Florescent lighting

alan40 · Oct 1, 2002

Stsrting a 24 X28 garage tomorrow. Looking at 4 8ft lights. 3 across and one over the workbench. Contractor recommends a cold weather, high energy light. Something about ballest and flickering. Can any one give me a short explanation on the differances. Can't get to town today one boy is hard down with the fluso this is my quickest way to get some knowledge. Thanks.

techman · Oct 1, 2002

What you absolutely need is a lamp with ballasts that are rated for the minimum temperature you will see. This makes sure that they will start reliably. I would recommend solid state ballasts rather than magnetic for cold applications. A bit more money but worth it. As for the lamps, nealry all will ficker when started cold. This should only last a minute or two till the tubes heat up. The high output will give more light, which will be noticed when they start cold, but again within a few minutes any lamp will be up to near full output.

Molerj · Oct 1, 2002

I am about to start replacing the flourescent lights that I have in my garage. I bought
the cheapy 10.00 on sale 4 footers. They never do put out enough light in the winter
here in Ohio. I am going to buy the 8' cold starting flourescents. I thought they were
around $60. I haven't heard of the solid state ballasts. Let us know what you get & the
$'s.

techman · Oct 1, 2002

You can get the solid state ballasts in lamps. I have seen them at electrical/lighting supply houses. Grainger carries them as well.

paul

Inspector507 · Oct 1, 2002

Al,
When they specify a cold weather fixture, it usually is a "High Output" type of fixture. They are more expensive and so are the replacement tubes, but you'll be happy with the cold weather starting.

Jerry

JATO_RaT · Oct 1, 2002

Alan, I personally prefer the 4' tubes over the 8' for a varietry of reasons. Disposal is much easier with the 4'. Purchasing/transporting new bulbs is much easier with 4' tubes. There are 4' gangable canopy fixtures available that will direct your light down with ELECTRONIC ballasts. The electronic ballast will require T8 bulbs. The 8 is 8/8's of an inch or 1" in diameter. The old style are T12 or 12/8's which is 1 1/4" in diameter and run with magnetic or iron core ballasts. Try and spend a little extra and go for the electronic. They are considerably more energy efficient and instead of operating at 60 cycle go well over 100K cycles. I put 5 double lamp fixtures in my shop at about 10' high and am convinced its the way to go. There are many different colors and light output bulbs available in T8's.

poorboy · Oct 1, 2002

While were on the subject, my neighbor gave me 5 8 ft. lights without the bulbs. The ends are for only 1 prong light bulbs and thats about all I know. Question, what type of lamps are they and what kind of bulb should I get. I think they came out of a warehouse.

Patrick

ChuckinVA · Oct 1, 2002

Sounds like an F96T12-(Color) (CW is most common )This should be 8 foot single pin.

ChuckinVA · Oct 1, 2002

You don't mention your proposed mounting heigth which will really determine what type of flourescent to buy. If it will be 8 foot then the four foot fixtures and lamps will probably be fine. If it is 12 foot or higher you may want to consider an 8 foot "HO" ( High Output) flourescent as it has a cold weather ballast as standard. The eight foot HO lamp is around 8000 lumens per lamp VS 2700 to 2900 (depending on the lamp) for a 4 foot. The flickering is caused by the ballast attempting to start the lamp when it is cold. As well as some other reasons...

3- 8 foot HO fixtures with reflector such as Lithonia Lighting EJ296HO will give you around 48 foot candles initial and around 30 foot candles after lumen depreciation and dirt depreciation. Based on 24' X 28' X 12'

That should be fine for most applications. I would consider lowering the mounting height of the fixture over your work bench to 8 or 9 foot to get a little more light in that area.

And if you don't like the hum of the magnetic ballast then Electronic is the way to go but will be more $$$.

beenthere · Oct 2, 2002

I put cold weather florescent lighting in my garage, (about $27 per 4' fixture) but do not like the humming noise they make. Is there a way to tell if they are magnetic ballasts, and if so, is there an electronic replacement ballast that can be inter changed? or is complete replacement of the fixture the cheapest way to go?