Has anyone laid down the chunk of change to purchase and install the G&G LED light tubes Kleen-Right has on their website? I Know it's be cheaper to go with the LED fluorescent retrofit kits, etc, however the tubes have that coolness factor of low profile install, etc.
What I'm looking for is whether you found them, or something similar, cheaper elsewhere? Are you overly ecstatic about the results? Would you do it again?
Jeff L,
We were looking for less long term maintenance. So far so good. We put them in three of our 6 bays 1.5 years ago. I know some will argue this, but they do give out more light than T8s with their enclosures. If I was in your area, I might
volunteer (for free) with my light meter as further proof ... so you could see that I am finding more light & better quality of light than less water resistant T8s with a lens cover. I would take a fresh look at your lighting controls for additional savings ... if you are doing such a major redo. We are glad we did ... since we have significant not being used lull periods ... depending on the weather during these shorter daylight days this time of the year. Also the light meter would tell if there is gain by covering more linear area like the G&G vs the wall pack style of mounting of lighting in the bays.
We put our G&G LED drivers in our equipment room so we can't comment on the cracking of the Nine 90W 24V power supplies (drivers) that we needed. The installer does have to pay more attention to Voltage Drops & wire gauge if you install them in the equipment room.
There are cheaper LED waterproof strips out there ... but in a car wash environment we also have to be concerned about chemicals afffecting the LEDs. We are not 100% done installing non waterproof other brand LED strips cut to whatever size in our dry areas such as in our laundromat & we are finding our results very validating that we made the right decision. The real test will be time though.
I did recently check out a convenience store with brand new LEDs inside with lens etc ... with my light meter in hand ... & saw those specific LED fixtures to have about half the average illumination of what is in our laundromat or in our bays. So not all LED fixtures are created equal by far. As a side note: We cut one of our non waterproof quad led strips about 37" long & it mounted inside an old pretty basic T12 shop light fixture housing ... we just happened to have the perfect width from a 4' drop off from another polycarbonate project ... we made some clips & it works great on the ceiling of the outdoor overhang over the east entrance of our laundromat. Our laundromat project's LED quad strips requires a lot of surface mount soldering ... so whoever is forewarned. Something that was not necessary with the more pre-done 6' (3 controllable 2' segments within) polycarbonate tubes of G&G's.
mike walsh
www.kingkoin.com
