In-Bay and Vac Station Lights

[2Biz]

I've been racking my brain (like most here) on how to save money on my light bill. I ran accross these flouresent bulbs. Good down to 0°. I have a few Hubbel fixtures I think the ballasts/transformers have gone belly up. The idea is to bypass the ballast and wire the bulb base direct to 120v. They sell Mogul to Standard base adapters so you can run standard bulbs in a mogul fixture. Then you can use these bulbs.

http://www.1000bulbs.com/product/2737/FC55-E2627OD.html

Good to 10,000 hrs. Puts out 250w of light and uses only 55w of electric. Bulbs cost less than the mercury vapor ones I need to buy. 15 month warranty...This would save me appr. 60% on my lighting bill. Down side is the Lumens is 2700 v/s 7900 comparing to a 175w Mercury Vapor bulb I use in all my fixtures. Then they have these too:

http://www.1000bulbs.com/product/8254/FC85-S50OD.html

350w output on 85w of electric. 5800 lumens, 10,000 hr life...We're getting closer!

Anybody tried this concept? Think its worth trying if you have a dead fixture?
Or even a live one?

I value everyones opinion here and haven't read about this idea yet. I'd like to give back a little of what every one here is giving me! What do you think?

 

[MEP001]

Those mogul-base CFL adaptors are long and may not fit in your current fixtures.

It costs more, but look into induction fluorescent. The efficacy (Lumens per watt) is 50% more than the best pulse-start metal halide, which means with an 80-watt fixture you'll get about five times as much light as a 55W CFL adaptor and still cut your electric use in half over a 175W metal halide. They're good to -20° and last up to 100,000 hours.

 

[Bill Manke]

I would look at your lighting as it is. Is it bright enough? If it isn't I wouldn't think about less lumens. My new wash I have all 320w metal halide. Super bright. I have 175w metal halide in my older washes but they could stand to be brighter. I thought about trying to save on the power but glad I went the way I did.

 

[Camp4042]

I did this to my wash and it works great. They make a bigger cfl that is a 105 watts that puts out a great amount of light. I have Cooper fixtures and there is a local lighting store that I get them from and I pay the same price as I would for metal halide bulbs. You don't need an adapter, they sell the bulbs in mogul and medium base. When you disconnect your ballast, make sure you check the voltage coming in to the fixture. They sell the bulbs in 120v and 277v. Also, check with your power company, they give credits for doing these changes to your business.

 

[2Biz]

I found out last night after more research, that they sell the mogul and medium base like you suggested. I'm glad others are doing this and it validates my thoughts. I have 12 Mercury Vapor 175w bulbs burning more than 15 hrs a day! Should be a lot of savings. I think all my fixtures are 120v, but will check before bypassing the ballast. Thanks...

 

[MEP001]

Keep in mind that mercury vapor and CFL's produce about the same light per watt. If you go from a 175W to a 55W, you're going to lose a lot of light output.

 

[washtubman]

I have 400 watt metal halides in the bays. I bought one of the 250W cfls and tried it in one fixture. The amount of light was disappointing, so I wired the ballast back up and kept the metal halide. I emailed 1000 bulbs.com and I was told there is no CFL that will come close to the lumen output of the 400 watt metal halide. I may try the bigger CFL that you mention and see if I could get by with that one. I just bought 12 new metal halide bulbs off ebay for 50.00, so at least got some savings there.

 

[2Biz]

Update on CFL's

I have an update on switching to CFL bulbs in my Hubbell fixtures. To recap, I bought different wattage bulbs to test, a 40w, 55w, 65w, and 85w, all Full Spectrum. After testing, I decided on using the 85w bulb in the bays and I put the 40W bulbs in my vac lights. You can use your own judgement on how well it looks. I'm more than happy with the results. After changing out all the bulbs, I'll be looking at $38.00 a month to run all my lights at 14 hrs a day average.

This is a picture of the 85w bulb in a hubbel fixtrure. Note that I used a medium base socket in place of the mogul base. This gained me just enough room to get the 85w bulb in the fixture.

This pic is of one of my bays with two Mercury vapors.

This is a bay after new 85w full spectrum bulbs.

This pic is of all three bays and vac stations before. Note that the center bay has one 85w cfl and one 175w mercury vapor. This is when I did my test.

And this is after I swapped bulbs in the center bay, right bay, and all three vac stations.

After viewing the pics, I think you'll agree with me that there is more (And Better) light that is being put out by the cfl's compared to the Mercury Vapors. I can't wait to get the other bay and outside truck bay done. It takes about 15-20 minutes to convert each fixture. Not bad when you consider the savings.

 

[2Biz]

Oh, and BTW, the flood lights over the changer are 24w CFL flood bulbs...You can see the difference before and after. One thing I might change, is to find full spectrum flloods instead of the soft white. Then it will match the rest of my lights.

 

[washnvac]

I bought 24 of the 105 watt mogul base from 1000bulbs.com. This was to replace 175 watt MH in the bays (4 per bay). The light output is equal to, or better than the 175 watt MH. Only issue is I have had 6 fail withing 2-4 months. They were warranted, but I am a bit concerned with that failure rate. I also bought 3 of the 200 watt cfls to replace 1000 watt MH floods. No the light is not as intense, but for a $38 monthly savings per bulb; I will keep them in.

 

[Randy]

2Biz,
That’s a great improvement over the 175 MH lights. They make the bays look brighter and more in inviting. One of the operators here put in 320 watt lights in his bays. Now he wishes he’d never installed them. His power bill is almost double of what it was when he had 175 MH fixtures. Thanks for sharing with us what you’ve done. It looks great. I've got to do something in the near future.

 

[2Biz]

Calculating how much your light bill will be is not very hard. I'm surprised the operator in your area didn't do the math before making the change....He can still fix his problem by going to CFL's....

 

[2Biz]

I have 400 watt metal halides in the bays. I bought one of the 250W cfls and tried it in one fixture. The amount of light was disappointing, so I wired the ballast back up and kept the metal halide. I emailed 1000 bulbs.com and I was told there is no CFL that will come close to the lumen output of the 400 watt metal halide. I may try the bigger CFL that you mention and see if I could get by with that one. I just bought 12 new metal halide bulbs off ebay for 50.00, so at least got some savings there.

In case you arn't aware, choosing the "Type" of bulb is very critical. I chose the "Daylight" bulb or the "Full Spectrum" bulb which gives off a much Whiter light than the cool white or warm white bulb. A cool white bulb will look like the Mercury Vapors in my Pics....I think the "Full Spectrum" bulbs are what we need for our bays, especially since they lmake the bays more brighter. Not yellow looking. ALso, make sure you buy the right voltage bulb for your service/voltage to the fixture. If your running 120v to the fixture and put in
208v bulbs, they won't work very well. Just something to consider if you haven't thought of it.

 

[I.B. Washincars]

I have 175W MH wall packs. I have run out of bulbs and would like to start switching out to CFLs myself. The first wash I want to do is barely light enough to suit me with 4 wall packs in each bay and I would like to increase the output from them if possible. What bulbs would you guys recommend to accomplish what I want? I think I can fit a mogul base bulb up to about 11" long in my Lithonia fixtures.

 

[soapy]

Pat, Look for a bulb with a 5000 color rating. Sunlight is around 5500 in color. You can get bulbs with a whiter light but for realistic color look in the 5000 color range. SSCWN will have a article on lighting for the ICA show edition I think.

 

[MEP001]

I replaced a couple of 340W metal halide bulbs/ballasts with 250W - the replacement bulbs were a "warmer" color and seem to light up the same area better despite being lower wattage and light output. There's definitely truth to the theory that better quality light lets you see better than just a glaring bright light.

 

[Bucksavage]

I did something similar in my Hubbell 175W lights. I bought some CFL's from Home Depot on clearance and they screwed directly into the Hubbell fixture. They only last 2-4 months and burn up. I did not disconnect the ballast in the fixture so I imagine that might have been the problem.

 

[2Biz]

Yea...That might be an issue....My Hubbel 175w fixtures have a transformer and capacitor to start those Mercury Vapors....I disconnected both and wired my base directly into the incoming 120v leads. Even if you use the Mogul base, you'll want to wire it up direct and not have the transformer/cap in the loop.....

 

[washtubman]

I installed two of the 105 watt Daylight CFL's in one of my bays yesterday. Earlier, I had tried the 85 watt ones and was very disappointed. (I have 400 watt metal halide fixtures; 2 per bay). I am still not completely pleased with the 105s, but they are a great improvement over the 85s and I am going to convert all of them for the cost savings. I noticed on the packaging that they should be installed with proper ventilation?? Obviously, the fixtures have no vents, so what have you guys done about this? Do they get that hot? Can't imagine them being hotter than a 400 watt MH.

 

[washnvac]

The package also says "not for commercial use". I have not worried about the venting. So far, it seems that is not an issue. I have had the longest ones in for 6 months. A few failed right off the bat, but I do not think it was a heat issue. I got warranty credit. I think all that disclaimer crap is on there for their "cya". I have four of these in each bay, so the lighting is pretty good.