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screen printing => Ink and Chemicals => Topic started by: ericheartsu on March 04, 2017, 07:06:28 PM
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Gearing up for a brand new project in the next two months, and need to re-install all the lighting.
What's everyone using for good shop/production floor lights?
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I prefer the T-5 High Output the best.
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are you switching bulbs or do you need new light fixtures?
We just rewired all our fluorescents and installed LED bulbs in them for less than $15/fixture.
pierre
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We just converted our entire production floor to high output LED lights. 6000k/6000lm
Used existing fixtures with a simple ballast bypass.
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yup, we did all retrofits to our tube fluo lights. Some LED's can run on the ballasts, but I recommend bypassing them. ballasts get wicked hot and will burn out over time anyway.
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Also, I would go with 5000k, it is more natural and it matches the Pantone specs.
Pierre
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I ran four 8' led sticks over my press. They are extremely light and hang on a light steel cable strung across from wall to wall, tightened with turnbuckles. Holy cow! Now I realize we've been working in a dungeon for way too long!
Our shop is narrow and crammed with equipment, and thus I have no easy way to reach the 18 ft florescent lights above. This was my next best alternative, and the results are amazing. Expensive for some, but easily offset with setup times and fewer misstakes. Probably $300 in supplies.
Dewey
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Also, I would go with 5000k, it is more natural and it matches the Pantone specs.
Pierre
That is what we went with as well. You'll be surprised with the output you get from the LED's. Fluo tubes slowly lose light over time, so you don't notice how dull they get. LED's lose I think 5% at 50,000 hours or something crazy like that. We used to replace our tubes every other year(we should have done it yearly, but we forgot). Also, it gets freaking pricey to recycle fluo tubes.
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are you switching bulbs or do you need new light fixtures?
We just rewired all our fluorescents and installed LED bulbs in them for less than $15/fixture.
pierre
all new!
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are you switching bulbs or do you need new light fixtures?
We just rewired all our fluorescents and installed LED bulbs in them for less than $15/fixture.
pierre
Did you have 4ft troffers? The 8ft bulbs were decidedly more expensive. I think $30-40 per bulb when we bought them. I figured it was time to bite the bullet and install them. At that price I figured it took less than 6 months to pay them off, and in 6 months I doubt the bulbs would be that much cheaper. We replaced around 40 of the 8 footers and around 24 of the 4 footers.
We found that 2 bulbs works pretty well in a fixture that holds 4. The light output was just fine. Some fixtures we ended up installing 3 just to get a bit more light.
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are you switching bulbs or do you need new light fixtures?
We just rewired all our fluorescents and installed LED bulbs in them for less than $15/fixture.
pierre
all new!
as mentioned by mk162, two bulbs per will do you just fine. I would pick up cheap 4' fluo fixtures and get bulbs from ebay. You should be under $30 per combined. If you can manage to rewire your current fixtures, bulbs are under $6 (http://www.ebay.com/itm/282150629178?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT (http://www.ebay.com/itm/282150629178?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT) this is what we bought).
pierre
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We bought our 8' bulbs in bulk and they came in right around $20/bulb.
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We bought ours around 2-3 years ago, they were pretty pricey back then. But they have paid for themselves over and over.
I will never go back to fluo tubes. Too much hassle with light loss, ballasts, disposal, etc.
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We bought our 8' bulbs in bulk and they came in right around $20/bulb.
we just bought a 10 pack of 8' bulbs for the warehouse, they range in price from $16 for the 36W to $24 for 48W. I contemplated converting to 4' fixtures as the bulbs are cheaper, but adding the everything together and new installs were just not worth the small savings.
pierre
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We are all LED.........its ridiculously bright here
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We discovered during our conversion that we really only needed a bulb for bulb replacement over the presses. Because LEDs are so much brighter and cleaner light, in most of the common areas we only put up a single LED instead of two. We noted that a single LED was brighter than two fluorescent! The savings will be significant. We chose 48W which replaces our old 75W fluorescent (per bulb). This equates to 36% LESS electric use for double bulb fixtures and 68% LESS in the fixtures that we only put a single bulb in. Pair that with brighter, BETTER light, it's been well worth the investment already.
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So everybody likes the LED shop lighting then and feels like there is good ROI on converting?
Can you source LED retrofits that put out correct lighting? Everything I have seen is good 'ol "cool white".
We do use D50 5000˚K lights in select areas but they are T8. The rest of the shop lighting is good but not perfect, i.e., the little D50 swatches on the back of the pms book aren't exact like under the true D50 bulbs.
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We were just getting ready to replace all of our fluorescent bulbs throughout the whole shop we do this yearly, our power company supplier AEP send a contractor out and he is going to change out all of our fluorescent forefoot Bob's to 5000 Kelvin LED bulbs and remove all the ballast in all 54 fixtures at a cost to me for $600 last year I paid $500 for bulbs and ballast replacement and I did all the work myself call your power supply company and ask them for the department to help you reduce your energy costs or consumptions if you can't find who to talk to give me a call I will give you our contractors phone number they work for power companies all over the country your bill is determined by the number of fixtures and number of Bulbs. Sorry for the run-on sentence is but I'm using voice to text
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HAHA, I was thinking that man, that guy is rambling...but it makes sense.
When we did ours there wasn't much available. Some power companies will only give you a rebate. It's worth checking into though. And yes, 5000k is what you want. The pantone swatches aren't perfect, but they are pretty darn close.
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So how close are the 5000k LED tubes to true D50? I couldn't find any except on alibaba that advertise a D50 output. The ones in our office, which is a big light box essentially are fluoro T8 and cost about 137 per fixture.
Are there any Energy Star qualified tubes that are "close enough" for the shop floor?
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So how close are the 5000k LED tubes to true D50? I couldn't find any except on alibaba that advertise a D50 output. The ones in our office, which is a big light box essentially are fluoro T8 and cost about 137 per fixture.
Are there any Energy Star qualified tubes that are "close enough" for the shop floor?
dunno how close they are, but seem to work OK for us. Order a couple of bulbs and give them a try if you are that concerned.
pierre
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I'm not super picky but my ink dude gets bummed out a lot matching colors on the shop floor and then bringing them into the giant light box we call an office. There's a difference between 5000k and true D50 for sure, not that exact lighting is a necessity in all areas but extreme differences can frustrate things.
I have more fixtures to buy and will give them a shot via our state's rebate program.