LED Lighting

[Reds]

Has anyone installed the LED tube lighting sold by Keenrite? I would like to convert my metel halide lights to leds in my IBA's and SS. Pennsylvania has grant money that will help pay for energy saving lighting conversion. My concern is that the LED's will put out a comparable amount of light to the metal halides. Right now one of my auto bays has 4 250w metal halide fixtures and the other has 2 100w metal halide fixtures. Obviously the one with 4 fixtures has more light and I would like to end up with both bays being nice and bright. I also like the idea of keeping half the lights off until someone enters or approaches the bay - I can't do that with metal halide due to warm up time. Tom Hoffman has a wash near me with LED lighting in the bays - I am going to go look at his lighting one evening soon.

 

[Whale of a Wash]

I don't have any LED lighting, but talked to a
guy from the forum member at ICA, and lighting is great.
But cost is high--See if power co, or state or (feds)
have rebates. He got $40K of LED lighting installed
for $4K after all rebates

 

[bigleo48]

Having looked into this, it just isn't worth the cost yet. It's mostly because with our evening and low overnight power rates, the payback would be more than 5 years.

Now your government grant might make it worth while.

 

[MEP001]

Like bigleo said, the cost of LED lighting is so high that you'll never see a significant payoff unless the cost is mostly subsidized by your city or utility company. If you can't get that in your area, you might consider T5 fluorescent which is the same amount of light per watt as metal halide, and can be controlled with an occupancy sensor. Once I get the SS lights all replaced, I plan to connect them via a controller to the bay output so they won't be on unless someone is washing.

 

[Buzzie8]

I can't believe none of these LED manufacturer's have not come out with an LED light bulb that can screw into an existing metal halide fixture with a transformer to replace the ballasts. It seems simple to me and would be highly marketable.

 

[MEP001]

I can't believe none of these LED manufacturer's have not come out with an LED light bulb that can screw into an existing metal halide fixture with a transformer to replace the ballasts. It seems simple to me and would be highly marketable.

There exists such a thing, but the light output is pathetic. The convenience store next to the wash changed out all the lot lighting to these, but they look about as bright as if they'd put 26W spiral adaptors in.

 

[Kevin James]

I think that by keeping half the lights off when there is no one washing or on site will hurt business more than saving on the power bill. Here’s the scenario: I’m driving down the street, its 9:30 at night. I’m thinking about washing my car and I drive by car wash “A” that is dimly lit, with half or only a few of the lights on. Down the street a mile is car wash “B” that is brightly lit, all the lights are on when I drive by. Which car wash am I going to pull into “A” or “B”?

 

[Waxman]

Wash B for sure.

And anyone who says that the customers will learn that it brightens up when they pull in are not looking from the customer point of view but their own as the operator. That's a mistake.

 

[bigleo48]

I agree...I only switch off half my lights after 11PM

 

[Randy]

I turned off my sign out front years ago, that never had a negative impact on business. The lights over the vac islands are on a photocell. In the summer the bay lights go off at 8 am and back on around 8 pm. In the winter the bay lights are on 24/7, I do that because it’s so dark and dreary. The bays sometimes are like a driving into a cave. Leaving the lights on 24/7 only adds about $40 a month the power bill, not worth getting all twisted out of shape over. I'd never turn off any of the lighting in the middle of the night or at anytime.

 

[MEP001]

I think that by keeping half the lights off when there is no one washing or on site will hurt business more than saving on the power bill.

Right now I have the rear lights turning off at midnight. From the street you can't tell any difference. On top of that, even with half the lights on it's still brighter than wash "B" down the road.

With two 320 MH per bay, turning half off at midnight saves about $100 a month. Between midnight and sunrise we average less than one customer a night. Even the gross income from that isn't $100.

 

[thoffmanjr]

We've been using them since December 2011 and Gary Baright has had them since 2010. Yes the initial cost is higher but its hard to put a figure on maintaining them. Maintaining LED lighting compared to florescence and metal halide will be so much lower. The other two things we noticed right away is the color of the Kleenrite LED is more attractive. It is a whiter brighter white to put it simply. We lined each bay down each side, the building awnings, the vacuum canopies, and the exterior tunnel. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OaPni54XzLc at 30 seconds shows the lighting. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Re3dudN4O0&feature=relmfu at 1:00 shows them in an exterior tunnel.

 

[mjwalsh]

Installation Savings????

We've been using them since December 2011 and Gary Baright has had them since 2010. Yes the initial cost is higher but its hard to put a figure on maintaining them. .

Tom & others,

http://www.kleen-ritecorp.com/p-356...-lights-basic-led-250w-package-9-4-tubes.aspx

I believe the above are the lights you chose. From your first hand experience, does the fact that they have 24 VDC power supplies make it so there would be less of a need for master &/or journeymen electricians on site doing 100% of the work? Since last years local flood damage & the accelerated building going on in the west central & western part of North Dakota, electricians are more backlogged & installation work has become significantly more expensive.

For our flourescent lighting in our bays, the electricians used regular EMT conduit & junction boxes that have rusted over time. If we could have our 24VDC power supplies in our equipment room, that would be part of our decision to heave ho our 14 shower room style flourescent 2 bulb T12 4' fixtures. That would allow us to in house run the low voltage wiring ourselves. The longest distance would be less than 60 feet ... VDC does have more voltage drop than AC.

I don't believe there are subsidized rebates for it here locally but our electrical costs have been skyrocketing while our natural gas has steadily gone down ... so I am thinking that it still would be worth it. Since we need both doors shut more than down south ... we find that the flourescents also give us grief with the end sockets for the bulb pins. They sometimes corrode & burn up.

If we are successful in doing a lighting upgrade ... it could open the door to upgrading to Mike Doyle's SS air from our 1987 Specialty SS air. with Mosmatic Z booms etc.

Thanks in advance.

mike walsh country bumpkin from bismarck, north dakota

 

[thoffmanjr]

I think you're right.... do it yourself. If you have any questions you could call Jason Baright at 845-518-0854. He's an electrial engineer or as we call him "the smart Baright".