changed my lights to led's

[curtiss]

dlcw

I believe you will find two types at the Lowes & Home Depot... one LED that will run off the ballast and one that do not require the ballast..

I think most do away with the ballast, I put in a few 4 footers without the ballast and they are great...

I think you will find you only need one LED for every two of the old style you replace.

[Tom Bachman]

The ones I installed gave you a choice, with the ballast or remove the ballast. I chose to remove them as they are part of the energy consumption. You have a choice of LED bulb type as well, one has a wire at each end the other (the ones I chose) has load and neutral at the same end. The swap is easy. Disconnect the power, Remove the ballast (i cut the wires pretty close to the ballast), I then disconnected the power lines into the fixture. Then look at the "tombstones" the ends which hold the bulb at each end. there are two types of connectors one wire to each tombstone or two wires. If you have the type that has two wires clip them off with about (at least) 6-8" The wire colors could be red and blue/black and red whatever- I tied the like colors together and then attached power to one and neutral to the other and wire-nutted them. The other end of the tombstones I cut the wires as close to the tombstones as possible as that end is no more than a holder for the far end of the LED tube. If you have the type of tombstones which has just one wire running to it clip the wires off close on the far end just like the other method, then on the power end take those tombstones clear out and throw them away and use the tombstones that came with the LED bulbs (at least mine came with them) these have the two wires (red and black) then just wire it up like the other way. My bulbs came with good instructions explaining it all to me. After you do one of each it is a breeze. By the way, the brand I bought, on Amazon.com, were Hyperikon

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...0?ie=UTF8&th=1

[bleeth]

As part of my work I have been making the changeover from traditional lighting (typically fluorescent or fluorescent and metal halide combo) in my companies branches all around the company.
Make sure you check out your local rebate incentives if you are a licensed business location. Sometimes the government has them and sometimes the electric power supplier. For our locations amortization comes within the first 12 months very often.

[dlcw]

Thanks Guys!! I'm going to call my utility company today to see if there is a rebate for making the switch to LED.

[Brady Watson]

So...How many shopbotters does it take to screw in a light bulb?

-B

[jTr]

Worth mentioning are the LED "corn" bulbs. Old shop ran roughly 3,000 watts in 8' tubes. New building I've achieved slightly more lumens in a larger space with only 8 fixtures. They are an acrylic canopy, running 100 watt corn bulbs. Well worth considering , as the fixtures are ~ $50 each. Yes, the bulbs are spendy, but I found true 100 watt bulbs just under $50 each. Absolutely love the quality of light, and $100 a pop for low bay fixtures is a screaming deal.

jeff

[jerry_stanek]

I did drop back to 8 fixtures where before I had 10 but If I would have known how bright they are I would have cut out 2 more but I don't want to go out and rehang them again.

[curtiss]

Remember however, if one starts to "save too much energy" with improvements... the power company will have to raise your rates.

You will be allowed to save energy, being allowed to save money is a separate issue.

The worst light bulb ever are those small mercury spiral ones... if you break those anywhere you will be walking around in mercury for years.

[Brian Harnett]

The 5000k ones are nice...I'm rockin T8s with 5000k 'sunshine' bulbs in the shop right now; LEDs in the scanning lab. It's really nice having enough light not to cast a shadow when doing precision work with older eyes

Although not top quality, these are really bright for $55: 6x 4' LEDs Via Amazon They can be used individually and come with plug & play wiring....if you want to 'try on' LEDs before you pull the trigger for the whole shop. They're great for under-counter lights.

-B

Thanks for that link Brady, I bought a pack put them up in my darker areas brightened up nice.

[Brady Watson]

Thanks for that link Brady, I bought a pack put them up in my darker areas brightened up nice.

Oh good ~ I've been using them for propagating plants on the farm. They were so bright compared to the 4x 2' T5s that I only need to run 2 of them.

Hoping to successfully clone some Thuja Green Giants via hydroponics...month in so far, only 2 of 100 rooted...

-B