Self-Serve Bay Lighting Question

[Kevin James]

We are in the process of acquiring another car wash. The Self-Serve bays have 2 - 8’ 110 watt H.O Fluorescent dual bulb fixtures in each bay. Most of the plastic light diffusers are broken or cracked. Which way should we go? Or what would you do?

Option 1 – Re-lamp the car wash with 110 watt H.O 6500K bulbs and replace the plastic diffusers. The current H.O Bulbs have a 4100K rating.

Option 2 – Replace the fixtures that use a T-8 bulb

Option 3 – Convert the current fixture, replace the internals with a T-8 or T-5 kit. The power Company will pay part of the cost of the conversion but we’d still have to replace the plastic diffusers and the conversion has to be done by a licensed electrical contractor.

Does anyone have a source for the 8’ Plastic light diffusers. We’ve found some at Grainger but they are unbelievably overpriced at $95 each. http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/LITHONIA-Replacement-Lens-1VNN6?Pid=search

 

[JMMUSTANG]

Check out KR light fixure:
http://www.kleen-ritecorp.com/p-326...ent-light-120277v-wstainless-steel-clips.aspx
Looking to replace 2-400W M.H. fixtures I put one of these in the entrance of my tunnel to see how it looked.
It's been there for 1 1/2 yrs. and I love it.
It's so bright I didn't even buy another one for the other side of the tunnel.
When my bay lights ( 2-8ft. T-12's per bay) at my self servs start to go bad I will replace one bay to see how it works there.

 

[soapy]

I have been through the conversion process and also installed new fixtures myself. I would replace each of your current 8 foot fixtures with 1 - T5 2 bulb water tight fixture and do it yourself. If I can install them anyone can. You can buy each fixture for around $100 from Kleenrite or Farm TeK. T5s are more efficient that T8s and much better than your current lights. 4 of these fixtures per bay will make it very bright. By the time you get done dealing with the power company and paying crazy installation costs you will save 2/3 by doing it yourself. The 8' T5 fixtures actually use 4 bulbs and have double the output. You could get by with 2 of these per bay.

 

[pgrzes]

Check out K-B Lighting in Phila. Pa. I just bought a bunch of 4' ho t-5 weathertight fixtures for under $70 each including bulbs. I have not found anywhere close to that price.

 

[waright]

go with the t5 ho ballast and bulbs. I would not use the 6500k color temp bulbs. Use 3500k or 4100k. The 6500k color temp bulbs are NOT brighter, they are actually a different color (purple) light. The higher the K number is not brightness, it is color temp. as for replacement lenses, try tek supply www.teksupply.com . if you have the long 8' bulbs, then forget the new lenses and replace the entire fixture with new 4' fixtures t5h0, 4 fixtures per bay. another feature to look for is many t5ho ballasts are not voltage specific. you can wire them to 110 or 230v, which makes them easy to use as replacements for wall packs where you have 230v and no neutral wire.

 

[Rudy]

Has anyone had any problem with "how many" florescent fixtures you can put on a "leg".

I have two lighting circuits that are giving me fits. They are both fed by 20 amp circuit breakers.

I replaced the guts of my 175 Halide fixtures with CFL's from 1000bulbs. I removed the socket and ballast, and installed 4 medium base sockets, and added 4-23W CFL's.

This setup worked great for about 9 months. Now the bulbs are failing like crazy....and worse yet....the circuit breakers for these circuits pop about 1/3 of the time at dusk when the lighting contactor closes.

It turns out that CFL's have huge inrush currents during the initial several milliseconds the things fire.

A clamp on ammeter shows 6 amps on one leg, and 7 on the other.....shouldn't be a problem.....but it is because of the inrush.

I'm going with your advice for the T5HO's. Have these held up OK in the Self Serve environment?

Is it possible have up to 7 of these fixtures (4 foot double bulb) on one 20 Amp circuit? Again, this all adds up to less than 400 watts....or around 4 amps. Do the T5HO ballasts cause inrush issues also?

 

[2Biz]

You shouldn't be pulling 6-7 amps off (4) 23w CFL's....Maybe an amp at the most. Sounds like you have a short.

7 double bulb T5HO fixtures should pull about 756w. Each bulb is 54w x 2 x 7 = 756w. So this is well within a 20a circuit breaker and single leg wiring...

The CFL's I got from 1000bulbs are still going strong 2 years later. Not a single failure.

 

[Rudy]

Yeah, I'm sorry, I wasn't clear.

EACH of my old halide fixtures has (4)-23W CFL's or about 92W each.

The 6 amp leg has 3 of these fixtures along with 2 T5HO fixtures (total of 12 CFL's), and the 7 amp leg has 5 of the modified fixtures (total of 20 CFL's) along with 2 T5HO fixtures.

Now the amp draw should make more sense.

With up to 20 CFL's per leg......you see how "inrush" could become a factor?

 

[MEP001]

The idiot electricians who did the wiring and installed the lights used the same common for three different legs of 110V lighting runs, and even though there's no measurable inrush or higher draw at start-up, every so often one or two breakers trip when the lights come on. I suspect that even though (they said) it's to code, one 12-ga wire for the common of three circuits isn't enough.

I separated the rear bay lights off from all the rest and have them come on 30 minutes later. They were on a common with some of the front bay lights and the auto bay light circuit. Since I separated them off, none of the breakers have tripped.

 

[2Biz]

I have (9) 85w CFL's on the same 20a circuit and have no problem. Its also hard to imagine that the bulbs are the issue when the circuit and bulbs worked fine for 9 months.

Maybe you just have weak circuit breakers...If the bulbs are trying to come on and the breakers are continually tripping, then this is probably whats destroying your CFL's. They do not like short cycling. Try swapping out the circuit breakers with new ones. Would be a cheap fix if this is what the problem is. 6 or 7 amps should not trip 20a breakers.

Another thought...What are you using to switch the circuit (Bulbs) on? This can also be another critical piece of the puzzel. I use a 30a relay to latch in my lighting circuit. If your using a relay or your relying on a photocell to latch in the circuit, maybe the contacts are getting worn and is causing some resistance in the circuit? Just some things to check that came to mind.

 

[Rudy]

Replacing the C/B's was the first thing I did.

I'm running everything through a 30amp lighting contactor controlled by an Astronomic timer.

 

[Randy]

We are in the process of acquiring another car wash. The Self-Serve bays have 2 - 8’ 110 watt H.O Fluorescent dual bulb fixtures in each bay. Most of the plastic light diffusers are broken or cracked. Which way should we go? Or what would you do?

Option 1 – Re-lamp the car wash with 110 watt H.O 6500K bulbs and replace the plastic diffusers. The current H.O Bulbs have a 4100K rating.

Option 2 – Replace the fixtures that use a T-8 bulb

Option 3 – Convert the current fixture, replace the internals with a T-8 or T-5 kit. The power Company will pay part of the cost of the conversion but we’d still have to replace the plastic diffusers and the conversion has to be done by a licensed electrical contractor.

Does anyone have a source for the 8’ Plastic light diffusers. We’ve found some at Grainger but they are unbelievably overpriced at $95 each. http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/LITHONIA-Replacement-Lens-1VNN6?Pid=search

I replaced all of my light diffusers and 8' H.O 110 watt bulbs for less than the cost of 2 of the T-5 fixtures from KR. I got the diffusers here http://www.plasticsforlighting.biz/products/vapor-tight/

 

[Mel(NC)]

Anybody have experience with ILP lighting? I can find their 8' 2 bulb T5HO fixtures on a couple of sites for about $160, which is a lot cheaper than KR's price. http://www.shineretrofits.com/ilp-amazon-wt8-8-ft-8-t5ho-fluorescent-vapor-tight-light-fixture.html