Do you currently have T12 tubes? If so, I would replace them with T8 (or possibly T5), the ballast will have to change to a high frequency electronic ballast, it may be easier to change the whole fixture. If this is an unheated area, get the tubes that start at low temperatures. Also, I seem to remember that T5 tubes have some heat dissipation considerations, especially the high output ones, that's a lot of power from a narrow tube.
I sublease space from someone who went to LED high bay fixtures. They are VERY bright, and the light is like daylight at noon on a sunny beach. I remember doing some research a couple years ago before putting new T8 fixtures in my maintenance shop bldg. and it seemed difficult to get LED fixtures suitable for low bay application, they really need to be like 20 feet up in a warehouse. If you try and put them down at 10-15 feet, people are going to feel like baby chicks in a brooder. If you want really high light levels, like for electronic assembly or something, fine. If it's just a warehouse, LEDs may be overkill. When I looked at life on the T8 tubes, in my case they would not need replacing for something like 10 years, not like the old T12's that kept going black at the ends and then flickering. If you leave them on for 12-2 hours per day though, check the specs and do the calculations. -----Original Message----- From: Af [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Sterling Jacobson Sent: Tuesday, October 11, 2016 12:31 PM To: '[email protected]' <[email protected]> Subject: [AFMUG] OT Office Lighting Change to LED Anyone ever replaced their standard fluorescence ceiling lights with LEDs? I haven't researched it much yet, but someone told me you can't just use a drop in long bulb replacement. You have to change out the center piece, forgot what that's called. Is that correct? Is this something I can do myself? Or do I need to hire a company? My system has about 24 bays with three bulbs each drawing about 1500W when they are all working. Do I save much by going LED on these? What's ROI?
