LED T8 light tubes

We at Bright Ideas Lighting Co recently did a commercial lighting upgrade at a building in downtown Boise, Idaho.  The job qualified for rebates from Idaho Power and was run through the custom efficiency program at Idaho Power, which pays rebates of 12 cents per kilowatt hour saved.

This project was the first time that we have used the new T8 LED lighting tubes.  We have been skeptical of these in the past, based on their price and relatively minor improvements over high efficiency T8 fluorescent lights.  However, in this situation the lights in question were over 45 feet in the air and the only way to get to the lights was by building an expensive scaffolding.   The T8 light tubes that we purchased were rated at 60,000 hours, which is significantly longer than even the T8 extra long life bulbs.  

Below is the picture of the lights before any retrofit was done.  The height of the lights made maintenance very difficult.  Maintenance on the bulbs had not been done in several years due to the cost of the scaffolding build.

T12 fluorescent

The bulbs before the lighting retrofit were T12 "cool white" color.   The owner of the building wanted to brighten up the look and decided to go with a higher kelvin 5500K lights. 

Even though the LED tubes were significantly more expensive than just a simple T12 to T8 lighting retrofit, we felt that in this case the extra cost of the LED tubes was justified. 

LED tube lights

These lights were at a location that was simply not accessable by use of a scissor lift.   The only way to get to the lights was through scaffolding build, at a cost of thousands of dollars, and a large disruption to clients.

Before the lighting retrofit there were no lighting controls on these lights and they ran 24/7.   We have now added a lighting control that turns off the lights in evenings and weekends.  This will significantly cutdown the overall run time of the lights. 

With the LED tube lights and the addition of the time clock controlling the lighting hours we believe it will be several years before the scaffolding build needs to be done again.  

Stay tuned for more information on this project as it will be featured on Idaho Power's "success stories" page, where Idaho Power recognizes outstanding lighting retrofit projects.

Free lighting retrofits

We at Bright Ideas Lighting Co have recently heard of companies in Idaho doing lighting retrofits at no net cost to the customer-  the "free" lighting retrofit.

How are these companies able to do a lighting retrofit completely free to the customer?  Generally under normal circumstances the Idaho Power lighting rebates will pay for about 50% of a job, with customer paying for the remainder.

How do these companies get the rebates to pay for 100% of the lighting retrofit job?  The biggest thing that we have seen is excessive delamping.  Idaho Power pays $12 per delamp.  So if the fixture goes from 4 lamp t12 to 2 lamp T8 the delamping portion of the rebate is $24 (2x12).  The 4-2 lighting retrofit is very common and generally looks good.  What we have seen is the retrofit going from 4 lamp T12 to 1 lamp T8.   This looks terrible, where there is only one light bulb in a fixture designed to have four.  The light levels are actually far lower after the retrofit.  However, with the 3 delamps, plus the retrofit incentives the Idaho Power rebates literally cover all of the costs.   Other similar types of work are delamping 2 lamp fixtures to 1 lamp fixtures.


We are not going to do lighting retrofits where the end result is that the lighting looks worse than before the lighting retrofit!  The point of a lighting upgrade is to get more energy efficient lighting and have the lighting look better than before the lighting retrofit.   No point in doing a lighting upgrade if the end results is big energy savings, but lighting that looks bad.
 
Other things that we see done by the companies offering "free" lighting retrofits include using non licensed electricians, and using poor quality lamps and ballasts.  Do you really want your lighting and electrical work done by non-licensed, non-insured workers?   Do you want the light bulbs and ballasts to have a brand name that you have never even heard of?

At Bright Ideas Lighting Co we are always going to use 800 series high performance light bulbs and NEMA premium ballasts in all of our lighting retrofits. 

One thing that from what we have seen is almost always a part of the "free" lighting retrofit is improper disposal of the old T12 fluorescent light bulbs.  The old fluorescent light bulbs contain mercury and need to be recycled.  Recycling cost money and from what we have seen is that many of the "free" retrofitters just throw all of their old mercury containing tubes in the trash.  At Bright Ideas Lighting Co we recycle all old fluorescent tubes and can provide written certificate of recycling from our recycling company.

So with lighting retrofits, just as in most things in life, there is no free lunch.  Our retrofits are not going to be free, but we will offer free estimates and consultation on lighting retrofits.

Retrofit kits

Bright Ideas Lighting Co recently did a project using Lithonia RT8 retrofit kits.  The RT8 kits completely changed the look of the office space and reduced energy costs by over 50%.   The great thing about these kits is that they cost less than an entire new fixture (both in labor and product costs), however the end result looks like a new fixture!!

The previous lighting were old 4 lamp T12 acrylic troffers.  Many of the bulbs were not even matching colors.  Also many of the fixture covers were very dirty.   The old electromagnetic T12 ballasts were also very noise, besides being very energy inefficient.   Each fixture is using approximately 155 watts.

 The picture to the right after we had installed the Lithonia RT8 lighting retrofit kits.

Notice the cleaner more modern look.  The new kits with the 2 lamp T8 electronic high performance ballast are only using 54 watts per fixture.  Note -The before and after pictures are not of the same room, but are of the same job.  Just could not get into same room for the "after" shot.

Because we were retrofitting from T12 to T8 and delamping from 4 lamps to 2 lamps the customer was able to get a $38 per fixture rebate from Idaho Power.  Bright Ideas Lighting Co filled out all of the Idaho Power paper work for the customer and made the process very easy.   The customer was able to get what looks like brand new fixtures at a fraction of the cost by using the Lithonia RT8 retrofit kits.

HID lighting upgrades

Does your building have light fixtures that look like the one below?

Metal halide fixture

If your building has light fixtures that look like the above fixture you are paying twice as much in energy cost as you should be paying.   The light fixtures like in the picture above are high intensity discharge - metal halide, high pressure sodium, or mercury vapor.  

Bright Ideas Lighting Co. recommends removing these old fixtures and installing new highbay fluorescent fixtures.  Typically the energy savings is 50%.   The most common type of fixture like the one pictured above is a 400 watt metal halide.   These typically take about 5 minutes to come to full brightness.  The ballasts on these fixtures typically have an audible humming noise.  

The 400 watt fixtures can easily be replaced by either 4 lamp T5 HO fixtures or 6 lamp T8s.  If your business is in Idaho, the Idaho Power rebates are $90 for the T5 HO fixture and $120 for the 6 lamp T8.  Since the cost of the two fixtures is approximately the same most projects are going with the 6 lamp T8 high bay fixtures. 

The fluorescent fixtures come up to full brightness quickly,  almost instantaneously, so you can turn them off and on without having to put up with the 5 minute warmup time for HID fixtures.  Also the fluorescent fixtures can  have occupancy sensors attached so that the fixture will partially turn off when there is no one nearby.

At Bright Ideas Lighting Co we just completed a project where we replaced almost 100 of the 400 watt metal halide lights with 6 lamp T8 and getting a tremendous energy savings and Idaho Power rebate for the customer.

Boise lighting repair

Call Bright Ideas Lighting Co for lighting repair in Boise, Nampa, Caldwell, Meridian, Eagle and Kuna Idaho.  We handle all interior and exterior lighting repair.   Ballast changeouts, lighting retrofits, hard to reach lights. We have a bucket truck and are able to change pole lights up to 50' high.

T12 electromagnetic ballast phaseout

Per the Energy Policy Act of 2005 as of July 1, 2010 electromagnetic T12 ballasts will no longer be allowed to be imported to or manufactured in the United States. 

Suppliers are allowed to sell their remaining inventory of the electromagnetic T12 ballasts.  However, in practical terms most suppliers have stopped selling the electromagnetic ballasts months ago.  

This is the first phase of the T12 fluorescent phaseout.  In July of 2012 the T12 bulbs will also phased out similar to the ballast.  This is part government regulations to force energy efficiency.   T8 fluorescent lights are approximately 30% more energy efficient than T12 lights, plus the T8 lights provide much higher color rendering (better light quality). 

A significant portion of businesses have already did the lighting conversion, but even today T12 light bulb sales make up over 20% of all fluorescent tube sales.   If you don't know what your business has, please give Bright Ideas Lighting Co a call at 208-378-1889 to schedule a free lighting consultation.  We service lighting in Boise, Nampa, Meridian, Eagle, Kuna, Caldwell, and Mountain Home, Idaho.   We service the entire Treasure Valley.

Ultimately if your home or business still has the T12 fluorescent light bulbs you need to consider retrofitting to T8 fluorescents.  This be done by changing bulbs and the ballast in your current fixture, so there is no need to change the entire fixture.  There are currently Idaho Power rebates available for businesses who convert their lights from T12 to T8.   At Bright Ideas Lighting Co. we are experts in all types of lighting retrofits whether T12 to T8, HID to fluorescent, or induction or LED retrofits.

LED T8 tubes

Bright Ideas Lighting Co installed some LED T8 tubes for the first time this week.  We put them in for a customer who had requested them as a sample. 

In the picture the tubes closest are the T8 fluorescents 4100K.  The middle pair of tubes are the LEDs (rated at 4100K) and the far pair is the LED tubes rated at 5500K.  

My impressions were that the LED tubes rated at 4100 kelvin did not look good.  They seemed to have poor color and looked yellowish green.  They were very bright and at only 18 watts a piece they produced a lot of light.

I did like the look of the 5500 kelvin LED tubes a little more.  From the picture it is difficult to tell, but one of the tubes has a clear coating and one of the tubes has a frosted coating.  I liked the clear coating, it produced much less of a glare. 

The LED tubes were relatively easy to install.  I would say they take approximately the same amount of time to install as it is to change a ballast.  I think with some practice we could improve our time and cut our labor costs on these.

Overall it is still difficult to justify LED tubes over T8s given their relative price and performance.  There is clearly HUGE potential in the LED tube market.  There are places where LED tubes seem to make sense, those areas where access is difficult.  The places we are looking installing the LED tubes requires scaffolding be build that will cost over $3000.  So if we get extra life from the LED tubes over the fluorescents then the LED tubes may be worth the additional cost.