: Helena, Montana. The space of the salon/spa is modern and colorful-so is the packaging of the Aveda products. The designer, Rebekka (Bekka) Cantrell of Sussex Construction, wanted to work with a monochromatic color palette that conveyed serenity; one that was quiet and understated. Bekka chose to work with the color palette of driftwood. From a design standpoint, she needed the track lighting to compliment the earthy feel, and yet have it be bright and feel natural. The lighting also needed to be high color rendering. One side of the space had lots of natural light and the other side did not-the designer also wanted lighting between these two areas to be balanced and to be able to control it in order to be able to adjust with the seasonal changes. The designer also wanted to be able to use a lighting source that was sustainable-as that is part of the mission and reputation of Sussex Construction-for green building experience while being sustainable.

When our lighting designer here at Total Lighting Supply told Bekka about the SORAA bulb, she fell in love with it as it was a single point light source that offered crisp, clear light with no harsh shadows. You can find out more about the SORAA bulb here. With the space having a lot of natural light on one side and none on the other, there really needed to be a balance of light on both sides. There were a lot of areas where the light needed to be closer to the product-where it had to be brought down into the space, as the ceilings were 14 ft. high. The designer wanted an uncluttered look and also needed to be able to change the lighting with the light shifts that come with seasonal changes. She needed a suspended track lighting system to solve the problem and Grip Lock offered that solution since it was totally unobtrusive. With the Grip Lock Suspension System, it gave the designer a way to bring lighting down in to the area without having the lighting fixture be a key visual feature when clients walked in to the space. It also allowed for a more natural feel to the space.

Calleis Salon and Spa. Photography by Wandering Albatross Photography

The salon/spa is also in a green building and SORAA met the bill on that one. In addition, Helena's building code requires 70% efficiency on lights-a tough one to meet, but becoming more and more do-able with all the lighting choices out there. Even in track lighting.

Calleis Salon and Spa. Photography by Wandering Albatross Photography

For the client, going with the SORAA bulbs were a big initial investment, but the designer did some number crunching and calculated that it would only take 3 years and 2 months to realize the payback on this. Plus, this also met the building code, satisfied the clients needs for the space and leaves a smaller carbon footprint. From a design and client standpoint, the math worked on this, as did the visual and the esthetics. Definitely a win-win scenario.

The track lighting allows the client to show off a lot of natural products in a natural looking light. Everything is soft and muted. Even the wood is eco friendly in this site being locally harvested and reclaimed. The light is diffused. The areas where the designer dropped down light was the cash register and the wash basin areas where a lot of light is needed. The designer says that even with artificial light in these areas, it still had a sense of it being a natural light source. This lighting effect is something that can never be achieved with halogen lights since they are not a single source light. SORAA is a natural looking light source that is even-halogen is not. Not to mention, that for the designer, SORAA had the color temperature she was looking for AND the right amount of lumens.

Calleis Salon and Spa. Photography by Wandering Albatross Photography

If you've worked with Total Lighting Supply on a lighting project and would like to see an article about your experience here at our blog, contact us-we'd love to work with you on this!

We have all waited a long time for technology to catch up to our expectations of the perfect LED MR-16. The wait is over as the SORAA team took performances issues head on in their design and development of this bulb and conquered them all, we might add.

Here are the top ten reasons why the SORAA LED MR16 lamp is on the top of our list:

1) Perfect fit. SORAA conforms to the ANSI standard, so they do fit standard lighting fixtures (MR16) when used as specified.

2) No noise. Performance, performance, performance. These bulbs do not blink, they do not buzz. SORAA lamps turn on and operate properly with both magnetic and electronic transformers.

3) Fully UL listed. What does this mean to you? It means that you can trust them to work safely as a retrofit lamp in UL listed fixtures.

4) Dimmable-SORAA lamps work properly with many commonly installed leading-edge and trailing-edge dimmers.

5) Flexible. The SORAA LED MR16 works in both NEC Class 1 and Class 2 transformers. While most LED lamps are designed to work only with Class 2 systems, SORAA lamps are UL listed for both systems.

6) Single source light output. Why is this important? The SORAA design allows for a high lumen density which in turn gives you more light output from a single source. Which in turn, gives you more design flexibility and control. Isn't that what you want? A Halogen MR16 lamp have multifaceted reflectors which in turn, do not project crisp shadows as does the SORAA single source light.

(left) SORAA single source (right) other LED MR16 multi source

7) More natural light. SORAA lamps are designed to replicate halogen illumination with one color and one shadow.

8) Elegant (and smart) design. The thermally optimized heat sink (all LEDs are designed to have heat sinks) mimics the Halogen counterpart:

9) Lightweight. SORAA lamps are the same weight as standard halogen lamps.

10) Energy efficient. Are you thinking green here? Green as in energy efficient and green as in the money you will save on your utility bill-not just by way of this bulb requiring less energy, but lowering the cost of cooling your space. Here is a chance to make a difference on your carbon footprint.

Still not convinced? Check out our video here that does a side by side comparison of the SORAA MR16 lamp against the Halogen MR16 lamp:

Total Recessed Lighting currently carries the SORAA Premium and Vivid bulbs.You can find the selection of lamps under our "bulbs and accessories" section in recessed lighting.

The premium lamp line is the choice for when you want a quality, 'no compromise' LED solution for a 50W halogen MR16 lamp. If you need a high quality output for interior applications that is energy saving, choose the SORAA premium lamp.

When high color rendering is of utmost importance, the SORAA Vivid lamp line is the lamp of choice. With a CRI (color rendering index) of 95, it will yield rich, saturated colors along with color stability. These lamps are designed to replace standard 50W MR16 Halogen lamps with a savings of up to 75% of the energy that halogen lamps require. Now you not only can choose a superior light quality as well as save on your energy consumption.

At long last. The perfect LED MR16 lamps has arrived."

Questions. We get lots of questions. When we get a lot of questions in one particular area, this always prompts us to address it in a more global manner. Such as, the questions we get about LED Par 38 versus Halogen PAR 38-and which one is the better bulb. People want to know if  the LED PAR 38 is brighter than the Halogen PAR 38. Is the LED a good option? Folks are taking a good, hard look at LED as an alternative to Halogen because they know they are energy efficient and last longer, but they are not sure if they will be happy switching over. Does this sound like you?

Our team here decided to take it to the test-what they think is a real test-not a fancy, scientific test. We'll just call it an empirical test since it is based on actual experience instead of an experiment. In plain language, it was a shootout:

In this video, our team did a side by side comparison of a 24 watt LED 5000K PAR 38 against a 90 watt 2800K Halogen PAR 38 which should will help you decide if the LED bulb is the one for you and if it will save you money.  We cover wattage issues, color temperature, which one puts out more foot candles (a measurement of light intensity),  and more!

We welcome your comments and hope that they are presented to us in a constructive manner so that we can incorporate it in future videos and blog postings. Send us your 'before' and 'after' project pictures! We'd love to be able to talk about your process so that others can benefit from it too.