I am putting up new T5HO light fixtures in my SS bays. The longest rated and cheapest 5000k bulbs on 1000Bulbs website are these https://www.1000bulbs.com/product/112190/F-54T5850SP.html. Has anybody used PLT brand bulbs before? I have never heard of the company.
Car Wash Forum
This is a sample guest message. Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!
Source for T5HO bulbs
- Thread starter Mel(NC)
- Start date
I don't know that brand but by the time you consider shipping you will likely be better off at your local electrical supply house buying name brand lamps. I would check there for fixture pricing as well.
I’ve been thinking about converting my T-12 HO fixtures to T-8 LED tube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0UBJSqW5L4 The bulbs have come down in price considerably. Has anyone done this?
bighead
Member
I installed these after another one of my t5 ballasts failed (not quite vapor proof enough)
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00P6QE1K8/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1
amazon is out of stock right now, but I like it. At night it gives off a bluer light, but it makes it seem brighter to the eye (even though MEP will tell you it isn't) and considering i picked the whole thing up for about $100 a fixture, i thought it was a pretty good deal.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00P6QE1K8/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1
amazon is out of stock right now, but I like it. At night it gives off a bluer light, but it makes it seem brighter to the eye (even though MEP will tell you it isn't) and considering i picked the whole thing up for about $100 a fixture, i thought it was a pretty good deal.
MEP001
Well-known member
It does look brighter, even measures brighter, I just prefer and really believe that a slightly warmer light renders color better and is easier to see by.
I see the PLT are half the cost of Philips - they'd have to be pretty bad to not be worth the money saved. I haven't used the PLT since I can get Philips T8 at Home Depot for less than any off-brand plus shipping.
I see the PLT are half the cost of Philips - they'd have to be pretty bad to not be worth the money saved. I haven't used the PLT since I can get Philips T8 at Home Depot for less than any off-brand plus shipping.
mjwalsh
6 bay SS w/laundromat
Randy & others,
If an operator has some really good waterproof housings for their fluorescents ... I would not rule out rolling up their sleeves & soldering leads where necessary & fastening on some really bright LED strip lights & wire tying with its adhesive backing & then snapping the housings together again. We used this style in our laundromat project about 4 months ago & so far so good ... no regrets whatsoever. https://www.superbrightleds.com/search/led-products/quad led strip/ Another alternative would be to use a waterproof IP67 LED higher lumen output double strip & lay them down as two rows.
I personally am suspicious that the tombstone sockets could be part of long term intermittent problems using the same style LED tubes as what is used in the previous fluorescent tubing even though less labor is involved that that type of a conversion. It just seems that if nothing else ... the strip lighting has fewer potential points of failure. Even with brand new tombstones like some distributors encourage ... there seems to still be potential for oxidation or whatever.
mike walsh www.kingkoin.com
soapy
Senior Member
The lumens on the LED 4 foot fixture mentioned above is only 3060. You would need 3 of these to put out the same amount of light as 1 T5 HO fixture. The Leds would use less power but they are only rated for 50,000 hours so you could never save enough money on electricity to offset the extra cost.
That was one of the most excruciating videos I have ever watched!!! You would think the guy would be a little more prepared, and have some decent tools to get the job done. Watching him try to strip wires and get the screws started was hilarious. He is obviously not a hands on guy. i like the lighting setup, but I hope he isnt using that as his marketing video.
The t-8 ballasts are problematic. Some will fail before a year and more will fail within two. Nice brighter light and better color rendering than your t-12 lamps with about a 2 year payback on energy savings......more if you split the lamps up with like 1- 1 lamp ballast that would run all night and 1 -3 lamp ballast for business hours. If you don't mind changing a few ballasts it's a great system. If you do this you want the 800 series like 841 versus 741 (4100 k color is typical and used in offices etc) 850 would be 5000 k (almost a blue hue and whiter) 700 series is less efficient and less light output.
MEP001
Well-known member
The fixtures I've been using to replace the MH have a Philips ballast with a 5-year warranty and a 100,000 life expectancy, and they're only about $15.
Washmee
Fullservice Tunnel
Randy, I've done about 10 of those conversions at my wash in the last year . Here are the bulbs I used .
http://www.eledlights.com/led-lamps...ot-led-tube-high-lumen-r17d.html#.VQgt6fWsFJ8
Thanks Jon,
My fixtures and lens covers are still in good shape so I'm going to have to try a couple of those to see how they work out. Have you had any issues with any of the ones you've put in?
It's so dark up here in the winter we leave the lights on 24/7 or it's like trying to wash your car in a cave.
I'm waiting one more time before I switch to LEDS. I'm currently installing standard 8 ft four lamp T5HOs in my vac canopies at one location. They are $70 each at home depot. However, the lamps are $10 each. I'm trying some of the cheapie T5s lamps at 1000 bulbs now. I figure by the time these fixtures have to be replaced, LEDs will be the obvious choice.
Jon,
Thanks for the heads up on the 8’ LED bulbs. They are absolutely amazing and bright. We replaced all of our HO fluorescent bulbs with 44 watt LED bulbs. The only problem we ran into was some of our tombstones were old and we had to replace them. Other than that it’s pretty simple change over, just bypass around the ballast and you’re good to go. I think it has cut our lighting bill by 2/3.
mjwalsh
6 bay SS w/laundromat
Randy & others,
If the water resistant linear fixtures are of great quality & in good enough shape ... I would not rule out doing something similar to what this guy did: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JAwS8nQ0Rs Under our overhang above one of our laundromat entrance doors we did this with a brighter quad LED strip than the guy used in the video & within our specific fixture encased with a lens cover is working out very well. We pre-fabbed on an aluminum strip & hopefully the aluminum will somewhat help in the heat sinking category. Instead of using connectors like he did we soldered the surface mount ends to connecting wires. There is some arithmetic involved to make sure the separate LED power supplies are calculated for the wattage etc. We had a lab grade soldering station already set up ... so that helped with the surface mount soldering.
mike walsh www.kingkoin.com
Mike, Wouldn’t it be a whole lot faster and easier to just replace the bulbs instead spending a lot of time gluing LED strips to galvanized flashing and Jerry rigging up something.
mjwalsh
6 bay SS w/laundromat
Quote Originally Posted by Randy View Post
Mike, Wouldn’t it be a whole lot faster and easier to just replace the bulbs instead spending a lot of time gluing LED strips to galvanized flashing and Jerry rigging up something.
Randy,
Point considered.
The 3M adhesive peel back is right there on the back of the LED stripping. Hopefully, we improved on what the guy did in the video by putting the LED stripping on an aluminum flat & also using some tiny tie wraps. Time will tell how good the different approaches work out. I am not saying it is the best fit for everyone but just in case ... I wanted to let other operators of another potential option for coming up with lighting. It is directional, well positioned & very similar in lighting quality as the G&G lighting that we put in for three of our bays. In my opinion ... there could be significant cost savings including the additional man-hours required. I am not knocking the other approaches though ... especially the totally 100% waterproof G&G LEDs approach ... of which we are very satisfied.
I have gathered that LED lighting is constantly improving so the operators who are holding out from going to LEDs for now ... might turn out to be the smartest
ones of all ... like I say ... time will tell!
mike walsh www.kingkoin.com
Mike, Wouldn’t it be a whole lot faster and easier to just replace the bulbs instead spending a lot of time gluing LED strips to galvanized flashing and Jerry rigging up something.
Randy,
Point considered.
The 3M adhesive peel back is right there on the back of the LED stripping. Hopefully, we improved on what the guy did in the video by putting the LED stripping on an aluminum flat & also using some tiny tie wraps. Time will tell how good the different approaches work out. I am not saying it is the best fit for everyone but just in case ... I wanted to let other operators of another potential option for coming up with lighting. It is directional, well positioned & very similar in lighting quality as the G&G lighting that we put in for three of our bays. In my opinion ... there could be significant cost savings including the additional man-hours required. I am not knocking the other approaches though ... especially the totally 100% waterproof G&G LEDs approach ... of which we are very satisfied.
I have gathered that LED lighting is constantly improving so the operators who are holding out from going to LEDs for now ... might turn out to be the smartest
ones of all ... like I say ... time will tell!mike walsh www.kingkoin.com
