Wasteful, Ridiculous and Costly Lighting

[Waxman]

Came by last night and my wash had 4 wall paks out. They house MH 175w bulbs. Local hardware has em....$40 each!

Forget that! I'm replacing these a.s.a.p. What a poor excuse for lighting solutions! I am hereby boycotting the further use of these crummy lights at my carwash.

I will replace the ones on the front with some great-looking and affordable lights that accept any bulb, including CFL. Ones in back will likely get CFL wall paks.

See, ya, crummy old wall paks. Go suck someone else's wallet dry!

 

[dclark3344]

I buy my lights from 1000bulbs.com out of Houston at considerable savings.

 

[Jim Caudill]

I use HID Direct and pay about $12 each IIRC for that size bulb. Correction, I just checked the price and they are now $16.78 ea or $16.25 in case qty. Website is www.hidirect.com

 

[I.B. Washincars]

Dultmeier has them for $11.95 until July 26. They run this special quite often. I haven't paid over 12 bucks for a 175W or 400W MH bulb for years.

Waxman, for as much time as you spend on this forum I can't believe you didn't know where to get these bulbs.

 

[MEP001]

175W metal halides are the least efficient of the group, but they're still far better than any fluorescent as far as light output per watt. We have three 250-watt wall packs along the front that throw light on the vacs there, and they light up that area really well. I get the bulbs from Home Depot for $20 each.

 

[soapy]

MH lights are one of the very cheapest to operate based on the light output. They usually will pay for themselves several times over vs. flourescents. My electric company will fianance their installation when taking out other types of lights and project a 18 month payback on energy savings. MH lights do burn out but generally last much longer than anything else.

 

[MEP001]

MH lights do burn out but generally last much longer than anything else.

Some MH bulbs are only rated to 10,000 hours, the same as some fluorescents, but pulse-start MH last between 15,000 and 20,000 hours and produce even more light per watt than standard MH.

Waxman, if you're any good with numbers do a calculation of energy savings for equivalent light output vs the cost of a replacement bulb at $40 and you'll see that you are coming out way ahead. CFL's are good, but they won't light up a bay like daylight.

 

[Kevin James]

I just read this post and about laughed my A$$ off. What a ridiculous statement. ?Forget that! I'm replacing these a.s.a.p. What a poor excuse for lighting solutions! I am hereby boycotting the further use of these crummy lights at my carwash?. Talk about being misinformed. They don?t last forever! As soon as you power up an M/H light it will begin to degrade, the light output will be less over time. On my day job we replace all of our M/H light bulbs every 18 months whether they need it or not. You can tell the difference between the ones that haven?t been replaced from the ones that have been replaced. Of course the local hardware store is going to charge $40 for one bulb, they probably only sell 10 a year. We buy them in bulk and pay about $12 a piece for them, we resell the old bulbs by the case.

 

[Waxman]

I was getting these from a supplier a few towns away and the price kept creeping up.

The 2008 Sonny's catalog has them for $37.

Kleen Rite's cheapest about $20.

Dultmeier $12.95.

Thanks for all the positive and negative feedback. Good thing I'm a big boy and can take it. Well, I did shed a small tear

ps; still do not completely understand cfl vs. metal halide power consumption.

 

[ScottV]

Caution on the $12.95 bulbs from Dultimeier. I bought a half dozen of them a couple years back. I think they were made by Wang Chow Lighting Co. Ltd. in China. Lasted about a month.
I only buy Philips, Osram, or GE. I guess you get what you pay for!

 

[Waxman]

ScottV

What do you pay per light bulb? Where do you buy?

A $12.95 bulb lasting 1 month is no savings at all.

 

[ScottV]

I buy them from a local electrical supply house (Booth Electrical Supply). I think I paid $24 a piece the last time I bought the Philips 250W M-H bulbs. They last about 18 months. I have can lights in the soffits along the front of my wash for decoration. I do use 40 watt CFL's for those and they work just fine.

I failed to mention that 2 of the 6 Wang Chow Lighting Ltd. bulbs that I bought from Dultimeier didnt even start up after installing them. Definitely left me with a sour taste.

 

[bigleo48]

I have had good success with Sylvania bulbs. Mine are 250Watt MH types and I have some that are almost 4 years old (and yes I should replace them). Anywhere I look they seem to be $20/each.

Waxman, if you had a bunch out all at once, I'd be looking at the electrical service. A while back I had a problem with blowing bulbs and it turned out that my service was 270 volts (instead of 220). The pole transformer has some fused windings.

BigLeo

 

[Bubbles Galore]

I have two 175W wallpacks in each bay and I think it is a little too dark. Do I have to change out the entire wallpack or can I just change the ballast to get them up to 250W. I don't have alot of knowledge about these as you can see, but I know how to change bulbs =)

 

[washnvac]

I agree with Scott. I too tried those discount brands, and they lasted only 6-10 months. Sure they will replace them under warranty, but they do not compensate you for the extra time in changing them. I buy GEs from my local electric supply house. They charge me $16.95 each for a box of 12, or $18.25 by the piece. I usually get a good three years per bulb--GE only. I know how long because I save the boxes and label the date and where it went. This way if it fails within the 12 month warranty I can return it for a replacement. I can tell you it does not happen too ofter with GE. And no, I don't own GE stock--I sold it because it was a lousy performer!

 

[MEP001]

I have two 175W wallpacks in each bay and I think it is a little too dark. Do I have to change out the entire wallpack or can I just change the ballast to get them up to 250W. I don't have alot of knowledge about these as you can see, but I know how to change bulbs =)

You can change the ballast if it wil fit, but I would seriously consider replacing the fixtures. The 250's won't be much brighter, and wall packs are meant to throw light out to cover a parking lot and were never intended for enclosed bays. Even with all the trouble I've had with them, I'd still rather have HO fluorescents than 250W wall packs.

 

[MEP001]

ps; still do not completely understand cfl vs. metal halide power consumption.

Power consumption is probably not what's confusing you as much as light output per watt. They all use electricity measured in watts, so they all use the amount of electricity as their rating. The difference is the light they produce - if you had a 100 watt incandescent, a 100 watt CFL and a 100 watt MH running together, the CFL would have 4 times the light output of the incandescent and the MH would have twice the light output of the CFL. If you have a total of 350 watts in your bays now, you'd need 700 watts worth of fluorescents to get the same amount of light, or obviously if you only installed 350 watts of fluorescents you'd get half the light of MH.