The last time I dealt with an 8’ T12 to T8 conversion, the technology was still relatively new. We swapped the ballasts and bulbs and left the fixtures intact. Those ballasts lasted a year or two before the vast majority of them failed. As they failed, we ended up putting the old T12 bulbs and ballasts back.
Since then, I’ve seen a great many 8’ T12 ugrades where they modify the fixture to accept two rows of 4’ T8’s instead of 8’ lamps. I always assumed this was because the 8’ T8 technology was so terrible (based on my experience) but never had to deal with this myself.
Now I’ve got a building once again that has a great many 8’ T12 fixtures they want to upgrade to T8. Is there any reason to do anything other than a bulb/ballast swap, to 8’ T8s and electronic ballasts? T8 technology in general has come a LONG way since my last conversion.
There are so so many “high output” and different wattage options that I cant really tell any more . . . it seems like the bottom line is, with T8, you can get higher output and lower wattage for less cost.
I think that a “T8” is a (size?) specification for flourescent lights. I’m not sure if it’s just an American spec or not. I guess that “T12” is similar, but a different size.
Check with your local utility for rebates - my last company retrofitted thousands of T12s to T8s and saved a ton of money on the electric bill - and the utility company paid for most of the cost of the light fixtures. I have personally done a LOT of 4’ T8 retrofits. And I’ve done the lamp and ballast replacement on them as well. They are very tried and true and the payback, in the form of electric savings, is definitely there. If I were you, I’d look at the T5 options as well as LED, but I bet the T8s will still be the best economic choice. BTW, I hold a master electrician’s license.
Jerommel, I believe this is the sort of thing OP is discussing. There are many similar products on the market. They vary in the amount of modification required for the install. Hopefully OP can tell us all some more about the subject though! It is something that I am mildly interested in but it is outside the scope of my LED hobby and I think there’s a lot of tricky stuff to know about this kind of thing.
EDIT: or more likely he’s just talking about changing fluorescent bulb sizes. What do I know? :weary:
I’m actually just talking about fluorescents here . . . IMO when it comes to 4’ and 8’ fixtures, there’s no reason to go to anything beyond T8. I am sure T5 and LED technology will surprise T8 but IMO it hasnt yet, especially when you factor in cost.
And yes, Focus on Energy will pay for the retrofit. The customer only has a few years left on their lease, and presumably everything will get ripped out when they leave, so they want to do as little as possible, and still get the best results for these few years.
Government programs pay for old magnetic fluorescent ballast fixtures with the larger less efficient T12 lamps to be upgraded to the newer electronic ballast T8 fixtures with the more efficient lamps. T8s are less common in the 8’ length and often times the 8’ fixtures are replaced with two 4’ and I am wondering why.
