More New Lighting! And some history numbers.
Posted: Wed Mar 02, 2022 7:44 pm
There's been a few threads here discussing lights, and I've chimed in with several of the types I've purchased lately. Well, I've been installing a new type in my shop where I"m removing T8 Fluorescent lights I bought about 11 years ago to replace T12s then.
I calculated then that certain lights which run 24/7 (night-lights) would pay for themselves in one month. Quite an illustration of how inefficient T12 8' bulbs really were. So, roughly I calculated that by changing those lights in the shop I saved about $27,000 in electric bills over the 11 or so years.
So, I had a new roof project done here which amounted to quite a lot more than 'just' a new roof. New foundations, structure, and all. Lighting has been a nightmare as that wasn't part of the contract. There's only so much money to go around so I saved a ton doing this myself. And will save for many years to come as it didn't get permitted as a new building, it was just a roof repair. In any case... I put in a bunch of high-bay lights and I'm pretty happy with them. But, I wanted to keep the old (11yr old) fixtures and use them still, and I didn't want to buy ALL new lights for the place. So I decided to swap over to LED bulbs when raising the fixtures from the old 14' height up to the new 23'. At a minimum I was going to put in all new T8 tubes even if I didn't switch to LEDs, but the cost was so cheap now I decided to just do it.
So for just over $5/bulb I bought new Line Voltage LEDs that you remove the old ballast and just power them from one end using 120V-277V. NICE! So I bought 50 to start and decided to get the ones with just a bit more lumens for another few cents per bulb. Ended up around $300 Shipped for 50 of em. Then I had to buy a bunch of new tombstones for these which are non-shunted. My old ones would not work. I got those on Ebay 40/bag. Didn't realize when I bought them I only needed 1 per bulb so I bought 120 of em... I'll be doing lots more so no big deal.
Finished up the first part of the building earlier today and wow is it nice now. On a meter these run about 14.8 watts per bulb, so less than half of a T8 fluorescent which is 32w each. I suspect these will last longer, but fact is I took out bulbs with 2011 install dates so it's going to be a while before I say these lasted longer.
Went to 1000 bulbs for the bulbs. https://www.1000bulbs.com/fil/products/209893
Ebay for the tombstones. https://www.ebay.com/itm/172817087751
Kept the same fixtures, just replaced one tombstone for each bulb, removed the old ballasts and stuck the things back together. These bulbs are available double ended, but I suspect if you did that you'd need to replace both of the tombstones because the old would have both pins shorted and you'd make a lot of smoke when the power came on.
I'll post a pic or two shortly.
I calculated then that certain lights which run 24/7 (night-lights) would pay for themselves in one month. Quite an illustration of how inefficient T12 8' bulbs really were. So, roughly I calculated that by changing those lights in the shop I saved about $27,000 in electric bills over the 11 or so years.
So, I had a new roof project done here which amounted to quite a lot more than 'just' a new roof. New foundations, structure, and all. Lighting has been a nightmare as that wasn't part of the contract. There's only so much money to go around so I saved a ton doing this myself. And will save for many years to come as it didn't get permitted as a new building, it was just a roof repair. In any case... I put in a bunch of high-bay lights and I'm pretty happy with them. But, I wanted to keep the old (11yr old) fixtures and use them still, and I didn't want to buy ALL new lights for the place. So I decided to swap over to LED bulbs when raising the fixtures from the old 14' height up to the new 23'. At a minimum I was going to put in all new T8 tubes even if I didn't switch to LEDs, but the cost was so cheap now I decided to just do it.
So for just over $5/bulb I bought new Line Voltage LEDs that you remove the old ballast and just power them from one end using 120V-277V. NICE! So I bought 50 to start and decided to get the ones with just a bit more lumens for another few cents per bulb. Ended up around $300 Shipped for 50 of em. Then I had to buy a bunch of new tombstones for these which are non-shunted. My old ones would not work. I got those on Ebay 40/bag. Didn't realize when I bought them I only needed 1 per bulb so I bought 120 of em... I'll be doing lots more so no big deal.
Finished up the first part of the building earlier today and wow is it nice now. On a meter these run about 14.8 watts per bulb, so less than half of a T8 fluorescent which is 32w each. I suspect these will last longer, but fact is I took out bulbs with 2011 install dates so it's going to be a while before I say these lasted longer.
Went to 1000 bulbs for the bulbs. https://www.1000bulbs.com/fil/products/209893
Ebay for the tombstones. https://www.ebay.com/itm/172817087751
Kept the same fixtures, just replaced one tombstone for each bulb, removed the old ballasts and stuck the things back together. These bulbs are available double ended, but I suspect if you did that you'd need to replace both of the tombstones because the old would have both pins shorted and you'd make a lot of smoke when the power came on.
I'll post a pic or two shortly.