You might want to check on new lighting this year.

[Doug S]

I don't know about every state or every electricity provider but here in Arkansas the incentives are great this year compared to what they will be next year.  We've been needing to upgrade from these old electricity hungry T12's for a  good while now.  We heard that there might be incentives so we thought we'd give our local electrical company a call.  They sent in a guy that entergy had hired to do an assessment.  Well to make a long story short, to replace 45 T12 fixtures with led retrofits with no ballast came out to $5500 and some change including labor.  After the incentives kicked in, Entergy will cut me a check after it's done for all but $1600 of it. 

They said that I should get the $1600 back in a little over a year in  savings based on my current usage.  Plus not come into work everyday with another tube flickering.  Better lighting, not having to replace bulbs everytime I turn around and the savings made it a no brainer.

So the reason for this post is to let you know that it might be worth a call to see if you can get the same break.

[mk162]

we replaced ours here and the light is better and the power usage is WAY lower.  Better yet, they put out less heat so in the summer out air runs less.

we didn't get any incentives, but our total came to around $2500 with me installing the lights.

[GraphicDisorder]

We put LED lighting in our warehouse, got me for about 7k I think it was.... no incentives but instant on/off is nice.  Its saving $40-$50 a month in electric best we could tell.

[mk162]

we are over $100 a month, minimum.  rates keep creeping up, so it might be more than that.

[Doug S]

I was just about to the point of buying and installing myself but we are real short on time especially this time of year and I'm by no means an electrician so this came out nice for us.  I know here you can get as much as 75% back in incentives depending on your monthly usage. 

[mk162]

we just did retrofit tubes...remove the ballast and direct wire the bulbs...easy-peasy.

[screenprintguy]

Lowes sells silvania led 4ft tubes that don't have to have the ballasts removed from the fixture. We have both. I started buying these to not have to spend the time rewiring crap. Same price as the others.

[Itsa Little CrOoked]

Our Embroidery Room is going increasing dark, right very NOW.... and this thread couldn't be more timely. I'm tired of replacing magnetic 8' ballasts that lasted for YEARS with the cheapo, worthless electronic ballasts I've bought multiple cases of.

I'm DONE.

But the fixtures are 4 lamp F96's and the 8 foot led retrofits are questionable to me.

What is the best way to go for that room? (We lease this building, but getting the owner to pony up would be easier if I did the labor.)

[mk162]

i would eliminate the ballasts..those suck up a good amount of juice, but they put out some crazy heat. 

I got these for the 8ft bulbs...
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00E81ZVX8?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_search_detailpage

you can contact innoled and get them a bit cheaper.  They have a great return policy as well, one went bad and i sent a pic of the endcap and they replaced it.